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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for collecting daily manna), make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Thursday, May 17, 2018
Today's Passage : Today's Passage:Subjecta:The Brood of Vipers Bible Verse:Matthew 3:7-12 "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”" Message:
Israel was a theocracy. Its religious sects thus combined aspects of political parties with theology. The theologies of the Pharisees and Sadducees, the two leading sects, were radically different, but both had substituted form for meaning; as inevitably occurs when politics becomes involved, the appearance of uprightness had become more important in their lives than true faith in God.
To the Jews, the viper was the symbol of cunning and manipulative rhetoric, combined with venomous death; it was a viper who convinced Eve to eat the apple. One pictures a wildfire sweeping across the grassy plain, a common occurrence in Palestine, for such fire drives before it a horde of snakes (and other animals).
When John sees these hypocrites coming to be baptized, he has mixed emotions. His diatribe is not a rejection of their repentance, for Christ's salvation will be available to all. It is, rather, a warning that their hypocrisy will not serve them any longer. He sounds angry, because he worries that they are up to their old tricks: repentance on their lips without any change in their hearts.
The metaphors of the tree and the stones constitutes an attack on their self-righteousness. As the blood descendants of Abraham and heirs of the first covenant, or as branches of the tree of Jesse, they have become proud and self-righteous. They have turned the special relationship between God and the Hebrews into a closed, hidebound institution based on empty legalism; and they believe they have been permanently anointed to holiness by right of birth. John pointedly references the Tree of Jesse, then, when he says that a tree that does not bear good fruit will be put to the axe.
The baptism by the Holy Spirit and fire sounds frightening. Written in Hebrew, the two are more connected than in English, for the Hebrew word for “spirit” is also the word for “breath” and “wind”. Thus John draws an image of God's breath blowing on a prairie fire, fanning it into a holocaust.
But we must also remember that fire is a great blessing; it provides light in the darkness, and warmth in the cold. Most importantly, fire can purify. John is warning the listeners, then, that the baptism of the Holy Spirit will purify the world, by destroying the hypocrites as chaff is burned, but preserving those who come in sincerity.
People sometimes associate the idea of fiery hell with the Old Testament. In general terms, we think of the Old Testament, with all of its capital crimes, as the covenant of a stern God, and the New Testament as a celebration of love and gentleness.
But the truth is the opposite. The image of hell as a pit of unquenchable fire is primarily a New Testament analogy, made several times by Christ himself. After the introductory matters of Chapters 1 and 2, Matthew's first theological statement is pure fire and brimstone, worthy of the most radical Puritan. This, then, is the starting point of Matthew's theology: repent in sincerity, for Christ's judgment will condemn the unrepentant sinner to a fiery hell.
Meditation : Prayer : Into your hands, O Lord, Jesus Christ, my God, I commend my spirit. Bless me, save me and grant unto me everlasting life.,.......Amen |
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