Luke 12:22 ¶ And he said
unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life,
what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. 23 The life is more than meat, and the body is
more than raiment. 24 Consider the
ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn;
and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? 25 And which of you with taking thought can add
to his stature one cubit? 26 If ye then
be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?
27 Consider the lilies how they grow:
they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his
glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28
If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to
morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of
little faith? 29 And seek not ye what ye
shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. 30 For all these things do the nations of the
world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.
31 But rather seek ye the kingdom of
God; and all these things shall be added unto you. 32 Fear not, little flock; for it is your
Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide
yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not,
where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your
heart be also. 35 Let your loins be girded
about, and your lights burning; 36
And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will
return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto
him immediately. 37 Blessed are
those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say
unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and
will come forth and serve them. 38 And
if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them
so, blessed are those servants. 39 And
this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would
come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken
through. 40 Be ye therefore ready also:
for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.
Jesus was previously
invited to dinner with a Pharisee who considered that Jesus did not follow the
ritual hand washing the Pharisees required which drew a sermon on the hypocrisy
of the Pharisees which he then reiterated to a throng of people, encouraging
them to confess Christ before men in spite of the persecution they would face
from the Pharisees. He then reinforced that they should focus on what is
important and not on worldly matters. He spoke of covetousness and laying up treasure
with God. This has been a very powerful teaching time for Christ and is very
important for us.
Jesus continues His
lesson about covetousness and what to concern ourselves with and not concern
ourselves with from the previous passage and tells His disciples that they
should not worry about the basics of life; food and clothing. In His model
prayer for them, which He gave in the previous chapter He included Give us day by day our daily bread.
Paul wrote by the
wisdom given to him by the Holy Spirit.
2Peter 3:15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved
brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of
these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that
are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they
do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
Paul told the
Philippian church…
Philippians 4:19 But my God
shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ
Jesus.
An interesting note
here is that God provides our food and that of the beasts and fowls in spite of
all of the National Geographic and Discovery Channel blather about predator and
prey. You didn’t think that zebra that the lions brought down was chosen by God
for their food did you? We are so clueless to the unsearchableness of God’s
mind, the Holy Ghost, acting in the world.
Psalm 104:21 The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.
In God’s own words as
He spoke to Job He said the following.
Job 38:39 Wilt thou hunt
the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions, 40 When they couch in their dens, and
abide in the covert to lie in wait? 41
Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God,
they wander for lack of meat.
Jesus reveals how
powerless we are to change many of the most important circumstances in our
lives. For instance, all of the Norman Vincent Peale or Dale Carnegie type of
positive thinking in the world won’t make you 6’3 rather than 5’8.
We don’t control the
most basic of circumstances and yet we worry about things that are way beyond
our control. We think we control our health and thereby extend our lives by
diet and exercise, one of my favorite objects of thought and action, but that
too may be an illusion.
Job 7:1 Is there not an appointed time to man
upon earth? are not his days
also like the days of an hireling?
Psalms 39:4 LORD, make me
to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.
We see news stories
about how scientists are on the verge of or at least thinking about everything
from extending our lifespans hundreds of years to curing all diseases with gene
manipulation and, truthfully, it is almost laughable if it were not so painfully
sad in that man thinks so highly of his ability to oppose God’s ordinances and
the boundaries He has set and people hope while they lay dying.
God will care for us
and we are not to doubt. The unbelieving world is concerned about these carnal
things, these things of the flesh, but we are to be about God’s business and
all of these things will be given to us as needed. Of course, this is easy to
have as a standard of our faith in a rich country where we spend so much less
of our income on food than in places in Africa, South America, or Asia.
Christians are suffering in some places and in some instances almost always due
to cultural impediments and economic injustice and the oligarchic rule of a few
powerful, narcissistic sociopaths, sin and wickedness which we who are so
blessed should be willing to fight on our poorer brothers and sisters’ behalf.
They, on their side, need to trust in God to provide, to pray for deliverance,
and that this day they receive just enough to get by knowing that things may not
be resolved in this life as they live in a fallen world in fallen bodies under
the judgment of sin and the evil, malicious designs of the powerful and the
wealthy.
Specifically, and
doctrinally, though, Jesus is speaking directly to His Jewish disciples in the
first century in a preview of the book of Acts by telling them to sell what
they have and be about His business telling Israel about Him and then, after
His crucifixion expectantly waiting for His return in an hour they will not
have imagined. We must remember in reading this that Christ’s crucifixion and
His resurrection were immediate future. We must also remember that God
dispersed the Jewish Christians from Jerusalem in Acts so that they would
fulfill His command for them to be witnesses to the world rather than hold up
in that compound/bunker mentality in Jerusalem.
We Christians today are
given this from Paul to keep in our hearts.
Titus 2:11 ¶ For the grace
of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and
worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present
world; 13 Looking for that blessed hope,
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
14 Who gave himself for us, that he
might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people,
zealous of good works.
For those who would use
the watches mentioned as a key to knowing when Christ will return verse 40 is
an alarm that tells us we should not claim knowledge we do not have. Your
preacher does not really know when Christ will return and acting as a minister
of Satan by misrepresenting God does not speak well for those who claim that
knowledge from the pulpit. We are not given prophecy for us to sit smugly and
shout to those we consider spiritual lessers that we know when that will be or
who the Antichrist is or other things we do not know. Prophecy is given for a
specific reason according to Jesus Himself.
John 16:4 But these things
have I told you, that when
the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said
not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.
Just as Paul gave us
the reason for the preservation of the Old Testament writings and histories.
Romans 15:4 For whatsoever
things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures
might have hope.
To all those people out
there who divide and parse out words and verses and examine numbers and compare
verses to current news items, writing books like ones I have from the 1990s
about how Saddam Hussein was rebuilding Babylon and could be the Antichrist all
the way back to those who called Kaiser Wilhelm the Beast of Revelation I say
one thing. Spend more time considering and obeying what Christ has told you to do,
how to treat God and others, and less time presuming knowledge you do not have.
Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong
unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
My final comment on Old
Testament prophecy in particular is to ask you to remember that every
individual Christian’s life is like the experience of the entire nation of
Israel taken collectively. We can be visited by God and judged in this life for
our sin and disobedience but God will never forsake us, as He will not Israel,
or put us away forever because it is Christ’s righteousness and not our own
that saves us. We can look at Old Testament prophecy as directly applying to
the Jews then, as applying to the first and second advents of Christ, and as a
tale of how our backsliding and rebellion can lead to ruin and despair knowing
only that Christ will lift our sorry heads out of the dust, as He will
Israel’s, at the end of the day.
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