Do you ever read something in the Bible and suddenly realize
why people have a hard time believing it?
The men who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are burned just by
putting them into the furnace. Can you
imagine the size of this thing? These men
are bound, fully clothed, even with hats, and fall into the furnace. A short time later the king can see into the
furnace and sees them walking in the midst of the fire with a fourth man whom
the king says looks like one of the sons of the gods, whatever that means. He calls them out and not only are they
unharmed, they don’t even have the smell of smoke on them. Do you see why that makes belief in the Bible
difficult for some? Belief in the truth
of this story is second nature to me but I do see why some just cannot believe such
stories. The Holy Spirit is necessary,
not optional. Is there anything impossible
for God? It all begins with that
question. If He is the God we say He is
then we have to say even this is possible.
The first temptation is based on Jesus’ hunger. Will He take
matters into His own hands and satisfy it according to satans proposition. There is a familiar idea at work here from
Genesis 3 (surprise!). In both
instances, the temptation is based in simply being reasonable. There, the food was a delight to the eyes,
good to eat and desirable to make one wise, so from a lower animal’s
perspective, why not do it? Desire isn’t
bad, so why would the fulfillment of the desire be bad? We are expected to live at a higher level
than simply satisfaction of desire, hence, Jesus’ fast. Desires are meant, in our case, to be
mastered, not rulers. Jesus says no, I’m
not risking it all for a little food. Second,
the temptation to power, all the kingdoms of the earth are yours if you’ll just
worship me. Jesus will rule over all but
His worship is reserved for the Father alone and the road to that power is
through Gethsemane and then the power is forever. Finally, the temptation to doubt. Doubt says, “Prove it!” Faith says, “I believe without proof, what has
come before is proof enough and this life ain’t all anyway.” He will submit Himself to an even greater
test at the cross but of that, satan knows nothing.
Cain was told, “if you do not do well, sin is crouching at
the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” Loving one another is a wonderful thing but
there are many obstacles to loving even our brothers and sisters in
Christ. Cain, for instance, was jealous
that God praised Abel and didn’t regard his sacrifice. His jealousy caused him to hate his brother
and, remember, Jesus says that hatred of others is tantamount to murder. Killing isn’t the only form of murder. We can make it so that the other essentially
doesn’t exist to us. We are called to
the high standard of not only loving our brothers and sisters but to loving our
enemies. It takes faith to love your
enemies, faith that justice will be done, even if it waits for eternity. Love requires us to actively seek to meet the
needs of others, to think and act for their sake. Unfortunately, even my prayer life is more
about me than others. Fortunately, today
is a new day. Thank you Lord for another
chance to get it right.
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