Christ shared our humanity, and yet maintained his divinity.
In Isaiah 9:6, we are told, “For a child has been born to us, a son has been given to us”. And in the Gospels we are given an account of his birth. “A child has been born to us”, signified the start of Jesus’s humanity, “a son has been given to us” signified his divinity.
The word “answer” was used five times in these three verses. The purpose of the original design of creation was for fellowship between God and man. That purpose was thwarted in the fall. The consequences of that rebellion have affected all creation. But here it speaks of a change in circumstances – a time when God will graciously answer the prayers of the people.
This week’s readings from the Bible reading plans reopened my eyes about disobedience and the consequence of sin. The repercussions of sin go beyond the individual level, reaching entire communities, nations and, I’m afraid to say, even for the generations to come.
As I unpacked each day’s readings, the big idea for me emerges—which is for us to fear God and hate sin. Sin changes and affects not only our individual well-being, communities and nations but also our future generations as well but most of all, our relationship and fellowship with God.
In Ezekiel 22, God was angry with the Jews for their wickedness. From the princes to the priest to the officials to the prophets and to all the people of the land; all have sinned. They have “all become dross” (v. 19). They have incurred the wrath of God and thus His judgement on the nation will come.
Jesus listed a lot of things that were going to happen, and we can witness that some have already happened in our present time. There were things for them to observe and understand as the time of His return draws closer.
But it is not the exact time that Jesus wanted the disciples to understand. Rather, it was their response of being ready when He comes.
There were two areas that Jesus said His disciples were to be watchful of: things that would happen around them, and things that would happen within them.
In this passage, Jesus warns the crowds and His disciples against religious hypocrisy.
The teachers of the law and the Pharisees were primarily religious leaders for everyday life. Jesus told the crowds and His disciples to carefully obey their teaching about the Scripture itself.
But He also told them not to do what they do, because those same men did not practice what they preached (v.3), they are pretending, the same meaning of the Greek term, hipokrites. (Matthew 23:13).
Compassion compelled Jesus to do something about the situation. In the previous chapter, we have the account of Jesus feeding the five thousand at Bethsaida by the Sea of Galilee, where the crowd were mostly Jews.
Here, however, the crowd comprised Jews and Gentiles (Mark 7: 31), and gives the location of the event as having occurred in “the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.” Jesus was now in Gentile territory and yet He, a Jew, brought healing and deliverance to them all without regard of creed and colour.
From the parable of the hidden treasure and the parable of the pearl of great value, Jesus teaches that the kingdom of heaven is of such great value, worth far more than all that the men had, that when they found it, they would be willing to sell everything for it, and the man in the first instance even did so with joy.
To be blessed is more than happiness, it means fundamentally, to be approved, to find approval. If this is God’s universe, can there be a higher ‘blessing’ than to be approved by God?
