Matthew 27:51-66, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Living in a Faithless World - October 18, 2021

Early in the Book of Esther we read these words: “Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so” (Esther 2:10). The polytheistic Persians did not require their conquered peoples to give up their gods but they had to worship the Persian gods too. The Jews were to worship Jehovah God only. So, the question of Psalm 137:4 is the question of the book of Esther. “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” How does a person of faith live in a faithless world?

Mordecai and Esther initially created a world of hidden identity. You know, the compulsion to hide our identity as children of God affects us all. At work, at school, or in the bowling league. But at some point, each of us has to figure out who we are and what that identity means for our lives.

Matthew 27:51-66

At that moment, the Temple curtain was ripped in two, top to bottom. There was an earthquake, and rocks were split in pieces. What’s more, tombs were opened up, and many bodies of believers asleep in their graves were raised. (After Jesus’ resurrection, they left the tombs, entered the holy city, and appeared to many.)

54 The captain of the guard and those with him, when they saw the earthquake and everything else that was happening, were scared to death. They said, “This has to be the Son of God!”

55-56 There were also quite a few women watching from a distance, women who had followed Jesus from Galilee in order to serve him. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the Zebedee brothers.
The Tomb

57-61 Late in the afternoon a wealthy man from Arimathea, a disciple of Jesus, arrived. His name was Joseph. He went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. Pilate granted his request. Joseph took the body and wrapped it in clean linens, put it in his own tomb, a new tomb only recently cut into the rock, and rolled a large stone across the entrance. Then he went off. But Mary Magdalene and the other Mary stayed, sitting in plain view of the tomb.

62-64 After sundown, the high priests and Pharisees arranged a meeting with Pilate. They said, “Sir, we just remembered that that liar announced while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will be raised.’ We’ve got to get that tomb sealed until the third day. There’s a good chance his disciples will come and steal the corpse and then go around saying, ‘He’s risen from the dead.’ Then we’ll be worse off than before, the final deceit surpassing the first.”

65-66 Pilate told them, “You will have a guard. Go ahead and secure it the best you can.” So they went out and secured the tomb, sealing the stone and posting guards.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Monday, October 18, 2021

Today's Scripture
Ecclesiastes 3:1–7
(NIV)

A Time for Everything

3 There is a timeg for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:

2    a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,h

3    a time to killi and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

4    a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5    a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

6    a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7    a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silentj and a time to speak,

Insight

Ecclesiastes may seem pessimistic, and we might easily read today’s poem about time in a depressingly fatalistic light. After all, the poem begins by balancing the miracle of birth against the stony phrase “a time to die” (3:2). Essential to this elegantly honest lyric is the section that immediately follows (vv. 9–14). “[God] has made everything beautiful in its time,” wrote the wise author of Ecclesiastes (v. 11). Then he noted, “He has also set eternity in the human heart” (v. 11). This awareness of the eternal motivates us to look beyond ourselves (and beyond this time-bound earth) to discover true meaning. We find it only in the eternal One. “Everything God does will endure forever,” wrote the wise man (v. 14). We can live joyfully in the acknowledgment of this great eternal God, who gives us genuine meaning in this life and a forever future in the next. By: Tim Gustafson

A Time to Speak

There is a time for everything . . . a time to be silent and a time to speak.
Ecclesiastes 3:1, 7

For thirty long years, the African American woman worked faithfully for a large global ministry. Yet when she sought to talk with co-workers about racial injustice, she was met with silence. Finally, however, in the spring of 2020—as open discussions about racism expanded around the world—her ministry friends “started having some open dialogue.” With mixed feelings and pain, she was grateful discussions began.

Silence can be a virtue in some situations. As King Solomon wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: . . . a time to be silent and a time to speak” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 7).

Silence in the face of bigotry and injustice, however, only enables harm and hurt. Lutheran pastor Martin Niemoeller (jailed in Nazi Germany for speaking out) confessed that in a poem he penned after the war. “First they came for the Communists,” he wrote, “but I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.” He added, “Then they came for” the Jews, the Catholics, and others, “but I didn’t speak up.” Finally, “they came for me—and by that time there was no one left to speak up.”

It takes courage—and love—to speak up against injustice. Seeking God’s help, however, we recognize the time to speak is now. By:  Patricia Raybon

Reflect & Pray

Why is it important not to be silent during discussions about injustice? What hinders your willingness to engage in such dialogue?

Dear God, release my tongue and heart from the enemy’s grip. Equip me to see and feel the harm of injustice so that I may speak up for those hurt by this sin.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, October 18, 2021
The Key to the Missionary’s Devotion

…they went forth for His name’s sake… —3 John 7

Our Lord told us how our love for Him is to exhibit itself when He asked, “Do you love Me?” (John 21:17). And then He said, “Feed My sheep.” In effect, He said, “Identify yourself with My interests in other people,” not, “Identify Me with your interests in other people.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 shows us the characteristics of this love— it is actually the love of God expressing itself. The true test of my love for Jesus is a very practical one, and all the rest is sentimental talk.

Faithfulness to Jesus Christ is the supernatural work of redemption that has been performed in me by the Holy Spirit— “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit…” (Romans 5:5). And it is that love in me that effectively works through me and comes in contact with everyone I meet. I remain faithful to His name, even though the commonsense view of my life may seemingly deny that, and may appear to be declaring that He has no more power than the morning mist.

The key to the missionary’s devotion is that he is attached to nothing and to no one except our Lord Himself. It does not mean simply being detached from the external things surrounding us. Our Lord was amazingly in touch with the ordinary things of life, but He had an inner detachment except toward God. External detachment is often an actual indication of a secret, growing, inner attachment to the things we stay away from externally.

The duty of a faithful missionary is to concentrate on keeping his soul completely and continually open to the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. The men and women our Lord sends out on His endeavors are ordinary human people, but people who are controlled by their devotion to Him, which has been brought about through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence.  Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L

Bible in a Year: Isaiah 53-55; 2 Thessalonians 1

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, October 18, 2021
Destination Sickness - #9071

I once met a man with a painful illness, and actually we were in a very beautiful place. He owns a charming inn and it's furnished in every room with this great antique collection. It's quite a place to stay. Let's call him Art. Now, his inn is probably one of the most highly praised inns in the country, and it's not just another place to stay. I mean it gets rave reviews in every tourist book you read.

One night when my wife and I were privileged to stay there, he wandered in and talked to us about some of the success he'd had on Wall Street in a previous career. But he said, "You know, after I achieved everything I wanted to on Wall Street, I was looking for something. And I thought, 'Yeah, I know. I want an inn, in a real charming place.'"

And he got the best. He restored it to its early 19th Century charm; he worked real hard on it. And you know what else he told us that night? He said, "Now I'm looking for something else. I want to turn this over to my son." Seems like he was always looking for something else, and maybe you are too. You might have the same illness that Art has.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Destination Sickness."

Our word for today from the Word of God, we're in Ecclesiastes 3:11 written by King Solomon. Now, here's a man who, like our friend who owned the quaint inn, pursued one dream after another. And every time he came up saying, "I'm still looking for something." He called everything he had accomplished, whether it was the monuments he built, the palace he built, the women he had experienced, the riches that he had, the intelligence he had, he called it all one thing--"chasing the wind." And in the same book where he says that, his personal diary - Ecclesiastes, he says in verse 11, our word for today from the Word of God, an explanation for why man is incurably dissatisfied. Here it is: "God has set eternity in the hearts of men." Wow!

See, there's this infinite vacuum inside of you and me that cannot be filled by anything finite. A business won't do it; a lifetime dream of what you wanted to own won't do it. There's this incurable need for a life center that never ends. We have eternity in our hearts; we've got to have something eternal there. And we have destination sickness. It's that feeling you get of restlessness whenever you get where you wanted to go, but don't get what you wanted to find.

After a career in tennis and then a divorce that followed, the famous tennis star Chris Evert said in an interview years ago, "My husband and I would often sit down at breakfast with everything we had and say, 'There must be something more.'" Well, there is. Jesus said, "I have come so you may have far more life than you've ever had before." Maybe like that restless inn keeper, you always end up looking for something. Well, I want to tell you today, the something is someone. You've tried to find peace in a successful career, or the right house, or car, or clothes, or family, or relationships, or pleasure, but you just can't fill that hole.

Well, let me invite you to the only place where your search will end - where millions of people, including me, have come to the end of their search - the cross where Jesus Christ died for you. See, He died to remove the sin-wall between you and the God who was made to live in that vacuum in your heart. Jesus dealt with the cause of God being missing in all our lives. It's our sin. It's our self-will. It's our breaking His laws. It's our running our life instead of Him running them. And then He walked out of His grave under His own power, so He's alive to walk into our lives and change them, and fill that hole in your heart. It doesn't have to be there any longer. Why would you waste any more years or days looking where there are no answers and there's no ultimate fulfillment?

Tell Jesus today, "You are the end of my search. You died for me; You're alive today. I am sorry for my sin. Forgive me. Jesus, I'm Yours." So many people have gone to our website to find help in knowing how to make sure they belong to this Jesus. I would invite you to do that today. It's ANewStory.com.

Look, you can try some other destinations that won't fill that hole, or you can come home today; home to the One who made you for Himself.