Day 5 - Thursday - Connect the Testaments: A 365-Day Devotions with Bible Reading Plan - Logos

 January 20: While You Are Waiting

Genesis 32–33; Matthew 24:29–25:13; Ecclesiastes 7:22–29

Jesus’ instructions to His disciples about His return have inspired many to incorrectly predict His second coming. But if we read His parables, we find that they’re not focused on the future. Jesus prepares His disciples for His absence and end times because He wants them to be hopeful, expecting His return. He wants them to be ready and watchful. But He wants them to do all of these things by fully engaging in the present, readying His kingdom.

Jesus’ parable of the Wise and Wicked Servants demonstrates this attitude. While the faithful and wise servant provides for the master’s household during his absence, the wicked servant uses the time flippantly: carousing and beating his fellow servants. When the master returns, the faithful servant is promoted for his service, and the wicked servant is punished. The parable presses the disciples to use their time wisely during Jesus’ absence by doing the work they were called to do.

The same exhortation goes out to us. Will we act like lone Christians—content to live life disconnected from God’s kingdom? Instead, we should be filled with hope, expectation, and overflowing with the good news. We should be willing to build up those around us and attract those who have no hope.

As easy as it is to forget the eternal in our everyday lives, we can just as easily forget what God’s work right now means for eternity. Being actively engaged in the present means spreading the good news and being involved in His work—using our gifts to nurture His coming kingdom.

Are you busy and active in God’s kingdom now? If not, what is keeping you from becoming so?

Rebecca Van Noord

January 21: Power, Authority, and Its Result

Genesis 34:1–35:15; Matthew 25:14–26:13; Ecclesiastes 8:1–9

“For there is a time and a way for everything, although man’s trouble lies heavy on him. For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be?” (Eccl 8:6).

We all struggle with the future and the vast uncertainty it creates in our minds. It’s rarely the present that keeps us awake at night; it’s our concerns about what will happen if the present changes for better or worse.

Why worry about that which you cannot change? But unlike other places in the Bible when we’re told not to worry, the words of Ecclesiastes 8:6 are set in the context of a request to obey the king of the land. This is not because the king is offered a solution to the problems, although he could potentially help because, like many other things, nothing can be done about him.

This situation is equated to life and death itself: “No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the way of death” (Eccl 8:8). The Preacher of Ecclesiastes then goes on to reflect the cultural reality of the time: “There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it.” Again, what can you change about it? If the king is corrupt, it will destroy him, like it will destroy others—it’s only a matter of time. Wickedness has no power to deliver, only the power to destroy.

And this is most pressing for reflection: Sin is often cast as an escape from life’s pains and sometimes feelings of meaninglessness, yet it really destroys life. (If only this reasoning was present in our thinking every time we were tempted.)

The Preacher of Ecclesiastes begins to draw his thoughts to a close-by telling us: People’s power over one another is “hurt”—it’s painful (Eccl 8:9). Here is a passage about the need for people to be governed (that’s likely written by one in power); we see the author admit that power will inflict pain, or more literally, “evil” or “badness.”

This startling reality forms another realization: In a world that was meant to have God as its king and ruler—in a world where that power only shifted after people sinned and were no longer allowed in the presence of their creator—it makes sense that management would corrupt. But we’re told: what can we do about it? The only thing we can do is be people who choose to follow the good—the good God—and work toward overthrowing evil and the battle against corruption. But we must, along the way, realize that worry and anxiety will only paralyze, not help.

What do you need to pray about that is worry or anxiety? In what ways can you be an agent of change in the world without succumbing to the pains it can bring?

John D. Barry

 Barry, John D., and Rebecca Kruyswijk. Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012. Print.