Exodus 13 -- Freedom Was A New Concept For Them

The way out of Egypt is described in this chapter.  The people had eaten the Passover Meal, received treasures from the Egyptian people, and now were packed and ready to go.  The shortest route to the Promised Land, following the Mediterranean coastline, held obstacles though.  My commentary said that the Egyptians had army posts along that route, possibly to prevent the Philistines from invading.  They would not have had time to receive notice of Pharaoh’s orders freeing the Israelites and might have caused problems.  Additionally, the Israelites had never had training for war, and they’d be seen as an invading force by the Philistines.  My commentary said, “If you permit the Lord to direct your steps, expect to be led occasionally on paths that may seem unnecessarily long and circuitous.  Remind yourself that God knows what He is doing, He isn’t in a hurry, and as long as you follow Him, you’re safe and in the place of His blessing.”

 

Freedom was an unknown concept to the Israelites.  Eleven or so generations had lived in Egypt as foreigners – and most of them had been slaves.  They’d be depending on Moses, who was depending on God, and it would be important for them not to squander their freedom by making poor choices.  My commentary said, “There are two freedoms – the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; and the true, where a man is free to do what he ought … It’s a mark of maturity when we learn that freedom is a tool to build with, not a toy to play with, and that freedom involves accepting responsibility.”

 

Father God, please help my sons as they grown into young men to temper their natural desire for freedom with the knowledge that You will be their leader for a lifetime.  Don’t let them be hoodwinked by false freedom, thinking Your rules are too confining.  Instead, let them see that as men, they are free to do what they ought, accepting responsibility for themselves and using that freedom to grow in You.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 11 & 12 -- The Tragic Results Of A Hardened Heart

All of the events I’ve read about in Exodus were coinciding with promises God had made to Abraham hundreds of years before.  God had told Abraham about the Egyptian captivity and how He would bring His people out of Egypt after 430 years of slavery.  Passover would become their new independence day.

 

God had hardened Pharaoh’s heart to get them all to this point.  Moses had been told to warn Pharaoh that whatever Pharaoh did to the Israelite firstborn would determine how God treated Egypt’s firstborn.  Pharaoh had ordered Israelite firstborn sons killed or drowned (remember Moses in the basket?).  And now Pharaoh faced payback.  Every firstborn male in Egypt died that night.  Every house lost someone.  And all of the firstborn livestock died as well.  God keeps records of birth order, even among the animals!

 

Amazingly, with the Egyptians grieving over their losses, God caused them to think well of the Israelites, and they freely handed them their gold as gifts.  It was actually payback for the years of wages Egypt hadn’t paid while keeping the Israelites enslaved, and it also was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham that his descendants would leave Egypt with great prosperity.

 

Father, You always keep Your promises, and You are always right on time.  Help me to be firm in my faith about this, knowing that You never leave or forsake, that You are in total control, and that nothing is ever beyond Your ability to make happen.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 10 -- God Continues To Harden A Heart

It has been really amazing focusing on the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.  Here God tells Moses, “I have made him and his officers stubborn so I could show them My powerful miracles.  I also did this so you could tell your children and your grandchildren how I was hard on the Egyptians.”

 

Had Pharaoh’s heart not been hardened, he would have missed out on all of the great displays of God’s power.  And imagine these beaten-down Israelites who’ve been enslaved all their lives hearing Moses tell them that God was doing this for their children and grandchildren!  That gave them hope for a future many had never thought would come.

 

Moses and Aaron had to tell Pharaoh that refusing to be sorry for what he had done wasn’t paying dividends – it was very costly for his entire country.  The king’s officers even boldly asked him, “Don’t you know that Egypt is ruined?”  Pharaoh’s heart was so hardened that he no longer cared about his country.  He was consumed with rage toward Moses and his God!  After enduring the locust plague, Pharaoh surprisingly admitted, “I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you.  Now forgive my sin this time.  Pray to the Lord your God, and ask Him to stop this punishment that kills.”  In the midst of the consequences of his sin, Pharaoh needed God’s help.  But as soon as the heat was off, he relented.  And God then turned up the heat another notch:  “The Lord caused the king to be stubborn again …”  God was doing this for the purposes He’d cited earlier.

 

God then brought 3 days of absolute darkness to Egypt, while the Israelites next door in Goshen had all the light they normally had.  Pharaoh once again wanted to compromise rather than comply.  But with God, 95% obedience equals 100% disobedience, and “the Lord made the king stubborn again, so he refused to let them go.”

 

Our own hardness of hearts and stubbornness always comes at a terrible cost to us and we choose it despite the fact that it makes no sense economically or spiritually.  We kick at the goads even though God is in total control.  That’s the terrible effect of sin in our lives.

 

Father, help us to recognize this very human stubbornness – this wanting our way despite the fact that we’d be better off having it Your way.  Please help us to see when something makes no sense and reveal that our pride is doing the talking, and help us to shuck it off and let You be God.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 9 -- More On The Hardened Heart

“The opposite of a hard heart is a heart that fears God, and that reverential fear motivates us to obey the Lord’s commands,” my commentary said.  “The hard-hearted person is ignorant of God and His truth.”

 

God next sent a pestilence that killed all of the Egyptian farm animals that had been left in the fields.  With no movement by Pharaoh, God then directed Moses and Aaron to throw soot into the air, causing painful festering ulcers and boils to appear on the Egyptians and their cattle that remained.  How it must have galled Pharaoh to see his people and animals affected but none of the Israelite people and animals affected!  “He continued resisting the Lord and His servants, and each act of disobedience only hardened his heart more.  ‘He who is often reproved and hardens his neck will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.’”

 

After getting no response from the boils plague, God prepared to send the hailstones plague.  “Pharaoh’s heart had become harder, so God’s disciplines had to become more severe.”

 

It is important that a hard-hearted person understands that God has dealt with him in mercy.  God directed Moses to tell Pharaoh that He could have simply wiped them off the face of the earth.  He also must understand that God also had dealt with him in grace.  “Apart from the sovereign will of God, Pharaoh would not have been the ruler of Egypt.”  Yet Pharaoh didn’t honor God’s mercy or His grace.  The Lord’s hailstorm wiped out the flax and barley crops.  Any person or animal caught outside was killed by the hail or by lightning that ran along the ground.

 

All of this destruction caused Pharaoh to send for Moses.  He then “acknowledged the justice of God and admitted that he had sinned.  However, his confession was insincere because it didn’t lead to obedience.”

 

Father God, there is a sorrow for the consequences we are having to endure as a result of our actions.  But that is not repentance.  There’s sorry for getting caught, but that is simply shame.  What You desire is a broken heart that willingly admits that disobedience is sin against You.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 7 & 8 Hardness of Heart

There was something totally crazy I noticed here.  When God had Moses do something, the Egyptian priests tried and at first succeeded in doing the same things, even though it was always to their detriment!

 

Who would want a snake running around loose inside their home?  God turned Aaron’s rod into a snake.  Instead of running, the Egyptian priests decided they could match it, and “created” a second snake!  Now there were two slithering through the palace!

 

When God turned all the water in Egypt to blood and the people had no water to drink, they dug fresh wells beside the Nile to get fresh water, and the Egyptian priests quickly turned it into blood, again to everyone’s detriment!!  It happened a third time with the frogs!  They were so concerned about being one-upped that nothing else mattered.  You’d think the king would have been screaming at them, saying, “Are you CRAZY???!!!”  But hardened hearts do very crazy things – irrational things, even to their own detriment.

 

My commentary described a hardened heart:  “It means to see clear evidence of the hand of God at work and still refuse to accept His Word and submit to His will.  It means to resist Him by showing ingratitude and disobedience and not having any fear of the Lord or of His judgments.  Hardhearted people say with Pharaoh, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?”  It also said, “If we walk contrary to Him, He will walk contrary to us.”

 

Pharaoh even tried to bargain with God – to negotiate the will of God.  “Once we start to negotiate the will of God and see how close we can get to the world, we have already disobeyed Him in our hearts,” it added.

 

Father, hardheartedness is such a terrible thing.  It causes us to fail to realize that every decision we make is against ourselves!  How stupid is that!  Please break hardheartedness and cause us to again seek after You.  When we turn around, bless us richly so we’ll know You are God.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 5 & 6 What To Do When Things Are Headed South

Moses and Aaron were sent by God to Pharaoh.  But they knew in advance that he wasn’t going to agree to their demands, because God had already told them Pharaoh’s heart would be hardened.  They should have expected no less!  Their first meeting, asking for a break for the people to attend a feast to God, might have taken one week to perform.  Pharaoh didn’t like it at all, and not only said no but also ordered that deliveries of brick-making supplies  cease, causing much additional work for the Israelites and beatings for the leaders, who had no way to successfully meet the new demands.  This caused them to oppose Moses.

 

Facing such opposition, Moses went back to God and spoke honestly about the situation:  “God’s chosen servants must expect opposition and misunderstanding … and leaders must know how to get alone with God, pour out their hearts, and seek His strength and wisdom.  Spiritual leaders must be bold before people, but broken before God and must claim God’s promises and do His will even when everything seems to be against the,” my commentary said.

 

Nothing God plans will fail.  “Whenever we feel that the Lord has abandoned us and doesn’t really care, we need to remember His assuring words, ‘Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you,’” it added.  “In times of despair, it’s best to ignore our feelings and simply do what God tells us to do, leaving the consequences with Him.”

 

Father, that’s where I am right now.  I hold fast to Your promises and trust You.  Your word has never failed me.  I know You are right in the middle of my situation and in control.  You’ve heard my cry.  I trust You.  Help me to cast my cares upon You, knowing You will take care of me.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 4:18-31 The Turning Point

Moses got his full wake-up call, “Go back to Egypt,” from God.  He also was given a blow-by-blow account of how the king would become more and more hardhearted and he knew ahead of time that it would take the death of the king’s first-born son to make him finally relent and let the Israelites leave.  Moses and his family left Midian to do God’s will.

 

God also had called out Moses’ brother Aaron and sent him to Mount Sinai to meet Moses.  He joined him on his assignment.  Upon arrival in Egypt, they met with all of the older Jewish leaders and related what God had already done.  Moses performed the miracles for his own people, the Israelites, to have them see God’s power, “and the Israelites believed.  When they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their troubles, they bowed and worshiped Him.”

 

Father God, show me the way.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 3:1-4:17 When I Am Afraid

Father, Your timing could not have been better with this.  I so needed to hear from You these very words of reassurance.  My commentary said, “The burning bush was a picture of what God had planned for Moses:  he was the weak bush, but God was the empowering fire and with God’s help, Moses could accomplish anything.”

 

About Moses’ thoughts of his own inadequacy:  “What Moses thought of himself, or what others thought of Moses, really wasn’t important.  God had spoken and that was all Moses needed for assurance that he was the right man for the job.  ‘I will be with you’ is all the assurance God’s servants need in order to succeed.”

 

About Moses’ concerns as a speaker:  “Moses completely missed the message of God’s name and God’s miraculous power.  ‘I AM’ is all that we need in every circumstance of life, and it’s foolish for us to argue, ‘I am not’ … Moses was making the mistake of looking at himself instead of looking to God.”

 

About Moses’ thoughts that someone else could do it better:  “Moses calls Him ‘Lord’ and yet refuses to obey His orders.  If God isn’t Lord of all, He isn’t Lord at all…  One of the most painful judgments God can send is to let His people have their own way.”

 

Wrapping it up, “God knows us better than we know ourselves, so we must trust Him and obey what He tells us to do.  When we tell God our weaknesses, we aren’t sharing anything He doesn’t already know.  The will of God will never lead you where the power of God can’t enable you, so walk by faith in His promises.”

 

Father God, I TRUST YOU.  I’m depending on You to get us through this part of life.  Help me to hear and obey.  Show me how You’re combining everything You’ve taken me through for such a time as this.  You’ve seen our troubles.  You’ve heard my cries.  You are concerned.  Come down and be God of these circumstances and Lord of all.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 2 -- Feeling Like Moses This Morning

Today, I feel a lot like Moses must have felt just as he was having to leave Egypt – trying to do what I think is right but wondering why things are going wrong.

 

Moses had spent his first 40 years being groomed for Egyptian civil service.  His next 40 years he’d be guiding sheep in the wilderness, before God would use him as a leader. 

 

Thankfully, I read in my commentary:  “God’s delays aren’t evidence of unconcern, for He hears our groans, sees our plight, feels our sorrows, and remembers His covenant.  What He has promised, He will perform, for He never breaks His covenant with His people.  When the right time comes, God immediately goes to work.”

 

Father, I feel like I’m in Moses’ second 40 years right now.  I sure need Your guidance and I so need to hear from You.  Give me wisdom and discernment and let me know that You are listening.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 1 -- When The Heat Is Turned Up

“Then a new king began to rule Egypt, who did not know who Joseph was.”  With God’s help, Joseph had saved the Egyptian people from famine, but somewhere along the way, this vital part of their history had failed to be recorded or revisionists had conveniently removed the inconvenient truth that foreigners had saved Egypt from ruin.

 

Instead of seeing them as a blessing, Egyptians began to look upon their Jewish guests with suspicion, worrying that in a war they might side with the enemy or even leave the country, thus taking a powerful economic force with them.

 

“They made their lives bitter,” probably thinking this would take care of the problem by attrition.  Yet the Israelites seemed to thrive as the work got tougher!  Pharaoh resorted to ordering the Israelite midwives to kill all baby boys, until that failed as well, and then he enlisted his own people to spy out and drown newborn Hebrew boys.

 

My Bible’s sidebar says, “If we are faithful, we will persevere and overcome the challenges placed before us.  God will not abandon us in tough times, and we should not abandon Him.”

 

Father, Satan certainly appears to be targeting me and my family, as I knew he would when I was placed on the music minister search committee.  It seems to be ratcheting up every day.  Father, protect us from his attacks.  Help me not to give up.  Allow us to see Your blessings in the middle of all this.  Keep me focused on You and show my boys how You are in control and loving them as You care for us!

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Matthew 28 -- Hope For Us, Too

How scared and disillusioned they all must have been.  It surely seemed as if all their hopes had been dashed and all their plans had come to nothing!  There was only some wrapping-up to do before the humdrum side of life would come crashing back in.  But they’d forgotten that they weren’t dealing with just any man – Jesus was the Son of God …

 

… And when they saw Him, their disbelief and disenchantment turned into hope and praise.  Life wasn’t ever going to be the same again, for now they had proof that there was hope beyond the grave, and they had a story to tell!

 

Father God, the resurrection power of Your Son pulled me out of my spiritual grave and gave me new life right here, right now.  I don’t doubt anymore, and I want others to believe and know what You’ve shown me.  Empower me to do that and give me opportunities to tell the story, just as You did these men and women!

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Matthew 27 -- What A Shame

“All the leading priests and older leaders of the people decided that Jesus should die.”  Those thought to be closest to God were responsible for the death of His Son!  They’d paid Judas 30 pieces of silver to betray Him, but Judas was remorseful after finding that they planned to kill Jesus, so he threw the money back to the them and left.  In their unimaginable hypocrisy, they agreed that they couldn’t accept the money, because it was “blood money” that paid for a man’s death (but it had been Temple money and they were the ones who’d paid it!)

 

After a short trial, Pilate could find no reason to kill Jesus, but those same religious leaders insisted upon His death.  Pilate then chose the worst prisoner in custody as “the other choice” of whom to release for Passover – Barabbas or Jesus.  Any right-minded citizen would quickly have chosen Jesus, but the leaders stoked the crowd into calling for Barabbas’ release!

 

Pilate declared himself not guilty of Jesus’ death, and the religious leaders and all the Jewish people present answered, “We and ur children will be responsible for His death.”  And well they have been over the centuries.

 

The Son of God was stripped, beaten, mocked, ridiculed, and spat upon by the Roman soldiers.  He refused any attempts to deaden His senses as He took on our sins in death.  He went out fully aware of all that was happening.  Upon His death, three miracles occurred – the curtain in the Temple was torn from top to bottom (indicating that man now had access to God through Jesus’ death and that priests weren’t needed); an earthquake shook the land (when the Law had been given, an earthquake rattled Mount Sinai and now this earthquake signaled that the demands of the Law had been met, my commentary said); and some saints arose from the dead and appeared in Jerusalem.  All of this caused a Roman centurion to decide that truly Jesus was (and is) the Son of God.  It’s amazing how many Old Testament Scriptural prophecies were fulfilled on that day, pointing us right to Christ as the Savior of the world from before the world was made!

 

Father, how utterly blinded by power and closed-minded  those religious leaders were.  They wanted to protect You rather than do Your will, and in doing so they condemned themselves and their nation.  Please help me not to run afoul of Your will.  Show me what it is and help me to obey.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Matthew 26 -- A Study In Contrasts

Quite a few things to note today.  When Mary broke open the expensive bottle of perfume and poured it over Jesus’ head and fee, wiping them with her hair, Judas asked, “WHY the WASTE?”

 

My commentary, noting that a woman’s hair is her glory, said, “She surrendered her glory to the Lord and worshipped Him with the precious gift that she brought … Jesus did not criticize the disciples because they were concerned about the poor … He was cautioning them against missing THEIR opportunity to worship.  They would always have opportunities to help the poor.  But they would not always have the opportunity to worship at His feet and prepare Him for burial.”  The waste was with Judas – “He wasted his opportunities, his life, and his soul!”

 

Another thing – Jesus told His disciples that they would all fall away.  “When Peter disagreed with the Lord, this was the beginning of his sin of denying the Lord.  Peter was unwilling to apply the word all to himself.  Instead of reassuring Peter, the Lord gave him a personal warning:  He would deny Christ three times!  Peter thought he was better than the other men, and Jesus told him he would be even more cowardly than the others … Had Peter listened to the word and obeyed it, he would not have denied his Lord three times.”

 

Quite a contrast there – Mary not caring what others thought and not wounded by their words.  Judas in the room for the Passover feast, with Satan within him, and Peter letting pride cause him to fail miserably three times when he might have only failed once with all the others.

 

Father, I want to be like Mary.  I don’t want to miss opportunities to worship You and Your Son.  I don’t want to waste opportunities, nor let my pride keep me from following Your will.  Help me to be more like Your Son – despite the agony He must have faced with the thought of taking on my sins and those of everyone who would ever live, He stayed the course.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Matthew 25 -- We're Given What He Wants Us To Do

We’re familiar with Jesus’ parable about the three servants who were each given gold according to their ability to handle it.  “We have been assigned our ministries according to the abilities and gifts God has given us.  It is our privilege to serve the Lord and multiply HIS goods,” my commentary said.

 

The servants were labeled either faithful or unfaithful upon their master’s return.  The faithful ones put what they had to work, and it wasn’t the ultimate amount of their profit but the proportion of profit to their original amount that was important.  The unfaithful servant, fearing loss, did nothing and no return was received.  He only gave back what he’d been given.  No matter how much we’re given to work with, we are appointed as stewards by the Lord.  What we do with it is important.

 

We know that Jesus is coming again.  We’re told in this chapter to be ready and alert.  There is only so much time until the Master returns and He will ask us what we’ve done with what He’s given us.  He’ll be looking to see if we’ve been faithful, using what He’s given us to further His kingdom.  Help me not to miss my opportunities, Father!

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Matthew 24 -- Why Bother???? Here's Why....

It is so easy to get caught up in these end-time details, and I have to remind myself that I won’t be here when they occur.  Christ will have come for His church.  These details are for those left behind.

 

Yet there is a reason for us to read them – it gives increased urgency for us to speak to those we love who may not know Christ and to help them come to accept His sacrifice for them and for their sins.  We should not want anyone we love to have to endure those very scary times ahead.

 

Father, thanks for stoking up my fire and reminding me that we do not know when Your Son will return for us.  Those we love who do not know You are sure to be left behind to endure all of this, unless we help them come to know You and Your Son before He returns.  Keep my fire lit, Father.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Matthew 23 -- Not Anger But Woeful Sorrow

Hearing Jesus pronounce all of these “woes” against the Pharisees can make it easy to believe that He’d lost His temper with them and was really angry, but my commentary said, “His attitude was one of painful sorrow that the Pharisees were blinded to God’s truth and to their own sin.”  Their concepts of righteousness, ministry, and greatness were all messed up.  Somewhere along the line “they had seated themselves in Moses’ seat, but there is no record in the Scriptures that God assigned any authority to this group.”

 

In trying to make themselves great, they were in effect putting on a show of their alleged holiness, trying to show everyone that they knew all the rules and followed them to the nth degree.  Jesus’ most repeated condemnation of them was that they were blind fools.

 

Jesus told them that the really important teachings of the Law were justice, mercy, and being loyal, and these were the very things they were missing out on.

 

They focused on externals – what others could see about them.  Yet their hearts were so far from God that Jesus called them children of the devil – and they were supposedly the religious leaders of the time!

 

Father, let everything I teach point people to a relationship with You and never to ritual.  Convict me when my heart isn’t clean.  I want to draw people to You and Your Son.  Stop me if I’m every doing anything else.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Matthew 22 -- The Question HE Asked

It’s awfully easy to simply believe that the Pharisees and Sadducees were up to only one thing, giving Jesus a test and hoping He’d fail, but my commentary pointed out the importance of those questions:  “Jesus was going to die as the Lamb of God, and it was necessary for the lamb to be examined before the Passover.  If any blemish whatsoever was found on the lamb, it could not be sacrificed.  Jesus was examined publicly by His enemies, and they could find no fault in Him.”  I’d never thought about it that way.

 

After answering all of their questions satisfactorily, Jesus then asked them a more fundamental and personal question.  With His disciples, He’d asked them, “Who do you say that I am?”  But He needed to take an indirect approach with His enemies if He was to elicit a response.  It sounded like another theological question:  “Whose Son is the Messiah?”  The knew the answer:  “The Son of David.”  He then quoted from Psalm 110:1 – “The Lord [Jehovah] said to my Lord [“Adonai”], ‘Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool.”  He then asked them, “If Messiah is David’s Son, then how could Messiah also be David’s Lord?”

 

My commentary said, “There is only one answer to this question.  As God, Messiah is David’s Lord; as man, He is David’s Son.”  They’d been confused by all they’d read.  It sounded like there were two Messiahs – a suffering one and a victorious one.  This question silenced them.  They didn’t have the courage to face the truth and act on it.

 

Jesus was asking them the same question He asks us today.  “The religious leaders were so blinded by tradition, position, and selfish pride that they could not  and would not see the truth and receive it.  We dare not make the same mistake today.”

 

Wow, Father!  They examined Your Son and then He examined them.  They came up sadly wanting.  I’s so thankful that You so overwhelmed me with Your love, mercy, and grace that I gave up my foolish pride and surrendered to Your will.  Help me to help others to do the same!

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Matthew 21 -- The Sins Of Israel Pointed Out

The undercurrent running through this chapter is meant to reveal the sins of Israel, my commentary says.  The first one was spiritual blindness: 

 

“Their religious leaders had robbed them of the truth of their own Word and had substituted man-made traditions.  The leaders were not interested in truth; they were concerned only with protecting their own interests.”

 

The second sin of the nation was hypocrisy:

 

“The Temple was a den of thieves, and the nation (symbolized by the fig tree) was without fruit.  Inward corruption and outward fruitlessness were evidence of their hypocrisy.”

 

The third sin was disobedience to the Word:

 

Following along the narrative of the parable of the vineyard, the religious leaders were the tenants.  “They would not believe John’s message and they would not repent of their sins … The leaders felt that they had no need to repent … Again and again, the religious rulers rejected the clear evidence God gave them … The rejection of John was actually a rejection of the Father who sent him.”

 

They were in the process of rejecting the Son as well, and in the next chapter, they would put the nails in their own coffins by rejecting the Holy Spirit.

 

One thing I particularly noted in my commentary was this:  “It is a basic principle of Christian living that we cannot learn new truth if we disobey what God has already told us.”

 

Father, I don’t want to be guilty of spiritual blindness, hypocrisy, or disobedience to Your Word.  Please convict me, deep within my heart, of anything that resembles that.  I don’t want to have any disobedience that stops me from learning more from You.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Matthew 20 -- Shifting The Focus Off Ourselves

My commentary fleshed out some things about the parable of the vineyard workers that I might have instinctively known but never thought about before. 

 

“The parable is emphasizing a right attitude in service … the first laborers hired insisted on a contract.  There were two types of workers that day – the ones who wanted a contract … and those who agreed to take whatever the owner thought was right… This explains why the owner paid the workers in the order that he did.  He wanted those who were hired first to see how much he paid the workers who were hired later.  It was one way the owner could show those workers how really generous he was.”

 

Seeing the last-hired workers getting one coin, those first-hired workers began to do the math and determined that they would likely be (unexpectedly) getting twelve times that, based on hours worked!  Their hourly wage expectations quickly lowered with each successive worker group getting paid the same.

 

“They had agreed to work for one coin.  They received what they asked for.  Had they trusted the goodness of the owner, they would have received far more.  BUT THEY INSISTED ON A CONTRACT.  The lesson for Christ’s disciples is obvious.  We should not serve Him because we want to receive an expected reward, and we should not insist on knowing what we will get.  God is infinitely generous and gracious and will always give us better than we deserve.”

 

Father, You always amaze me with how generous You are.  Please continue to help me remember to trust You, knowing that You do give us far more than we will ever deserve!

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Matthew 19 -- The Meat In The Sandwich?

There are two huge discussions in this chapter – about divorce and riches.  But sandwiched in between them is something that this morning God seemed to tell me to think about, for it seems out of place.  Parents were bringing their kids to Jesus “so He could lay His hands on them and pray for them.”

 

The thought that struck me was this:  What if I’d been one of those parents and had brought my two boys to Him for just that purpose.  When Jesus laid His hands upon them, what special blessings might He have said over them?  Their CREATOR would have been connecting with them on a deeply personal level, and what He commanded, He had the power to fulfill!  And when He prayed for them, agreeing with His Father in heaven about, what impact might that have had on their lives?

 

Father, I know Your Son is there beside You, interceding for us with You.  I know that You hear my prayers.  Jesus, as You did in these verses, intercede for my sons with the Father.  Lift them up and ask the Father to touch them daily on a deep level to awaken in them a love for You that will grow to be even greater than the love I have for You.  Keep them away from temptation.  Guide them.  Love them deeply.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Matthew 18 -- Humility, Honesty, and Forgiveness

Jesus taught a lot about humility, honesty, and forgiveness in this chapter:

 

“True humility means knowing yourself, accepting yourself, and being yourself – your best self – to the glory of God … Humility begins with self-evaluation, and it continues with self-denial,” my commentary said.  “It’s a grace that, when you know you have it, you’ve lost it.”

 

Honesty comes not just with others but with ourselves as well.  David had prayed to be delivered from secret faults – “faults that are even hidden from my own eyes” is what that means, according to my commentary.  When conflict with another believer occurs, we need to be honest not only with them about it, but with ourselves, asking how we might have contributed to the problem.

 

Finally, Jesus discussed forgiveness.  Although we might not want to forgive others, it is for our ultimate good when we do.  “The world’s worst prison is the prison of the unforgiving heart.  If we refuse to forgive others, then we are only imprisoning ourselves and causing our own torment,” my commentary added.

 

It also said that many of us have received forgiveness, but we have not really experienced  forgiveness deep in our hearts.  That then makes us unable to share forgiveness with others who have wronged us.  Jesus told Peter to forget keeping count – to just practice forgiveness and forget the measuring rod.

 

The three traits tie together in this way:  “When our hearts are humble and repentant, we will gladly forgive our brothers.  But where there is pride and a desire for revenge, there can be no true repentance, and this means God cannot forgive … It’s not enough to receive God’s forgiveness or even the forgiveness of others.  We must experience that forgiveness in our hearts so that it humbles us and makes us gentle and forgiving toward others. 

 

I heard a song this morning that echoed all of this:  “You refuse forgiveness, like it’s something to be earned …”  It’s grace, and that is always unearned and unearnable.

 

Father, examine my humility and my honesty and show me where I fall short.  Help me to accept your loving forgiveness and the forgiveness of others, and lead me to always be forgiving.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Matthew 17 -- Three Ways Of Seeing The King

My commentary said we see Jesus in 3 ways in this chapter:

 

The King In His Glory

Jesus lifted the veil that hid His glory, enabling Peter, James, and John to know that there was so much more about Him than they’d ever dared hope or dream.  In the Transfiguration, God was fulfilling what Jesus had predicted in the last verse of the previous chapter – the Son of Man coming with His kingdom.

 

The King In His Power

The nine disciples who’d remained with the crowds had been unsuccessful in casting out the demon and the epilepsy from the boy.  “Our Lord’s first response was one of sorrow … embarrassed disciple, the arguing scribes, and the need father and son … Their unbelief and spiritual perversity were a burden to him.  What must our Lord feel as He looks at powerless believers today?  Yet without effort, He healed the boy.”

 

The Kind In His Humility

“A king too poverty-stricken to pay the annual temple tax of only a half-shekel!”  But this King had dominion over nature and control over everything, and He worked a true miracle by having Peter fish with a line, rather than a net, catching a fish which bit on a hook while already holding something in its mouth – a coin which someone else had lost!  And this King did not have to pay the temple tax, being the Son of the God who commanded establishment of the temple, but He did so to prevent any Jewish grumbling about it.

 

Father God, remind me that, as a Christian, I should be reflecting Your glory and not destroying it.  Help me to never doubt that Your Son has the power to do anything and everything.  And when I am tempted toward pride, remind me that Your Own son even agreed to pay a tax He didn’t owe, even though as a man He was to poor to pay it.  Let Him set the example for my life.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford