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The intent of Pilgrim Processing is to provide commentary on the Daily Lectionary from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. The format for the comment is Old Testament Lesson first, Gospel, and Epistle with a portion of one of the Psalms for the day as a prayer at the end.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

26 June 2012

Psalm 97, 99; Num. 16:20-35; Rom. 4:1-12; Matt. 19:23-30

Surely now everyone will understand that Moses is God’s chosen leader of the people and the rest will stand down.  It is amazing to me that there were continual challenges to Moses after all the Lord had done through Him and all the signs that had been given.  Where were Korah, Dathan and Abiram when the Lord called Moses on the mountain and gave him the tables of the Law?  The presumption of these men is remarkable and yet it is a constant problem in the church.  We see it in our movement today and in every move of the Spirit that I know of we see this same pattern.  Leadership of God’s people requires humility, it is not a path to greatness.  The Lord is the true leader and chooses whom He will to be His representative as leader. 

Had the disciples left everything to follow Jesus in the hopes of receiving worldly treasure and thrones?  It would actually seem that this was the case, their motives were not to seek the heavenly reward.  They understood that if a man had much, a Jewish man, it was due to the blessing of God in his life and they are scandalized when Jesus says it is actually nigh on to impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom.  If the rich, who have God’s blessing, cannot enter, how can anyone then get in?  That same mentality prevails in the church today in many cases, wealth is taken to be a sign of God’s blessing.  This passage would certainly seem to indicate that there is no definite correlation between the two.  If we have followed Jesus in order to escape suffering in this world we have followed the wrong man. 

What was the blessing Abraham received?  It was not the Land nor was it the fulfillment of many children, it was a cave in the Land in which Sarah was buried and one child yet Abraham believed God would do as He promised, even before he left to go to the land and even before Isaac was born.  These all were received by faith, not by sight.  Abraham’s faith was tested over those long years of waiting for the birth of a son and that faith wavered in first offering Eleazar as heir and then in the plot to bring forth a son with Hagar, but the Lord had already justified Abraham that day when he first believed.  Once justified, Abraham didn’t lose that justification when faith wavered, it was sealed in circumcision.  The blessing of Abraham was the certain knowledge he possessed that God would do according to His promise whether Abraham saw it in his eyes or not.  Our blessings are stored up in heaven, we know they will be ours because of our faith in Jesus’ sacrifice and in His resurrection.

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