Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: wicked

  • Resh

    Resh

    Your Word Is a Lamp to My Feet

    Resh

    153 Look on my affliction and deliver me,
    for I do not forget your law.
    154 Plead my cause and redeem me;
    give me life according to your promise!

    Sickness is a terrible thing, is it not? Yet affliction is much more than just sickness.

    Exodus 3:7-8a Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey…

    The Lord is my salvation and my redeemer. – [Psalm 27:1a, 19:14b]

    155 Salvation is far from the wicked,
    for they do not seek your statutes.

    רָשָׁע – rasha`

    When was the last time you heard a criminal called wicked? (Have you ever in this 21st century tolerance for the ways of the wicked?)

    Outline of Biblical Usage

    1. wicked, criminal

    • a. guilty one, one guilty of crime (subst)
    • b. wicked (hostile to God)
    • c. wicked, guilty of sin (against God or man)

    Job 21:17 “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?
    That their calamity comes upon them?
    That God distributes pains in his anger?

    156 Great is your mercy, O Lord;
    give me life according to your rules.
    157 Many are my persecutors and my adversaries,
    but I do not swerve from your testimonies.

    Do our persecutors not pursue us and tempt us to swerve from the straight path of the Lord? Do our adversaries not always attempt to back us into a corner of darkness away from the Lord?

    158 I look at the faithless with disgust,
    because they do not keep your commands.

    The NASB translates more pointedly:

    I behold the treacherous and loathe them,
    Because they do not keep Your word (promise).

    159 Consider how I love your precepts!
    Give me life according to your steadfast love.
    160 The sum of your word is truth,
    and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

    Psalm 119:160 KJV  Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.

    Matthew 5 KJV The Words of Christ Jesus on the Mount of Olives

    17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

    18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

    19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

    20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

  • Rest for the wicked; hope for the weary

    Rest for the wicked; hope for the weary

    It so happens as the Lord had planned it that the launch of http://talkofJesus.com -+- CHRISTIAN SOCIAL WITNESS coincides with the American holiday: Labor Day.  We will have picnics, parades and some much-needed family time.  No school.  Post offices, banks and many not-so-greedy businesses closed to give their employees a rest from their labor – something all of us need at times.

    A prior post began with this same thought. It is about Sabbath rest – a related, but different reference to the word of God in the Bible.  We’ve likely heard the expression:

    ‘NO rest for the wicked and the good don’t need any.’

    NOT true; NOT Biblical.

    We ALL need rest and we all need work.

    +

    American’s inherited this Labor Day idea of rest though the long-standing culture of the King James Bibles so much apart of our Christian heritage.  The original call for rest comes from Jesus.

    “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. – Matthew 11:28

    At one time Americans realized the importance to honor God through our labor and to honor labors as God’s own workers.  Sadly, in a 21st c. America (or Europe, Asia or any other place) we don’t get that, do we?  (Jesus tells us why – which I will reveal in a moment.) The world has two approaches to labor:

    Work hard for your SELF. (More work, more reward: right?) God doesn’t really need that “offering AND tithe” to honor Him — after all, the Government gets plenty of our required monetary support.  Our Country will take care of us.

    OR

    I don’t need to labor because Uncle Sam* takes care of me and will always help me.

    *  ‘Americanized’ personalization of our impersonal ‘representative’ Government.

    God never intended for ANY to have a rest from the work they will NOT do.  (We won’t go there today. That’s a different scripture.)

    +

    Getting back to talk of Jesus:

    The crowds had flocked to hear Jesus on the hillsides of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.  Jesus traveled from city to city on His northern tour.  Everywhere Jesus traveled, He was expected.

    Matthew 11: When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.

    Imagine the excitement of the promised Messiah of God coming to your city.  Jesus was predicted by the Prophets.  Jesus was proclaimed by the greatest prophet their contemporary, John the Baptist.

    John was a ‘hell-fire and damnation’ kind of preacher: popular with the people, but imprisoned by the religious establishment.

    REPENT! And be baptized (changed permanently). Cleanse your sins before you must stand before the HOLY ONE.

    Yet our Lord is also calling the people of the cities to hear Him and obey.

    20 Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.

    Jesus? … Preaching ‘hell-fire and damnation’ like John?

    Read what He said comparing the disobedient to the people of Sodom.

    Come to Me, and I Will Give You Rest

    25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will…

    28 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

    What is Jesus saying about our labor?

    Jesus is illustrating a picture of manual labor.  He doesn’t say to just give it all to Him and He will take care of it.  (I’m not saying this about prayer.  We are talking ‘labor’ here.)

    • Take my yoke upon you a picture of the collar of two doing the work of one.
    • learn from me – a direct reference to learning from the example of His life.
    • I am gentle and lowly in heart [Jesus is kind and humble. Have you learned this from His Perfect Example?]

    and [IF you will do this, according to our Lord]

    • you will find rest for your souls. 

    30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

    Jesus didn’t say ‘Take a break and I will do it all for you.”

    Jesus actually called out the people who refuse to repent and listen to Him for their wickedness.

    Our Lord knows how weary we become in this world.

    Do we remember: disobedience was punished in Eden.  Unpleasant work became part of our sinful heritage for having knowledge of good and evil.

    Jesus offers to share in our work in this world.

    Will you work with Him on that?

    Though we are wicked sinners

    Because of the Cross of Jesus 

    Weary laborers have hope.

    Come unto Him.