–For a description of the (Y2) reading plan, see the “About” page.
Luke 24
Imagine being the women trying to convince the despondent disciples that Jesus is alive. What would you say? Who will you tell today that Jesus is alive? It is so easy to take God’s presence in my life for granted. Like the church of Laodicea in Revelation, it is easy to live a lukewarm life. My relationship with God becomes so day-to-day and simply fades into the background. Reading through this passage, I can really see how fresh it all was to them. Their enthusiasm is obvious.
When Jesus revealed Himself to the two men at Emmaus and then disappeared from their sight, “They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem.” (Luke 24:33a). The day was almost over when they arrived in Emmaus, so it was late when they left. On top of that, Jerusalem was seven miles away. But they could not wait. They were excited to go and tell their friends what they had seen and heard. And when they got there, they found their friends just as excited at news that Jesus had also appeared to Simon.
I realize that an everyday blessing can never elicit the same response as a first discovery. Still, the knowledge that God is with me always and His mercies are new every morning ought to wake me up with a smile and a sense of gratitude. And the thought that each new day holds the possibility of seeing God’s hand at work in and through my life ought to elicit a sense of enthusiasm as I walk the road He lays out before me. Life doesn’t need to be a drudgery. I live it with the Creator of the Universe dwelling within me, so I can live it with joy and awe no matter what I face.
Gen. 47-48
I realize that God not only sent Jacob and his family to Egypt, but He also told Abraham years prior that his descendants would be slaves there for 400 years. Still, I wonder why they stayed. Joseph’s brothers told Pharaoh, “We have come to live here for a while, because the famine is severe in Canaan” (Gen. 467:4a). Yet they remained in Egypt long after the famine was over. Their temporary stay wasn’t very temporary.
I wonder if the Israelites stayed because they grew comfortable and complacent in Egypt. Perhaps they let go of their dependence on God and thus did not return to the land He had promised them. Was the 400 years of slavery truly God’s desire for His people or was it yet another example of God’s working our failures into His great redemption story? God intimately knows the human heart. I see Him using our natural tendencies both to work out His plan for our salvation and to make us keenly aware of our need for it. He shows us that the consequences of going our own way and relying on anything other than Him is slavery – to death, destruction, turmoil and despair. We need God. He knows it and, by His grace, He makes it known to us.