Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 | Author: Chris
I’m sure Matthew 15:33 really sticks out to all of us. These guys just witnessed Jesus feed 5000 men, plus women and children. To a modern reader, this story may sound ridiculous… until we look at our own lives. How many times does God do something great in our lives, and then time goes by… and it loses it’s flavor.
Maybe you’d like to share a time in your life when God did something powerful, and then you eventually kinda forgot about it? Or maybe you didn’t gain more faith, but just ended up having the same faith that you had before?
Category: Daily Scripture Reading
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Wednesday, 17. March 2010
I just sold my car that I had for like 6 years. Since 2005, I have always wanted to sell the car. I prayed and prayed. I was not able to sell it until a few weeks ago. When I sold it, I was not that overjoyed. In fact, I was upset because i lost a lot of money in it. But when i look back to my prayers, I told God that if I were to sell it, I would be the happiest man alive. I guess that was not true. But that does not dismiss the fact that God did a miracle in my life by selling the car for me. This was supposed to boost my faith in God but in fact my faith just stood the same because of my anger.
Wednesday, 17. March 2010
1) Matthew 15:1-20 is very powerful as it applies to many Evangelicals/ Roman Catholics. The Pharisees were rascals who gave lip service to God but their heart was far from Him. Jesus let’s us know that being a new creation is what counts (Galatians 6:15), not a system of rules. Especially when that system is wasn’t even given by God but instead men! Maybe one day the Church will get back to explaining the simple Good News message instead of heaping rules on people.
Wednesday, 17. March 2010
2) I certainly cannot pass up the chance to discuss Matthew 15:21-28! This is one of my favorite stories in the Bible, period. If you understand the dynamic of this story, you understand the main message of the entire Bible.
Jesus was being chased by a Gentile woman who’s daughter was demonized. Jesus’ loving disciples want Him to get rid of her. And, Jesus says He came only for the lost sheep of Israel (she was a Gentile) and then proceeds to refer to her and her daughter as ‘dogs’. WHAAAT!? How could Jesus say that!? Wasn’t He the Man of love?
Well, she doesn’t let that stop her, and right in the middle of His literally feeding thousands she asks metaphorically for the crumbs from the table. She doesn’t contradict Him. The Jews may be God’s children, but she knows there is enough blessing to go around, and she absolutely refuses to leave Jesus alone! Jesus can no longer contain Himself and commends her for her great faith, delivering her daughter from the evil spirit.
If you understand this story you can understand God’s nature and how He treats humanity. The Gentiles were not under God’s Covenant of Law and were often looked down on by the Jews. But Jesus shows us that God loves dogs too! He loves them so much He’s willing to make them into daughters if they grab onto Him and don’t let go.
Ironically, the ‘original’ children of the Kingdom get thrust out, and are later referred to as ‘dogs’ by Paul (Philippians 3:1-3). Why? Because they did not trust in God’s kindness like this woman, instead they self righteously believed they earned His favor through good deeds.
So why did Jesus push her away at first? Because He didn’t want her to go away. Jesus behaves like this a lot, pretending to be disinterested so as to test the faith and love of His worshipers. Interestingly enough this is exactly how God is depicted in the Old Testament (Genesis 32:22-32). So the next time a “Jehovah’s Witness” or some other cultist tells you Jesus isn’t God, you can be sure he knows nothing of the Father or the Son (1 John 1:1-4).