The New Testament in 90 Days - Day 8

July 3
Matthew chapters 22-24

I read my Bible this morning, really I did!  But day four of the Massive Migraine has pretty much flattened me physically and mentally.  And all the beginning-of-the-month things keep insinuating themselves into every conversation with the Lord I try to have.

The King and His stubborn, stiff-necked people.  At the beginning of this blog, I stated that Matthew was writing to the Jews, presenting Christ as the King.  The whole book has been about the Kingdom and the King.  He has told a variation of this story many times, and the Pharisees just get angrier and angrier.  Their position is being threatened, and by an itinerant peasant!

Finally, after all the baiting, they give up.  Verse 46 says it all: "And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions." ESV  But they didn't stop plotting.

And then Jesus gets really personal.  "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!"  He says this four times in Chapter 23!  He calls them serpents and vipers, blind men, dirty dishes, decomposed bodies in a grave.  A complete indictment of their religious "lifestyle:"

But Jesus is God, and God is perfect in His compassion.  He doesn't leave it at "I told you so."  He tells them to come back, come into His arms, be safe.  He is saying that to all of us - the perpetual worriers like me, the hissy kittens who back away because they're frightened, and the completely desolate who don't believe in hope.  Thank you Lord, for your mercy.

The last chapter is one of prophecy.  This is what will happen before I come back.  But guess what?  You can't guess when, because even I don't know!  Only the Father knows the date and time, so if you hear someone predicting the end of the world, you'll be happy to know that it definitely won't happen on the day they pick.

But Jesus is also telling us to be prepared.  We can look Christian, act Christian, talk Christian all we want, but it's our hearts that need to be ready to do His Will at any moment.  Be prepared, don't misuse the gifts God gives you, and really? Just believe.

I'm sorry again that this is short - God has blessed me with this headache for some reason, so since I already took all my aspirin, I'm going to take the rest of the day and try better to ponder.