Read Matthew 19 – Jesus gets to the heart of the questions – When I was full of skepticism, I had my list of questions. They were the usual ones, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” “Was Jesus an actual person or legend?” “Is the bible true?” I sent them to the pastor, expecting an email in return or maybe a sit down discussion. Instead, he ordered a book for me. It answered all of my questions. By reading it, I realized that had the pastor answered my questions, I would have been so busy thinking up the next question I would not have received the answers. What are your questions really asking?
The Pharisees are trying to trip Jesus up on questions (:3). He gets to the heart of the matter by asking questions and reminding them of God’s original intent regarding marriage and divorce.
We get another moment of Jesus with the little children… They are so precious to him! He puts his hands upon their heads and blesses them (:15). Beloved, reread that section, :13-15, close your eyes, imagine his hands upon your head, imagine his words spoken over you. We all have that little child deep inside of us.
The next passage introduces us to a rich man. He considers himself a good man, yet he knows something is missing. He has that deep longing to be ‘good enough’. Jesus gives him such an incredible offer to sell his possessions, give to the poor, then come and follow Jesus. Our Scriptures could speak of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and this guy, but instead we never even learn his name because he could not let go of his earthly ties to come and follow Jesus. Beloved, is anything in your way?
Tag: divorce
Deuteronomy 24
Read Deuteronomy 24 – Divorce, marriage and integrity –
I can’t help but wonder how it pained the LORD to address divorce. That was not his intention for the marriage union, but he knows our hearts, so he gave the concession of divorce.
Verse :5 is quite incredible. The first year of marriage was committed to simply delight and solidify the marriage – and the whole community was commanded to support this by not calling him to the army or any public duty. One can’t help but wonder, if a couple was fully committed to this, and the entire community was behind them, how that would affect the divorce statistics.
Our chapter speaks of those indebted to a person. One is not to be cruel when collecting debt from the poor and widows. (:10-15) We see this truth when Jesus gave the model for prayer, commonly known as THE LORD PRAYER (found in Matthew 6 and Like 11). “And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors, ” Matthew 6:12.
Twice in our chapter, and many times in the book of Deuteronomy, God tells the Israelites to remember that they were slaves in Egypt. (:18,22)
Beloved, may you also remember the fate Jesus rescued you from. May the fear of God, the beginning of wisdom, keep you from straying off course.