August 30 – Day 243 – Jeremiah 50; Matthew 12

Jeremiah 50 foretells the fall of Babylon in great detail.  Intertwined with the telling of Babylon’s judgment is a promise that Israel and Judah will be restored.  One of the most powerful statements in the chapter is that when anyone looks for sin in Israel and Judah it will not be found, because the LORD will pardon their sin, not holding it against them.  The LORD tells Babylon, she has relied on her idols, but they won’t help her.  She has abused the nations, and Israel and Judah, now a group of nations will come from the north and destroy her.  Once again, the LORD will use pagan nations to overcome a pagan nation.  Babylon was used by the LORD, but did not turn to her.  Now, she will reap the consequences of her own actions.  In the end, we always do. Those who “sow” sin “reap” judgment, and those who “sow” righteousness “reap” life.  As we read through the chapter, we see how completely Babylon will be destroyed.  The LORD tells us Babylon will be as Sodom and Gomorrah.  It doesn’t get any worse than that, when the LORD pronounces judgment against a nation!

As we return to Matthew 12, we find Jesus and the religious leaders at odds once again.  This time, Jesus and His disciples were walking through a grain field on the Sabbath and some of them picked heads of grain and ate them.  The religious leaders condemned the action as “working” on the Sabbath.  Jesus responded with a couple examples from Jewish history of David “breaking” the Law by eating food reserved for priests, and of the priests working on the Sabbath with impunity to show the religious leaders were wrong.  Then Jesus made an incredible statement, “I tell you something greater than the temple is here.” (Matthew 12:6)  Jesus said those words about Himself.  He told the religious leaders He was greater than the temple!  Let’s stop to consider that for a moment. If Jesus was greater than the temple, the place where God dwelled, the place where the people’s sins were forgiven through the offering of sacrifices, the place where Jews from around the world came on pilgrimage at the times of all the holy days of Israel, then Jesus was saying He was the vehicle for all of that to take place.  That is incredible!  Jesus concluded this interaction by saying the religious leaders ought to remember the LORD wants compassion and not sacrifice.  He also told them He is LORD of the Sabbath.  This was a clear statement of His lordship.

Jesus continued to put Himself in conflict with the religious leaders by going into a synagogue and healing a man with a withered hand.  He confronted them before He did so by asking whether it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath?  When they wouldn’t answer, He healed the man.  They went out and plotted how to kill Jesus.  Jesus wasn’t concerned.  He went out and healed many more and cast demons out of people.  The religious leaders said Jesus cast out demons by the prince of demons.  Jesus asked how a kingdom divided against itself could stand?  He also pronounced judgment against the religious leaders for blaspheming against the Holy Spirit, which is attributing the work of God to the devil.  Jesus told a parable of a man who was demon possessed, who had the demon cast out, but did not fill his life with God.  The demon went out and found seven other demons worse than itself, and the last state of the man was worse than the first.  This tells us how important it is to be filled with the Holy Spirit once we have been delivered from sin and evil in our lives.  Finally, Jesus identified those who are His “family,” by saying anyone who does His Father’s will is His sister, mother and brother.