The Lord charges the people of Israel with worship that is
directed to other gods. Most of the
worship of the surrounding nations was carried out on the high places in the
belief that these were closer to the heavens and altars were erected there for
sacrifices. They were given the glory of
the Land, it is a "luxuriant vine that yields its fruit", and it was
a gracious gift of God to them in accordance with the promise He made to
Abraham and his progeny and yet as they prospered their hearts went astray
seeking more. The time has come to seek
the Lord and He is bringing other nations to war against Israel. They have trusted in their military alliances
and the protection of other nations but they will soon see that these
entanglements, forbidden by the covenant, will not keep them from the
destruction He has planned.
Luke gives us a somewhat different set of beatitudes than
Matthew. He follows the list of
blessings with a parallel list of woes.
Those who are poor, hungry, weeping (mourning) and reviled are blessed
and their opposite numbers, those who are rich, satisfied, laughing and
well-regarded by men, are those who will be under judgment and experience woe
for their portion is in the world. How
then are we to live? If we are pursuing
righteousness then we will indeed experience difficulty in this broken and
sinful world. The world is a
heart-breaking place to live as we look around and see the poverty, pain,
disease, and death that sin has brought and we should be saddened and seeking
after the kingdom of God. We were not
meant to be satisfied with this world.
Remember that there was great confusion over what Paul had
done or not done. This lesson begins
with the Roman tribune being utterly confused about everything. He thought Paul was an Egyptian who had
stirred up a revolt and led 4000 men of the Assasins or terrorists into the
wilderness. This event dated four or
five years previously and the soldier assumed that Paul must have been someone
who had committed a serious crime.
Little could he have guessed that Paul had actually done nothing at all
to deserve such treatment as he had already received. Paul is allowed to make his defense before
the people and in doing so gives his personal testimony. Again, their religion has gotten in the way
of truth.
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