Jonah knows the Lord will answer him. He is an interesting character, always
depending in faith on the Lord's goodness, grace and mercy for himself but
never wanting that to be shared with the people he hates. We would never be guilty of doing that would
we? We always pray for our enemies, hope
the best for them and love them don't we?
Jonah has faith that since he hasn’t died yet in the belly of this fish
that the Lord intends to deliver him and prays ahead of time thanking the Lord
for that deliverance. He speaks
prophetically in the sense that his prayer is based on an act he has yet to see
or experience. What he doesn't do it
take responsibility for why he is there in the first place, all he says is that
God has put him here but in the end he speaks the great truth, "Salvation
belongs to the Lord!"
Martha isn't a Sadducee, she believes in the resurrection of
the dead. She believes her brother will
be resurrected and she believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living
God who is coming into the world. Jesus,
however, asks her a different question than her response would indicate. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who
lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” Martha couldn't possibly understand that
first statement and she couldn’t possibly understand "shall never
die." She knew that God had said
that all would surely die. She had believed
Jesus could have healed her brother had He come when they sent word to
Him. She no longer believes Jesus can do
anything, her brother is dead, really dead, dead and done, and she doesn't want
to open the tomb but Jesus insists. Now she
knew that He was resurrection and life. What
an incredible thing!
Do we think as Paul did?
Do we consider that we have an enemy who schemes against us? Do we immediately know that we are not
wrestling with flesh and blood but cosmic powers? I spend far too much time getting the enemy
wrong. I spend my time wrestling with
flesh and blood all night as Jacob did at the Jabbok in Genesis 32 only to
realize or not that it was a spiritual battle.
Who is our true enemy, the enemy that all mankind has in common? The devil.
He uses human agency to fight with, sometimes another person and
sometimes the battle is actually within us, we cooperate with him by fighting
in our head and heart. The battle is
spiritual and the weapons and armor are spiritual as well. If we gird ourselves for the right battle we
will be prepared for the right enemy.
Salvation belongs to the Lord!
No comments:
Post a Comment