Old Testament reading: Nehemiah 10-11
“I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing” (Deut 30:19). Nehemiah 10:29 reminds us that our covenant with God includes both blessing and curse. There is always blessing in obeying the Lord. Conversely, there is always a curse when one does not obey the Lord, which curse is made manifestly worse for those who forsake their covenant with God. Hell won’t be a cakewalk for anyone, but Luke 12:47-48 teaches us that there are degrees of punishment. 2 Peter 2:20-22 teaches us that it is far better to have never known the way of righteousness than to turn away from it later on. Moreover, the truth of man being a free moral agent is also affirmed in the giving of a choice of his own personal and eternal destiny with reward and consequences attached. Nehemiah 11:1-3 contains an interesting statement concerning the repatriation of Judah. By the casting of lots, one-tenth of the exiles dwelled in Jerusalem, while the remainder returned to their former possession and lived there (cf v 20). This reminds us of the preciousness of a family’s property (cf 2 Sam 9:6-11; 1 Kgs 21:1-3).
New Testament reading: Matthew 8-9
“For every thing there is a season (9:14-17, cf Ecc 3:1-8). The picture of patching an old garment with new material and the new wine in old skins is nothing more than an explanation of this principle. There is nothing mysterious or subliminal in this text. Jesus says you just don’t do some things because it isn’t proper. Some things are not to be blended or confused. In this case, the subject was fasting. Jesus didn’t say his disciples shouldn’t fast, but rather that the time wasn’t right. When the time was right, his disciples would fast. Finally, Jesus does not here command fasting, but associates it with the separation of himself from his disciples. There is nowhere in the biblical record where fasting is enjoined as a standard practice to be followed by all, neither in the Old Testament or the New Testament.
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