2 Kings 9 - No escaping judgement

Appointing Jehu king over Israel was another of the tasks given to Elijah in 1 Kings 19:16. Elisha sent one of the prophets from the company to go and anoint Jehu and then to run. Jehu was anointed specifically to destroy the house of Ahab. Jezebel would also come to a stick end. Jehu told the soldiers what had happened and they acknowledged him as king.
Jehu then started to take the throne. Joram and Ahaziah had been involved in defending against Hazael and were in the city of Jezreel. Jehu rode on a chariot and was accumulating followers. Joram went out to meet him and did so at the location of Naboth's vineyard. The powerful may have forgotten what they had done to Naboth, but God had not forgotten.
"How can there be peace as long as idolatry and witchcraft abound?" As long as evil abounds there can be no true peace and prosperity. This is something that our own nations would do well to remember. Both Joram and Ahaziah were killed, and Joram's blood was spilt on Naboth's land.
Finally Jezebel is killed and eaten by dogs. The eunuchs had thrown her down to the ground, realising which way the wind was blowing.
So judgement on the house of Ahab and Jezebel was complete.

2 Kings 8:16-29 - Bad kings in Judah

Jehoshaphat had been quite a good king, but his son Jehoram was not. Jehoram followed the ways of Ahab, and this was a result of his having married a daughter of Ahab. We need to be careful who we marry for it will have a deep effect on our lives. If you are a believer but marry a non-believer you take an enormous risk and may lose your salvation. Now there are cases where someone marries an unbeliever and the unbeliever gets saved. Praise God when this happens, but the most likely outcome is that the believer will be led away from the Lord. Now the case of where two people are married and one gets saved is completely different. In this case, Paul's instruction in 1 Corinthians 7 applies. We can so easily be led astray by our emotions.

God did not destroy Judah because of His promise to David. We need to realise that sometimes we are blessed, or seem to "get away with things" because of the goodness of someone else.

However, Judah did experience increased difficulties, with various subjugated nations rebelling against them. As mentioned before, when we rebel against God we lost authority. 

Ahaziah succeeded Jehoram and he was no better. Again, he was related to the house of Ahab and this was the source of the trouble. Ahaziah joined Joram in battles against Hazael.

2 Kings 8:1-15 - God's care and prophecies fulfilled

The Shunammite's woman appears again. Elisha had warned her about the famine and told her to go away for a while. Now this would have involved the risk of losing her property, but God had this matter in hand. God cares for us more than we ever imagine, and has taken care of all sorts of details. He doesn't always tell us everything He is going to do, but we can always have complete confidence in Him. The woman returned after seven years and Gehazi happened to be speaking to the king at that time. The king seemed to have a more favourable attitude to Elisha at the time, and Gehazi was relating the tale of Elisha raising the Shunammite woman's son back to life. So the king restored everything to the woman.

One of the things Elijah had been told to do was to anoint Hazael king over Aram (1 Kings 19:15). Ben-Hadad was ill and sent Hazael to consult Elisha. The reputation of Elisha had spread far and wide and godless nations were aware of him and wanted to consult him.

Elisha said he would recover, but he also knew that Hazael would kill the king, so it was not the illness but Hazael who would kill the king. Elisha also knew what a violent man Hazael would be.

2 Kings 6:24-7:20 - Siege and Siege lifted

Aram now attacked Samaria. There was a terrible siege and great famine in the land. A donkey's head was sold for 80 shekels of silver and "the fourth part of a kab of dove's dung" for five shekels. Now you, as I was, are no doubt wondering why on earth dove's dung had any value whatsoever, siege or no siege. Well when famines get really bad people will literally eat anything. 

The king was apparently unaware of just how bad things were, but the reality of the situation was brought to his attention when two women brought a case to him about eating their children. Things really were that bad.

The king acted totally irrationally, thinking that beheading Elisha would help the situation, instead of realising that a little repentance on his part would far more effective. Today the world thinks it can avoid the consequences of its sin by shutting up those who preach the truth of the Bible, it is equally mistaken.

Elisha prophesied that the famine would soon be lifted, but that the messenger himself would not eat of any of the food.

The good news was brought by four lepers. They were as desperate as anyone else and decided to go out to the Arameans. However, God had put fear into the Arameans' hearts by means of a false report of help coming from the Hittites and Egyptians. So the lepers found lots of food left behind. They then acted honourably by going back to the city to tell the people.

Elisha's words were fulfilled.

2 Kings 6:7-23 - Those who are for us

God revealed things to Elisha, and this included the troop movements of the king of Aram. Obviously, this gave the Israelites a great advantage.  The king of Aram realised that something was going on and initially thought there must be a spy or traitor in the camp. However, his officers had obviously heard of Elisha and knew that he was the source of the inside information.

The king decided to send troops to capture Elisha. One might have thought that he would have had an inkling that trying to capture a clearly effective man of God by natural means was unlikely to work, but people do not always think logically. 

The troops came and Elisha's servant was greatly concerned. Elisha, however, was perfectly calm and uttered the famous word "those who are with us are more than those who are against us". There is an echo of this in 1 John 4:4, "He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world". We need to realise who is on our side! Elisha then prayed for God to open his servant's eyes to see the true situation. We need to look at things with the eyes of faith. Notice in the opening chapters of Ephesians and Colossians the things that Paul prays for. He prays for our eyes to be opened to the fullness of what God has done for us. 

Elisha's servant saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire. Remember that Elijah was taken away in a chariot of fire. 

Elisha then prayed for God to strike the enemy with blindness. Then he led them into a trap. The king of Israel wanted to know if he should seize the opportunity and kill them. Elisha advised against it, citing the equivalent of our "Geneva convention". The king then threw a feast for the captives and then sent them away. As a result the raids stopped. If the king had killed them it is likely that there would have been more intense raids. So we see a mixture of the supernatural, righteousness and wisdom at work here.

2 Kings 6:1-7 - Lord of all

Elisha was not the only prophet but had a "supporting cast" in the form of the company of prophets, literally it says "sons of prophets". It seems that there numbers had grown and they needed a larger place to meet. So they went to chop wood in order to build a bigger hall. In the course of this one of them lost an axe head, and this axe belonged to someone else. We can all imagine the anguish that the man felt. Elisha did another miracle and the axe head was retrieved. Note how trivial this was, and that it could have been put down to the carelessness of the man, yet God still intervened. God truly does care about all the details of our lives, as Jesus said, all the hairs on our head are counted. This is not an excuse for a lackadaisical approach to life, but nor should we get neurotic about things. God's concern for our lives goes far deeper than we ever imagine.

Note also that God puts these stories in the Bible. There are accounts of kings and prophets, great battles, the moral degeneracy of the nation, and then these seemingly trivial matters. God is involved in all things.

People sometimes mock Christians who pray for a parking space or some such thing. There is nothing wrong with doing this! Of course, if that is all I ever pray about there is a problem and I should pray for other matters as well. Moreover it betrays a deep misunderstanding. If God blesses me it does not mean that He has less to bless someone else with! There is also another side to this. When God blesses someone else it does not mean He has less to bless you with! We can sometimes think "why has such and such been blessed and I haven't". We should never be envious of others, instead we should rejoice with those who rejoice, we should rejoice when others are blessed.

2 Kings 5 - Don't be proud

This is one of the well-known stories in 2 Kings, the healing of Naaman. As happens periodically, it is a non-Jew who receives God's blessing, reminding us that God has no favourites, and His eventual mission is to the world. As God said to Abraham, "all nations will be blessed through you" (Gen 12:2,3).

Note in verse 1 that the victory of Aram over Israel is attributed to the Lord. Naaman was the commander of the army but had leprosy. During the course of their wars an Israeli girl had been captured, and she was serving Naaman's wife. Evidently she had heard of Elisha and told her mistress that the prophet could heal Naaman. So God was working through the the minutiae of events. 

Naaman sought permission from his king and off he went. First Naaman went to the king, who was greatly distressed, knowing that he did not have the power to heal, and fearing the consequences. However, Elisha heard about this and sorted things out.

Elisha gave his famous instruction to Naaman to wash seven times in the Jordan. Naaman was displeased about this, for it offended his pride. When we come to God we must come in humility, we need to recognise the true nature of our position in life. Fortunately one of Naaman's servants enabled him to see sense, Naaman did dip in the Jordan and was healed.

Naaman wanted to give Elisha a gift, but Elisha refused. Naaman also asked that the Lord would forgive him for he had to go to the temple of Rimmon as part of his job. Naaman now recognised who the Lord was.

While Naaman's servants had been very helpful to him, indeed vital in enabling him to receive the blessing of God, Elisha's servant was far less righteous. He saw a chance to make a killing from Naaman. As a result Gehazi was struck with leprosy.

2 Kings 4 - Miracles a plenty

With both Elijah and Elisha as well as confrontations with kings there were encounters with "ordinary" people. We see the same in Jesus' ministry, where He met both normal people, nobodies, and leaders of various sorts. God is the God of all creation and He shows no favouritism.

A woman of a prophet came to Elisha because her husband had died and she was in danger of losing her two sons. The sons would have been sold into slavery to pay the debt.

Elisha's initial response is "what do you have". We often look at our problems and circumstances with despair. The solution will often be to use what we have, the difference is that we will use what we have together with God. When God gets involved everything changes. 

So the woman collected all the jars and they continually poured oil into the jars until all the jars were used up, she could then sell the oil for money.

God has a special concern for the poor, but He doesn't just look after the poor. The Shunammite woman was well off and Elisha stopped there. The woman and her husband decided to make a "spare room" for him. Elisha wanted to repay her in some way. The woman was perhaps to proud to admit her real need, a trait many of us have. Elisha asked his servant and learnt that she had no son. She would consider this something of a mark of disgrace. So Elisha prophesied over her that she would have a son. The woman objected, probably not wanting to be hurt. There are two lessons to learn here. First, we may have suffered much, been disappointed so many times, that we are afraid to ask God, fearing we will just be disappointed again. Secondly, we must be most careful in giving words and promises to people. They may be given with the best of intentions, but if it isn't really God we risk hurting people.

So the woman became pregnant and had a son. However, a few years later the boy became seriously ill. The woman went off to find Elisha. She feared that all her fears were indeed coming true, that the end result was that she would be disappointed and deeply hurt. Elisha went with the woman and healed the boy, in fact brought him back to life.

On another occasion a pot of stew had become poisoned because of the carelessness of one of the men. Elisha resolved the problem by adding some flour. Sometimes we think God will only help us if we "deserve it", but this is not so. Sometimes He even makes allowances for our foolishness.

Finally Elisha fed one hundred men with twenty loaves. This rather pales in comparison with Jesus feeding the five thousand, highlighting the greatness of Jesus' miracle.

2 Kings 2:19-3:27 - Water, baldness, bears and more water

Elisha's position is then further vindicated by two incidents. First he heals the water at Jericho. The water had become bad, experiencing some of the effects of the curse of Deut 28:15-18.  He possibly used salt as a symbol of the Lord purifying the water. However, as v21 makes clear, it is the Lord who actually healed the water.

Elisha then goes on his way to Bethel, but is jeered by a group of boys along the way, and insulted for his baldness. This insult was indicative of them having no respect for the Lord's servant. Elisha called down a curse on them in the Lord's name and two bears came down and mauled many of them. We may find this reaction rather harsh, but in truth it is no less than they deserved.

Then in chapter 3 we return to the behaviour of a king. Joram was evil, but not as bad as Ahab had been. However, he "clung to the sins of Jeroboam", this related to consecrating priests at the high places.

As we read right at the start of the book, Moab rebelled against Israel. Israel called on Jehoshaphat to help them fight and Jehoshaphat agreed. Initially their strategy was not going well. Joram thought the Lord had just led them to disaster. Jehoshaphat was a more godly man and his response was to seek the Lord. Whatever happens to us we should always seek out the Lord.

Elisha is reluctant for help them, but does so only because of the presence of Jehoshaphat, a godly man.  He called on a harpist to help him prophecy. The combining and music and prophecy is actually a Biblical practice.

The Lord responded miraculously, both providing water for the troops and throwing the Moabites into confusion.

Finally we see the evil of the Moabites in the king offering his firstborn son as a sacrifice, this would be to Chemosh.

2 Kings 2:1- 18 - Chariots of Fire

Elisha was Elijah's anointed successor (1 Kings 19:19-21). Although he had been anointed then there was still much that had to happen before he assumed the role. We need to understand that this is a common pattern. David was anointed as king many years before he actually took the throne. When the disciples were called by Jesus that was just the start of the journey. 

Elijah knew that the time for him to go was near and urged Elisha to stay at Gilgal. Elisha had been Elijah's servant and refused to be left behind. The reasons for this are probably a combination of commitment to Elijah as a servant and knowing that he needed something more in order to fulfil his role.

The band of prophets came out and asked Elisha if he knew that this was time for Eljah to be taken away. In fact this happened several times, each time Elisha tells them yes but not to speak about it.

Elijah went to several places and each time to stay behind, each time Elisha refused. Maybe there is some parallel to Jesus asking Peter three times if he loved Him.

When they reached the Jordan Elijah struck the water with his cloak and the waters parted. This is reminiscent of Moses at the Red Sea, and Joshua at the Jordan itself. After they had crossed Elijah asks Elisha what he can do for him. Perhaps all the preceding events had been a test. Sometimes God tests us see how true our commitment is. After the test will come a reward. 

Elisha wanted to receive a double portion of Elijah's anointing. The "double portion" does not mean a stronger anointing, rather it reflects inheritance law where the firstborn son received a double portion. Ie he received the largest part of the inheritance.

Elijah said this was a difficult thing, he knew that the anointing was in the Lord's hands. So he left things in God's hands. 

Elijah was then taken up in chariots of fire. Elisha declared "the chariots and horsemen of Israel". What does this signify? It means that Elisha saw that the true strength of Israel was not in human power but in heavenly power, in God Himself. We too need to recognise where our strength comes from, and where the church's strength comes from. This is why it is so tragic when the church seeks to be like the world, for when it does so it loses all power.

Elisha went back and he too divided the Jordan, this was a sign that he had indeed received the spirit of the Lord. The band of prophets recognised the significance of this. They also wanted to go and look for Elijah. Elisha warned them it was a waste of time, and so it proved.

So Elijah never actually died. Enoch is the only other person never to die. What does this tell us? That death is not the end. We will one day die, but afterwards we will be raised to new life with Christ.

2 Kings 1 - Fire from heaven

We will leave Proverbs again for a while and go on to 2 Kings. Originally 1 and 2 Kings formed a single book, but were split purely for the convenience of scribes. 1 Kings started with the reign of Solomon and then the division of the Israel into northern and southern kingdoms, and the descent of the nation. The descent continues in 2 Kings, with Israel being conquered by Assyria and finally Babylon conquering Judah. However, there are some high points as well, notably Hezekiah and Josiah.

2 Kings starts by telling us that Moab had rebelled against Israel. David had brought Moab under subjugation, but when a nation turns from God they find that their authority starts to seep away as well.

Ahaziah had injured himself and his moral depravity is shown by the fact that he sent messengers to consult an idol, Baal-Zerub, when he should have been consulting the Lord. So Elijah was sent to confront the king by speaking to his messengers and a sentence of death is pronounced upon him.

Ahaziah recognised that it was Elijah who had spoken to his messengers. So he sent a captain and some troops to see Elijah, but Elijah sent fire down on the soldiers. This was repeated a second time. A third captain was sent, but this time he pleaded with Elijah, knowing what had happened to the previous two.

However, the king still died, as foretold by Elijah.

Proverbs 16

Again there are just 4 verses on righteousness:

• It is better to be righteous even though less well off than to have more wrongly acquired (v8)
• A throne is established by righteousness (v12)
• Righteous lips are the delight of a king (v13)
• Grey hair is a sign of righteous life (v33)

Righteousness is important. It is often tempting to take short cuts, indeed it is sometimes seen as the clever thing to do, and those who insist on acting rightly are seen as naive. This is nonsense, for the truth is that a truly safe kingdom is established on righteousness, any other sort is liable to collapse in a moment.

Moreover, if you are in charge, if you are the king, you need people you can trust. Imagine you get to the "top" by devious means. What if all those who are then working for you are equally devious. How will you ever know if you can trust them? A leader needs people he can trust.

And righteousness leads to a long life.

The chapter starts with various sayings relating to how it is the Lord's will that prevails. Men have many ideas, but only the Lord knows what is really going to happen. Moreover, He knows our motives better than we do ourselves. So what should our response to this be? To commit our ways to the Lord. 

Proverbs 15

Let's start as usual with those proverbs pertaining to righteousness:

• The house of the righteous contains great treasure (v6)
• God loves those who pursue righteousness (v9)
• The heart of the righteous weighs its answers (v28)
• The Lord hears the payer of the righteous (v29)

The great treasure can be both spiritual and material. Spiritual treasures are essential and by far the more valuable, but righteousness is one factor that affects our material wealth. Two of the sayings relate to God's attitude towards the righteous. First He loves those who pursue righteousness, and secondly He hears our prayer. Our pursuing righteousness affects God's attitude towards us. We are fond of saying that we are in a relationship with God. Well in a relationship the attitude of one affects the attitude of the other. It does not mean that God loves us any more or less, but the way that love can be shown is different. Notice that a righteous person weighs his words. Sometimes it is said that is our reactions that reveal who we really are. Well maybe, but there is sin in all of us, and with the Holy Spirit's help we are in the process of crucifying the flesh. Part of this process is to consider our ways carefully so that we make wise choices but reject bad ones. In this way sin will die all the quicker.

There are many other themes in this chapter. One is on the value of our words. Speaking widely or foolishly can greatly affect the course of dispute, bringing peace and resolution, or lighting a fire of destruction. For a wise person the tongue adorns knowledge, ie it is a benefit. But for the foolish the mouth only causes folly and damage. A soothing tongue is a tree of life but a perverse tongue crushes a person's spirit. Our words are powerful and do both great harm and great good.

Proverbs 14

There are just a few sayings directly related to righteousness here:

• The wicked will bow down at the gates of the righteous (v19)
• Even in death the righteous seek refuge in God (v32)
• Righteousness exalts a nation (v34)

It can seem that righteousness does not pay, that it is the wicked and selfish who prosper. Indeed the Psalmists and some of the prophets bemoaned this fact. However, the end result is that the wicked will bow down to the righteous.

The mark of a righteous person is that they do not exalt themselves, but know their true relationship to God. So even in death they put their trust in God. And in death He is the only one who can see us safely through it.

A nation is exalted by righteousness. In the West our societies are doing their best to break every one of God's laws, in so doing we are heaping up condemnation upon ourselves.

Verse 2 shows the importance of fearing the Lord. When we reject the Lord we become our own judge, we become proud, and we become devious. We need an outside authority, something beyond ourselves, to keep us on a straight track.

Verse 10 says that each heart knows it owns bitterness and its own joy. We need to understand that no one else, not even a wife or husband, will fully appreciate both the pain and the joy that we experience in life. So instead of reacting with bitterness when we find that others do not fully understand us, we should be grateful for the degree of understanding that we do find.

Verse 21 ties in nicely with Jesus' parable of the good Samaritan, in response to the question "who is my neighbour". Our neighbour is anyone who is needy whom we encounter.

Never let envy take a hold of your life, for it will only bring decay to your life (v30).

Proverbs 13

We will start again with the sayings relating to righteousness, but there are fewer of them in this chapter, so will look at something else as well.

The righteous:

• Hate what is false (v5)
• Righteousness guards the person of integrity (v6)
• Their light shines brightly (v9)
• Are rewarded with good things (v21)
• Eat to their hearts' content (v25)

So the sayings concerning the righteous start with qualities of the righteous and then turn to the fruit. It is so easy to lose a good reputation, so easy to gain a bad reputation, so we should guard what we have most carefully. We are meant to shine in the world. Indeed the New Testament has several verses on this, in particular Jesus' words about not hiding our light, and Paul's words in Philippians about shining like stars in the darkness. Righteousness will benefit us in life.

There are two key proverbs on fulfilled and unfulfilled desires (v12, 19). Unfulfilled desires are very difficult to deal with, whereas fulfilled one act as a spur to our life, they energise us. So what do we do with unfulfilled desires, for we all have them? Sometimes they are not fulfilled because they would not be good for us, but we need to recognise that there are desires that are good and are not, or at least not yet, fulfilled. We need to recognise the reality of the difficulty and pain that that causes.

Proverbs 12

I am going to continue yet again with the theme of righteousness:

• Cannot be uprooted (v3)
• His plans are just (v5)
• Speech rescues them (v6)
• House of the righteous stands firm (v7)
• Care for the needs of animals (v10)
• Their root flourishes (v12)
• No harm overtakes them (v21)
• Choose their friends carefully (v26)
• There is life in their path and it leads to immortality (v28)

Why am I persisting with this theme? . One, it is one way to look at Proverbs. We could take each verse on its own, and that would be a perfectly good thing to do, but doing things this way can sometimes bring out things we would otherwise miss. You could apply the same technique to other words or themes. 

Verses 3 and 7 reminds us of Jesus' words about the man who listens to His words and does them being the one who builds upon a rock.

We might look at verses like 21 and say "it is not true", for we all know good people who have experienced great harm, we may even have done so ourselves. This is part of the reason why I said in an earlier post that it is a mistake to read these as "laws" or "rules", it is better to read them as principles. We are in a far better position if we are righteous, it will make us far more secure. Now it does not mean we will not suffer for various reasons. (i) we still have sin us; (ii) others will sin against us; (iii) we live in a fallen and therefore imperfect world. But even when harm does befall us we will be in a far better position to recover.

Proverbs 11 - Righteousness

I am going to continue looking at the theme of righteousness in Proverbs. So what does this chapter tell us that righteousness does:

• Delivers us from death (v4)
• Makes our paths straight (v5)
• Delivers them (v6)
• Rescued from trouble (v8)
• Escape danger through knowledge (v9)
• Bring joy to a city when we prosper (v10)
• Reap a sure reward (v18)
• Go free (v21)
• Our desires lead to good (v23)
• Thrive like a green leaf (v28)
• Our fruit is a tree of life (v30)
• Receive their due on the earth (v31)

Now we know that it is in Christ that we are made righteous. We are brought back into relationship with God, our sins are forgiven, and Christ's righteousness is credited to us.

So we should look to these promises to be fulfilled in our lives. We know that we will be raised to eternal life after we die. But most of these proverbs apply to this life, so we should expect fruit now.

Knowing that we are forgiven makes our paths straight. We have the security of belonging to God. So that when many things assail us in life we are able to maintain a wise course. 

We have also repented, ie turned away from our ways and turned towards Christ's ways.

Many of these promises talk about being rescued. We will face trouble, but in Christ we will overcome it.

And our success will bring riches to others. Many of the proverbs contrast the opposite effects of "good" and "bad". When men make money through dishonest or exploitative means it impoverishes all but a few in society, and the effects of this are all too easy to see. But wealth is not the problem. When the righteous prosper it brings joy to many.

We thrive like a green leaf. A green leaf thrives because it is receiving water and nutrients up through the root system. When we put our faith in Christ we become reconnected to God, and we start to receive our sustenance from the supply we are meant to receive it from. This will bring health to our minds and bodies.

We all face many things and go through many trials, but we should look to God with expectancy. Through Christ and in Christ we will overcome.

Proverbs 10 - Righteousness

Back to Proverbs for a while now and we embark on the bulk of Proverbs which is a series of pithy one-liners. In reading these we must remember that they are proverbs, they are not laws. This becomes clearest when we come to the part where two adjacent proverbs flatly contradict each other.

A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son grief to his mother. Why is it the mother that feels the grief? No doubt the father would be upset too, but fathers tend to have the attitude, "he has made his decision and has to take the consequences". Anyway, whether we are wise or foolish, our behaviour has an impact on people beyond ourselves.

There are several themes in these proverbs, let's just look at one of them

Righteousness

• Delivers from death (v2)
• Blessings crown our head (v6)
• Give us a good name (v7)
• Speak words that are a fountain of life (v11)
• Brings life (v16)
• Speak good words (v20)
• Speak words that build others up (v21)
• Their desires are granted (v24)
• Stand firm forever, even in the midst of storms (v25)
• Joy is our heritage (v28)
• Will never be uprooted (v30)
• Speak words of wisdom (v31)
• Speak positive words (v32)

These are the fruit of the righteousness that Christ brings. There are many other things in this chapter. We cannot focus on them all at once. If there is some other that has grabbed your heart as you read the chapter, then meditate upon that.

Luke 12:49-59 - Division

Sometimes popular views of Jesus are totally without foundation. The popular conception is that Jesus is all "love" and no judgement. Nothing could be further from the truth, and a simple reading of the gospels reveals this. Jesus is both love and judgement. 

Here Jesus says He came to "bring fire on the earth". Moreover He is eager to do this! He came to bring a separation, there will be a separation between those who belong to God and those who do not. In the present times we are seeing our society become increasingly anti-Christian. We should not despair when we see this happening, for it is not the world's plan that is being fulfilled but God's plan.

However, before the judgement Jesus had to go to the cross. But division will come and this will affect some of the deepest parts of life. Even families will be divided. Now we need to read this carefully. Jesus is not giving a law here! He is not saying every family will be divided, but there will be families that are divided. We should bear this in mind as sometimes we have a simplistic notion that if only we bring our children up properly they are bound to become Christians. This is not so. Every human being is born in sin, and every human being needs to repent and believe, and not everyone will. However, don't go to the other extreme! It is far better to bring our children up well, and this will bear fruit!

Jesus then rebukes the crowd because they had no idea what was going on. They could predict the weather, but did not realise that God was calling them to repentance. We will do all we can to avoid confronting the reality of our sin.

Luke 12:35-48 - Servants who are ready

Chasing after money or worries about life can so easily distract us from doing what really matters, as Jesus tells us in the parable of the sower. Here Jesus urges His disciples to always be ready for service. The servants a wedding would not know exactly when the master would return from a wedding banquet, but had to be ready to jump into action whenever he did and have everything ready. We are always to be ready to serve the King and will not always receive warning. Then Jesus says that He will serve them and have them recline at the table. The relationship between God and His people is truly amazing and does not fit any of our man-made pigeon holes.

The key thing is that we are always ready to serve and we do not know the hour. In Matthew a similar message is given in the context of the return of Christ. Some people are obsessed with all sorts of details about the last days, and some are even stupid enough to predict actual dates. If you want to lose your credibility then a good way to do this is to predict the date of the second coming.

In all of Jesus' teaching on His return the emphasis is on being faithful servants now so we will be ready whenever He returns. In fact Jesus' words here are very direct, even harsh. There is work to be done so we don't have time to engage in idle speculations. 

While this is applied to the return of Christ it also has more immediate application. We do not know what Jesus will ask us to do today, or what He might require of us tomorrow. We should constantly be working to prepare ourselves. 

The judgement will take account of how much someone knows. If God has revealed stuff to us then we have a greater responsibility.

Luke 12:22-34 - No worries

"Do not worry". Notice also the emphatic "Therefore I tell you". These words come direct from Jesus. It is part of the human condition to worry about things, especially our daily needs. This is not the way things are in the kingdom. There is also the "therefore", referring to back to the warnings on money not providing the security we so often think it does. The dominance of worry in human lives is part of our fallen condition. When Christ comes in to our lives it is something that the Spirit will work on changing.

Jesus then gives reasons for not worrying. First life is more than food and clothes. God created us for a greater purpose than just existing, and He has saved us for a greater purpose. Then Jesus points to nature. The birds are provided with food. Notice also that "God feeds them", it is not just chance that the birds are fed. We are more important than birds.

Moreover, worrying doesn't actually achieve anything, in fact it will only make things worse. Yet we are so addicted to worry and anxiety, we need to be set free from this addiction.

Next Jesus points to the wild flowers, they do not labour or spin, yet God clothes them. See again it is God who does it, it does not just happen. Flowers are here one day and gone the next, we are more important than flowers, so how much more attention does God to give to us? We need to realise how precious we are to God. 

The pagan world spends all its time chasing after money, we were called to something greater. So we should seek first the kingdom, and these things will be given to us as well. 

We are not to live in fear and do not need to do so. The Father has been pleased to give us the kingdom. Just consider that statement. So what are the consequences? We are free to give, free to be generous towards others. In so doing we store up treasure in heaven where it is perfectly secure.

Luke 12:13-21 - Money is not that important

We are always ready to argue about money and it is one of the biggest causes of disputes and divisions. Here someone wants Jesus to sort out a financial dispute with his brother. When we get uptight about something we will often find our vision clouded. We become so focused or obsessed about the issue that we cannot see anything else, and we usually become absolutely convinced that we are in the right and the other party is in the wrong. However, when we take things to God we will often find that He has a very different perspective on things. This means we should definitely take things to God for we need our thinking to be changed, though we usually think it is the other person's thinking that needs to be changed.

Jesus replies in an interesting way, He asks "who appointed me a judge between you". Now given that Christ is going to judge the whole earth you might think that He could surely judge between these two. However, this is to misunderstand the purpose of God. God created us to be independent beings making godly decisions out of godly attitudes. Even "solving" this one problem would actually achieve very little, for they would just find something else to argue about a day or two later. Instead their heart attitude needed to change.

We get so excited about money because we think it so important. Our life does not consist of the abundance of our possessions, yet it causes us such anguish if we think we are not being treated fairly. It can also result in greed. 

Jesus then illustrates the point by a parable. A man devotes all his efforts to making money and is very pleased with the results. Then God speaks to him and calls him a fool. 

Now the problem is not with being rich, the problem is with not being rich towards God (and that includes being rich towards the poor). However, our hearts can be so corrupted that we will change this to mean "I will give to God and the poor so that I can be rich". This is such a wrong and misguided attitude for our focus is still on money. We need to guard and watch our hearts very carefully in matters of finance.

Luke 12:1-12 - Whom should we fear?

After the incident with the Pharisees Jesus gives a warning to His disciples to avoid the hypocrisy that inflicted the Pharisees. You see, the capacity for sin resides in all of us. We can see the fruit of this very easily in others, but we are often strangely blind to seeing the sin in our own lives. We are all prone to hypocrisy, so we all need to be on our guard against it.

Our hearts deceive us, they tell us that no one will know, no one has seen, therefore we can get away with it. But this is not true. God sees everything and everything will be brought to light, some at the final judgement, some in this life, but it will be brought to light.

The Pharisees lived to please men, to gain praise from men. We can live in fear of men, but this is stupid. It is God whom we should fear, for He is the one with all power and authority, He can throw our body into hell. 

Yet this awesome God actually cares for us. So when we truly fear God fear actually goes. Oh what fools we are when we rebel against God!

Jesus is quite clear that there is a spiritual kingdom, a spiritual court, that we should be more concerned about than any earthly kingdom. We should seek to be acknowledged by Christ in this court.

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is then mentioned. No one really knows for sure exactly what this means, but it probably involves rebelling against the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Receiving clear inner revelation and rejecting it.

Jesus then goes on to tell them that when they are hauled before courts and councils the Holy Spirit will give them words to say, He will witness through them. In rejecting this the courts and councils could be blaspheming against the Holy Spirit.

Luke 11:37-54 - Be careful who you invite for dinner!

Be careful who you invite for dinner! The Pharisee was being hospitable, inviting Jesus for dinner. Little did he know what he was letting himself in for.

Jesus did not wash before the meal. Now this is not a matter of hygiene, nor was it a matter of the Law. Rather it was a matter of traditions added by the Pharisees. God is free to choose whether or not He follows our man-made customs. Whatever branch of the church we are in there will be a number of customs we have that may be perfectly harmless, and often beneficial, but God is under no obligation to them and it is His church, not ours.

We have a terrible habit of becoming focused on our own customs and traditions and ignoring what really matters. In this case Jesus draws attention to the fact that what really counts is the condition of a man's heart. Is what is on the inside that determines the fruit our lives will produce. We do not do bad things because the laws are wrong, but because we are wrong. Jesus then tells them to give generously to the poor. Why does He suddenly introduce this? Probably because greed and lack of concern for the poor was a key sin for them. 

Jesus then expands on the sin of the Pharisees. They were so pernickety about little things, but neglected what was really important, namely justice and love for God.

The Pharisees sought honour for themselves, instead for others.

They were unmarked graves. Now this is a very stinging indictment of them. If someone walked over an unmarked grave they would become unclean (Num 19:16). The Pharisees saw themselves as guardians of the Law, true examples of Godliness. In reality, if people came into contact with them they would become defiled.

An expert in the Law intervened, only to receive a bunch of similar criticisms. Far from helping people keep the Law they kept people from God. They put burdens on people, and made it harder for them to enter the kingdom.

Naturally the Pharisees and teachers of the Law were non too pleased, and looked for a way to trap Him.

Luke 11:33-36 - Light or darkness within?

What Jesus did was done in plain sight. Likewise He puts the church on public display. Society is trying to make Christianity a purely private matter, but this is not God's plan so it will not succeed. Jesus is the light of the world and light is there to be seen. There is no point having a light and then hiding it.

The way that we look at things has a deep affect on the heart of our being. Two people can go through the same circumstances, the same situation, but respond very differently. The difference is the way we look at things. Someone who is full of insecurity will take constructive criticism as a personal attack, so will learn nothing, will feel even more belittled, and it may also damage their relationship with the person who is trying to help them. Another person may take the criticism on board, consider it carefully and change their behaviour or attitudes. In doing so they will be built up, and the relationship with the other person will be enhanced.

We need the love of Christ within us, and we need to live and react out of that love. 

Luke 11:29-32 - A message of repentance

"This is a wicked generation". While John the Baptist was very direct in his preaching, calling people a "brood of vipers", Jesus was often blunt about the reality of our condition. The gospel was not sent to save a people who are basically alright and just need a little help, or would be ok if only they weren't under oppression of some sort. It was sent to save a sinful people and we need to face up to the reality of our sin if we are to make any progress. Indeed it is only then that we can properly appreciate the good news.

Jesus rebukes the generation for demanding a sign, and says that none will be given to it. Now this is a little odd for Jesus did loads of miracles, ie He gave them lots of signs. But though signs were abounding their eyes were blind so they did not receive any of them. The people were always questioning Jesus, but it was themselves that they needed to question. Jonah went to Nineveh (eventually) and preached a message of judgement, the city was saved when they repented of their sins. In the same way Jesus was preaching judgement upon Israel. The gospel is partly a message of judgement. It tells us that on our own merits we are under a sentence of death.

The Queen of Sheba recognised the wisdom of Solomon, but Israel failed to recognise the much greater wisdom of Jesus. Israel considered herself better than the other nations, but in reality she was much worse. 

Repentance is at the heart of the gospel.

Luke 11:14-28 - Casting out demons

Most of the casting out of demons seems to have been fairly quick. Here it says He "was driving out" which may imply it was taking a little longer, but equally that could be reading too much into it. The demon had caused the man to be mute and after the demon was gone the man could speak. Some conditions are related to demonic causes. Now this does not mean that if someone is mute then the effect is always the result of a demon, but it does mean that demons can be the primary cause of physical conditions. So when a demon is driven out the "patient" will experience a direct physical benefit, as happened here. 

Most of the crowd were amazed because they saw the reality of what had happened. However, others said He was using satanic powers to do this, and asked for a sign from heaven. Now this seems strange at first, for they had just seen a veritable miracle, so what is the sign they want? However, what they are asking for is a sign that Jesus is acting in Godly power, not satanic power.

Jesus points out they are talking a load of nonsense. Why would Satan drive out Satan? So it is patently ridiculous for satanic power to be used to drive out demons.

Conversely it is precisely the thing that you would expect God to do. If Jesus was indeed using Godly power (which of course He was), then the kingdom is here. When the kingdom comes there will be power demonstrations. Jesus has come to set people free, some are bound up by demons, so it is logical for Him to go around setting people free from demons.

Jesus then takes things further, lest anyone thinks that having a demon cast out is all that they need. It might be necessary, but it is not sufficient. If nothing else happens the demon may come back with several friends and the person ends up in a worse condition. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Someone calls out that Jesus' mother is blessed, and Jesus replies that it those who hear the word of God and obey who are blessed. People will often find a way to avoid believing and obeying the word of God. They will see or hear something that is truly Godly, and then make some statement of praise, but they are not committing themselves to God.

Luke 11:5-13 - Prayers will be answered

Having told them what to pray, Jesus now tells how prayer works, correcting misconceptions we have about God and our relationship with Him. If we are honest we think that God is reluctant to answer prayer, reluctant to grant our requests. So Jesus gives a parable of a man going to a friend at midnight. The one inside is indeed initially reluctant, but because of the persistence and audacity of the man he eventually grants the request. Indeed it is not the friendship that makes the man give. So if we will grant a request for these reasons how much more will God give to His children?

So Jesus urges us to ask, seek and knock. God is generous and He delights to give.

So having given an example based on pure persistence, Jesus now gives an illustration based on relationship. We often think that God has got it in for us. Yet we , "who are evil", know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? Note the casual reference to us being evil! 

This is not a get what you want sanction, but is a guarantee of growth in the Holy Spirit for those who seek God. If we want to grow in Christ today, if we are facing battles in following Him, if we are seeking the way ahead, we can pray with boldness and absolute confidence that our Father hears us and will answer abundantly.

Luke 11:1-4 - The Lord's prayer

Jesus was praying and after He had finished one of the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. Evidently John the Baptist taught his disciples to pray. 

Jesus then gives them what we variously call the "Lord's prayer", though it is perhaps more accurate to call it the disciples' prayer as it is what we are meant to pray. This is very similar to the version given in Matthew 6:9-13. I don't think Jesus requires us to pray this word for word (though there is no harm in doing this), but more of a pattern of prayer, and showing the essential elements. 

First, we address God as Father, or Father in Heaven. We have a relationship with God. God's intention is that we live in a family relationship with Him, and all His actions are geared at achieving this. 

Next we pray for His name to be honoured, and His kingdom to come. The form in which most of know the prayer obviously expands this, and other parts of the prayer a little. But our goal is for God's kingdom to come, His rule on the earth.

Then we pray for our daily provision. God provides our needs day by day and it is right to ask Him for our needs.

We also need to pray for forgiveness, we also need to forgive others. It is a normal part of life that we need to be forgiven, and we need to forgive others.

We also ask God not to lead us into temptation. It is so easy for us to be trapped, we ask God to keep us away from such traps.

Luke 10:38-42 - A question of priorities

Mary and Martha also appear in John's gospel in relation to the raising of Lazarus. They got to know Jesus because they opened their home to Him. We need to open our homes to Jesus, and that includes allowing people into our lives.

It was Martha who took the initiative here, but it was Mary who seemed to make the most of the situation. It was Martha who took the initiative, enabled things to happen and took care of all the practicalities. She started to feel resentful of the fact that Mary was just listening to Jesus, while Martha was doing nothing but housework. 

In some ways Jesus' answer seems quite harsh, commending Mary and rebuking Martha (albeit quite gently). But we so easily get our priorities wrong. The practicalities do matter and do need to be taken care of, but they must not be allowed to dominate. We should also note that this is Jesus' response to Martha. It was what she needed to hear. If He had been talking to Mary maybe He would have said something different.

You see often when we go to God, we want God to tell some other person what they need to do differently. We also have the same attitude when we go to a church leader. We want someone else to change. Now that person may well need to change, but when we go to God He is more concerned with how we need to change.