Year 7, Day 221: Luke 12

Theological Commentary: Click Here

When I read Luke 12, I think about the interaction between an individual and the community.  I think the core of this chapter is Luke 12:8-12.  In this section, Jesus tells us that we need to acknowledge God before humanity.  We need to live a life that demonstrates our faith.  If we live in such a way, we will be demonstrating our relationship with God to the people around us and opening up opportunity for conversation.  As Jesus says, we need not fear the conversation – even if it has potentially dangerous conversations.  If we don’t live in such a manner, we will be demonstrating to God that our relationship with Him isn’t really the priority that we claim it to be.

How does this play out in the rest of the chapter?  First of all, it demonstrates where we consider our wealth to lay.  Some consider their wealth to be literally wealth: money in the bank account, retirement accounts, cash in hand, etc.  Other people consider their wealth to be their relationships around them and the opportunities at their doorstep.  Keep in mind that none of these things are inherently bad.  We need a certain amount of money to live.  It’s good to have relationships and opportunity.  But Jesus tells us that our wealth should be in heaven.  This goes back to acknowledging God before mankind.  When we live in such a way as to acknowledge men before mankind, we will live in such a manner that our treasure is found in heaven.

Take the teaching about not being anxious.  If God is our focus, why should we have anxiety?  If we live in such a manner as to proclaim God, why would we think that God would fail us?  If we are living as though our treasure is in heaven, we realize that God cannot fail us because He is the master of the place where our treasure resides!

We can keep going.  There is the teaching about the servants of the master.  The blessed servants are doing the work of the master until the master returns.  In other words, the servant who is blessed is proclaiming God before others by living in such a way as God desires.  However, when the servant is convinced that God isn’t coming back imminently, they start to live for their own desires.  They begin to abuse the people around them.  They take advantage of others.  They aren’t proclaiming God before others, they are proclaiming their focus on themselves!

It shouldn’t surprise us to hear that our witness to the community around us should be at the forefront of our life.  It affects how we treat others.  It affects the decisions we make.  It affects the anxiety and stress in our own life.  It affects our goals and aspirations.

<><

Year 7, Day 220: Luke 11

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Luke 11 has much to say about the state of things.  The area that much of this chapter focus upon is the inside versus the outside.  Another way of saying this is motivation versus action.  Jesus cares more about the motivation and the inside than He cares about the action and the outside.  Of course, I’m not saying that Jesus doesn’t care about the outside or our actions.  I’m simply saying that Jesus truly cares far more about hearts that are after Him even if they make mistakes occasionally than He cares about the person who looks completely put together and yet cares nothing about God and His ways.

The most obvious place here is the conversation about the eyes.  Jesus tells us that the eyes are the lamp to the body.  He tells us that when our eye is pure, we are full of light.  Yet, when our eye is evil, we walk in darkness.  In other words, our actions will follow our being.  If we are pure on the inside, we will tend towards pure deeds.  It is our insides that guide our actions, not our actions that determine our insides.

Or, take the story about the unclean spirit who returns.  A person who finds deliverance in the hands of Christ has an opportunity to overcome sin and that which oppresses them.  However, we cannot leave our insides clean yet empty.  We cannot allow ourselves to feel God’s cleansing and not begin to fill ourselves with righteous thinking and behavior.  If we feel God’s cleansing but don’t fill ourselves with His purity and follow Him in His ways, we will find ourselves right back where we started.  In fact, Jesus tells us that not only will we be right back where we started but we’ll actually be worse off!  We need to make sure that our insides are following God and our hearts are not only receiving His grace but actually inclined towards Him and becoming more like Him in thought, word, and deed.

Or, take the accusation of the Pharisees in the last story.  Jesus is accused by them for not going through the ritual washing prior to eating.  In turn, Jesus looks to them and accuses them of doing all the things that appear righteous on the outside without filling their insides with righteousness.  He calls them whitewashed tombs.  In other words, He is saying that they look pleasing on the outside but their insides are really just places of death.  Once more we hear Jesus indicate that the status of the inside is more important than the status of the outside.  Better to have mistakes in our life but be genuine in our pursuit of God than to appear perfect but have no relationship with Him or anything righteous.

The last example I’ll lift out of this chapter is the obscure passage regarding the woman who tries to bless Jesus’ mother because she bore Him.  Do you hear Jesus’ response?  He says, “blessed, rather, are those who hear the Word of God and keep it!”  In other words, the woman is claiming that Mary was great because she bore Jesus.  If Jesus is great, then Mary must be great, too.  But Jesus calls that line of thinking out.  Jesus says that one’s proximity to greatness doesn’t make us great.  What makes us great is our pursuit of God, His Word, and His ways.

Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t think Jesus is trying to slam His mother, here.  I believe Jesus is not tackling the issue of how great Mary actually was.  Remember, God chose her for a reason.  What Jesus is attacking here is the evaluation of greatness.  The woman evaluates Mary as great for the wrong motivation.  That’s the point here.  Greatness comes from within and our pursuit of God.

<><

Year 7, Day 219: Luke 10

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Luke 110 is all about the presence of Christ.  We’re going to start in the middle, circle back around to the beginning, and then finish off with the two stories at the end.  Lord willing, it will be a good circle to complete.

Let’s look at the little snippet that Jesus gives to us after the Seventy-Two return to Him.  When they respond to Jesus by telling Him all that happened in His name, Jesus says, “I saw Satan fall from heaven.” So often, this little passage only gets used to point out that Satan was once an angel in the court of God. 

While that certainly is true, I don’t think that is actually Jesus’ reason for stating it here.  Jesus says that He saw Satan fall from from heaven.  While we put the emphasis upon the object of the verb, Satan falling from heaven, I think Jesus’ emphasis is on the subject of the verb.  Jesus saw Satan fall from heaven.  In other words, Jesus is more powerful than Satan.  Jesus is more closely tied to the Father than Satan.  When this is true, the rest of the passage makes sense. 

Why shouldn’t Jesus’ name be able to do powerful things like overthrow demons and their strongholds?  If Jesus is more powerful than Satan, then Jesus’ name should be more powerful, too.  When we take it this way, we understand why Jesus would choose this response with respect to the disciples’ surprise at what they were able to do.

Therefore, we can now cycle back to the beginning.  Look at how Jesus equips them.  It’s not about the clothing they wear or the protection they bring with them.  It’s not about how well supplied they are.  They are going out with the power of Jesus.  That’s all they need, because there is no greater power than God’s power poured through Him.

This naturally takes us to the Good Samaritan story.  Who is the Good Samaritan?  The Good Samaritan isn’t the wealthy one, or the priestly one, or the proclaimer of the Law.  It’s not about what’s on the outside that counts.  The Good Samaritan is the one who reaches out with the grace and love of God and impacts the world.  The Good Samaritan is good on the inside, where it counts.  The Good Samaritan is good because God shines through him as he truly acts as a neighbor should.

Or, take the story about Mary and Martha.  Martha is trying to serve Jesus with hospitality.  There’s nothing wrong with hospitality!  Much of the Old Testament has to deal with how we treat people in our hospitality towards them, especially the poor and defenseless.  But outward hospitality is nothing when compared to inward perspective.  The greatest acts, when done for the wrong reasons, are no longer great.  That’s why we have sayings like, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”  Doing good things isn’t enough.  What is enough is to have the condition within our heart that desires to sit at the feet of Christ, listen to Him, and obey Him.

The Seventy-Two were able to do what they did because Christ was in them and working through them.  The Good Samaritan was good because he was living out the teachings of Christ on goodness and mercy.  Mary is lifted up over Martha because she desires to be with Christ and focus on Him to have as much of His teachings within her as possible.  If He truly is the greatest power in the universe, why should we want anything else?

<><

Year 7, Day 218: Luke 9

Theological Commentary: Click Here

I like to call Luke 9: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.  This is a great chapter to have occur smack dab in the middle third of the story about Jesus’ ministry.  The plethora of stories to be found within should encourage, shame, and challenge us.

For encouragement, we have the good stories.  This is how the chapter opens.  Jesus imparts His wisdom and power upon the disciples and they go off and do some very amazing and incredible things.  From the witness of the other Gospels we know that demons are cast out in His name, people are cured of disease, physical disabilities are overcome.  The disciples take nothing with them except the power of God and they prove it to be mighty power indeed.  This should absolutely encourage us.  With God, nothing is impossible.

Or even take the story where Peter proclaims Jesus as the Christ.  Here Peter boldly proclaims a truth that he cannot even fathom.  God imparts in him a wisdom to appreciate something about which he cannot even know the true depth of God’s action!  When we are open to God, He can speak wisdom and obedience into us, even when we do not understand.

On the other hand, we have the bad.  Take the story of the disciples when Jesus is gone and they are unable to cast out the demon from the boy who convulses.  Or take the disciples who doubt Jesus’ words when He tells them to feed the multitude.  Or again take the disciples who argue among themselves about who is the greatest of Jesus’ disciples.

These stories should cause us to pause.  Remember, all of these stories come after the disciples have embraced the power of God and done some incredible things.  This isn’t a case of weak disciples.  These are stories about strong disciples who allowed their focus to lapse.  These are the bad stories.  These are the stories that remind us that we are all flawed human beings who are capable of making mistakes.  These stories tell us that we are prone to mistakes especially after something really cool and spiritual happens!  We can walk with God.  We can utilize His power to be obedient to His will.  But that does not guarantee that we will not get out focus wrong and our priorities out of whack.

And then there is the ugly.  For this story, I see Peter’s involvement in the Transfiguration.  Peter is up on the mountaintop during the transfiguration when he tries to convince Jesus to forego the rest of Jesus’ mission, all the people whom Jesus is going to reach, and even the cross just so that he can stay here with Jesus on the mountaintop.  Don’t get me wrong.  Peter’s heart seems to be in the right place.  Peter just wants to hang out with Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.  That’s not inherently a bad place.  But it’s an ugly place because out of this seemingly good intention comes a suggestion that if followed would railroad Jesus’ ministry and bring it to a crashing halt!  Here we can see that sometimes even our good intentions could have utterly undesirable but dangerous consequences.

<><

Year 7, Day 217: Luke 8

Theological Commentary: Click Here

As we’ve looked at Jesus, we’ve seen that He came to fulfill God’s plan.  We’ve also seen that He came to break the mold.  Just when we think we have Jesus figured out, we find there is a new dimension that we never would have considered.  When we think we’ve got God all figured out, that’s the same moment that we often stop following Him and start following ourselves.

What, then, is the secret?  I don’t think that it is that hard.  In Luke 7 we have the parable of the sower, which would truly be better called the parable of the seed or even better the parable of the soils.  We know that point of the parable as Jesus explains it to His disciples.  The types of soils are the types of hearts among human beings.  Some hearts are hard and have no room for growth.  Some hearts are open, but not capable of true depth.  Some hearts are open for a while, but cannot stay focused of God for too long amidst the pull of the world.  Still others are fertile ground, giving fruit of the harvest of God.

The truth lies without our heart.  God cannot be completely understood because there are so many people among human beings.  He needs to reach us all, and we don’t fit into a box!  God cannot be completely understood because there are so many human experiences into which God needs to speak, and our lives don’t fit into a box!  The breadth of God is so incredible because He desires to reach a humanity that has incredible breadth!

Much of the rest of the chapter bears out this truth.  Do you see the comments about the women who follow Jesus?  First of all, note that we are talking about male and female followers.  There’s diversity right there!  Among the women, there is Mary Magdalene, who could have been anything from an average woman who had demons cast out of her to perhaps even a prostitute.  There is also the manager of Herod’s household.  There are many others.  The point here is that women of all walks followed Jesus.  It wasn’t about the rich or the poor.  The followers of Jesus followed because of the condition of their heart, not their worldly condition.

Then, of course, there is the story about Jesus’ mother and brothers.  Jesus defines His family not as a matter of blood but as a matter of obedience to God.  Anyone can be God’s family as long as they are willing to be obedient to Him. Again, we have reason to think of God as being broad and unable to be put in a box.

We end the passage with two neat stories.  The demon possessed man of the Gerasenes, who is told not to follow Jesus personally so he instead spreads the message of Jesus’ work in the area of the Decapolis – perhaps even laying the groundwork for the feeding of the four thousand!  He is asocial reject who becomes a highly passionate follower of Christ.

Then we have the healing of Jairus’ daughter.  Here is a highly respected man within the Jewish community who comes to Jesus and submits to Him.  Jesus is willing to reach all people regardless of their place.

Look back over the chapter.  We have demon possessed men and women following Jesus.  We have respected religious leaders.  We have managers of Herod’s household.  We have ordinary everyday people, too.  When we look at Jesus and the Father that He came to reveal, we truly see that it is the condition of our heart and not our outward appearances that matter.

<><

Year 7, Day 216: Luke 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here

There are some great themes that come out of Luke 7.  The first two stories deal with Jesus and His incredible power.  Jesus heals a centurion’s servant without having to be near him.  Jesus raises a young man to life even though the young man is on a funeral bier!  Jesus shows us that proximity and even death are not issues where God is concerned.  God can do great things from anywhere and to anyone.  Death and distance are no obstacles for God.

Next, we have the story of John the Baptizer’s question from within prison.  When I was younger, I used to really look down upon John and wonder how he could miss Jesus being the Messiah.  As I’ve grown older, I’ve begun to feel for John.  Throughout history there have been people that were confused for the Messiah.  They did special things.  The led people in special ways.  I can understand John being able to hope for Jesus as the Messiah yet still have a seed of doubt in the back of his mind because other people were confused for the Messiah, too.

Furthermore, notice that Jesus doesn’t give any lasting condemnation to John.  In fact, He calls John great in the kingdom!  What this tells us is that God understands that while we may have hope and faith we will also have doubt and historical precedent to overcome, too.  God knows this about us.  He expects it.  He wants us to move past it, but He expects us to have questions because we cannot possibly know much with the absolute certainty of God.

At the end of this passage, we have the story of the man who forgives debts as told by Jesus in Simon’s home. (Simon the Pharisee, not Simon the disciple) What we learn here is that although God is all powerful, our reaction to God has more to say about us than about God.  Jesus is invited into Simon’s house.  Yet, Simon doesn’t welcome him very well.  Simon allows him to come into his house, Simon feeds him, but there isn’t any great excitement about the presence of Jesus.

The woman, on the other hand, has shown incredible excitement to Jesus.  She has kissed Him and washed Him and dried Him off.  She has cared or Him and it shows.

This is the same Jesus.  The difference in reaction doesn’t have anything to do with Jesus at all.  The difference is in the people.  Those who are forgiven much – those who are aware of their sin and the truth of their fallen nature – are excited about God’s grace. Those who are not convinced of their sin and who do not acknowledge their nature see no need to be exited.  That doesn’t change their need for God; it changes their reaction to Him.

<><

Year 7, Day 215: Luke 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

When I read Luke 6, I feel a bit of the spiritual whirlwind.  I’ll admit that part of the feeling comes because it is a long chapter with a number of individual stories.  I think part of the whirlwind is what is supposed to happen when it comes to meeting Jesus.  If you’ve spend any time pondering spirituality, you understand that faith and its application are seldom ever pinned down and understood perfectly.  There are always different perspectives to consider.  There are always growing edges.  There are always places for us to let go and embrace the better nature of God.

We begin with two interesting stories.  Jesus teaches that He is Lord of the Sabbath and then He flies against tradition by healing – doing work – on the Sabbath.  Both of these stories are clearly present because they fly in the face of the establishment and seek to get under the skin of the religious leaders.  These are anti-establishment stories.  Jesus wants to teach us that in order to have faith and live it out, we have to think and not simply follow what other people have laid before us.  There’s nothing wrong with tradition, but it has to be meaningful and what God desires of us.

However, just when we think we have that lesson mastered, we hear Jesus call disciples and then tell people that the disciple is not above the master.  In fact, when disciples are fully trained – and no longer the disciple – Jesus says that the person will be just like the teacher.  Clearly, mentoring and imitating the faithful people who have come before us is part of God’s plan.  Jesus did exactly that.

In the midst of all of this, Jesus is healing the people.  His power is going out among the crowds.  They are responding to Him and continuing to come.  They are even seeking to touch Him simply to experience His power.

Yet, in the midst of all of this Jesus teaches the Beatitudes.  Blessed are we when we are persecuted.  Blessed when we are poor.  Blessed are we when we are hungry.  Blessed are we when people hate us.  While the Beatitudes certainly fit with Jesus’ experience with the religious elite and the first couple of stories in the chapter, it seems at odds with the immediately surrounding passages of healing and acceptance.

I think that this is why I truly love the witness of the Gospels.  Anyone truly familiar with the full story of Jesus will hear about all of the contrasting perspectives in this chapter and not be surprised at all.  Each of these stories and perspectives makes sense when we consider the breadth of the witness of His life.

It’s not about setting the goal of being liked.  Neither is it about telling off the world, either.  It’s not about being loved by everyone.  It’s about doing God’s work in the moment.  It’s about being willing to be flexible enough to do what is required at the time.  It’s about having a faith that is broad enough to apply to a grand variety of contexts.  It’s about being able to reach people through love and challenge.

We can’t put Jesus in a box.  We can’t put mission in manual and do it the same way every time.  Being God’s people is about God’s plan in a multitude of context.

<><

Year 7, Day 214: Luke 5

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Luke 5 picks up where Jesus left off.  As He goes out for ministry, He starts to call disciples.  These disciples start following him.  Now we see Jesus’ ministry starting to multiply.

There is a really neat tie in to the pattern we saw yesterday.  We went from temptation to rejection to ministry.  Today we see the fruit of that labor.  People look into Jesus’ life and want what He has to offer.  We see that temptation and rejection may lead to ministry, but ministry leads to discipleship.  This is a neat dynamic to observe.

I also want to return to a theme that carried us through Moses and Joshua in the Old Testament.  We say it occur in John and now we see it in Jesus.  I’m talking about speaking truth. I’m talking about starting with what needs to be said in spite of what the people want to hear.  Do you hear what Jesus says to the Pharisees when they question Him about eating with tax collectors?  Jesus tells them that He did not come to save the healthy.  He tells them that the healthy do not need a doctor.

Jesus’ point is the same as Joshua’s point back in Joshua 24:19.  We can’t save ourselves.  The first step in salvation is accepting and acknowledging our brokenness and our inability to come to God.  God must come to us.  He must save us.  He must do all of the heavy lifting.

Again, though, as I have said all along, notice that this doesn’t stop Jesus.  The sick are in need of the doctor.  Once Jesus identifies the sick, He introduces them to the doctor!  Jesus doesn’t say, “The sick need the doctor, but the doctor won’t see the sick.”  God isn’t interested in putting off the sinful, He is interested in working with the sinful to restore them to health.

Once more we see the importance of genuine truth.  To receive the greatest thing that Ogd has to offer us – restoration – we must acknowledge our brokenness.

<><

Year 7, Day 213: Luke 4

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Reading a whole chapter of Luke is a bit like drinking from a fire hose.  Blogging on a whole chapter of Luke – and keeping it concise with a common thread – is an equally difficult task.  These chapters are so rich with stories and depth and meaning that it is impossible not to leave out an interesting point.  In truth, it is impossible not to leave out more than I include.  I confess that upfront for the whole Gospel.

What I am going to look at today is the thread of progression in the early story of Jesus.  We begin with the temptation of Jesus.  I don’t think that there is any accident that the story of Jesus’ ministry starts with His temptation.  He must go out into the desert and demonstrate His dominance over his human flesh and over Satan prior to having much at all to offer other human beings. 

I think this is a highly important point.  What makes a mentor interesting isn’t really all the wisdom and insight they have to offer.  What truly makes a mentor worth having is their ability to take their insight and use it to conquer the flesh and temptation.  In other words, what makes a mentor worth having is being able to look into their life and see how their beliefs and worldview makes them different and unique.  What makes mentors so valuable is being able to see in them something that we desire to have within us.  This is why it is necessary for Jesus to go and be tempted and come out the victor.  In this act, Jesus is not only showing His dominance but putting His ability on display.  He is giving us an example to imitate.

Once He goes into the wilderness and lives out His faith, He then comes to His hometown and experiences rejection.  I think that this is another neat story to have so near the beginning.  The truth is that when we start overcoming our humanity, we will experience rejection from the world.  When we start living the truth and becoming different because of it, we will be rejected by those who don’t want to see that example.  Rejection goes hand in hand with a lived-out faith.

However, we blessedly don’t stop with rejection.  As Jesus goes out into the world, He seeks those who are willing to listen.  He finds those who will have Him make a demonstration of faith in their life and evoke change.  He seeks out those who are desiring to experience Him, embrace Him, and imitate Him.  After overcoming His flesh, after experiencing rejection, there is victory and ministry.  People are healed.  Demons are cast out.  Changes are made.

What we can learn is that while temptation is never fun and usually quite dangerous, overcoming temptation is a very good thing and leads to ministry.  The same is true about rejection.  Nobody enjoys rejection, but rejection can help define us and refine our ministry.  When we are at places in our life where we experience rejection and temptation, it is important to overcome and look for the lesson to be learned.  From that, we will often get direction within our ministry.

<><

Year 7, Day 212: Luke 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Today we get the majority of the rest of the story of John the Baptizer.  He is the cousin of Jesus, born to Zechariah and Elizabeth.  I’ve always loved John because of his willingness to do the right thing his own way instead of following the crowds.

I was appreciative once more of his message after coming off of the last few chapters of Joshua this past week.  Remember Joshua 24:19?  Remember how Joshua responds to the people when they answer his great challenge “…choose this day…?”  When the people respond to Joshua and tell him that they will follow the Lord, Joshua replies to them, “You are not able to serve the Lord.”  He is forthright, honest, and pulls no punches.

John the Baptizer is the same.  The people are coming out to be baptized by him.  In other Gospels, John is said to speak directly to the religious elite.  In Luke’s Gospel, his message of “you brood of vipers” is given to all the people.  I find this fascinating.

John, like Joshua, starts the people off in truth.  He starts them in the reality that they are unable to serve God and unworthy to think that they can.  John calls them a brood of vipers.  For the record, they are.  We all are.  We all have a core of self-centered thought.  We all see best through the lens of “how am I affected?”  We all naturally live with a “What have you done for me lately” motif.  We are naturally a brood of vipers.

As with Joshua, this reality doesn’t stop John.  John keeps baptizing them.  He keeps telling them the truth.  He helps bring them into relationship with God.  The harsh message of truth isn’t meant as a roadblock to God, it is meant as a threshing floor upon which the chaff is burned so that what remains can remain in truth.

This is why cheap grace is so dangerous.  This is why I don’t trust people who cannot honestly see my faults and speak to me about my faults in live.  If we cannot begin in the truth of my imperfection and sin, then everything that gets built upon the foundation is weak and waiting to crumble.  This is the true brilliance of what John does here in Luke 3.

<><

Year 7, Day 211: Luke 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Before I truly shift the focus onto Jesus for the remainder of Luke’s story, I’d like to spend one more day stringing along this common thread I’ve been weaving.  Once more, we have normal and regular people involved.

For example, we return to Mary and Joseph.  They go up to Jerusalem to be counted.  While there, Mary gives birth.  Since this was her first son, she then needed to pay the sacrifice required by the Law.  She chooses the option for the doves, which was the option given in the Law for the poorest people who could make no other sacrifice.  This tells us that Mary did not come to Joseph with any kind of large dowry.  It also tells us that Joseph may have been a fine craftsman, but he certainly was not living in the lap of luxury, either.  Here we have two common people – and by common, of course, in those days I mean poor.  God has come to these common and ordinary people and used them to be the vessel through whom He imparts his grace.

Additionally, look at the shepherds.  Here are flock tenders.  These people likely spend more evenings out sleeping with the animals than they spend sleeping with families.  They likely carry the scent of sheep and goat wherever they go.  Again, they are fine people.  They are good, hard-working, down-to-earth people.  They are the ones who hear from the angels.  They are the ones who go to see the baby.  They are the ones who go out and tell people what it is that they have seen.  God is using more good, ordinary people to reach other good and ordinary people.

Of course, we have the story of Simeon and Anna.  Simeon was righteous and devout.  However, note that we aren’t told anything else about him.  He wasn’t extraordinary in any other means besides his righteousness.  He wasn’t a priest.  Yet, he was the one who had been told that he wouldn’t die until he saw the Christ.  More ordinary people at God’s work.

Take Anna.  Here is another devout woman.  She’s even a widow, unattached to a man as her husband had died!  We are told that she was a prophetess.  Therefore, she’s not exactly ordinary.  However, she isn’t exactly a person of grand standing, either.  She’d only lived with her husband for seven years before becoming a widow.  We know from the Old Testament how easy it was for the orphans and the widows to be forgotten, unprotected, and cast aside.  Yet here is this widow, who seldom leaves the temple, who is a part of god’s plan.

God uses ordinary normal people.  Even when he picks a priest, like Zechariah, or a prophetess, like Anna, they aren’t well known or powerful or wealthy.  God’s Word goes through the world on the backs of common people doing common things in the name of a most uncommon God.  He is the one who is great.

<><

Year 7, Day 210: Luke 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

After the chapters of the Pentateuch, this first chapter of Luke is unbelievably long.  I remember from years past how different it is to blog on the New Testament than the Old.  In the Old Testament, each chapter typically has one theme and a central story.  In the New Testament, each chapter typically contains multiple stories with potentially multiple themes.

However, Luke is a great place to begin as we come off of the Old Testament.  We’ve spent months being reminded of the power of God.  Especially recently, we’ve heard Joshua speak about how the Hebrew people are in the position that they are in because God is great and powerful.

This same theme runs through Luke 1.  Look upon the story of Zechariah.  He’s an average priest.  He doesn’t even live in Jerusalem.  His lot for serving in the temple comes up and he heads to Jerusalem to do his service.  He wasn’t there for any great reason.  Yet, while doing his routine service, he finds himself being visited by one of the Lord’s angels and a great witness is given to him.  John is born into a regular normal family through the extraordinary means of a mighty and powerful God.

Or, take Mary.  Here is a young virgin, betrothed to a man but not yet wed to him.  She doesn’t come from any great line.  Her husband isn’t any special man, either.  These are two regular people just going about their life.  It is God who breaks into their life.  It is God who comes to Mary and embodies Himself within Mary.  Mary and Joseph are in this position because of God and His desire to be there.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not trying to take anything away from Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, or Joseph.  They are all fine people.  They are certainly all God-fearers.  Their life has gotten God’s attention – or at the very least hasn’t pushed God away and turned His eyes to another.  But they aren’t chosen because of their own glory.  They are chosen because God is great and God has come to impart Himself into the lives of each of these people.

<><

Year 7, Day 209: Joshua 24

Theological Commentary: Click Here

When I study Joshua 24, it is so tempting to focus on the iconic verse in this chapter.  “Choose this day…”  However, I’ve focused on that verse several times already.  Instead, I’m going to look at the buildup to that verse.

From yesterday, we know that Joshua is about to die.  He’s gathered the tribes to make sure that they hear his goodbye, hear his words of encouragement, and hear his challenge.  This is a chapter where a leader is saying goodbye.  It’s bittersweet.

Part of the bittersweet nature is the sweetness from God’s faithfulness.  All this year we’ve read the verses that Joshua summarizes.  We’ve seen God’s faithfulness.  We’ve watched Him, as Joshua describes here, defeat the enemies of those He favors.  God fights for them.  They are great, God is.  They aren’t deserving, God is gracious.  The sweet part about this chapter is realizing that the God we worship and serve is great and He desires to bestow His blessing upon us.

Then we get to the bitter part of this chapter is Joshua 24:19.  As often as we hear Joshua 24:15 quoted, we don’t hear much about Joshua 24:19.  Joshua is honest with the people.  He tells them, “You are not able to serve the Lord.”  That’s honesty right there.

As we look at this verse, though, we need to look at it honestly.  Joshua doesn’t say, “You can’t do it,” and then walk away.  He says “You can’t do it,” and then promptly holds the people accountable.  Joshua knows that discipleship comes from truth.  Joshua doesn’t sugar-coat the message.  He says, “You can’t do it,” realizes the truth of what he says, and then helps the people go forward anyways.  He welcomes the people into relationship with God in spite of the truth that they cannot do it.

This brings us full circle.  Whether or not I can be totally obedient to God is irrelevant to my relationship with Him.  God saves based on His glory.  He doesn’t save only those who are worthy.  He saves the sinner.  He saves the guilty.  We started this chapter with the discussion that God saves because He is righteous, not because we are.  We must start with the truth that we are not worthy and we are not capable.  That shouldn’t stop us from going forward.  Instead, it should propel us forward in truth.

<><

Year 7, Day 208: Joshua 23

Theological Commentary: Click Here

I love how Joshua 23 opens.  As Joshua became advanced in years.  Traditionally speaking, Joshua was 85 when the conquest of Canaan began!

I bring this point out for a religious point.  So often we think that we can only accomplish things when we are in our prime or younger.  The witness of the first 6 books of the Bible is that there is no “too old” age for God’s work.  Abraham didn’t even see God’s promise for offspring until he was nearly 100.  Moses was 80 when the Exodus began.  Joshua and Caleb were likely 85 at the time of the conquest of the Promised Land.  At an age when many of us are giving up on what we can do, these Patriarchs were just getting started!

Next, look at how Joshua encourages them.  He reminds them of how God has fought their battles for them.  Do you hear how Joshua puts it?  Hundreds flee from one man because of God.  Joshua is encouraging them to remain humble.  They aren’t great because of their own greatness.  They are great because God is great and He has made them great as well.  This is incredibly important to remember!

Finally, look where this chapter ends.  Joshua tells them that his death is close at hand.  He warns them about turning away from God.  He warns them about not being tempted by the enclaves of Canaanites that have been allowed to remain in the land.  He tells them that if they allow their hearts to turn away from God, then God will turn away from them as well.  This makes sense, but it is easy to forget.  God wants our devotion.  He wants our obedience.  He doesn’t need it, He wants it.

<><

Year 7, Day 207: Joshua 22

Theological Commentary: Click Here

When I read Joshua 22, I am reminded of the continual question about perception and reality.  Naturally, this leads us to the question of motivations and intent.  Human beings like to see actions and assume they understand motivation and intent.  Human beings have a remarkable tendency to get it wrong.

Before I get to the text, I’ll use my wife and myself as an example.  How many times does she say something or do something and I react to it based on my assumptions?  So often, especially when it leads to a disagreement, I find that my assumptions are wrong and I have attributed false motives to her words or actions.  That exactly what I get when I read this chapter.

First of all, start with the account of Joshua dismissing the Transjordan tribes.  This is such a great moment because we hear Joshua praising these Hebrew people because they have kept their word.  However, remember back to where this story began.  Before the people crossed over, they came and asked for the land east of the Jordan.  They were accused of making the request so that they would get out the fighting to come. To prove they were wronged in the accusation, they left their women and children and fought all the battles in Canaan with the Hebrew people.  Today, we hear Joshua confessing that the accusation had been false.  They lived up to their word.  They are dismissed in honor; their work being completed.

Next, we look at the second story.  When these tribes go over the Jordan, they build an altar of witness.  They are afraid that because they live on the other side of the Jordan that the Hebrew people in Canaan will claim that they have no inheritance with them.  They build the altar to show for generations to come that they are a united people.

However, the tribes on the west of the Jordan see the altar and again make the wrong assumption about their motives.  They think that they’ve built an altar for sacrificing.  They assume that they have built an altar to start going astray from the Lord.  They come ready to fight their brothers because of their incorrect assumptions.

Fortunately, cooler heads prevail.  The east tribes explain their actions to the west tribes and everything settles down.  The west tribes accept the altar of witness.  If only that had been willing to inquire before assuming motivation to the actions of another!

In the end, this is another great lesson to learn.  Attributing motivations to others without knowing the motivations can really be dangerous and lead us down a wrong path.  Yet, this is something that humans being do with excellence.  We love believing that we know why other people do and say the things they do and say.  So often we’re just wrong when we make that mistake.

<><

Year 7, Day 206: Joshua 21

Theological Commentary: Click Here

In Joshua 21, we hear about the land being given to the Levites.  Remember that the Levites were not supposed to get an allotment of territory because they were the line to serve as priests.  Instead, they receive a few cities that are scattered among all the tribes. In this manner, they can dwell among all the people and do their priestly duties from within.  They will be able to remind the people of their devotion to God by dwelling among the rest of the tribes rather than dwelling beside them.

On one hand, I think this is great.  We all can benefit from a mentor.  We all can benefit from someone in our life that we can look upon and be inspired by their faith.  We likely have historical figures like Abraham, Samuel, Peter, Paul, and of course, Jesus.  But it doesn’t hurt to have someone in the flesh and blood that we can actually see and talk to as well.  From this perspective, having the Levites dwell among the people is a great idea.

However, look at what this inherently says about all of humanity.  What is the reason that we need mentors and examples?  We need them because it is not our nature to be faithful and obedient to God.  It is hard work to remain faithful to the Lord.  Therefore, we need bastions of faith in our life to help us when we stumble.  We need bastions of faith in our life to remind us that the things of God are more important than the things of the world.  The struggle against worldly temptation is so strong that we often fail, causing us to need these examples to look up to and to help us fix things when we make mistakes.

God sends the Levites among the Hebrew people because He knows they will need them.  The Hebrew people will sin and fall away.  They will pursue other gods.  God knows this about His people – about all people – and He puts people of faith in our life to help.

This brings us the whole way around to a good point. What this shows us, then, is the provision of the Lord.  This helps us understand the faithfulness of God.  God doesn’t let us face our humanity alone; He knows that we will lose.  God has scattered faithful people all over this globe so that in the midst of our struggle there is someone there.  We have someone to whom we can look and call upon when needed, much like the Levites who dwelt among the Hebrew people.

<><

Year 7, Day 205: Joshua 20

Theological Commentary: Click Here

I’ve spoken about the cities of refuge at great length.  Understand that the cities of refuge are not a place for guilty people to go and find salvation.  The cities of refuge are for people who accidentally kill someone to find salvation.  There is no way to avoid punishment of execution for the person who premeditates the death of another person.

Naturally, it makes sense in a chapter to put things into perspective.  In this chapter, we are talking about physical punishment as physical consequence.  Regardless of anything said in these kinds of chapters, there is no implication on spiritual salvation.  God forgives the truly repentant. It is entirely possible for a person to find spiritual salvation and rest eternally with God even as they suffer the physical consequences of their actions.

The reason that this is important is because the distinction between spiritual consequence and physical consequence helps us look at justice in life.  If we confuse spiritual and physical consequence, then we are always worrying and fretting over capital punishment.  We worry and fret over death sentences for criminals who intentionally commit murder. 

God’s Word, however, does not spend time worrying and fretting.  If a person dies accidentally at the hands of another – farming accident, construction accident, some other kind of accident – the city of refuge was there to protect them until the case could be heard by the community and the unintentionality declared.  On the other hand, if a person died from the intent of another person, they were executed and the city of refuge is of no help.  The person who committed the crime goes before God, who determines the spiritual consequences of the person’s life.  It’s a very cut and dry process.

<><

Year 7, Day 204: Joshua 19

Theological Commentary: Click Here

In today’s reading, we have the rest of the allotments.  I use the word allotment intentionally.  In each case, the Bible is quite clear to say that the lot fell to such-and such tribe.

I think this is a great point to draw out of the text after yesterday.  Remember that these tribes are the ones who didn’t go out and claim the land they wanted.  Instead, they had to be told by Joshua to get out, measure the land, and then come back.  As a result, they do get land.  However, it isn’t necessarily the land of their choosing.  This is the land of allotment.  They get an inheritance, but the get what randomness brings their way.

It is important to remember that they do get an allotment.  They did fight hard.  They did earn their land.  But they did not go out and claim it.  In fact, notice that we have a special note to say that the people of Dan had more fighting to do even after the allotment was given out!  They even lost their land for a time being.

Put this in contrast to Joshua, who gets that for which he asked.  Or Caleb or Othniel or the people east of Jordan or Judah or the people of Joseph.  They get their choice because they are proactive about going out and getting it.

What we can conclude is that there are many ways to go about our obedience to God.  Much of what I conclude today ties in with how I ended yesterday.  We can be proactive in our faithful obedience and be in a position to meet our desires.  On the other hand, we can be followers and obey when challenged or shamed into action.  We do get a reward for obedience, but it may not be a reward of our choosing.

<><

Year 7, Day 203: Joshua 18

Theological Commentary: Click Here

In Joshua 18, we have a very interesting beginning.  Judah, Josephs’ two sons, and the tribes east of the Jordan have all received their land.  The other tribes, however, haven’t gone out and taken up residence.  Joshua needs to come and tell them what to do.  He must come and light a fire underneath them.

I find this highly interesting.  These people just fought for the land.  They had brothers die for possession of it.  They have been wandering through the desert for forty years just to get to this point.  Everything should be pointing to them going out and taking ownership of the land.  Yet, this isn’t the case.  Joshua has to come to them, tell them what to do, and encourage them to get out to work.

I think there is a lesson to be learned here.  There are leaders who, like Joshua, can lead large groups of people.  There are also independent people who, like the tribes of Josephs sons, may not want to lead large groups, but they are certainly capable of going out and doing what is necessary all on their own.  Then there is a great swath of people in the rest of the world.  They are content doing as they are told.  They will buy into the grand schemes of leaders, but they will wait and do as they are told rather than going out and getting it for themselves.

When I read this chapter, I think that in the end there is grace for all three types of people.  Certainly, the leaders in Joshua, Caleb, and Judah are praised.  The independent tribes of Joseph are likewise praised.  The tribes who sit back are initially chastised, but the end well.  They do what they are told.  They follow through with someone else’s plan.  In the end, although they don’t start well, they finish well and receive their inheritance.

Life is about determining what kind of person you want to be.  Are you a leader?  Then go lead!  Are you an independent type?  Determine what God asks of you and go do it?  Are you a follower?  Make sure you buy into God’s plan and then get to it!  The kkey is not sitting back and doing nothing.

<><

Year 7, Day 202: Joshua 17

Theological Commentary: Click Here

In Joshua 17 we continue with the allotment of the land for the people of Joseph.  Notice how many times throughout this chapter that we hear about the need to drive the Canaanites out.  This should take us back to the message that we had yesterday.

Today, though, let’s talk about why it is Joseph we hear at this point.  Remember that Joseph was the second youngest son.  Yet we hear about the allotment of Joseph’s land second to Judah, whom we heard about two days ago.  Joshua is being elevated here.

There is a reason we hear about Judah first.  The kings of Israel will come through Judah.  Christ will come through Judah.  Judah is often elevated among the sons, especially in lists like this.

Joseph is being elevated here as a memory of the faithfulness of Joseph in Egypt.  Remember that it is through Joseph’s hand that his sons were saved.  In fact, it is through Joseph’s hand that all of Egypt and the neighboring regions were brought through the famine.  The faithfulness of Joseph is absolutely being honored as the people get into the Promised Land.

This really cements home one of the overarching themes of Joshua.  Othniel was faithful because of Caleb’s example.  Caleb and Joshua are faithful because of Moses’ example.  The Hebrew people in Egypt can be faithful because of the faithful example of Joseph.  The book of Joshua is all about lifting up stories of faithfulness to God and watching them sprout and evoke a faithful response in others.

<><