Day 21: Promises

Luke 16; Genesis 27:46-28:22

The things that most people think are valuable are actually worthless according to God.  Things like status, people’s opinions, fame, wealth, looks, social acceptance.  These don’t matter to God because they are not eternal and not important.

There is also a small passage in here about a man not getting divorced and marrying again or marrying a divorced woman.  People have probably taken this to mean that you shouldn’t marry a person that has been divorced, but I think what Jesus is talking about here is that the real crime is not fulfilling the promise made.  Was divorce allowed in the Old Testament Law?  That is what God was just talking about—perhaps that people were not obeying it at all and God is reminding them that the Law is still important, it is still present, there is just something that fulfills it and overshadows it—Jesus Christ.  When God made a promise, he kept it.  As humans, if we are trying to be like Christ, if we make a promise, like the promise to serve him, be married, raise godly children, then he expects us to keep it.  But it is much tougher for us to keep our promises.  Why?  Because we aren't God.  We need God's help to keep those promises.  I think part of the reason for all the unfulfilled promises, broken marriages, torn families, is because somewhere in the mix of it all, God was not the center.  The focus shifted elsewhere, and when the focus is on something other than The Lord, that is when sin enters and Satan seeks to destroy.  What's the best advice anyone can receive?  Keep God at the center of your life.

The story of the rich man and Lazarus is amazing.  First, Lazarus receives honor right up front by being named by Jesus, while the rich man in the story isn’t given a name.  Secondly, even in Hell, the rich man is still the same, selfish person he was.  Books and stories (like Rob Bell’s Love Wins) that are saying people can change after they die—I think this is proof that they won’t.  Also, Abraham tells him that no one can cross over from Hell to Heaven—more proof that people won’t or can’t.  And finally, Jesus lays it plain here, that people who won’t believe the signs in the Old Testament about God will not believe in him and how Jesus was raised from the dead.  More miracles and signs will not change peoples’ hearts.  Perhaps that is why we do not see God parting seas or columns of fire in our day.  It wouldn’t change people like it did in Abraham and Moses’ day.  So if you were hoping for a burning ring of fire, you'll have to settle for the soundtrack.