Old Testament reading: Psalm 56-60
“Stop twisting my words!” In Psalm 56:5, David laments how his enemies twisted his words because of their evil intentions against him. We live in a time when men seek even the slightest slip of the tongue to use as a weapon against us or to further their own agenda. Even the most carefully worded statements are parsed and given great scrutiny. This is true both in politics and in religion. If nothing can be found, then something shall be fabricated to cast some semblance of doubt on the speaker, e.g., “Well, he didn’t come right out and say it, but…”. Even our Lord, the master teacher and orator, was not immune to having his enemies busy trying to twist His words (Mark 14:55-59). Therefore, it behooves us to be even more diligent to guard our tongues, lest our enemies gain some advantage over us because of our verbal incontinence. If they are looking to twist our words for a “Gotcha!” moment when we are trying to teach the truth, how much more judicious must we be in our regular everyday conversations!
New Testament reading: John 4-5
“The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt 26:41). This statement of Jesus is pictured in His discourse with the Jews in John 5:33-35. The burdens of Rome and the Jewish hierarchy made life difficult for Israel. As John splashed on the scene with his message of the quickly approaching kingdom (Matt 3:2), the common people flocked to him and gladly received his message . However, the freedom foretold by John was also a costly one, being preceded by and necessitated upon repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Moreover, this was not the freedom they envisioned, as they looked for a physical king (cf John 6:15) who would restore the nation of Israel to her former secular and military glory. Thus, they were willing to rejoice in John’s light for a time, but they lacked the fortitude to follow through with Christ once they discovered it wasn’t what they were expecting (v 40).
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