Matthew 5:9

Verse of the Day Devotion: Matthew 5:9

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” – Matthew 5:9

This verse is part of what is commonly called the sermon on the mount.  After His temptations, Jesus began His ministry, which started with calling His disciples.  He also ministered wherever He went.  And great crowds became interested in what He was saying.  “Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. The news about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them. Large crowds followed Him from Galilee and the Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.” Matthew 4:23-25.

Notice what it says in verse 1, “When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him.” Matthew 5:1. It looks here like Jesus intended this primarily for His disciples, however, as we read through the entire sermon in chapters 5-7, we see that it had things to say for the entire crowd.

Let’s look closer at our focus verse. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” One important characteristic of God’s true people is to seek peace and pursue it.  This is stated by David in the psalms.  “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it.” Psalm 34:13-14.  John Wesley in his commentary on the Psalms said this.  ‘Seek by all means possible to live peaceable with all men.  Pursue it.  Do not only embrace it gladly when it is offered, but follow hard after it, when it seems to flee away from thee.’  This is a great way to put it.  Do not just accept it when it comes to you but pursue it when it is gone.

Those of us who love God should do everything possible to do good to all people.  The word ‘peace’ in the scriptures implies all blessings both temporal and eternal.  And peacemakers are those who strive to prevent any type of contention and strife.  We are to use our influence to reconcile opposing parties.  This includes in the areas of church differences, legal matters, or any hostilities that come between people.  Strife and division do nothing positive anywhere it is found.  We have many opportunities to help reconcile opposing people.  We all can do much to promote peace.  And if possible, it should be addressed in the beginning, before animosity has a chance to grow and flourish.  Long and most hostile quarrels might often be prevented by a little kind interference in the beginning.

Jesus was referred to as the Prince of Peace.  “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6. He is the prince that brings peace to all men.  He brought peace between us and God, and He desires peace among all men.  Paul says regarding God, “for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.” 1 Corinthians 14:33.  And those of us who promote peace and tranquility and work hard in bringing peace wherever it is needed, these are those who do the work of God as Christ did and are worthy to be called God’s children.  So, let us focus our attention to eliminate all division and dissension and replace it with peace.  This is one of the more important work Christ’s disciples are called to do.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries, Inc.

Isaiah 31:6

Verse of the Day Devotion.  Isaiah 31:6

“Return to Him from whom you have deeply defected, O sons of Israel.” – Isaiah 31:6  

Isaiah is prophesying about Judah coming under attack by Sennacherib and the Assyrian empire. And what he was telling them was that there was a faction that was seeking help from Egypt rather than seeking Jehovah their God. “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD!” Isaiah 31:1. In doing this, Isaiah confronted Judah with two sins: the sin of trusting in Egypt and their military might, and the sin of not looking to the Holy One of Israel. Judah felt they had a reason to trust in chariots because they are many. And they felt they had a reason to trust in horsemen because they are very strong. But they couldn’t seem to find a reason to trust in the LORD. But next he declares God is able. “Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster, and does not retract His words, But will arise against the house of evildoers, And against the help of the workers of iniquity. Now the Egyptians are men, and not God, And their horses are flesh and not spirit; so the LORD will stretch out His hand, and he who helps will stumble and he who is helped will fall, and all of them will come to an end together.” Isaiah 31:2-3. He states here two things. First, that God is wise and can bring disaster on His foes, and that the Egyptians are men and not God, and their horses are merely creatures of flesh and not spiritual, and they will not be victorious if they rely on them.

Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “For thus says the LORD to me, as the lion or the young lion growls over his prey, against which a band of shepherds is called out, Will not be terrified at their voice, nor disturbed at their noise, so will the LORD of hosts come down to wage war on Mount Zion and on its hill. Like flying birds so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it; He will pass over and rescue it.” Isaiah 31:4-5. Judah’s trust in Egypt to protect them against the Assyrian invasion was both foolish and unnecessary. God would protect them, as a lion growls over its prey when a shepherd comes to it, whether Judah trusts Him or not. And of a mother bird protecting her young. So, God will defend Jerusalem with the ferocity of a lion, and also with the tender care of a bird. The combination of the two images is powerful.

And because of the message God gave to Isaiah, we read in our focus verse this message to Judah, “Return to Him from whom you have deeply defected, O sons of Israel.” Isaiah 31:6. God is calling them to return to Him, to trust in Him rather than in Egypt or anything else. Because of how great God is and because of how terrible the alternatives to serving Him are, they should feel compelled to return to Him. They should repent of their idolatry, destroy their idols, repent, and give themselves to God.

And the reason is seen in the last three verses of chapter thirty-one. “For in that day every man will cast away his silver idols and his gold idols, which your hands have made as a sin. And the Assyrian will fall by a sword not of man, And a sword not of man will devour him. So, he will not escape the sword, And his young men will become forced laborers. And his rock will pass away because of panic, And his princes will be terrified at the standard, declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.” Isaiah 31:7-9. Then Assyria will fall. And this was fulfilled exactly as prophesied. The Assyrian army devastated almost the entire land of Judah, and camped on the outskirts of Jerusalem, waiting to conquer the nation by defeating the capital city. And in 2 Kings we read of this battle. “Then it happened that night that the angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were dead. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. And it came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.” 2 Kings 19:35-37.  

Going through hard times is difficult. Sometimes we wonder just how we will make it through. But it is important to remember that God is the one we should go to for our help and support. Granted, friends and family will be there also, but we must rely on Him predominantly to bring us through. And many times He will use friends and family in our support and solution. But we must remember He is our primary helper. And who knows who and what He will use to provide us with victory.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries.

Matthew 21:28

Verse of the Day Devotion Matthew 21:28  

“But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.'” – Matthew 21:28

Today we will look at the Parable of the Two Sons, the first of three parables, in sequence, that depict God’s indictment and sentence of the present Jewish Leadership, unless they realize their errors and turn to the truth. Jesus does not reject Israel as a whole, only the current leadership, which has rejected him. The contrast is not between Jews and Gentiles but rather between those who reject and those who accept Jesus.  Here is this parable as found in Matthew’s gospel.

“But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, Son, go work today in the vineyard. And he answered and said, I will, sir’; and he did not go. And he came to the second and said the same thing. But he answered and said, I will not; yet he afterward regretted it and went. Which of the two did the will of his father?  They said, The latter.  Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you that the tax-gatherers and harlots will get into the kingdom of God before you.  For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax-gatherers and harlots did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.” Matthew 21:28-32.

This parable starts by introducing a man who has two sons. There are several things that need to be done, so he goes to one of his sons and says, “Son, go work today in the vineyard.” Matthew 21:28a. The son tells his father he will go out and work, but then does not.  He then goes to his second son and says the same thing, and he tells his father no, he would not go, but later regrets his decision and ultimately goes out and does what his father asked.  Both sons give opposite answers, but later do the contrary of what they told their father.

In this parable, Jesus is addressing the Jewish officials who continue to refuse to accept His divine authority, or to acknowledge John’s prophetic ministry.  “For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax-gatherers and harlots did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.” Matthew 21:32.  What Jesus was saying here was that the most notorious of sinners, tax collectors and harlots, will get into heaven before they will. This does not mean that ethical considerations do not apply and that the worst of sinners keep on with the worst of their sins in the kingdom. It means that sinners like outcasts could respond to the message of the kingdom much more readily than sinners whose sins were cast in the conventional mode that brought no rebuke from the religious establishment.  As long as there was no rebuke from the Jewish leadership, then they believed there was no problem.

God has called us to do His work just as the father called his sons to do his will. Are we like the son who said ‘yes’ but did not carry through, or like the one who said ‘no’ but then repents and does it?  Many times, people promise to do things for God, or have every intention of doing them at the time but fail to because something else came up and was raised to priority one, over and above what God called us to. Like the son who ultimately disobeyed, some promise but do not perform it as they promised and so are rejected by God. Like the son who ultimately obeyed, some rebel but later submit and so are accepted.  The Jewish leadership would not accept Jesus as the promised Messiah because He did not fit the mold they believed the Messiah would follow, even though John laid out clearly who Jesus was. 

I want to close this with a quote from the Theologian Adam Clarke. “It is very difficult to get a worldly minded and self-righteous man brought to Christ. Examples signify little to him. Urge the example of an eminent saint, he is discouraged at it. Show him a profligate sinner converted to God, him he is ashamed to own and follow; and, as to the conduct of the generality of the followers of Christ, it is not striking enough to impress him. John, and Christ, and the apostles preach; but, to multitudes, all is in vain.”

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries.