365 Reflections

I have always misread the passage about the Gentile woman with the sick daughter.  I used to see what Jesus says to her as a test of faith. Mark 7:26–27 (ESV) Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” I realize now based on the background of where she is from, that she was indeed a pagan!  This woman was not close to being a believer in Israel's God.  J.R. Edwards says, "Tyre (where she was from) probably represented the most extreme expression of paganism, both actually and symbolically, that a Jew could expect to encounter."  They were hostile to the Jewish nation.  Just two centuries before, while the Jews fought for independence, Tyre sided with the opposition.  The Jewish historian Josephus called them “notoriously our bitterest enemies.” It ...

Matthew 13:28–29 (ESV) He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. We live in a world gone bad.  And we want justice. Usually we want God to do something with the injustice we see, right now... in others. Be careful.  If God instantly took care of all the wickedness in the world it would include the wickedness in you and me... and I fear for many of us what would be left?  Would we be at all?  And if not, is God subject then to our whims and fancy as to when He should step in to stop evil and when He should back off?  Like maybe you are one of the disillusioned people who actually believes they've got nothing but good left in them.  Chances are you're related to someone who could really use a lot of wickedness-removal.  So let us adopt your delusion an...