For a description of the (Y2) reading plan, see the “About” page.
Luke 20
What do Jesus’ words about Caesar and God (see v. 25) mean for you as a Christian and a citizen? What do you owe Caesar? What do you owe God? People always think that they can outsmart truth; that lies and deceptions can somehow amount to something worthwhile. They can’t. Jesus saw through every attempt to trip Him up. In fact, He generally ended up hanging the plotters with their own proverbial rope. When they tried to trap Jesus regarding taxes, He could have stopped His reply at “give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s” (Luke 20:25a). But He didn’t. He added, “and to God what is God’s.” Given that they were regularly challenging His authority, accusing Him of being of the Devil, and trying to deceive and usurp Him, I rather imagine that last part of Jesus’ comment hit home. It certainly shut them up.
As for me, it would do me well to remember that everything belongs to God. All authority, all power, all riches, all wisdom – all of it is His. From the very first sin in the Garden of Eden, our flesh has wanted these things for ourselves. Instead of following the flesh, God desires that I humble myself before His authority and the authority of those He places over me in this life.
Gen. 39-40
What do you learn from Joseph’s character? Why do you think the Lord was with him? Joseph is a great example of what we just looked at in Luke. Though he was in charge of all of Potiphar’s house, he did not claim any authority for himself. When Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him, he said, “’How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?’” (Gen. 39:9). He recognized that submitting himself to his earthly authorities was the same as submitting himself to God’s authority. Therefore, sinning against them was a sin against God.
Do you think Joseph ever got discouraged? Why? What do you do when you’re discouraged? Joseph even recognized that interpretations belong to God. And I love his boldness in trusting that he had access to what belonged to God. He knew that he could ask for and would be given those interpretations. The bad hands that life dealt Joseph were not lost on him, and he may well have had days where it all got to him. But he managed to keep his eyes on God and off of himself and his problems. And so Joseph was able to enjoy the rich blessings that come from a right relationship with the God of all authority no matter where he found himself in life.