Leviticus 25
This is a challenging chapter to read in the middle of a study on social justice. There are parts to this chapter that can be difficult to accept if we aren’t willing to “trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths.” It is a fact of life in this world that people are treated differently. This chapter highlights some differences that would separate the nation of Israel from the rest of the world. In verse twenty-three God tells the Israelites that the land is his and they are just tenants. The reason God established a sabbath year and Year of Jubilee was to remind the Israelites that God provided them with all they had. They weren’t to take advantage of each other, because they weren’t owners of their property. Their property was God’s and they could use it if they obeyed his laws. Slavery was more accepted back then. God didn’t want the Israelites enslaving other Israelites. In verse forty-two God reminded them they were his servants that he brought out of slavery in Egypt. When Israelites became poor, they could hire themselves to another Israelite as a hired worker until the Year of Jubilee. Also, they could sell themselves to a foreigner as a slave, but only until the Year of Jubilee. God allowed the Israelites to own foreigners as slaves for life and to pass them down as an inheritance to their children. Foreigners weren’t part of the covenant that God made with Abraham and his descendants. There was a difference in how the Israelites were to treat each other versus how they would treat foreigners. This seems unfair and wrong looking at it now. However, God already gave the Israelites commands about how they should treat their foreigners fairly. Today there is a difference in how we are to treat children of God and how we treat people that aren’t. The same way God commanded the Israelites to treat foreigners fairly, Jesus has commanded children of God to treat others with love. We aren’t living in a culture that accepts slavery. We don’t read this scripture and say that we can do what God allowed the Israelites to do back then. That would be ignoring what Jesus taught and would put us on a path to destruction. Children of God should look back on this chapter and realize that even when God chose to grant favor to the Israelites, he still didn’t want them treating others wickedly. When God grants his children favor today, he doesn’t want them treating others wickedly. Children of God should be a blessing to others because they have been blessed by God. Only by being blessed by children of God and not cursed by them will some choose to become a child of God. Does the favor God has given the children of Israel bother you? Does the favor God has given his children bother you? Have you blessed someone this week or cursed them?
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Exodus 3
We live in a time where the suffering people go through daily is very public. We have TV stations that report bad news multiple times a day; morning, noon, afternoon, and night. We have newspapers that put the stories that “bleed” as the front-page story. We have social media that shows bad things happening as they happen. People are oppressed and depressed. The question is asked, “where is the justice?” The scripture today shows that God is the one we should turn to in times like these. The children of Israel were enslaved for four hundred years. They were oppressed and depressed. The Lord did three things in this scripture that should give us hope. The Lord saw their misery. The Lord heard their crying. The Lord was concerned about their suffering. The Lord that did those three things for the children of Israel has done that and will continue to do that for us. He sees our misery. He hears our crying. He is concerned about our suffering. God chose Moses and sent him to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt and slavery. God chose Jesus and sent him to lead mankind out of the places we are suffering and are enslaved. The Lord loves us, all mankind. The children of Israel and their deliverance from being enslaved is an example of how just God is. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is another example of how just God is. God will not leave us in places that oppress and depress us forever. God will deliver us. Are we placing our faith in people being just or in God being just? Luke 17:20-37
This section of scripture starts off with Jesus answering a question the Pharisees had about the kingdom of God. They thought there was a specific time the kingdom of God would start. They were thinking about it like other kingdoms that men start. Jesus clarified that the kingdom of God is among them. Children of God make up the kingdom of God. This is good news for those who have been failed by the governments of this world. The kingdom of God is available for them to join right now. In verse twenty-two, Jesus switched and started telling his disciples what things will look like before he returns. In verse twenty-four, Jesus said he will be like lightning that lights up the sky from one end to another. No one will be able to miss when Jesus returns. He will be visible in the sky for everyone on earth to see. Jesus explained that people will live their lives however they want until his return. In verses thirty-two and thirty-three he warned his disciples and us to remember Lot’s wife. She couldn’t stand losing her old life and was turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back at Sodom. We must look forward and be willing to leave our old lives behind. Jesus has better prepared for us. It is good to lose our life for Jesus, so that we can save our soul. The disciples asked where the things Jesus said in verses thirty-five and thirty-six would happen. Jesus answered them with a wise saying about vultures and dead bodies. In Matthew 13:36-43, we read that Jesus will send angels to separate the children of God from the children of the devil. Vultures only go to dead bodies. That’s their responsibility. The angels Jesus sends out when he returns will gather those that cause sin and do evil and throw them into the lake of fire. That’s their responsibility. Wherever there are people in the world that do evil, they will be gathered by the angels and thrown into the lake of fire. How focused are we on the kingdom of heaven? How are we preparing for when Jesus returns? Matthew 12:22-32
In times like these it’s important to go back and read the things Jesus did and said. In the scripture for this lesson, Jesus healed a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute. The Pharisees, the religious leaders, claimed that Jesus was driving out demons through power from the prince of demons. Jesus told them in verse twenty-five that, “every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined.” The Pharisees refused to acknowledge that Jesus was doing the will of God and that God had granted him the authority to do what he was doing. Jesus plainly told them that they were wrong about him, because Satan isn’t going to drive out demons that are working in his kingdom. Jesus tells them in verse thirty, “he who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.” There are lots of people claiming to follow Jesus. The proof of where a person’s faith is can be seen in how they live. Are they doing and saying things like Jesus? Are they helping people or hurting people? Are they working for the kingdom of God or the kingdom Satan has? Are they speaking against the Holy Spirit or letting the Holy Spirit guide them? Read what Jesus did and said. People need children of God to act like that today. People no longer need pretty words. Satan and his followers are busier now than they used to be. His time is getting shorter. Satan wants to prevent people from seeing the goodness of Jesus and proclaiming him as their Lord and savior. Children of God need to live in such a way that people choose to join the family of God and inherit the kingdom of God. Are we allowing the Holy Spirit to direct our lives? How are we gathering people to Jesus or are we scattering them away? |
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