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Matt. 7
Where are you taking the broad and easy way? What would it look like for you to enter the narrow gate and walk the narrow road to life? Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is about doing things differently. We should not live our lives to keep the law; we should live to glorify God. That is the narrow gate. Guess what doesn’t fit through a narrow gate? A big head! Pride. Self. Human nature. Throughout this entire sermon, Jesus asks us to set all that aside and shine our life light on God rather than on ourselves. That’s how we become all those things that Jesus declared blessed at the start. That’s how we bear good fruit and are known by God. And that’s how we stand fast when God’s judgment finally comes.
Is. 47-48
What were Babylon’s sins? Isaiah 47 speaks of the fall of Babylon. The Babylonian Empire is now long gone, but what Babylon symbolizes still remains. We know this because this prophecy of her fall is repeated in Revelation 18, written long after the physical kingdom was gone. So what exactly is it that Babylon symbolizes?
“You said, ‘I am forever – the eternal queen!…I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children.’” (Is. 47; 7a, 8b). There is obvious pride in that statement. But I think there is something deeper. This is a pride that attempts to usurp God, like the pride of Lucifer. This is a pride that not only refuses to acknowledge the need for God, but also completely denies His sovereignty. We can look at any and every period in the history of man and see this presence that scoffs at God. There is always some force trying to rule and reshape the world, believing they will never fall. This is Babylon, powered by Satan himself through those who have sold their souls to his Great Lie.