January 28

GENESIS 29
When God determines to bless us, He often puts up with a great deal of foolishness on our part. Witness Jacob’s determination to steal the blessing, his marriage, the rivalry between Leah and Rachel and Jacob’s struggle to gain wealth. God met Jacob at Bethel. He promised him descendants, land and a blessing. One of the keys to hearing God in the Old Testament narratives is to understand that God does not necessarily condone the activity of His saints, but He does use their lives to teach us. God desires to bless all in this story. Yet all are conniving to accomplish their desires. Proverbs 10:22 says, “The blessing of the LORD makes one rich, And He adds no sorrow with it.” You see, that is part of the glory of our Lord; when he blesses, we become rich in ways in which there is no sorrow. The problem of sorrow with blessing comes when we add our conniving to gain the riches as we define them not as He defines them. Let us see how it is playing out in this narrative.
Jacob wanted the family blessing that should have gone to Esau. He schemed, took unfair advantage and lied to get it. Rebecca wanted Jacob to have the family blessing. She schemed and manipulated to get it. Together they received what they wanted. What was added? Sorrow was added. They lost the relationship with Esau. Jacob was forced to leave for his own safety. The Scripture does not say, but I don’t think Rebekah and Jacob never saw each other again. Laban meets Jacob; remembering the wealth of Abraham’s servant, he has plans to gain more wealth from Jacob through marrying his daughters to him. What happens? We don’t see it in today’s passage, but Laban eventually loses his daughters, his grandchildren and a good portion of his flock. They all obtain what they wanted, but sorrow drips through the blessings of this chapter.
Where’s the glory? The glory is Himself. We on the other hand focus on the blessing to the point that we redefine what true blessing is. We focus on the blessing rather than the blesser, the gift rather than the giver. How much did they miss because of their foolishness? I don’t know, but I do know that it is the glory of God that He blessed them anyway. That gives me hope. Even in my foolishness, He will bless me to accomplish His purpose. It is just a matter of how much pain I must endure because of my own foolish conniving. Why can’t I be satisfied with just His fantastic glory? Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

PSALM 28
“Save Your people, And bless Your inheritance; Shepherd them also, And bear them up forever.” A Shepherd wants only what is best for his sheep. Why? Because ultimately what is best for his sheep, is best for the shepherd. The sheep has nothing to fear from the Shepherd, if it obeys. It has only good to receive from its shepherd. What ill is allowed by the shepherd is to increase the shepherd’s glory. I have nothing to fear from Him as long as I obey. He wants only the best for me. Not for His sake, but because that is simply the way He is.

In God’s green pastures feeding by His cool waters lie,
Soft in the evening walk my Lord and I.
All the sheep of His pasture fare so wonderfully fine.
His sheep am I.

As His sheep, he does not render to me as I deserve according to my works. Otherwise I would be in the butcher shop, dead meat (is there any other kind?). As His sheep, He builds me up. Some times to build up, one must first tear down. He is my shield. He protects me. The only ill He permits in my life is that which will allow me to bring greater glory to Him. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

ESTHER 5
A segment of how God deals with men and women can be seen in the contrast between Esther and Haman. Haman made no attempt to remediate the behavior of Mordecai. He simply moved to crush it. Esther initially made a move to remediate. She made Haman part of the private banquet she sought with the King. Why did she do that? If it had been me, I would probably have sought only an audience with the king so that I could fully speak my mind and get rid of the scoundrel, Haman. She might have had this whole thing planned out in advance. However, I don’t think she could have predicted Haman’s road to perdition. I think she wanted to privately find out where Haman stood in all of this and see if there was any possible move toward remediation with Haman’s involvement. The first banquet revealed no possibility to her. Stalling for time to continue to consider her road for action, she asked for a second banquet. She looked for remediation.
Haman left the banquet feeling good about himself until he passed Mordecai at the gate. The powers of darkness can never stand the sight of a man who refuses to bow to anyone except the King of Kings. Rather than trying to find out why Mordecai will not bow, he becomes further entrenched in his desire to destroy Mordecai. He is totally focused on his riches, his family, his rank, and his honor. His wife advises the construction of a 75ft. tall gallows. What a monstrosity! And he had the power to have it built over night! It would certainly display Haman’s power in the country.
What a contrast! Esther is cautiously looking for possibilities of remediation. Haman is recklessly seeking the destruction of a people who will not give him what does not belong to Him. I see the same contrast with Jesus in how He deals with us. On the night that Jesus was betrayed, He knew what Judas was doing. He dipped the bread into the wine and offered it to Judas. It was a clear offer of friendship and remediation. Judas took it, but rather than repenting, he continued on in his recalcitrant track of betraying Jesus. Satan entered him. There was darkness as he had never known. But Jesus had loved him up to this point. Our Lord is that way. He is always looking for our remediation, our repentance. But there comes a point when He says, “No more.” Thank you, Lord, for being patient with me! Help me to enter into your correction. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

MATTHEW 18:21-35
Ever wonder how much 10,000 talents would be in today's money? 10,000 talents was equal to about 1,800,000 Greek Drachmas. A Greek Drachma was about a day's wage. Currently the average salary in the USA is about $40,000 per year. Divide that by 270 work days and the average day's wage in the USA is about $148.00. Multiply that by 1,800,000 and we get: 10,000 talents equals approximately $266,400,000.00. That is more money than I will ever earn in my entire lifetime.
T. Boone Pickens gave over $265 million to Oklahoma State University to build an athletic village. Now, obviously he has more money than he knows what to do with it. If he had to repay someone $266.4 million, He could survive it. But only he and a handful of other people in the world could handle it. The average person could not handle it. That is part of the point of Jesus' parable.
We are so indebted to God because of our sin that we could never repay the debt. Jesus' death and resurrection make the payment possible. It is applied to our account when we receive Him. We owe Him everything. It is a dangerous thing when we do not forgive from the heart someone who has sinned against us, whether that sin is real or imagined. Some would interpret this passage that if there is someone we do not forgive that we will lose our eternal salvation. Because of other clearer passages in Scripture concerning the security of the believer, I do not believe that Jesus is teaching that our salvation is dependent upon our forgiveness of others. Rather His point is that our own forgiveness is such an overwhelming debt that He paid Himself on our behalf, that our forgiveness of others is minuscule in comparison. Also, if we do not forgive, He permits our own un-forgiveness to torture us until we forgive the one who sinned against us. You see, He wants us to be like Him, forgiving all from the heart.
That is why focusing upon His glory is so important. When we focus upon His glory, we see His greatness in forgiving us. In the light of such greatness, such glory, how can we but forgive those who sin against us? We can let their sin against us go, and we can walk in freedom. All of this is because of His great forgiveness. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John