Day 167: Jesus, Teacher of the Millennia

Mark 11:15-33; 1 Kings 2; Hosea 5:4-15

Jesus is a rockin' teacher. He gives hands-on lessons, does botany experiments, asks critical thinking questions, silences the naughty kids--he would definitely be teacher of the millennia in my book. In these verses, Jesus shows how angry he gets when people abuse the church and make it all about themselves and money and not about the gospel. When he gets to the fig tree that he cursed yesterday, he focuses on the power of prayer and faith. The point of the fig tree wasn't that it whithered, it was that Jesus prayed, had faith, and God answered his prayer. Then, Jesus is so smart that he outwits the Pharisees. He wasn't messing around. These stories all put people or things in their place--Jesus has no sympathy for the selfish, the unfruitful, and the schemers.

David's last words to his son, the new king, Solomon, include obeying everything that God teaches. He says "then you will be a success, no matter what you do or where you go." So many people think that they need to be a walking success before they bring Jesus into their lives; others think that by being a follower of Christ, we are guaranteed good times. Neither are right. Jesus needs to be Lord and Savior of our lives right now, but in no way does God promise a perfect life, even when we do follow Christ. What this verse is revealing is that when we obey God and love him and follow his commands, God's goodness and blessing will pour out on us whether we are in good times or bad. Whether we are on the mountain tops of life or in the valleys of darkness and despair, if we follow The Lord we will overcome and he will lead us to goodness.

One thing Solomon does right is honoring his mother. When she enters he bows and then brings her another throne so that she could sit at his right side. Women had very few rights during this time period and so Solomon's actions were very honorable. People should honor their parents. Now, some people have parents that have left their families or are untrustworthy, and in those cases I don't think children are required to trust their parents, but we can still give them some respect without fully relying on or trusting them. But then Solomon does something silly: he tells his mom he will do whatever she asks. That's just a bad idea and several people throughout scripture get in trouble for those types of statements. We have got to learn to be cautious with our words and our promises. God doesn't take promises lightly and neither should we.        

Solomon destroys the people that will get in the way of his purpose as king. While God does not call us to destroy other people, we do have a purpose and their are things that get in the way of that. Similarly to how Solomon kills the men who would betray him and cause him harm, we need to kill the desires, the sins, the selfishness in our lives that would do us harm. If Solomon would have kept those men around, he would have been living in a constant danger zone, not knowing who was faithful and what was going on. We don't need to live with sin or evil in our hearts and minds. By the power of God we can overcome those things, we can destroy them, and live a free life for Jesus.

If people think that God is some soft, gentle, wimpy God, they haven't read these passages in Hosea. God says that he will "become a fierce lion attacking Israel and Judah. I'll snatch and carry off what I want, and no one can stop me." Whoa. I've seen lions at the zoo, and even when they are napping they are frightening. I can't imagine one charging me with his teeth barred and ready to eat me. God isn't messing around; and yet so many people are so casual about him, like he doesn't care that they dishonor him. Reality check: he does, and he gets mad. God deserves our humble reverence and worship. We should have a healthy fear of him because he is God Almighty, maker of the universe, giver and taker of life.