Tweets & Rants 8 February 2013: Matthew 13:24-43; Acts 19:1-22; Psalm 31; Exodus 21-23
prays the Gospel would work in our lives daily till it is spread all the way through our lives like yeast in dough. Mat 13:33 @WeeManWest
Matthew 13:29 We must wait til the end of the age when God is the one judging. Our judgments and destructive behaviors will wind up destroying some of the flock along with the wolves.
Matthew 13:30 I’m certain that some of you will not agree with me on this one, but the point should be understood. The weeds are gathered FIRST, not the wheat. That means Jesus is building His kingdom in this world, and that the wicked will be removed FROM His kingdom in this world FIRST…not the righteous as it popularly taught by a lot of teachers of the gospel.
Matthew 13:32 I find it quite interesting that as Jesus spoke this parable of the amazing growth of the kingdom of heaven…from the smallest of seeds to the largest of tree…He uses a phrase that we find elsewhere in Scripture. Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that Daniel interpretted using this exact line (Daniel 4:12, Daniel 4:21-22) to describe the dominion of Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom.
I think Jesus may very well have used this phrase to remind us that His dominion will be like that of Nebuchadnezzar’s (who was the gold head), only greater.
Matthew 13:33 In case we missed the point with the parable of the mustard seed Jesus reiterates the point for us with the leaven. His kingdom is like leaven put in dough that spreads through the dough until it is all leavened.
This has two applications for us, especially if we build from the dominion line of the parable of the mustard seed.
First, God works in us individually like leaven. His Gospel will continue to spread into all of our lives until His Gospel is all that we are in this world.
Second, God’s kingdom works like leaven in this world, hidden, yet spreading to fill the entire world. Jesus said in Matthew 24:14 that the gospel would be proclaimed in all the nations before the end comes. Jesus is teaching us that the Gospel will get to the nations like yeast in dough. Hidden, secret, little by little, till eventually all will have the kingdom.
Acts 19:13 When we seek Jesus and to live for the Gospel, Jesus is the one WE proclaim. Are you living your faith vicariously through someone else? Jesus wants you to know Him intimately and personally. He is not a talisman of some sort that we invoke for miracles to occur. He works in us miraculously every day by faith.
Acts 19:20 This could happen again right where we are. If we are willing to let His Spirit have way with us and spread in us and through us like yeast then we will see the mighty growth of the mustard seed in our lives. We would see the fruit of the Gospel and His kingdom being built.
Psalm 31:5 Christ saw fit to utter this phrase before He died on the cross. How fitting for us to see that in all, we commit ourselves to God our creator because He is faithful!
Psalm 31:7 We have a tremendous blessing in Christ because He was tempted in every way that we are (Hebrews 4:15) yet He was without sin. We can’t miss the point that we suffer from NOTHING that Jesus didn’t also already suffer from. We have a companion in our grief.
Psalm 31:15 We may only truly trust in God when we truly recognize the Sovereignty of God. All of our moments are in His hands and are part of the masterpiece He is weaving together by His grace.
Psalm 31:18 I don’t know if you realize this or not, but you can in no way stop someone from contemptuously speaking about you. Only God can truly put a stop to it.
Exodus 21:6 Slavery in the Bible was a totally different creature than the monstrosity that we had in our nation. Biblical slavery for the Hebrew, was a chosen path that had a term of 6 years maximum. If the Hebrew slave wanted to remain a slave he could make that choice, marked by blood, to remain a perpetual slave. Slavery for the Hebrew was a choice, it was not imposed.
Such pictures the blood choice we must make to be perpetual slaves to God through Jesus Christ…to pass through the blood of Christ.
Exodus 21:11 The slave woman had a specific set of rights that if they were not respected would lead to her freedom…without a payment of money. She had to be respected, she could not be sold to foreigners.
Exodus 21:16 The Old Testament Law called for the death penalty for the things that were done to build the American slave trade. All those who say the Bible supported what was going on are either ignorant of what God’ word teaches or have an ax to grind.
Hence we should take up the cause in our modern day to put a stop to human trafficking. Human trafficking displeases God.
Exodus 21:12 The Bible instituted the death penalty as a protection for lives. Life is valuable and precious. This type of murder is the premeditated and willful act of killing another person. The death penalty was to be a deterrent.
What do we do today? Life in prison, death penalty in a few places. If a man is premeditating to kill, and knows that his life will be required for it, he will think twice about committing the act.
Exodus 21:23-35 The core of God’s case law is this, the sentence must fit the crime. If it doesn’t, you run the risk of either under penalizing an offense which will lead to more offenses or of over penalizing an offense which will lead to more litigation.
We’ve seen this in our legal system. The under penalization of murderers, rapists, pedophiles, etc. and the over penalization of businesses and common people have led to the wacked out state of affairs we deal with in our nation. Neither are justice.
Exodus 22:1 You may ask, “What is the difference?” The ox was the worker animal that reproduced its own work. The ox is also allegorically speaking of the workmen of the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:8-12 & 1 Timothy 5:17-18) as Paul attests to in his letters.
The sheep is tended to and cared for, yet still important to God and must be replaced four-fold. While the sheep provided clothing and food, it had to be shepherded. However yet the lamb is the Passover meal and a picture of Jesus Christ.
Exodus 22:9 The Law made it very clear that if you were going to wrong another person you should pay them double restitution. Again, the wisdom of the Law is found in its deterrence. This is focused on intentional wrong-doing…for unintentional full restitution is all that was required.
Exodus 23:11 We see that God legally provides for the care of the poor. This provision doesn’t stand alone as we will see later. The fallow fields on the 7th year would provide food for the poor. The corners of the fields were also to be unharvested so that the poor could eat. They were also to leave droppings from their harvests for the poor to eat.
God legally sought to provide food for the poor. What does that mean for us today? We should have margins…and what is outside of the margins should be given to the poor.
Exodus 23:29-30 God would bring them into the land incrementally. A sudden taking of the land would leave too much land for too few people and it would become desolate and be overrun by wild animals. God would gradually give the land to the Israelites as they were able to handle receiving it.
God does the same with us, yes, He enters us and changes us. However, with His change some is sudden and some is gradual. He works in us as we can handle what He is doing in our lives. He will drive the sin from us.