Thursday, January 20 ~ Miriam

Today's reading from the Chronological OT/NT Reading Plan is Job 30-31; Matthew 13:31-58.

Verses 40-42 in today's Matthew chapter speak about the end of the age.  The weeds (those who do evil) were permitted to grow because the owner said "...while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them," so at the end of the age, the harvesters (angels) will "weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil... then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." 

Someone I know was telling me a few months ago that she is terribly afraid because of everything bad she sees on the news going on in the world around us.  She said she wishes God would just take all that evil out of the world and let the good live in peace.  (She told me that she reads the Bible often and prays every day, but her Biblical knowledge is limited, at best, from what our following conversation revealed.)  Apparently she believes that the world used to be a kinder, gentler, less violent place and it's only become like this recently.  I tried to explain to her that sin has existed since Adam and Eve and that evil has always been in the world - in fact, the world was already so evil thousands of years ago that God destroyed every living thing that wasn't on the ark with a flood.  We may have come up with some new and creative ways of implementing evil desires, but human nature and the desires themselves haven't changed.  I won't go into all the details of the conversation, as it was fairly lengthy, but all this to say that I've come to believe that everything that happens, bad and good, serves a purpose and is not in vain, as I said last week.  The weeds must come up with the wheat, but in the end, we're told more than once in today's passage alone, the weeds will be separated from the wheat, or the bad fish will be separated from the good and thrown away.  I want to be the wheat.  I want to be the good fish.  Someday, I want to shine like the sun in the kingdom of my Father. 

Which brings me to the parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl.  This really spoke to me today.  The man who found the treasure in the field sold all he had and bought that field.  The merchant found a pearl of great value, sold everything he had and bought it. 

I like nice stuff as much as the next person.  How often do I look on websites or in catalogues and wish I could afford to buy the things I see there?  Or I buy something less expensive, wishing I could afford the one I really wanted?  Pretty often these days, as we're renovating our house.  Most of the time I'm very content with what we have.  We don't have a large house, or a fancy house (and still won't when our renovations are complete), but it's nice and it's comfortable.  We don't have new vehicles or fancy vehicles, but they are reliable and meet our needs.  I don't have a lot of clothes or shoes or handbags, but what I have I'm comfortable wearing (or carrying) and they serve the purpose for which they're designed.  But would I be willing to sell all of it to get just one thing, even one thing of greater value than all my other stuff put together?  I sure hope so.  I pray that if push came to shove, and all I was going to have in this entire world was my faith in Jesus and the promise of heaven that I would give up all that is temporary for that which is eternal.

There's nothing wrong with having things, or even having nice or expensive things.  The problem comes in when those things take on too much importance to us.  Job lost everything - and not just material possessions - he lost his children, his health, the respect of the community, and the faith of his friends.  And still he said "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him."

May our faith be like the mustard seed - though it begins with the smallest seed, may it grow to be a tree.

Tomorrow's passage: Job 32-33; Matthew 14:1-21.