Elijah’s initial reaction to Jezebel, as we saw yesterday
was to say, I quit, kill me now, I am no better than my fathers. Having reached the safety of the cave, he has
another thought, "I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts.
For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars,
and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they
seek my life, to take it away." His
utter humility has been replace with quite a prideful idea about himself. He has been powerfully used by God and yet
this is not accurate. He feels alone yet
the Lord says there are thousands who have not become apostate. His charge is now to anoint the next prophet
in Israel and also to receive the promise that the Lord will recompense those
who have forsaken Him.
Jesus again gives a sign, the fifth, to the disciples alone. He retreated from the people because they
wanted to make Him king and that wasn’t the plan. Did Jesus have to join them in the boat or
could He simply have walked around the lake and met them on the other
side? This demonstration of His power
and mastery over nature was certainly an extraordinary thing but it is also
interesting that they had been struggling to make progress across the lake and
then immediately as He joined them they arrived safely. When Jesus joins with us everything goes
smoother. Prayer for us is the answer to
this problem, we need never work alone.
Jesus becomes quite confrontational with the people who follow Him
across the lake, but remember He knows what is in our hearts, and they will
prove Him right in proposing that His next sign be the same as the last one
they saw, feeding them again. If they
didn’t understand that sign the first time, why would He do it again?
Paul says there are two important things in the life of a
Christian, “to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new
self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and
holiness.” We are called to live by the
Spirit of God, not grieving Him by living according to the flesh, walking
worthy by cooperating actively with the Spirit within us. If we remember that He is always with us and
willing to guide us we would do well in this regard. In addition to putting away sinful desires
and habits, we are called also to love one another and Paul knows that will
always include putting away bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and
slander and malice. Those things characterize
those who live by the flesh, we are to be kind to one another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Setting the grace we have received, are
receiving and will receive before us, knowing our great need of mercy and
forgiveness we are to bear with others who sin against us and to forgive them
as well.
Christ, by highest
Heav’n adored;
Christ the everlasting Lord;
Late in time, behold Him come,
Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail th’incarnate Deity,
Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.
Christ the everlasting Lord;
Late in time, behold Him come,
Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail th’incarnate Deity,
Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.
Hark! the herald
angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”
“Glory to the newborn King!”
No comments:
Post a Comment