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Matt. 28
Proverbs 8, from yesterday’s reading, talked about finding true wealth in wisdom. That’s a lesson the guards at Jesus’ tomb – and many like them – could have used. Valuing wisdom in their situation would have meant standing for the truth, regardless of the Jewish leaders’ opinion of it. Instead, they pursued false wealth, letting those leaders buy them off and protect them in their lie.
I would also go so far as to say that those who believed the soldiers’ false report placed more value in what they falsely perceived as a comfortable life than in wisdom. Had those people looked for wisdom, they would have seen that the soldiers’ story could not be true. The lie was made evident through the soldiers’ protection. But the truth is often inconvenient. So we see what we want to see to get what we think we want. I pray that God would give me the wisdom to both seek and stand for truth even when it is the harder, less comfortable, more inconvenient, and costlier thing to do.
Josh. 3-4
What was the significance of consecrating themselves before crossing the Jordan? What was the significance of the stopping of the Jordan River? See v. 23-24. What has God done in your life so that you and others might know Him? “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.” (Josh. 3:5). The people needed to prepare themselves for God to be in their presence. He was going to act on their behalf.
I love how God tends to act from impossible situations. He waits until our resources are either exhausted or useless, like Sarah’s giving birth to Isaac after she became physically unable. Or He leads us to a place where we can do nothing, or at least not what needs to be done. Like trapping the Israelites between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army. Or telling a nation of likely a couple million people of all ages to cross a mighty river in flood stage. Why does He do this? “So that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God.” (Josh. 4:24). Right. He wants everyone to know that it is Him and not us.
Because of Jesus, God has blessed believers today with His constant presence. I think that needs to sink into my head and my heart. If the Jews were to consecrate themselves so that God could be with them and act on their behalf, shouldn’t I, in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, consecrate myself daily by clothing myself with the righteousness of Christ so that God can work in and through me? And all the more, I’d say, when I face an impossible situation. Because it is then that I can be sure that God is ready to act.