Reading Matthew with Missional Eyes

God had commanded the Israelites to make numerous offerings. There were  burnt  offerings, grain offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings and trespass offerings. There were also daily offerings at the temple, and in Numbers 28 God told the Israelites to make additional offerings on the Sabbath: “On the Sabbath day, make an offering of two lambs a year old without defect, together with its drink offering and a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil. This is the burnt offering for every Sabbath, in addition to the regular burnt offering and its drink offering.” 

The fact that there were offerings on the Sabbath (and even extra offerings on that day), meant that the priests at the temple had to work on the one day the rest of society had off. This was in spite of God’s clear mandate to observe the Sabbath, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.” 

It was this very point Jesus was making when He rebuked the Pharisees for criticizing His disciples for picking some grain on the Sabbath, “…haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent?”

We don’t usually think about such things in our culture anymore. Our secular governments have all but erased the cultural habit of Sabbath. In our day, Jesus’ rebuke of the Pharisees has been taken as a cart blanche mandate for the erasure of the Sabbath, but both worldviews (ours today and the Pharisees back then) are mistaken. Sabbath is not a principle we can ignore, nor is it a taxing legalistic requirement by which we can judge others. 

After all, it is obvious that the fact the priests technically violated the Sabbath wasn’t a problem for either the priests or for God, or He wouldn’t have commanded it to start with. The implication is likewise obvious. Sabbath is not supposed to be an inflexible religious observance so much as a regular practice that mandates a clear focus on our relationship with God. 

One always has to read what God’s Word says as firstly about God, and therefore how we can emulate Him and His ways. God rested on the 7th day of creation. If God rests, His creation must rest also. If God took time to focus on His relationship (as Father, Son and Spirit), we must do so also. But that God took the 7th day of the week does not mean that Sunday needs to be Sabbath. Our particular Sabbath could be any day of the week, because God’s institution of Sabbath as the seventh day predates the concepts of Sunday or Monday or Friday. Therefore Sabbath is not about following a legal requirement for a particular day of the week. It is about making time with God a priority on a weekly and regular basis.

If you don’t take a Sabbath, something is wrong. You’re doing too much, you’re being too much in charge. You’ve got to quit, one day a week, and just watch what God is doing when you’re not doing anything.

Eugene Peterson

APPLICATION: Intentionality

In these days, how do you keep a weekly focus on God?

Jesus, having been confronted by the Pharisees about His disciples’  behavior in gathering  and eating grain on the Sabbath, said, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.”

The Pharisees would have immediately thought about that episode in 1Samuel 21. David, having been warned by Jonathan that King Saul was after him with murderous intention, took his men and left town. Their lives in danger and a journey ahead of them, David went to Ahimelech the priest and demanded bread. Ahimelech had only the consecrated bread, of which God had said, “This bread is to be set out before the Lord regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant. It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place, because it is a most holy part of their regular share of the offerings made to the Lord by fire.”  In spite of God’s clear instructions to the priests, the book of Samuel records, “So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the Lord and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away.”  

The principle at work is one of priority. David’s overwhelming immediate and urgent need clearly mandated extraordinary behavior. That’s exactly the same situation that Jesus had found Himself in with his disciples. Consequently, He effectively did just as Ahimelech the priest had done.

Jesus notes that the Pharisees error is thinking that God’s ceremonial law has the same priority as God’s moral law. Ceremonial law is there to light the way to normative righteous living. When unusual circumstances arise, the normal way of living must be sacrificed for the greater good. You don’t claim your bread is special and only for you when the King is standing in front of you and asking on account of his hunger. To do so would be to attempt to honor God by dishonoring the very one God sent to save you.

The Pharisees prided themselves on living in strict obedience to the written code. In order to do so they studied the written Word of God on a regular basis – so we know they would’ve read of David’s appropriation of the consecrated bread repeatedly – and each time with margin and motive to study it thoroughly. Subsequently, they had no excuse to not have understood how David avoided the judgment of God on account of his actions, except to have grasped the very concept Jesus now throws back at them. 

To this point He prefaces His example with, “Haven’t you read…?” Jesus knows that the value of reading God’s Word is not just that we know the text and so can live it out legalisticly. It is that we know God. That we grasp His character, His ways and His worldview. It is that we know the text, but also look beyond the text to ask ourselves WHY God put it in His Word to start with. 

And this much we know: Everything we read in Scripture is there to reveal something of God to us. Not just to educate us about Him, but to inspire, motivate and encourage us to enjoin Him in His mission of reconciliation and restoration. 

Legalistic obedience says you had better keep every rule or you’re finished. Gracious obedience says if God sees in your heart a spirit of grace; if He sees a sincere and loving and humble willingness to obey; if He sees a positive response to His Word, even though there are times when we fail, then He counts us as obedient because that’s the spirit in our hearts. Even though our gracious obedience may be filled with defects, it’s the proper attitude that God is after.

John MacArthur

APPLICATION: Intentionality

God concerns Himself primarily with our maturing in Him. So too must we have more grace for those around us. 

Having just promised rest to whosoever will in saying, “Come to me, all you   who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,” Jesus now leads His hungry band of disciples through a grainfield so they can work on the Sabbath rest day. “At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.” ”  

The Gospel writer knows that the apparent contradiction between word and action is best seen in the light of why He was teaching about rest to start with, so the scene is set with the words, “At that time”, which ties the grain-field incident to Christ’s teaching at verse 25, where Jesus was praising His Father for revealing truth – not to the wise and learned, but to the childlike in faith. 

Recall that Jesus had just been teaching that the wearisome focus on ceremonial law the people were used to was not going to reveal the Father to them. The Pharisees and teachers of the law were wrong. That approach couldn’t lead people to salvation (witness the woes He pronounced on the cities He did much of His work in) and it couldn’t give satiate the soul. Only Jesus Himself could reveal the Father and only the ‘Jesus way’ could provide true rest. So while Jesus’s trip through the grainfields provided food for His disciples (who were legitimately hungry), the real purpose was an object lesson to those who were watching and listening. 

Jesus was tying the truth of His teaching to His observable behavior: A stringent and harsh observance of God’s ceremonial law is not truth, and such a view clouds the understanding of who God even is. 

The Pharisees don’t get the point. They only perceive a violation of God’s law. The injustice of that violation fills them with so much anger that they cannot simply watch from the sidelines. So they confront Jesus and point out His disciples’ ignorance, no doubt expecting a humble recognition of error. 

But Jesus’ response to them is not that. It is however, exactly what you’d expect from someone who is growing weary of correcting ignorance dressed up as wisdom: “He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent?” 

Jesus’ opening comment, “Haven’t you read…” tells the greater story. The Pharisees’ whole job was to read the Scripture and explain what they found – yet in all their reading of the minutiae of ceremonial law they had failed in discerning the greater principle of God’s character, which was the whole point of the law to start with. 

The point could hardly be clearer.

If the servants of the temple could break the Sabbath for good reason, then so could the Almighty, who was worshiped in the temple and who stood before them as the Son of Man.

Stuart K. Weber

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Everything we read in Scripture is there to reveal something of God to us. Not just to educate us about Him, but to inspire, motivate and encourage us to enjoin Him in His mission of reconciliation and restoration. 

The Jews had God’s Law, wherein God had said, “Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.” The teachers of the Law therefore knew that when God gave directions about the Sabbath, it was meant to take precedence over His previous direction about working. For though God had decreed that work was good and necessary even before the fall in Genesis 2:15, He Himself practiced Sabbath during the creation week in Genesis 2:1-3, which was prior to any work He assigned to Adam. 

Jewish leadership knew that even before Moses wrote the Pentateuch. Consequently, even to this day orthodox Jews are exceedingly careful to ensure that nothing they do during the Sabbath might considered or even be perceived as work. 

It is of little wonder then, that the Pharisees would take objection to how Jesus acted as He and His band of disciples moved about; “At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.” ”

To the Pharisees, the act of picking grain and rubbing the hulls off it to expose the edible kernel could and would be noted as work. After all, someone would be paid to do exactly that in order for the farmer to sell the grain. It was a job. A job the disciples were now doing, and a job Jesus knew they would do on account of their rather great hunger, which is why He led them through the grain fields to start with. As far as the Pharisees could see, Jesus had led the disciples into sin. Worse, He was sinning Himself for not reprimanding them for working on the Sabbath!

Of course, the disciples were not being paid for their activity – they were simply satiating their hunger. All Jesus did is bless them by providing for that hunger. 

Blessing another by caring for an urgent felt need is not a violation of Sabbath. It is the exercise of compassion. Compassion does not nullify God’s command to rest. Neither is it an excuse for rejection of God’s revealed plan. Rather, compassion is a component of God’s character, and God’s character is that from which His Word springs. 

That fact does not mean that God’s Law should be replaced by our interpretation of His character. After all, He is God, and we are not. We cannot judge Him, though He judges us. What we can do is realize that Christ did what He did so that we might glean from it (pun fully intended). And this is what we can glean: It is not wrong to bless another made in His image by providing for urgent felt needs on the Sabbath Day. But it is wrong to use our Sabbath Day to focus on pointing out another’s fault in our own eyes. For to do the latter we have to assume God’s seat as judge, and that is something we should be exceedingly hesitant to do. 

Even if our job (for which we are paid) is in the judicial system of our day. 

A believer longs after God, to come into his presence, to feel his love, to feel near to him in secret, to feel in the crowd that he is nearer than all the creatures. Ah! dear brethren, have you ever tasted this blessedness? There is greater rest and solace to be found in the presence of God for one hour than in an eternity of the presence of man.

Robert Murray McCheyne

APPLICATION: Intentionality

How is your Sabbath keeping? Is God your focus, or is something lesser the foremost thing on your mind?  

Before humankind fell into sin, the Scripture records what God meant for  those He made  in His image. Not only were they to enjoy God’s presence and fellowship, but they were to work. Genesis 2 notes, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” It is for this reason that every human being has to do something. In fact, people get greatly frustrated by inactivity because we were never designed to live and grow the way a tree does (simply existing in a single location). We were designed to work; to accomplish that which is pleasing to our senses, giving order and structure to the world around us. 

But it is not just that we are to work. Rather, we are to work in a way which is free from stressful urgency, and in an environment that is both beneficial (providing food for our bodies) and joyful (a delights to behold). 

It follows then that the Kingdom of God is not an expectation to sit on a cloud and listen to a harp for eternity. God’s reign and rule includes meaningful and productive work for His people. But that work and productivity is nothing like the harsh and often urgent demands that humankind currently experience in the workplace. Nor is it the difficult burden of trying to prove oneself worthy to an exacting and ungracious god. For these reasons Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

A yoke is not something most in our highly mechanized world know about. The word is used for a piece of wood that a farm owner would put on the shoulders of his animal(s), and to which would be fastened ropes to a farm implement. The animal could then be used to pull the implement (usually a plow) through a field to work the ground. No doubt Jesus deliberately fashioned the illustration to connect our sense of work being difficult and His remembrance of Adam’s original job as delightful. 

Yet one cannot help but note that the onus is on the individual. We are to take His yoke. He is too humble and gentle to force it upon us. The paradox of taking something to ourselves that involves obedience and labor as sources of rest and comfort is something we need to learn. 

When we do accept His assignment, we realize that working in the Kingdom of God is not to satisfy a boss at work or even to provide for ourselves. Rather, work is to bring glory to our creator and Lord and to fulfill our purpose as creation. Subsequently, we find ourselves being freed from our daily grind. Our work becomes something we do with energy and vigor because we want to please God, and God in His pleasure lets us see how He is using our work to bring the blessing of His Kingdom to others (whether lost or saved, mature or immature). 

Whether we labor at a highly physical job or a think tank, whether it is work for subsistence or work for enormous profit, working with and because of Jesus is satisfying, even in the here and now. How much more so in the days to come, when His Kingdom is fully here physically as well as spiritually!

Fame, pleasure and riches are but husks and ashes in contrast with the boundless and abiding joy of working with God for the fulfillment of his eternal plans.

John Piper

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Work for ourselves or a boss is miserable and grinding activity. Work with and for God is joy and lightheartedness, even if it is physically taxing. 

Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give  you rest.”

This verse is often given to those who are suffering. That’s not its original context, but the verse doesn’t entirely loose its meaning when so applied because one of the primary promises that the risen Jesus makes is one of peace. John wrote of Jesus’ promise, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.” Later in John chapter 20 we read of Jesus speaking His peace to those who had walked with Him – three times saying, “Peace be with you.” 

Rest being an outcome of peace, it is not entirely wrong to appeal to Jesus’ promise of rest whenever we find ourselves harried or oppressed or suffering some weight upon our soul. Yet the context in which Jesus speaks of giving rest adds much depth of meaning to His promise. Consider that He had just told the disciples that the towns in which He did many of His miracles were to be harshly judged on account of their unbelief. For sure, the Jews of rural Israel would never have counted themselves as unbelievers. They believed. But they believed that they could earn their way to God by religiously following the Law.  

Jesus knows that trying to earn your way into God’s good graces is a wearisome burden. Not only because it is actually impossible apart from faith, but because it is exhausting to live on high alert, lest you say or do anything that offends. It is tiring to have to work long hours so that you can afford an acceptable offering in the eyes of a religious official. Being a devout follower of any legalistic system is to live with a constant and challenging burden. One might think that it is easier for those who dedicate themselves to study instead, but you cannot study your way into God’s good graces either. No amount of knowledge of God’s Word and/or ways can substitute for adoption as His child. So having just explained that the Son alone knows the Father, that the Father alone knows the Son, and that the Son grants to those who come to Him to know the Father, Jesus promises rest to those who do come to Him.

That is the truly wonderful thing about this promise. Rest is something we gain when we are in the presence of Jesus. Rest from wearisome work because His work on the cross is enough. Rest from the burden of sin because He takes it from us. Rest from trying to earn our way into the Father’s presence because He simply reveals the Father – freely and without cost – to those whom He knows. Everything about Jesus speaks rest to our souls. 

Moreover, Jesus gives rest to our bodies. To come to Him is to lay down whatever we carry that we might bask in His presence. To come to Him is to set aside the pressure of the day that we might listen intently for His Voice. To come to Him is to know true rest for body, mind and spirit. This is the privilege all who know Jesus have; real and present rest – whenever we come to Him , whenever we need refreshment. Truly, there is no striving in the Kingdom of God. Just peace, right-ness in our walk and work, and joy. Glory to God. 

Prayer girds human weakness with divine strength, turns human folly into heavenly wisdom, and gives to troubled mortals the peace of God.

Charles Spurgeon

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Do you need peace or rest today? Seek Him. He has it for you. 

Jesus said, “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the   Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”  It is the last part of that three-part statement that is most important for the Christian to consider; All that we know of the Father is revealed to us. Not by a thing or by a process, but by the person of Jesus Christ. 

Someone may well come to an understanding that God must exist because of the general revelation of creation. We look and see the incredible complexity and order of the created universe, and such is the inescapable conclusion; Order does not flow out of chaos. It flows out of design. But the existence of God – as wonderful as that is to know – is not the same as knowing God as Father. Even knowing Jesus as Lord and Savior is not the same as knowing God as our Father. 

Rev. Dr. David Chotka once pointed out that knowing God as Father would not have come naturally to anyone apart from Jesus. Writing in his book, Power Praying, David notes, “The word “Father” with reference to God is used only fourteen times in the entire Old Testament. Almost all of these instances are symbolic or metaphorical allusions to God (e.g., Psalm 103:13 [NASB], “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him”). There are only two prayers in the entire Old Testament in which the one praying says “Father” with reference to God, and in that material it refers to God’s creation of Israel rather than a personal relationship (Isaiah 63:16; 64:8).”

The general revelation of creation is enough to know that God must exist. The specific revelation of the Scripture is certainly enough to know His moral law (Covenant) and our need for forgiveness as violators of His Covenant. By general and specific revelation we can know God as creator, God and King. But it is Jesus who opens our eyes to the reality of God as Father. 

It is Jesus and only Jesus who can reveal the depth of the love of God as our Father. It is Jesus who reveals how much the Father is willing to do to save His children. It is Jesus who reveals the Father’s forgiveness, the Father’s mercy and the Father’s plan of salvation and restoration for His children. It is Jesus who demonstrates and speaks of the Father’s care for His own. It is Jesus who reveals the full extent of the Father’s joy for those who return to Him. 

Many are those who know God as God, and even honor Him as King and Lord. But few are those who truly know God as Father. For to know God as Father requires that you first come to Jesus, and then in prayer ask Jesus to reveal God to you as your Father. That He will do, because to look upon the Son is to look upon the Father. As the book of Hebrews points out, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.”

This is the great encouragement to all who have not grown up with a perfect father. Though our history and memory limits our understanding of what a father ought to have been to and for us, Christ is willing and able to yet reveal our perfect heavenly Father to us. We can know His care, His compassion, His grace, His long-suffering and His joy over us. We can experience His presence with us. We can rejoice in His love for us. Amen.   

We should approach God with the confidence of a small child approaching his or her father. Human parents sometimes neglect their children, but God never does.

Tokunboh Adeyemo

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Our God is our Creator. He is our King. He is our Redeemer, our Restorer, our Provider. He is also our Father, and He longs to have the kind of relationship a good, good father has with their child. 

Most parents can tell you that they know their children. After all, they were   there when the child was born. They were there when the child took their first steps. They were there when the child first learned how to color. They were there at every stage of the child’s development. Yet as the child grows into an adult, many parents are surprised by the abilities and talents their child develops and the choices their child makes. People are complicated, and even a loving parent who watches their child grow every day can come to realize that they really didn’t know them that well. Yet if that is true of our children, how much more is it true of God? Jesus said, “No one knows the Son except the Father…” 

We may come to know the Son as Christ our Savior. But everyone who does still needs to get to know Him as Lord. Once we know Him as our Savior and Lord, we yet need to know Him as our Sanctifier. And once we’ve known Him as our Sanctifier, we still need to know Him as our Healer. And once we’ve known Him as our Healer, we still need to know Him as our Coming King. There is always much more of the Son to know than we have presently grasped. Infinitely so. Only our Father in heaven can really know the Son, because only our Father in heaven has the infinite capacity and the perfect communication, surrender and intimacy to truly know the Son. 

Of course, much of that is revealed in the Bible. But even that has limitations. Consider that if the love of our lives were to write us a book about themselves, it still couldn’t hope to contain all they are or all they’ve done. People are dynamic and complicated. The life and lifetime of a single person cannot be reduced to ink on the pages in a single book. How much less can God be reduced to a few thousands of words? To that point John ended his Gospel with, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”   

The human capacity to remember, to put into context and to apply the teachings of Jesus is limited. Jesus Himself is not limited. So even though what we can know of Him is currently restricted to what we read in the Scriptures and perceive in prayer, there is simply no way for us to grasp the awesome wonder and the infinite mystery of all Jesus is, or all He has done and is doing. After all, He hasn’t stopped teaching or doing wonders since the close of the Biblical canon. He’s just been doing them through His body (the church) for the last two thousand years! Besides which, we can’t even exhaust what the Word teaches us about Jesus, because God’s Word is living and active. From that perspective surely no one can really know the Son, except the Father. 

The reality of this is both practical and manifold. Not only can we preach and teach about Jesus for our whole lives and not run out of enormously applicable content, but we can also look forward to spending eternity in ever-deeper relationship with Him, knowing we’ll never get weary of spending time with Him. There is always something fresh, something exciting and something new to discover about our Lord Jesus Christ!  That fact alone makes the Christ-life an abundant life, because we are constantly discovering something new about the author of life! 

Professor Schaefer, a five-time nominee for the Nobel Prize who has also been cited as the third most quoted chemist in the world, said, “The significance and joy in my science comes in those occasional moments of discovering something new and saying to myself, ‘So that’s how God did it.’ My goal is to understand a little corner of God’s plan.

Mark Water

APPLICATION: Thankfulness

The Lord has given us this day at least in part to discover something new about Him. Let us seek Him for that and joyfully return thanks when He shows it to us! 

Jesus said, “All things have been committed to me by my Father.” The beloved Son has   everything that the Father has. Not in the same sense as we often understand ownership; as in, “This is mine, that is yours,” but in the sense that the Father holds nothing back from the Son, and that the Son uses all the Father has to bless Him. Obviously, that is true of physical resources. Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and therefore sovereign over all the earth. All of creation is thus committed to the Son by the Father. But His statement is also true of prophetic understanding, which is the context in which Jesus is speaking. 

Jesus had heard the Father voice concern over the same Galilean towns He did most of His miracles in. Having heard the Father’s judgment on Korazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, Jesus gives that information to those within earshot – even though they are young in their discipleship – so that they might give glory to God for having been blessed with God’s insight. Jesus knows that to hoard such information to Himself is to render it ineffective, because a prophesy quietly received in your spirit becomes a matter of public history after it happens. Subsequently, Jesus takes the insight the Father has told Him and shares it with His disciples at the appropriate time and place. “At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.”  

The disciples know such prophetic insight is a weighty thing, not for the faint of heart. It is not only fact that one can eagerly nod their head to and then ignore. Prophetic insight mandates action. Action that is very much to the glory of God. Jesus shares prophetic insight with them so that they might consider the awful (meaning awe-inspiring) responsibility that comes with a revelation from God. 

After all, Korazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum had seen God’s working through the Son and therefore much more was expected of them than the other Gentile towns (that had not seen such miracles). To that point Jesus had cried out, “Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.” The implication was clear – much more would likewise now be expected of the disciples! 

In the Kingdom of God, ownership is merely a term to denote who is using a particular resource at the moment, not a term denoting who will hoard a resource until it is spoiled. Further, ownership mandates wise stewardship to the blessing of those God created. Having any resource committed to you is both a responsibility and a privilege. A responsibility first, because it was given into your care by the Father for a reason. A privilege second, because you get to bring glory to God through wise application.

And that is true be it physical resource or ability or prophesy. Amen.

Prophecy and miracles argue the imperfection of the state of the church, rather than its perfection. For they are means designed by God as a stay or support, or as a leading string to the church in its infancy, rather than as means adapted to it in its full growth.

Jonathan Edwards

APPLICATION: Thankfulness

Lord we give thanks to you for the gifts You have given us. Let us even today use them to bring You glory, to bring blessing to those around us who You made in Your image, and to strengthen the church, which is Your body. Amen. 

In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees and leaders of the temple (teachers of the law)   were considered the wise and learned. After all, it was they who studied the law all day long. It was they who conversed with each other about the application of the law and they who taught in the synagogues. They, together with the scribes and the very wealthy, were the few who were literate. The vast majority of the population could not read or write. They were far too busy trying to survive to sit down, and far too poor to pay a teacher to help them learn. Consequently the rest of the people looked up to the Pharisees and teachers of the law to dispense knowledge and insight, much as most of Europe looked to the priests during the dark ages. 

Matthew writes, “At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.”  

Being young in the faith is not a barrier to learning things about God that even the wise and learned do not know. The disciples have only known Jesus for a year or two, but it was the disciples, not the temple leaders, who were getting the real spiritual ‘meat’. It was the Christ followers who were taught how to advance in God’s Kingdom through humility when Jesus said, “he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than [John the Baptist.]” It was the Christ followers who were given knowledge of the true nature of John’s ministry when Jesus said, “if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.” It was the Christ followers who were given prophetic insight to the future of the Galilean towns when Jesus said, “Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!”

This is the good pleasure of God; that He reveals more of Himself – His wisdom and insight and even His thoughts and intention – to those who truly want Him. 

He reveals this to those who hang around Him and listen intently to what He is saying. Not to those who just want the honor and attention that comes to those who know more about Him than everyone else. The honor that the wise and learned get from others is enough for them. After all, in many ways they do get what they are seeking, because the honor and attention of men is all they are after. The practical revelation of God’s character and wisdom is not for them. It is revealed to those who come to God as children, hungry to hear and immediately apply that He says. 

That practical application is perhaps more profound today than it ever has been. For in our day, entire congregations gather to hear what their favorite Bible teacher says. But are they gathering to seek God in prayer? Are they looking to hear directly from Him? 

Perhaps the most important and difficult lesson we need to learn in the school of prayer is how to quiet ourselves so that we can hear His voice in the tumult of our lives.

Terry Glaspey

APPLICATION: Worship

Let us approach Him in awe and reverence. Let us listen to Him speak to our souls.