So the Lord tests
Jeremiah's ability to see prophetically and the first thing is an almond branch
which the Lord says should tell him that He is watching over the word to
perform it. It is a play on words since
the word for almond sounds like the word for watch. A good start that surely put a smile on
Jeremiah's face. Next however, the Lord
shows him a boiling pot facing away from north and the interpretation is that
the nations from the north are coming down and laying siege to Jerusalem. Are you serious? The Lord is bringing disaster and judgment against
the nation for their sins and apostasy and Jeremiah is to get up, get dressed and
go share this word. The smile surely
disappeared quickly. Who could want to
give such a word or expect that giving it would go well? Jeremiah's career is certainly off to a rough
beginning.
The disciples are
baffled by several things. Who is this
woman Jesus is talking to and why is He talking with her? What in the world is He talking about when He
says that His food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work? Remember that almond branch from the Jeremiah
passage, the Lord was watching over His word to perform or accomplish it, there
is a clear parallel here. The important
thing is obedience to the word to perform it.
Who could have guessed that it meant that the Samaritans would be the first
to receive Jesus as Messiah? They are
the lost sheep of Israel, they were originally a part of the nation who were
severed from the vine centuries before and Jesus is restoring them to their
brothers and sisters in Himself. No one
actually wanted that to happen, there was deep antipathy between the peoples,
but they were willing to believe. In Acts
they are also the first people outside Jerusalem to whom anyone intentionally
goes, Philip the deacon goes after the persecution of Stephen and reaps a
harvest among them.
How amazing that
Paul, only a few short years after the life, death and resurrection of Jesus
now writes to the main city of the world at the time, Rome, to believers
there! The word and the faith were
spreading rapidly from the far reaches of the empire to the very center. Paul says something he never could have
imagined only a few years before, "I am under obligation both to Greeks
and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish." He had never been under any sort of
obligation to anyone besides his fellow countrymen prior to Jesus coming into
his life and calling him to be an apostle.
He is eager, however, to reap a harvest among the Gentiles, he wants to
bring as many people into the covenant as possible, to see God work powerfully to
draw others to Himself. He, the man who
was once a chief persecutor of the church now becomes the man whose one desire
is to expand it believing that the Lord
is still watching over the word to perform it.
You have been given the Good News to share as well, ask today that God
give you both the passion to do so and the opportunities.
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