6/19/2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they remained virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among mankind and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb.” (Revelation 14.3b-4)

“‘No,’ he said, ‘if you pull the weeds now, you might uproot the wheat with them. Let them both grow together until the harvest. At that time, I will tell the harvesters to first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat into my barn.’” (Matthew 13.29-30)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

As mighty ones of God, we have to confess to ourselves that the Word of God is not always easy to understand and appropriate. Isn’t there a saying that speaks to this “If it were easy, then everyone would do it, nobody would want it and soon it would be left behind“? Jesus supported His disciples before His trial, crucifixion and resurrection that God would send down the Holy Spirit to be a “comforter, guide, instruction and friend.” It would come after those three events had occurred. They were to take heart and not be afraid of those events because “I have overcome the world.” (John 16.33) And while they had been blessed with the anointing of the Holy Spirit when He had sent them out during their discipleship training to “preach, teach and heal,” the full investiture of the Holy Spirit would not come until “all these things have been accomplished. The time of that “accomplishment” was on the Day of Pentecost. We know the power and the effect of that event as the fledgling Church coming of age in its own Age. It stood in stark contrast to the Age of the Temple (the Old Covenant/Testament.) It was an undiscovered country for those disciples who were commissioned to be “disciple makers.” They were “a new creation, a new creature formed and fashioned in the image of Christ, God’s Son, our Savior and the Messiah of the world who would lead the captives out of bondage and into the Promised Land. Now on the precipice of that Promised Land (“Go into all the world and make disciples of every nation”), the disciples were to be as “Joshua and Caleb.” Notice how in Matthew we find that although eleven disciples showed up at Mt. Tabor to visit with the resurrected Jesus one more time before He ascended to the right hand of God: some worshipped and some doubted. It is not dissimilar to the secret forces, “The Twelve Spies,” which Moses sent to search out the land before them at God’s command. Upon their report back to the community of faith, the captives delivered out of bondage in Egypt and lead to the doorway to the Promised Land, some (2) believed and worshipped and some (10) doubted and cast a fearful shadow. And there they were, those eleven disciples, standing of the precipice of a new age, the Age of the Church. In that Age, Christ promised His presence would be with them always right up to the close of that Age. There was nothing to fear. They were to walk, talk, think and act with boldness emulating their Master and their friend- Jesus the Christ!

Is it no small wonder that these “first fruits,” as was the practice of blessing on the Day of Pentecost were called, would propel this new generation of believers in God to reap a harvest, sow a harvest and repeat the cycle generation after generation? The world government, the worldly philosophies, the demonic manifestations of evil and even the complacency of apathetic people could not dissolve or snuff out the “fire of God’s Word and presence” across the land. And here in verses 3 and 4, we are introduced to that concept again as the 144,000 were collected from the fields of humanity which might have so easily been uprooted either as weeds (by the sinful world) or with the weeds (by a careless faith community) and cast into the fire to be burned and overcome by the world. It was to this moment Jesus urged the disciples to “have no fear for I have overcome the world.” He stood among the weeds. He was plucked up with the weeds (see the image of two thieves on the cross and one redeemed by faith by the Crucified Lord of Life.) He indeed overcame the wiles and the witlessness of the world “not by His power nor His might but by the Spirit- Word of God alone.” (Zechariah 6.4) But, as with the practice of “first fruits” there would be a more complete harvest yet to come. That harvest is presented by two images/two practices revealed in the verses following which we will reflect upon tomorrow. Until then- shalom, y’all.

A PRAYER FOR TODAY:

You are our God and we shall be Your people in spirit and in truth. Continue to dwell among us. Let the revelation by Your Holy Spirit inspire us to greater service in a more refined identity. We do not live as ourselves for ourselves. Rather, we live in Christ as He lives in us. We declare it with all the elders and angels in Heaven, saying “Holy, holy, holy is He who was and is and is to come.” In Jesus’ name we live, serve and pray. AMEN.