Psalm 75, 76; Ezra 9:1-15; Rev. 17:1-14; Matt. 14:22-36
How can they ever be the people of God if they allow themselves to continually be pulled in many religious directions by their intermarriages? It was a continual problem for Israel, it was the ruin of Solomon and they took their cues from their leaders. Even here Ezra is told, “in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost." It is not only the people but also the priests and the Levites who have sinned in this way. As I have said before, leaders must lead in all ways, not just some. What the common people saw in Israel’s leaders they assumed to be acceptable. We see the same today in the church and the world. Ezra’s response is mourning over the sin of the nation and finally prayer asking the Lord to have mercy on the nation. All who heard this prayer had to be aware that this was indeed grievous sin and threatened the continuation of the nation experiencing God’s blessing which was just being renewed. We have to get things right at the outset.
"Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid." I am honestly not sure that I would have been completely comforted by that statement. He is still, after all, walking on water and processing that might take a few minutes. Peter, however, immediately says if you call me I will come to you and then does the unimaginable, he gets out of the boat in the midst of a raging storm and walks on the water a little bit himself. What was it that upset his confidence? “But when he saw the wind, he was afraid…” He took his eyes off Jesus and saw the wind. The source of his confidence and ability was in Jesus but when he turned his eyes away he lost everything. That is true in our lives. We can be involved in extraordinary things and then suddenly we realize that they aren’t extraordinary, they are actually impossible and then we lose our balance and begin to sink. If He calls us to something we must always keep our eyes on Him and not the difficulties if we are to find success. Fear loses its hold when we focus on Jesus.
“This calls for a mind with wisdom…” The beast was and is not and is to come. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? The beast will be resurrected from the dead and that is when wisdom comes into play. We need to discern between God’s work and satan’s counterfeit. We must always test the spirits to see where they give glory and honor. Seems a simple test but then again the wheat and tares comes into play. It can look good for a time but then there is no fruit. In order to navigate these difficult issues we need to truly be a people of prayer, closely knit, abiding deeply in Jesus. We must never give honor and glory to anything or anyone but Jesus, we cannot love, serve and worship anything or anyone else if we are to persevere to the end.
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