MARCH 23, 2019

“A great man is always willing to be little.” 

 Ralph Waldo Emerson

JOSHUA 9-10

22Then Joshua summoned the Gibeonites and said, “Why did you deceive us by saying, ‘We live a long way from you,’ while actually you live near us? 23You are now under a curse: You will never be released from service as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God.”

24They answered Joshua, “Your servants were clearly told how the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you the whole land and to wipe out all its inhabitants from before you. So we feared for our lives because of you, and that is why we did this. 25We are now in your hands. Do to us whatever seems good and right to you.”

26So Joshua saved them from the Israelites, and they did not kill them. 27That day he made the Gibeonites woodcutters and water carriers for the assembly, to provide for the needs of the altar of the Lord at the place the Lord would choose. And that is what they are to this day.

LUKE 3

9The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

10“What should we do then?” the crowd asked.

11John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”

12Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”

13“Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.

14Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”

He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”

JOURNAL

John's words command the people to give freely, do a job fairly, and be good to other people. It's not an impossible calling. Yet it is a command that requires that our identity not be rooted in comparisons, selfishness or jealousy.  John's teaching went to the heart of the people and Jesus ultimately came to connect all the dots and fulfill all that John taught. 

Our world is a world that thrives on comparisons and certainty. Advertising and our consumerism feed off of how we stack up to others and what others have that we don't.  We are bombarded by it from billboards to commercials to social media to television etc.  Amazingly Jesus took a different path...he took the one of a servant.  He rejected all the temptations to justify himself and exalt himself in comparisons. He simply submitted to obeying God and serving mankind.  What an amazing gracious God I serve.  

6Who, being in very nature^a God,did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;7rather, he made himself nothingby taking the very nature^b of a servant,being made in human likeness.8And being found in appearance as a man,he humbled himselfby becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!  

Philippians 2:6-8