For a full description of the (Y4) reading plan, see the “About” page.
Gen. 31
In yesterday’s musings I wrote about keeping our focus on God, not comparing ourselves to others and reacting to our circumstances accordingly, and about how belonging to God ensures that we will overcome in the end, no matter what comes against us. I see all of those thoughts repeated in this chapter. Jacob told his wives, “You know that I have served your father with all my strength. Yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times; however, God did not allow him to hurt me.” (Gen. 11:6-7).
It is easy to think that the humans in authority over us dictate how our life will go. It’s a lie; don’t believe it. Sure, they have some amount of power to make things better or worse, easier or harder for us. But if we focus on what we perceive to be their control over us, we will respond in very human, not God pleasing ways. And it is our responses, not their actions, which impact what truly matters for us. If, however, we focus on God, serving our authorities with the knowledge that their power comes from God, they can do no real harm.
Mark 2
As Jesus continued into His early ministry, He established both His authority to forgive sins as well as His mission to call sinners to that forgiveness. He also presented Himself as something new. I don’t know if Mark’s original audience was familiar with the Jewish scriptures, but the something new was important regardless. It references back to one of Isaiah’s prophecies. “Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new…” (Is. 43:18-19a). And Jesus declared Himself Lord even of the Sabbath. What I think He meant by that is that the Sabbath, as with so many other things, should help men serve God, not make them its slave. The conclusion I come to with all of this is that anybody who could not see that Jesus was indeed God’s promised Messiah, simply wasn’t looking.
Est. 7
My thoughts about this chapter this morning are likely somewhat outside the purpose in the story. But I couldn’t stop wondering how this could have taken King Ahasuerus by surprise. He himself gave his signet ring to Haman in order to destroy the people whose ways were different. I looked back, and it seems Haman never actually named the Jews in his petition to the king at that time. But still…how did the king not put this together?
I then wondered about the king’s anger. It didn’t seem to bother him that Haman wanted to destroy an entire people group before he realized that his precious Queen and the man who had previously saved his life were part of that group. Funny how things matter more to us when the people involved matter more to us. I think it shouldn’t be that way. When is it ever right to destroy people because they are different, because we don’t like them, or because we simply don’t care?
Right and wrong are not determined based on the people taking the action or on those receiving it. They are determined by God’s standards alone. Which is why we are not to have bias either for or against the rich or the poor. And why Jesus told us, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5:44b). We should do that because that is what we would do for someone we love. And, “if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?… Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:46a, 48). That means that we love others, not because they deserve it, but because God loves us even though we don’t deserve it.