Max Lucado Daily: Quiet Providence - October 5, 2021
The dramatic story of Esther includes a clueless brute of a king; a devious, bloodthirsty Haman; a nation of Jews under threat of extermination. Mordecai, defiant and determined. Esther, gorgeous and gutsy.
Haman is the villain of the story. And Mordecai, an exiled Jew, really got under his skin. Esther 2:7 says, “Mordecai had a cousin…whom he had brought up.” Esther “had a lovely figure and was beautiful.” And God? Where is God in the story?
You know, the book of Esther is one of the two books in the Bible that never mention the name of God. But a gold nugget lies in the substratum of the Esther story – quiet providence. Providence is the term theologians use to describe God’s continuous control over history. He is regal, he is royal, and—this is essential—he is right here. And he is right here for you.
Matthew 26:1-35
Anointed for Burial
When Jesus finished saying these things, he told his disciples, “You know that Passover comes in two days. That’s when the Son of Man will be betrayed and handed over for crucifixion.”
3-5 At that very moment, the party of high priests and religious leaders was meeting in the chambers of the Chief Priest named Caiaphas, conspiring to seize Jesus by stealth and kill him. They agreed that it should not be done during Passover Week. “We don’t want a riot on our hands,” they said.
6-9 When Jesus was at Bethany, a guest of Simon the Leper, a woman came up to him as he was eating dinner and anointed him with a bottle of very expensive perfume. When the disciples saw what was happening, they were furious. “That’s criminal! This could have been sold for a lot and the money handed out to the poor.”
10-13 When Jesus realized what was going on, he intervened. “Why are you giving this woman a hard time? She has just done something wonderfully significant for me. You will have the poor with you every day for the rest of your lives, but not me. When she poured this perfume on my body, what she really did was anoint me for burial. You can be sure that wherever in the whole world the Message is preached, what she has just done is going to be remembered and admired.”
14-16 That is when one of the Twelve, the one named Judas Iscariot, went to the cabal of high priests and said, “What will you give me if I hand him over to you?” They settled on thirty silver pieces. He began looking for just the right moment to hand him over.
The Traitor
17 On the first of the Days of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Where do you want us to prepare your Passover meal?”
18-19 He said, “Enter the city. Go up to a certain man and say, ‘The Teacher says, My time is near. I and my disciples plan to celebrate the Passover meal at your house.’” The disciples followed Jesus’ instructions to the letter, and prepared the Passover meal.
20-21 After sunset, he and the Twelve were sitting around the table. During the meal, he said, “I have something hard but important to say to you: One of you is going to hand me over to the conspirators.”
22 They were stunned, and then began to ask, one after another, “It isn’t me, is it, Master?”
23-24 Jesus answered, “The one who hands me over is someone I eat with daily, one who passes me food at the table. In one sense the Son of Man is entering into a way of treachery well-marked by the Scriptures—no surprises here. In another sense that man who turns him in, turns traitor to the Son of Man—better never to have been born than do this!”
25 Then Judas, already turned traitor, said, “It isn’t me, is it, Rabbi?”
Jesus said, “Don’t play games with me, Judas.”
The Bread and the Cup
26-29 During the meal, Jesus took and blessed the bread, broke it, and gave it to his disciples:
Take, eat.
This is my body.
Taking the cup and thanking God, he gave it to them:
Drink this, all of you.
This is my blood,
God’s new covenant poured out for many people
for the forgiveness of sins.
“I’ll not be drinking wine from this cup again until that new day when I’ll drink with you in the kingdom of my Father.”
30 They sang a hymn and went directly to Mount Olives.
Gethsemane
31-32 Then Jesus told them, “Before the night’s over, you’re going to fall to pieces because of what happens to me. There is a Scripture that says,
I’ll strike the shepherd;
dazed and confused, the sheep will be scattered.
But after I am raised up, I, your Shepherd, will go ahead of you, leading the way to Galilee.”
33 Peter broke in, “Even if everyone else falls to pieces on account of you, I won’t.”
34 “Don’t be so sure,” Jesus said. “This very night, before the rooster crows up the dawn, you will deny me three times.”
35 Peter protested, “Even if I had to die with you, I would never deny you.” All the others said the same thing.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, October 05, 2021
Today's Scripture
Psalm 23
(NIV)
A psalm of David.
1 The Lord is my shepherd,t I lack nothing.u
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,v
3 he refreshes my soul.w
He guides mex along the right pathsy
for his name’s sake.z
4 Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,a a
I will fear no evil,b
for you are with me;c
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a tabled before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;e
my cupf overflows.
6 Surely your goodness and loveg will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
Insight
In the Old Testament, we’re accustomed to the writers using metaphors to describe God, and in most cases those metaphors are of inanimate objects. One such cluster of metaphors is found in Psalm 18:2: “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” In that verse alone, no less than five different inanimate metaphors are used—rock, fortress, shield, horn, stronghold. This is part of what sets Psalm 23 apart. It’s one of the most prominent passages in the Old Testament where a personal metaphor is used to describe God—the shepherd. In a culture rooted in agriculture (including shepherding), the nature of the relationship between a sheep and its shepherd would be well known, making this word picture a fitting way to understand how deeply our God cares for us. By: Bill Crowder
With Us in the Valley
I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
Psalm 23:4
As Hannah Wilberforce (aunt of British abolitionist William Wilberforce) lay dying, she wrote a letter in which she mentioned hearing about the death of a fellow believer in Jesus: “Happy is the dear man who is gone to glory, now in the presence of Jesus, whom unseen he loved. My heart seemed to jump for joy.” Then she described her own situation: “Myself, better and worse; Jesus, as good as ever.”
Her words make me think of Psalm 23, where David writes, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley [the valley of the shadow of death], I will fear no evil, for you are with me” (v. 4). Those words leap from the page because it’s there, in the middle of the valley of the shadow of death, where David’s description of God turns deeply personal. He moves from talking about God in the beginning of the psalm—“the Lord is my shepherd” (v. 1)—to talking to Him: “for you are with me” (v. 4, italics added).
How reassuring it is to know that almighty God who “brought forth the whole world” (90:2) is so compassionate that He walks with us through even the most difficult places. Whether our situation turns better or worse, we can turn to our Shepherd, Savior, and Friend and find Him “as good as ever.” So good that death itself is vanquished, and we will “dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (23:6). By: James Banks
Reflect & Pray
How does it comfort you to know that Jesus our Shepherd is always with you? How can you share that hope with someone today?
My Shepherd, thank You for Your perfect faithfulness and kindness to me. Help me to stay near You today.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, October 05, 2021
The Nature of Degeneration
Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned… —Romans 5:12
The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man’s sin, but that the nature of sin, namely, my claim to my right to myself, entered into the human race through one man. But it also says that another Man took upon Himself the sin of the human race and put it away— an infinitely more profound revelation (see Hebrews 9:26). The nature of sin is not immorality and wrongdoing, but the nature of self-realization which leads us to say, “I am my own god.” This nature may exhibit itself in proper morality or in improper immorality, but it always has a common basis— my claim to my right to myself. When our Lord faced either people with all the forces of evil in them, or people who were clean-living, moral, and upright, He paid no attention to the moral degradation of one, nor any attention to the moral attainment of the other. He looked at something we do not see, namely, the nature of man (see John 2:25).
Sin is something I am born with and cannot touch— only God touches sin through redemption. It is through the Cross of Christ that God redeemed the entire human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin. God nowhere holds a person responsible for having the heredity of sin, and does not condemn anyone because of it. Condemnation comes when I realize that Jesus Christ came to deliver me from this heredity of sin, and yet I refuse to let Him do so. From that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation. “This is the condemnation [and the critical moment], that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light…” (John 3:19).
Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else. “Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord”;… The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 537 L
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 23-25; Philippians 1
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, October 05, 2021
The Prize and the Prison - #9062
Actually the TV news report was a little amusing. These individuals came into the store, waving a piece of paper indicating they had just won a free DVD player, and they were coming to claim it. What they didn't know was that notice had been mailed by the police to their last known address. See, these people were wanted, but they had disappeared. But when they checked their mail, they had news of having won that DVD player. The amusing part came when the police arrested them on the spot as some of them were actually laughing at what they thought was a joke or some kind of a TV stunt. It was no joke. They were going to jail.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Prize and the Prison."
That's what the police call a "sting operation" I believe. And it really worked - offer something good just to capture people. And the police use that strategy to accomplish good things. Satan, however, has been using that strategy for a long time to accomplish his destructive purposes in people's lives. He might be using his "sting operation" to capture you right now.
The Bible describes his devious tactics in 2 Timothy 2:26, our word for today from the Word of God. Paul talks about people for whom it is his desire "that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will." I don't know anybody who wants to end up doing the will of the devil; whose desire is to be Satan's captive. But they fall into his clever trap, which is invariably baited with something good. Something that looks like will come from just a little compromise.
That lure might be the promise of sexual pleasure, or sexual conquest, or just a chance to feel loved. The lure could be a chance to get ahead or get out of a jam, just by a little lie or a little compromise of your integrity. Maybe the devil is tempting you with what looks like the advantages of leaving your marriage vows, the thrill or the relief from checking out a little pornography, the satisfaction of getting even, or the relief you'll get from abandoning a commitment.
The devil's basic strategy is pretty simple: get you obsessed with the prize you might get so you're blind to the trap you're walking into. He'll convince you that "it's just this once," "just a little," "it won't hurt." Lies. All lies. Jesus exposed the devil when he said he is "the father of lies" and "there is no truth in him" (John 8:44). He is, as Jesus said, the "thief" who comes "only to steal, kill and destroy." You'll not ultimately get what he seems to be offering - the satisfaction, the love, the excitement, the relief. It's just Satan's bait to take you captive and ruin everything he can in your life. But he'll promise you anything to get you to walk into his trap.
Now, while you can, run from that temptation that you've been flirting with, surrender yourself to Jesus. And in the Bible's words, "be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power...take your stand" the Bible says, "against the devil's schemes" (Ephesians 6:10-11).
If you're being lured into a "sting operation" from hell, you just can't afford to go for the prize that you'll actually never really get. But, of course, you won't know that until the handcuffs are on you and the cell door slams shut behind you. Please don't go there!