Jehoiakim replaced his father Josiah and did evil in the
sight of the Lord. He became a vassal of
Nebuchadnezzar for three years and then, probably emboldened by a successful
uprising by the Egyptians against the Babylonians, decided to ally with Egypt
in rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, a failed enterprise, just as the prophet
Jeremiah warned him it would be. Our
chronicler notes that this was as the prophets had foretold three generations
before in the reign of Manasseh, that Jerusalem would fall. Jehoiakim was replaced by his son,
Jehoiachin, who was the last king of the nation as he turned over everything to
Nebuchadnezzar and went, with almost all the rest of the nation, into exile in
Babylon. Jehoiachin was also called
either Jeconiah and Coniah, and Jeremiah prophesied that none of his line from
David would ever be king. Strangely,
however, Matthew traces Jesus’ lineage through this man, via Joseph’s
line. Joseph, however, was not the
“father” of Jesus via DNA, the Lord Himself was.
Jesus asks the blind men who have been following and crying
out to Him for mercy, “Do you believe I can do this?” Didn’t their actions prior to entering the
house convince Jesus they believed? His
words when He touched their eyes were, “According to your faith be it done to
you.” What were they thinking as He
touched them and said these words? Did
they indeed believe? Have you ever been
in that moment when you knew that something might happen, you had faith it
would and then, in that instant, you wondered if you really did? They saw, their faith was enough. Afterwards, a mute, demon-possessed man was
brought to Jesus and healed. Now, after
all the acclaim He has received, we see the dissenters with the idea that His power
is demonic. How can this be?
Do you think Paul has an interest in teaching the Corinthian
church about unity v division? Remember the
epistle began with him lecturing about divisions based in who their favorite
teacher was and the question, “Is Christ divided?” Later he had to lecture them about divisions
when they gather for worship. In yesterday’s
lesson and today’s reading he is drilling down on the word “one.” Yesterday he talked about one Spirit being
responsible for the gifts and today he continues to hammer home the theme of
unity. The body is one because there is
one spirit which animates the body even though it has many members. The members are interconnected and
interdependent. Jesus is the head of the
body and the spirit is essentially the central nervous system which coordinates
the movement of the body and when one member suffers all are aware and have to
adjust to the suffering. Unity in the
Spirit causes the body to function properly in the world in which it resides,
recognizing that painful things happen in this world of sin. The healthy function of the body is
maintained by the one Spirit who governs the body. Worship, the proclamation and celebration of
truth by the entire body, restores right function. When we worship only in truth we are out of
alignment and when we worship only in spirit we are as well. We need both spirit and truth to be whole and
healthy.
No comments:
Post a Comment