Today's Reading: Matthew 3 & Genesis 7-9
Major Themes: John the Baptist (Mt.) and Noah (Gen.)
Key Verses: Matthew 3:11 & Genesis 7:5
One of the things I learned early on in my Bible study was to look for key verses. Verses that jump right off the page that sum up all the other verses written. I suppose when i read next year my "key verses" may change. We will see.
So why these verses?
In Genesis you read of Noah. You know, the guy who built the ark. I have often thought about Noah, spending so many years of his life building this large boat simply because God told him to. He had no other reason to do so. It's not as if the weather channel had the 120 year weather outlook. At best, with all of today's technology, we get a 10 day outlook...and that usually changes about 120 times during the course of those 10 days. I saw the movie"Evan Almighty" the other week and all the grief he went through building his ark...imagine 120 years of that kind of grief?!?! Yet Noah did it.
and why???
Well, the answer is found in Genesis 7:5 "So Noah did everything as the Lord commanded him." That's it. Noah did everything the Lord commanded him. Did it make sense?? Probably not. I am taken back to the famous Bill Cosby routine. Look it up. Download it off iTunes if you can. It's funny...and probably somewhat true. Read the whole account of Noah and ask yourself, if you were put in Noah's shoes, would you have done what God asked you to do? I am not sure I could say yes.
But Noah did.
Ponder the words of Genesis 7:5...now go and do likewise :-)
In Matthew we meet another man. A man similar to Noah in many ways. The thing I like most about John the Baptist is his attitude. It was one of great humility and understanding of his place in God's grand story. He knew he was important. He knew God loved him. He knew he was a special guy with a special purpose.
But John still knew his place.
Matthew 3:11 "“I baptize with water those who repent of their sins and turn to God. But someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not worthy even to be his slave and carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
"Someone is coming who is greater than I am-so much greater that I am not worthy even to be his slave and carry his sandals."
No worthy to carry some one's shoes?!?! How low do you have to be not to be worthy of the "honor" of carrying another's shoes?
Well, when the sandals belong to the creator of the universe...you can see his point.
See, John spoke these words about Jesus. His statement says less about him and far more about who Jesus is and the honor and reference...the "fear" he deserves. John knew it and he lived it.
Noah. simply following God when told and John with his humble reverence of Jesus...I long to be more like these guys in my life.
What do you think????
Tomorrow's Readings: Matthew 4 & Genesis 10-12
Erin,
ReplyDeleteI think today's post was really interesting. I thought it was amazing how Noah just decided to perform a job that required tremendous years of back-bending work just simply because God said so! It was definitely eye opening for me and showed me if I am obedient to God, spectacular things are going to happen in my life and other people's lives. And the passage in Mathew about John the Baptist, helps me see the love God has shown on us. He brought his one and only son to die for us - and we are not even worthy enough to carry Jesus' sandals!!!
Thank you for this scripture and I look forward to reading your posts.
That was awesome! I loved when I was reading how the dedication that the two men had to God was really effecting each of their life's. It was way kool. When I was reading Matthew something that stood out to me what how Humble Jesus was when he was baptized by John the Baptist. He told John that Jesus (Him) being baptized by John was what God had planned and was how it must be done.
ReplyDeleteSomething else that stood out to me was in Genesis, God loved us enough to wipe basically every body from the face of the Earth, but he directed Noah to do what he was to do. Then after he wiped everything off the earth, he had just the right amount of animals and people that the 6 Billion people that there are today, are alive and well. Also in Genesis, God made a promise to his people that he would never flood the Earth again and we can believe that promise because it was what God said.
I am looking forward to going through the bible in a year!!!
~Kaitlyn