One Year Bible Readings and Commentary for Tuesday, April 5th "What Did Jesus and Jonah Have in Common?"
Click Here To Read Deuteronomy 28:1-68
Blessings for Obedience
The key word here is "if". “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world." God was willing to bless Israel "if" they trusted him by obeying his commands.
“In the ancient Near East it was customary for legal treaties to conclude with passages containing blessings upon those who observed the enactments, and curses upon those who did not.” (Harrrison)
The next ten verses spell out all of the blessings God would reward Israel with for their trust and obedience. They would have everything they needed. I.e. Food, family, flocks, fruit, rain and protection from their enemies. All these would be theirs, if they obeyed the commands He had given through them with Moses and specifically did not worship any other gods.
Curses for Disobedience
But, if they chose to disobey God they would suffer the curses as a consequence. This verse sums it up,
“The Lord himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and abandoning me."
Perhaps the worst part of the curses was that the Israelites would be exiled from their new home, and be scattered to far away places. The very thing God wanted them to be was "one", and now they would become a disparate group of peoples.
"The LORD will scatter you among all the peoples, from one end of the earth to the other: In the end, Israel would be dispersed. We find that because of their disobedience, these curses became the history of the nation of Israel." (Guzik)
In the New Testament, we see that Jesus took the curse we deserved for our sin upon himself. For we know that we were all born with a sinful nature and were in bondage to sin so that we could not measure up to the Law. As Paul said in Romans 3:23, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."
But we have been justified freely by his grace. When we are born again, we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit. Though we still live in the flesh and struggle with our sinful nature, if we live by the Holy Spirit we do not have to gratify the desires of the flesh. But the bottom line is we still have a choice to obey or disobey God.
God has a rich and abundant life available to us through Christ. But, if we choose to disobey and go our own way, we will miss out on the best life this world has to offer. A life characterized by the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness and self control. Against these qualities there is no law.
Click Here to Read Luke 11:14-36
Jesus and the Prince of Demons
We have already seen that casting demons out of people was a big part of Jesus' ministry and showed his authority and power in the spiritual realm. Even though he healed a man who could not speak by casting a demon out of him, some in the crowd claimed he got his power from Satan, the prince of demons.
The Jews in Jesus’ day had their own exorcists, who sought to cast demons out of people. But they believed that they had to make the demon reveal his name, or they had no authority over the demon to cast it out. Guzik
But their argument made no sense. If Jesus were an agent of Satan, why would he cast out one of Satan's other agents. He would be working against him. It would be like a civil war. (Guzik) But if Jesus did have the power to cast out Satan's demons, they could not refute his power. Since Jesus was able to overpower demonic strongholds of Satant, he showed he was a power greater than the prince of demons.
There are two spiritual forces at work in the world. The one empowerd by Satan, and the one empowered by Jesus, the Son of God. The only question is what side are you on. Jesus makes it clear you need to be on one side or the other when he says, "Whoever is not for me is against me."
"If Satan is the strong man, and Jesus is stronger than Satan is, there are two strong forces at work, trying to win our allegiance. We will embrace one or the other, intentionally or unintentionally." Guzik
The Sign of Jonah
The people were looking for a sign says Jesus, but the only sign he will give them is the sign of Jonah.
"Jesus told us that Jonah became a sign, and Jesus would be a similar sign to His generation. Jonah gave his life to appease the wrath of God coming upon others. But death did not hold him; after three days and nights of imprisonment, he was alive and free." Guzik
Receiving the Light
Jesus was the light of the world and shined for the whole world to see. He didn't hide out but revealed his light openly and publicly. Yet, some people preferred the darkness, and attributed Jesus' works to the darkness.
Even as a bad eye will make a person blind, so bad hearts will make one spiritually blind. One must be spiritually blind to attribute Jesus’ miracles to Satan and to ignore the work of Jesus right before the eyes or to live as a hypocrite. - Guzik
“If you do not see Jesus, it is not because he has hidden himself in darkness, but because your eyes are blinded.” (Spurgeon)
What does Jesus mean when he says, "Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body"?
"Our eyes are the entrance to our hearts and minds and, as such, they provide a doorway to our very souls. When He referred to “good” eyes, He meant eyes that not only see well, but also perceive well. It is not only what we see, but how we perceive what we see that makes the difference between godliness and ungodliness, between light and darkness. Bad eyes lead to bad perception, but if our eyes are good, our whole person will be illuminated." (GotQuestions.org)
Click Here to Read Proverbs 12:18
Comments
Post a Comment