22 May 2010
Psalm 107:33-43, 108: Ezek. 36:22-27; Eph. 6:10-24; Matt. 9:18-26

In Egypt the Lord acted on behalf of His people and that He might get glory in the eyes of the Egyptians, this time He announces through Ezekiel that He will act in defense of His Name. Through their sin they have defamed His Name and now the time will come when He will act sovereignly to restore the honor of that Name in the eyes not only of Israel but of the entire world. Again, He says that this time it will not simply be done to them externally, but the work will be an internal work, giving a new heart to replace the heart of stone. The work of the Holy Spirit is an amazing work of God in the life of a believer and it is an ongoing work that requires our cooperation to work with Him in preparing our hearts to receive more and more of Him. Generally, we have about as much as we want, we are rarely hungering and thirsting for more. If you haven’t asked for more of Him lately, why not today?

The power of Jesus to heal is shown to all in the region. Surely this woman’s problem was well known as it would have required her to keep away from the synagogue and temple so long as the bleeding continued. Her need for community would have been great and as one with chronic pain, her desire for this to end would have been equally great. She risked everything on this Jesus, believing that touching his cloak would do the trick. Her impulsive act would have rendered Jesus unclean in the process and anyone else with whom He then came into contact. Again, the dilemma arises when she is made clean by that contact. Cleanliness only went one way, contact between clean and unclean only defiled that which was clean. Here, she was made clean, which means…He must be holy. Having done this, Jesus raises the synagogue ruler’s child to life. Just a day in the life of Jesus.

Paul speaks of the armor of God that is necessary for a Christian to live in the knowledge that we have an enemy. The most important thing we need is the awareness of an enemy, most of us give little thought to that reality. Then, we need to know how to defend ourselves against that enemy and here Paul tells us the weapons we possess, most of which are defensive to protect ourselves from attack. The picture he presents is a soldier armed for battle and prepared for anything that might come against us. All these require us to arm ourselves with the Spirit of God so that we might know how to use them well in our service to Him.

Your steadfast love is great above the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!
That your beloved ones may be delivered,
give salvation by your right hand and answer me!