Kindling05 Nov
I love to to play with fire and watch things burn. Whether it is keeping a stick in a camp-fire to pick up and wave around in the dark, or sitting on the hearth and throwing kindling or paper in the fireplace to see it burst into flame, fire is cool to watch. Today’s passage features a king with a similar bent. The problem is, he is using God’s Word spoken through Jeremiah as the kindling. As the words of judgment are being read to the king, he is tearing the scroll and tossing it in the fire in defiance. Offset in stark contrast in the way people receive the word of the Lord, is the Rechabites, who refuse to disobey their father’s instruction, even at the invitation of Jeremiah at the Temple. God’s asks, “Why doesn’t everyone obey like that, with resolve and conviction?” And the question stands for us as well. Are we so circumstantial as to defy our own beliefs because they lack conviction? Will we regard the Word of God so lightly, tossing those commands we don’t like? The New Testament passage today is a reminder to us that temptations will arise, and sin will seem justifiable, and postponing our “convictions” will makes sense so as to not offend. But we must stand up under those temptations.
Look for opportunities to demonstrate your convictions to the non-believing world around you by lovingly and graciously abstaining from self-centered, or godless behavior. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
2 Responses to “Kindling”
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Who is the prince in ezekiel 44? It would seem easy to guess Jesus but if I knew Hebrew I might think differently….Jumping ahead in ezekiel he is mentioned again multiple times. Is he David reincarnated, Solomon?
Got me thinking also about Jesus in Isaiah 9 how he is referred to as the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace.
This sounds like the Father and the Son, at once????
The prince is the descendant of David who would sit on the throne. It is to remind them that God has not forgotten his promise to David. That in the future temple there would be a place for the prince was meant as an encouragement to the people. Note the unique idea “no man shall enter by it” and then “the prince shall enter by way of the porch of that gate” Seems to be a prince with a divine connection.
In Isaiah 9, the everlasting father creates a trinitarian idea, that the one born to us is Father, Counselor, Prince. Great OT scripture to talk about the trinity.