Skip to main content

245. Now, A warning For The People

Psalm 73, Mark 12:37B-40, Luke 20:45-47
Key Verse: "When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God.”
Psalm 73:16-17

Asaph expresses well the confusion that most followers of Jesus will feel from time to time. Jesus has just issued warnings against the leaders of the people for all of their bad behavior and bad attitudes of which, according to Jesus anyway, God clearly disapproves. Yet, they appear to be the ones who are being rewarded while the followers of Christ endure hardship and suffering. If we followers were to begin behaving like them, we would feel guilty and ashamed, yet, while we continue to choose to surrender to Christ and suffer for it, those over us, the powerful, rich and influential, live in luxury and the praise of man and have, what appears to us, to be a wonderful life.

Yet, Jesus says to us: "beware." For the last week or so, in our readings, Jesus has been issuing warnings to these leaders, but now, He issues a warning to us not to imitate them or even want what they have.

In the tenth commandment, God warns His people: "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." (Exodus 20:17) The list could go on and on because our ability to covet what others have is endless.

What does it mean to "covet?" It means to want what someone else has. Jesus’ warning here to His disciples and the crowd reminds us that it's not just things that are coveted. We can covet status and power, the blessings of others, the comfortable life that those whom we deem unworthy receive. Jesus warns us not to envy them and Asaph explains the why.

"Surely you place them on slippery ground; You cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! As a dream when one awakes, so when You arise O Lord, You will despise them as fantasies." (Psalm 73:18-20) We haven't seen the final chapter. We only know now and the past.

In contrast, Paul tells us, "Godliness with contentment is great gain." (1 Timothy 6:6) David gives a picture of a weaned child on a parent's lap. "My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me." (Psalm 131:1-2)

It's this attitude of contentment that Jesus is calling forth in His followers then and now. If we can trust that God is good and that He wants good for us, at His proper time, then we can be content to wait for Him to fulfill His promises to us. The Pharisees were all caught up in comparisons and status, as are so many of us today. God, however, in contrast, offers peace when we are willing to step out of the game, out of the fast track and into His reality; when we are willing to wait and trust and believe and follow in His way. "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock eternal." (Isa. 26:3-4)


Hymn: (chorus) "God Is So Good" 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

258. "Remember, Always Remember!"

Exodus 12:1-30 Key Verse: "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord a lasting ordinance." Exodus 12:14 "Celebrate the feast of unleavened bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come." (Exodus 12:17) "And when your children ask you, "What does this ceremony mean to you?" then tell them, "It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when He struck down the Egyptians." (Exodus 12:27) The original act was an act of worship as the first true act of freedom for the people of Israel. They had been brought to Egypt by Joseph during a time of famine so that through Joseph God could preserve their lives. ( Genesis 37 , & 39-50 ) After Joseph died, however, instead of heading back to C...
Post a Comment
Read more

This Little Light of Mine

Scripture: Psalm 130 Listen Link: www.lcepc.org then look for “sermons” tab. It’s the first Sunday of Advent. Today we lit one candle and heard the passage, in Isaiah 9, about the great light! We have heard that the great light is the child born to us on Christmas day. It is Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. Christmas is a day we will truly celebrate as we have for years and years, and our ancestors before us for centuries. Christmas is coming! Advent means coming! It is good to spend the next few weeks reflecting on all that it means for us. We begin from the depths of darkness. The world is still suffering the effects of sin. We are still suffering the effects of a world broken by sin. And not just the consequences of our own sins. According to Romans 8:22, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” The fires in California, the floods and storms on the East coast, and all the other natural disasters we hear ab...
Post a Comment
Read more

August 13 What Is Fitting

It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury—how much less for a slave to rule over princes! ~Proverbs 19:10   On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man!” Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died. ~Acts 12:21-23  Wow! Well, what in the world can there be to benefit us here? First of all, perhaps we should review the first Biblical definition of a fool, penned by no other than Solomon’s Father, David himself. “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” (Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1) It is not fitting for the fool to live the blessed life. Why should they when they deny from whom all blessings flow?  King Herod was a fool. Now, just to be clear, this is not the Herod who ruled at Jesus’ birth and ordered the slaughter of the male children in Bethlehem. He ...
Post a Comment
Read more