Year 6, Day 192: Matthew 18

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

The story that ends this chapter is one of my favorite – and one of the most challenging.  It is one of my favorite because the action is so clear cut.  Here is a man who is forgiven so much and then cannot find it within himself to forgive something so small.  Clearly he is wrong!  Clearly he is violating God’s ways.  In such a straightforward story, it is hard to go wrong.

However, it is one of the most challenging stories because when it comes to forgiveness I find that it is so easy to be like this man.  When we are in the wrong, it is very easy to beg for forgiveness and want to be on the receiving end of mercy.  Yet when I am the one who is violated, it can occasionally be so hard to forgive.  When someone offends me, or crosses a certain line, or attacks someone I love, it can be easy to want to see them get what they deserve!

Am I really any different than the man in this parable?  No, not really.  And that’s Jesus’ point.  We all want to be forgiven.  But we need to be willing to forgive as well.  If it wasn’t so hard and if it wasn’t so commonly human, Jesus’ wouldn’t have needed to give us a parable for us to learn.

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Year 6, Day 191: Matthew 17

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Authority

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.

When we talk about authority in spiritual circles, we talk about where it begins first.  Authority comes from God the Father.  When we look at this chapter, we have a great illustration of this in the story of the transfiguration.  In this story, God Himself looks down and says of Jesus, “This is my son.  With Him I am well-pleased.”  Clearly we can see – and show know and believe – that Jesus’ authority is rooted in the Father.

Of course, authority isn’t just something to brag about.  Authority is something to practice.  What does Jesus do immediately after His authority is affirmed?  He goes out and heals a boy.  He takes an incident that has stumped His disciples and proves that the authority that has been given to Him by the Father is for real.

Furthermore, Jesus then takes His authority and deflects away challenge to His authority as well.  When He is questioned about the tax, He tells His disciples that since they belong to the Father, they truly don’t owe tax to live in the Father’s world.  However, to make sure that He doesn’t ruffle any feathers, He gives Peter some instructions about how to pay the tax, although the tax paid is done through supernatural means.  When challenged, Jesus shows authority in answering the challenge as well as through making sure the disciples stay right with the people.

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Year 6, Day 190: Matthew 16

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Challenge

• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

There are three concrete examples of challenge in Jesus’ teaching in this chapter.  The first one that we come by is the Pharisees.  They ask Jesus for a sign.  However, Jesus turns on them with a high bar of challenge.  He tells them that if they can look at the sky and tell what kind of day it will be, they should be able to look at Jesus and teaching and tell what kind of a person that He is.  Jesus is telling us that we should be good at reading the environment and context around us, especially with respect to spiritual matters.

Following this theme, Jesus teaches the disciples to be wary of the leaven – that is, the teaching – of the Pharisees.  But the disciples get it wrong.  They think Jesus is talking about their lack of ability to bring along some food for the trip.  Jesus challenges them to remember how Jesus brought food out of nothing when He fed large crowds twice in the past.  Again the challenge is present.  We should know that the spiritual is more important than the physical.

We end on a really great note of challenge.  Jesus asks His disciples who they think that He is.  This is a bold moment.  Are the disciples able to claim that He is God’s Messiah in spite of the fact that all of the religious leaders of the day are looking to do away with Him?  They are!  They rise up to the challenge with Peter leading the way.  In spite of all the hatred, or even confusion, about Jesus’ identity, His disciples know that He is the Messiah.  Jesus gives them an opportunity to be challenged and they rise up to meet it.  Part of being able to use challenge is not just to know when to give challenge to cause people to think but also to use it to allow people to succeed, even exceeding their own assumptions about what they can do.

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Year 6, Day 189: Matthew 15

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

One of the things that I love about the Gospels is that everywhere we look we find stories focusing on the character of Jesus and the people around Him.  Every day – if I wanted – I could write about character.  That’s why I usually save it for days like today when we get neat things happening with contrasting perspectives of character.

Do you hear the question that the disciples in verse 12?  They tell Jesus that when He teaches about the importance of what comes out of our mouth that the Pharisees get offended!  Honestly, listen to what the disciples are saying.  The Pharisees care more about external appearances than internal character!  By getting offended at Jesus’ teaching, they expose their character and that they care about the wrong things.  The Pharisees care more about what a person does than who the person is.

On the other hand, we can see the faith of the Canaanite woman in this chapter.  She believes Jesus s powerful enough to help her.  She comes before Jesus, and in a way, Jesus tells her no.  But her character is one who doesn’t quit about important things.  Her character shines through as she is willing to humble herself for the sake of others.  Whereas the Pharisees are interested in keeping up their appearances, this woman is willing to forgo any sort of reasonable appearance just to have a moment with Christ.

Yu want to know what good character looks like?  Look to this woman who humbles herself.  Want to know if you have any bad character issues?  Take a look at what you get upset over.  Anything that upsets you that is contrary to God’s grace love and mercy shows character flaws, just like it does with the Pharisees.

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Year 6, Day 188: Matthew 14

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Abide

• Abide: This is a moment, day, or even a season when we focus on God.  It is a time when we are rejuvenated by God.  It is the time for us to gather up what we will need for the coming growth after a season of pruning.  However, abiding is not the end.  We abide so that we can grow, bear fruit, prune, and abide again.

Jesus understand the need to rest.  Jesus understands the need to commune with the Father.  He understands the need to search deep within Himself, evaluate what He sees, understand where His heart and mind is at.  In a word, Jesus understands what it means to abide.

John the Baptizer is arrested and then beheaded.  Jesus hears the news and He withdraws.  He knows that He needs to go and process what has happened.  He needs to go and spend time with the Father.

However, when He tries to get away He finds that there is a crowd waiting for Him.  Here’s the interesting thing.  Jesus doesn’t dismiss the crowd.  He has compassion upon them.  He teaches them and feds them miraculously.  Even though He knows that He needs to abide, He still works.  Then, when evening comes, He knows that He will have the time to abide that He needs.

Jesus understands abiding.  He also understands the need for ministry.  Like all things, Jesus understands balance above everything.  He knows that He needs to abide and bear fruit.  But He refuses to let these things be in conflict with each other.  He finds an appropriate time for both.

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Year 6, Day 187: Matthew 13

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Teacher

• Teacher: One who holds forth the truth and is excited by it. The teacher looks for ways to explain, enlighten, and apply truth.  A teacher's authority doesn't come from how smart they are but from the Word of God and the power of a transformed life.

Ever since I was a little boy, I wondered if Jesus’ disciples were really dense.  How many of us don’t understand the parable of the soils or the parable of the weeds?  Of course we do!  We’ve been taught these parables since before we can remember.

That’s actually an issue for us.  Because Jesus taught in this manner, our own pastors and spiritual leaders imitate Him and teach in this manner.  So when we get to passages like this, we have been trained to think about symbolism and analogy and we quickly sort through the information and arrive at the answer.

This didn’t happen with Jesus and is disciples.  Jesus took fishermen and tax collectors and other basic people and taught them.  They weren’t religiously trained.  This is actually why Jesus teaches in parables.  By using parables, He is teaching His disciples to think more and more abstractly and make connections that are not obvious to everyone else.

There’s a really neat side-effect to this as well.  When Jesus teaches in parables, He can sift through the listeners and figure out who it is that is really paying attention and who is just along for the ride.  He can hear the questions from the people who are asking questions.  He can see the people who come and listen and leave without asking questions.

Looking at this chapter, we see what it really means to be a teacher.  A teacher takes opportunities when they are presented.  A teacher causes people to start with the known and probe into the unknown.  A teacher sees any opportunity as an opportunity to sift through those around them and discern who is truly looking to listen and learn.

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Year 6, Day 186: Matthew 12

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

What is Jesus’ identity?  Of course, those who are familiar with Jesus should know the answer.  He is the Son of God.  He is the sacrifice God sent to allow us to know His redemption.  He is the one who came to invite us back into genuine relationship with the Father.

That really is the question of this chapter.  The religious leaders question His identity.  They accuse him of casting out demons with Satan’s power.  Naturally, of course, they do this because they are opposed to Jesus.  This gives us a very important lesson to learn.  When we are looking at identity of someone else, so we take into account whether we like them or not?  After all, if I allow my personal human emotions to influence where I think their identity is rooted, I’m likely to get the whole decision wrong.  As Jesus teaches here in this passage, we will get a better clue about a person’s identity when I look at fruit, not my personal opinion about them.

We also get a sense of identity in the people who come and ask Jesus for a sign.  I can understand this moment.  More than once I have asked God to prove His existence.  I’ve hinted with Him that if He was going to pick a moment to demonstrate His power that now would be a good time.  But those moments say more about me and my identity than they say about Him and His identity.  God isn’t great because He does what we want.  God is great, period.  We believe in Him because He is great, not because He does incredible things.  When we ask God to prove His power, it shows that we are not truly getting our identity from Him as we should.

Finally, we get a very interesting story about His family.  They come to see Him.  But Jesus turns to the crowd around Him and tells them that His family are the people around Him.  I think this is one of my favorite identity stories.  Jesus doesn’t define family according to biology.  Jesus defines family according to spirituality.  His identity doesn’t come from His mom and dad and their character.  His identity comes from the Father and those around Him whose identity also comes from the Father.

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Year 6, Day 185: Matthew 11

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

When I look at Matthew 11, I see instances of character all around.  Look at the opening section of this chapter.  What do we expect from John the Baptizer?  Is he a man whose opinions changed based on the people around him? Is he a man who worked so that one day he could live in opulence and luxury?  No!  Here is a man whose character is true.  He taught what he believed.  He taught what God asked him to teach, even if it didn’t lead to material gains.  He is a man with strong character; he is a man who is an excellent role model.

Then we get a contrasting picture of the character of the world.  Have you ever noticed how easy it is for people to find fault with the people around them?  Almost anyone can find something wrong with anything they look at.  Like children in the marketplace who refuse to be happy when hearing a celebratory piece of music is heard and they refuse to be sad when a dirge is heard.  Rather than being able to see God in the tings around them, they focus on the faults and imperfections of the people through whom God is trying to work.

In the end, we have two choices: have the character of God or the character of the world.  We can take the narrow road, which is far more difficult, and look past the failings of the people around us, see where God is at work, and live according to what God is doing.  Or we can take the easy road, focus on the plethora of failings in the people around us, miss God at work, and live according to our own morality and ethic.  Only one of those leads to eternal life and a yoke that is joyful to bear.

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Year 6, Day 184: Matthew 10

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Calling, Challenge

• Calling asks whether or not God has called the person to the particular work at this point in their life.
• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

Can you hear the calling in Matthew 10?  The chapter begins with calling.  We hear about the 12 disciples.  They are to go out to the lost sheep of Israel.  They are to go among the sick, the dead, the leprous, and the afflicted by demons.  They aren’t supposed to focus on acquiring things, but rather on doing ministry that opens people up to the Father and draws them closer to Him.  The calling seems rather straight-forward with what we’ve been taught the work of a disciple is supposed to look like.

But there are a few interesting twists here.  First of all, do you notice that Jesus specifically tells them to not go to the Gentiles?  Keep in mind that Jesus doesn’t have anything against Gentiles.  He later will tell Peter to go among the Gentiles in Cornelius’ house.  He also sends Paul to the Gentiles specifically.  But at this point in the story, they aren’t ready to go among the disciples.  What can we learn from all of this?  Our calling comes from God.  He knows what He has equipped us to do.  When we think about calling, we need to humble ourselves and get our direction from him rather than getting it from our own hearts.

Also notice that the calling isn’t exactly going to be smooth.  Jesus talks at length about the persecution that the disciples are going to face.  Family will turn against them.  Community leaders will turn against them.  Jesus tells them that He is bringing a sword, not peace.  When we are called, we are also challenged.  Ministry is not easy.

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Year 6, Day 183: Matthew 9

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Invitation

• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.

There is something that always impresses me about Jesus’ ministry: He is always open to hanging out with people the rest of the world would reject.  Jesus meets with prostitutes and lepers and tax-collectors and orphans and widows.  He meets with the needy.  He meets with the people that are going to pull from Him, tire Him, and wear Him out.

So often in the world today, we teach people to hang around with people that can improve our status.  If we want to get anywhere in the world, we need to hang around with the people that are going places so that we can run in those circles, or so the world teaches.  But we don’t actually see Jesus doing any of that. 

Jesus doesn’t hang out with the popular kids.  He doesn’t party with the rich and famous.  Jesus hangs out with the lowly, the downtrodden, the forgotten.  And He constantly invites them into His life.

That’s the invitation of God.  As Jesus says here in this chapter, He didn’t come to call the righteous – as if there were any – but rather He came to call the sick!  He came to show everyone that we all have a place with God.

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Year 6, Day 182: Matthew 8

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Authority

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.

Matthew 8 is a great chapter through which we can look at the issue of authority.  Jesus demonstrates that in each situation where He is called to act, He has the authority to act.  In each situation where He has the authority to act, He has the power to act.

Of course, the easiest two places to see this in action is Jesus’ command over the storm and Jesus’ command over the demons.  Jesus can exert the Father’s authority over nature as He is called to do so.  Jesus can exert the Father’s authority over other heavenly beings when He is called to do so.  Naturally, of course, Jesus can exert the authority of the Father over humanity as well.

However, what is really neat to see here in this chapter is how people respond to the authority of Jesus.  Other people who respect and care for authority will respond.  The centurion comes to Jesus.  He understands and knows authority.  Notice that he doesn’t even need Jesus to come to his house.  He trusts that Jesus’ word is good.  He trusts that Jesus’ authority is true.  The centurion puts his faith on display by recognizing Jesus’ authority and responding properly.

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Year 6, Day 181: Matthew 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

When we look at full chapters of a Gospel, we usually get many compound stories – especially in the middle chapters that cover Jesus’ time in ministry.  However, when we read through Matthew 7, there are a surprising number of teachings that speak towards obedience to the Father.  This shouldn’t really surprise us, though.  Many of the stories since Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount have been about getting us to think about how we live and how God perceives what life should be like.

• Judge not.  In other words, let the Father determine who gets to spend eternity with Him.
• Worry about your own faults before you try and fix other people.
• Ask God for what you truly need.
• Treat other people as you would have them treat you.
• Bear good fruit and consider what it means should find yourself bearing bad fruit.
• Do more than say you believe, live out your faith!
• Build our life upon the Word of God.

If you truly look at that list, ask yourself how hard those teachings are to accomplish.  Then ask yourself what the world would look like if it followed more of those teachings.  I think these two questions help us understand the power of obedience.

When we pursue our own goals, our own dreams, and our own aspirations we lose all the communal benefits that following Jesus’ teaching in this chapter bring.  However, when we are willing to obey Jesus and live according to God’s ways, it is not only us who benefit but also the community around us that benefits.

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Year 6, Day 180: Matthew 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Approval

• Approval: We all need to feel as though we are accepted.  When we seek the approval of God, our Up is in the right place.  But when we seek the approval of other people besides God, we open the door to pursuing false gods and risk putting someone or something other than God in our Up position.

Much of this chapter talks about how we relate to this world.  But this is not a chapter about us relating in a ministry kind of way.  Jesus isn’t lecturing us on how to help people or how to council them.  Jesus is teaching us about what is going on within our hearts.

Jesus tells us to be very careful when we give to others.  He doesn’t tell us not to give.  He tells us to be careful that when we give we don’t do it for the accolades.  For the record, He says the same thing about praying.  He doesn’t tell us not to pay for other people – certainly not!  What He says is that we need to be careful that when we pray for them we aren’t doing it to receive accolades.  The same is true for fasting, too.

Do you hear what Jesus is getting at?  Who doesn’t want to receive the recognition of the people around them?  Who doesn’t want to feel valued in life?  Who doesn’t want to feel needed?  Of course we do.  But in the end, what is better – to have the approval of the people around us or to have the approval of God?  Naturally it is the approval of God that matters.

When we do ministry, our motivation is just as important as our action.  Why we do things matters, especially when we consider the eternal.

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Year 6, Day 179: Matthew 5

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

This is a chapter that is absolutely packed full of identity.  Poor in Spirit.  Willing to mourn.  Submitted.  Thirsting for Righteousness.  Merciful.  Pure. Peacemaking.  Persecuted.  Reviled.

Wait a minute.  Do those last two sound right to you?  Of course not.  It’s not what our human ears want to hear.  But it is what Jesus says.  What is our identity?  Persecuted.  Reviled.  Why?  Because of the other things on the list.

But we’re not done yet.  Salt.  Light.  We bring flavor to the world.  We allow people to step out of the darkness of a sinful and self-centered life.

Still not done.  Ones who resist anger and confess it’s wrong.  Feeling the challenge, yet?  Ones who resist lust and confess it’s wrong.  Yeah, that one usually hits home a good bit, too.  Ones who resist divorce and work towards reconciliation.  Ones who are willing to put aside the desire for retaliation.  Ones who embrace the need to love our enemies.

Yeah.  That’s our identity.  When Christ calls us, he calls us to take up our cross.  It’s difficult to set aside our human identity.  However, the identity that He offers us is an easy one to embrace.  Once we let go of our selfish nature bent on focusing ourselves and instead embrace Jesus’ culture of love and focusing on God’s ways, it really is an easy identity to embrace.

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Year 6, Day 178: Matthew 4

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Calling

• Calling asks whether or not God has called the person to the particular work at this point in their life.

It’s really easy to speak about calling in this chapter.  After all, this is where Jesus calls Peter and Andrew and James and John.  Jesus gets His first disciples in this chapter.  He is putting calling on display for all to see.  The Son of God tells people to follow Him, and they listen!  That’s what calling is all about.

However, there is a deeper layer of calling here – and in the rest of the book of Matthew.  Do you notice how often Matthew points out the scriptures that Jesus fulfills in doing what He is called to do?  Jesus is fulfilling scripture left and right in the Gospel of Matthew.  Naturally, this happens because Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience and he wants to make it very clear that Jesus is the Messiah.

I think it is really important to see that Jesus not only calls, but responds to calling.  He is not asking us to do something that He is not doing as well.  He listens to the Father and responds.  He listens to God’s Word and responds.  We should go and do likewise.

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Year 6, Day 177: Matthew 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Authority

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.

One of the greatest things that I love about John the Baptizer is his humbleness.  Here is a man whose who calling was to point to someone else’s greatness.  He’s completely and totally okay with that calling.

I think the reason that he is okay with this fact is that he knows from where his authority comes. Look at how John talks about Jesus.  He knows that Jesus is greater than him and he is okay with it.  He knows that he isn’t worthy of untying the sandals on Jesus’ feet.  He has no trouble understanding his place because he knows where he resides with the Father.  He knows that if his authority comes from the Father, then he needs to invest in the will of the Lord.  His own ego has no place because his authority is coming from the Father.

If we look at how this plays out when they meet, we get an interesting perspective, too.  Jesus comes to be baptized.  At first, John doesn’t agree.  He knows his place.  Jesus is superior.  However, when Jesus explains the service that John would be doing to Jesus, John agrees.  Again, John gets his authority from God.  Even though John knows that Jesus is the superior, when God explains that His perspective is different that John’s, John concedes and abides by God’s will.  John not only displays that he can talk and teach about having an authority that comes from God, he can live it as well.

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Year 6, Day 176: Matthew 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

Herod smells a rival and wants to be done away with this would-be-king.  When he sees the magi coming, he also smells innocent people who are so unaware of the political milieu that he could take advantage of them.  This is the context of this chapter.

Notice, however, that the Father makes a case about being able to protect.  The Father will protect His Son until the time of His death has truly come.  The Father puts a plan into motion that will confuse Herod and prevent him from harming His Son.

Part of this protection is also protecting the magi.  Yes, He protects them physically by sending them home a different way.  However, the Father also protects their innocence.  They are simply coming to worship at the feet of someone that the heavens also worship as shown by the star.  God protects their innocence and does not allow them to because Herod’s pawn.

Naturally, god protect Jesus and his family.  Joseph is warned in a dream to go to Egypt.  When they come back they are given the wisdom to settle in Nazareth.  God sets up His Son on a path of protection against the wrath of the human leadership around him.

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As an aside, when I first read this chapter for study, I thought that I was going to write a blog on authority.  After all, it is clear that this chapter is about authority in our life and the competing authority of God and Herod.  The magi choose God’s authority.  Joseph chooses God’s authority.  But in the end, I think that is all really self-explanatory, which is why I looked at protection instead.

Year 6, Day 175: Matthew 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

Matthew 1 always gets a bad rap.  It is largely the genealogy of Jesus.  So-and-so begat another so-and-so.  But there is something extremely significant in this chapter.  Identity.

All of the people in this list belong to the lineage of David.  That makes them all have some kind of legitimate claim to David’s throne.  Furthermore, all of these people – and for the record, all Jews – belong to the lineage of Abraham.  That makes them all have a legitimate claim to faith.  This chapter is full of identity.  When Jesus comes on the scene, He has a right to both the throne and faith.

This sense of identity is highly organized.  14 generations.  From Abraham to David was 14 generations.  From David to exile was 14 generations.  From the exile to Jesus was 14 generations.  God is a God of order.  He brings order to the chaos.  This is also a part of all of our identity in God.

That beings said, there is a contrasting identity here in this passage as well.  God calls Joseph to care for a woman who will give birth to a child that isn’t his.  God is doing something new in Jesus, as Joseph is called to protect that.  Yes, God is a God of order.  But God is also the God of new things, too.  God doesn’t call us to be the same in every context and every time.  God calls us to His plan, which is fluid.  It is consistent – God’s ideals, premises, and commandments do not change.  However, the means and methods that cultures and peoples are reached for those ideals are quite fluid.  God is the God of new things.  Joseph is being called into that as a part of His identity when God asks Him to defend this young virgin who will give birth to His Son.

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Year 6, Day 174: Ezekiel 48

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Invitation

• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.

Do you catch how this book ends?  If you aren’t careful, you’ll miss it.  If you are just reading the words, you can get lulled into a mode of skimming and become just happy to reach the end.  The book ends with the words, “And the name of the City from that time on shall be: The Lord is There.”

Those are powerful words.  Remember, the name Jerusalem means “City of Peace.”  God is essentially changing the name of His Holy City.  Why is this significant?  Ezekiel ends the book with a look into the future where peace with God is transformed into dwelling with God.  No longer with God’s people be about bringing the fallen word into a status of being at peace with God; they will now be about proclaiming what life with God is truly like.

Doesn’t that concept sound incredibly Christian?  Yes, Christians are still desiring to be at peace with God.  But that’s what Jesus accomplished on the cross.  Peace with God is a status that was earned for us in the past.  

We are now invited to dwell with God – or I should say, to have God dwells with us.  When the world looks at us, it should say, “The Lord is There.”

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Year 6, Day 173: Ezekiel 47

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Provision

• Provision: God gives us what we truly need.  God knows our needs better than we can know them.  We learn to trust God to provide for us.

This is such a beautiful portrayal of God’s provision in a vision.  Ezekiel is brought into the temple, where he sees a trickle of water coming out of the temple.  As he goes out, he sees to flow becoming bigger and deeper and stronger.

Of course, there is the natural teaching that we can bring out of this.  Fresh water - the fundamental need for all life – comes from God.  Spiritual speaking, this is God’s way of telling Ezekiel in a vision that all life originates and is sustained by God.  The first layer of this vision is really that simple.  What we need in life starts with God.  He provides for us.

In a more complex level, notice that the water gets deeper the further away you get from the temple.  In the natural word, this makes sense.  You take any river and trace it back to its roots and you will find a simple spring.  But if you go to its end you will usually find a great lake, or more likely an incredible delta system as the river flows into the sea.  But the reason this happens is because along the way this river is made up off many feeder rivers.  There are many sources of water contributing to this great river.  But not so with this vision.  All of this water in the vision comes from God.  This is incredibly important, because what it shows us is that God is capable of taking something that looks so small and turning it into an incredible blessing that is both deep and wide.  Remember the feeding of the five thousand?  This vision is the Old Testament parable version of that kind of story about God’s provision.

Finally, notice the purpose of the water.  Trees will live by it.  Fish will live by it.  Mankind will live by it.  God is telling us that He will sustain us into the future.  All dynamics of sustaining life are touched and made possible by God’s generous provision.

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