Work With God, not Against Him

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Thursday, February 19, 2009
Devotions: Ps 105; Isa 65:1-12; 1 Tim 4:1-16; Mk 12:13-27

Take glory from God’s name, and make Him known to everyone. Sing His praise and rejoice! Seek YHWH and His strength continually; meditate on His great deeds—His miracles and judgments. He makes and keeps covenant with His people. He protects His anointed ones, though He allows us to be tested. When we are unfaithful, He leaves us to the fruit of our disobedience and sin. All the history of Israel testifies to God’s holy love and faithfulness. How He smote Egypt when He delivered Israel from bondage there! How He provided for them in the wilderness, despite their recurring rebellion and unfaith! Let us keep His commands and do Him honor this day.

God makes Himself available to Gentiles, and continues to invite those who rebel against Him. Idolatry enrages the Mighty One; unfaithfulness offends, hurts and angers our God. His judgment follows our sin. Let us cleave to God, lest He abandon us to destruction.

‘The Spirit affirms,’ wrote Paul to Timothy, ‘that in later times, people will become legalistic in religion—heeding deceitful spirits and demons through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared. They will forbid marriage and encourage dietary restrictions, despite the fact that everything God made is good, if partaken in a godly spirit, with thanks, by those who know and believe the truth. When we thank God, we consecrate what God has made for our use. As ministers, we must abide in God’s word, nourished by faith and good doctrine; and we must have nothing to do with godless and silly myths. The best training is spiritual discipline, useful in this life and the life to come as well. Our hope is in the living God, Savior of all who believe. Set these truths before the community of faith; be a good example to them, in speech and conduct, in love, faith and purity. Read the scriptures; preach and teach. Use your God-given gifts to edify the ekklesia; keep growing in your own faith and walk; in this way, you’ll save both yourself and those who hear and observe you.’

Jewish authorities opposed to Jesus sent some Pharisees and Herodians seeking to entrap Him. They flattered Him, then asked Him: ‘Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?’ [They believed any answer would incriminate Jesus; but His answer silenced and frustrated them.] He replied: ‘Why test Me? Bring Me a coin.’ They offered Him a Roman denarius. Jesus asked, ‘Whose likeness and inscription do we see here?’ ‘Caesar’s,’ they answered. ‘Render then to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what belongs to God.’ Next came the Sadducees, the establishment party who denied the resurrection. Their trick question referred to the Torah injunction that a Jewish man had a duty to marry a brother’s childless widow and thereby to keep their brother’s name and patrimony by producing heirs for him. They posed a hypothetical situation in which the same woman was successively wife to each of seven brothers, all of whom died without fathering children by her. They asked Jesus: ‘Okay—when the resurrection comes, whose wife will she be, since she was married to all seven brothers!’ Jesus’ answer amazed them: ‘You are in the wrong, because you don’t know what the scriptures say, and you don’t know the power of God. When the dead rise, they will not be married. And the dead will rise. At the burning bush in Midian, God said to Moses, “I Am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” He is God of the living, not the dead. You are seriously mistaken!’