Current struggles, future consequences

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Friday, December 5, 2008
Devotions: Ps 16, 17, 22; Isa 3:8-15; 1 Thess 4:13-18; Lk 20:41-21:4

I say to YHWH: preserve me, Lord; I have no good apart from You. I delight in Your saints. I have chosen God as my Portion, and I have a good heritage! He gives me counsel and instructs my heart day and night. I keep Him always before me, and because I am with Him, I shall not be moved. I abide, glad in heart and rejoicing in my soul. God shows me the path of life; in His presence is fullness of joy, and pleasures forever. God, send my vindication; I hold to Your paths; keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me in Your shadow. Protect me against the ravening of the pitiless wicked, lurking in ambush to tear their prey. I will awaken to Your glory!

David anticipated Gethsemane and Golgotha (and Jesus recapitulated Psalm 22): ‘Eloi, Eloi lama sabachthani?’ I cry out, but You do not answer—I have no rest apart from You, the Holy One, enthroned on the praise of Your people. I am scorned by the people; many mock me: ‘He committed himself to YHWH, so let YHWH save him now!’ You took me from the womb and kept me safe in infancy—so stay close now, God! I am surrounded by raging bulls and ravening lions; I am poured out like water; all my bones are disjointed; my heart is melting; I am dried up; my tongue cleaves to my jaws; I am near death. Dogs and evildoers surround me; they have pierced my hands and feet; they divide my clothes and cast lots for my raiment. Stay close, dear God; deliver my soul from the sword and my life from the power of the dog! Save me from the lions and wild oxen. I will tell of Your grace in the great assembly; I will encourage all who honor You to praise and glorify our God, Who hears and answers all who cry to Him. The afflicted shall be filled and satisfied; let all the earth turn to YHWH; and let the proud bow to the Almighty One. And let the story sweep down the generations, proclaiming His deliverance to a people yet unborn.
In the days of trouble to come, no one will want the burden of leadership, or of healing. There will be no praxis or even pretense of righteousness; sectarian partisans will sin openly and suffer the evil they bring upon themselves. But the righteous will have the good fruit of their good deeds. God laments over His misguided creatures: ‘children are their oppressors and women rule over them; O My people, your leaders mislead you and confuse your course and path.’ God will enter into judgment with the elders and princes of His people—those who have despoiled and ruined His vineyard, the place and people He loves.

Paul teaches the Thessalonians about life after death: ‘Don’t grieve; we believe Jesus died and rose again; and through Him, God will bring with Him those who have died. Those alive when Jesus returns will not precede those who have died prior to that time. Instead, the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout of command, with the archangel’s call, with the trumpet of God! And the dead in Christ will rise first; then the living believers after them will be caught up together to meet the Lord. So we shall always be with the Lord! Comfort one another with these words.’

After several confrontations with the scribes, chief priests, Pharisees and Sadducees, Jesus brought this issue to them: ‘How can they say the Messiah is David’s son? David himself says in his psalms: “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies a stool for Your feet.”’ David thus calls the Messiah his Lord; so in what way is He David’s son?’ [No response was recorded.] Then Jesus turned to His disciples, in the hearing of all the people: ‘Beware the scribes who exalt themselves—long robes, public adulation, the best synagogue seats and places of honor at feasts: while they devour the meager estates of widows, they make long, pretentious prayers. They face the greater condemnation.’ And He watched as the rich put their large donations into the temple treasury, and as a poor widow contributed two lepta, tiny copper coins. Then Jesus commented solemnly: ‘Truly I tell you: this poor widow has put in more than the others; for the others contributed out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, put in all the living she had.’