Resurrection, Vindication

New Guest: Like this one, most posts are devotional; those related to CAR BIZ can be found by searching for that title. You might start with 'Welcome,' the first post in the archives, dated November 12, 2008, where I introduce myself and the blog.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Devotions: Ps 26, 28, 36, 39; Lam 1:1-12; 1 Cor 15:41-50; Mt 11:25-30

YHWH, vindicate me, I pray—I am walking by Your grace, and under the righteousness of Your Son. Your steadfast love is before me, and I walk in trust and faithfulness to You. I shun the company of the wicked, and by Your love, I stand on level ground. Please don’t cast me away with those who ignore or disobey You. Requite them as Your justice and righteousness provide; I believe those who ignore or disregard God will be broken down by Him. YHWH is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. I exult in God my Savior and sing to Him in thanks and praise. YHWH is the Strength of His people, the saving Refuge of His anointed ones. Lord, be our Shepherd forever! Meanwhile, sin keeps tempting the wicked; he flatters himself; he seeks to deceive others as he deceives himself. He has departed from wisdom and goodness. He no longer spurns evil. Lord, Your steadfast love reaches to the heavens; Your faithfulness to the clouds; Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains; Your justice rolls like the ocean tides. How precious is Your steadfast love, O God. Let neither the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. Instead, Lord, let me see Your power thrust them down, unable to rise again to do mischief and harm. I have tried just to be silent in the presence of wickedness. But my distress mounted, and the fire inside me became unbearable, so I spoke: ‘Lord, let me know my end, the measure of my days; remind me how fleeting is my life. We mortals walk around like shadows; deliver me from my transgressions; please don’t let fools scorn me. Remove Your heavy judgment from me; answer my grief with Your kindness, and give me Your peace, I pray.

How lonely sits the city once bustling with people! She has become a widow, a vassal, who was a blooming princess. She weeps all night; Judah is in exile because of her sins; she has no place to rest among the nations. The very roads to Zion are in mourning; her gates are desolate; her lovely maidens are in foreign slavery; her enemies prosper. Her majesty has utterly departed the daughter of Zion; she dwells in memory of affliction and bitterness. Her sin has soiled Jerusalem; she is ashamed, unclean and afflicted. She is despoiled by enemies, and her people groan, searching for food. Won’t you who pass by notice how YHWH has afflicted her with sorrow on the day of His fierce anger?

Paul is speaking of resurrection: ‘There are different degrees and kinds of glory among the heavenly bodies—sun, moon, and various stars; and there are similar distinctions among the resurrected. What was sown perishable is raised imperishable; what was sown in dishonor is raised in glory; what was sown in weakness is raised in power. A physical body was sown; a spiritual body is raised. The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam, Jesus, became a life-giving spirit. The physical precedes the spiritual. The first man was from earth, a man of dust; the second Man is from heaven. Just as the man of dust was, so are those who are of dust today; and just as the Man of heaven is so are those of heaven. Just as we mortal Christians have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the Man of heaven. Flesh and blood--mortal sarx--cannot inherit God’s kingdom, and the perishable cannot inherit the imperishable.’

Jesus had excoriated the cities in which His great deeds of power had been accomplished. Then He turned to His Father in heaven: ‘I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and have revealed them to babes—as was Your gracious will, my Father. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father; no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me. For I Am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.’