Day 34 Bible Readings – Matthew 22: 11-14 (ESV)

Job 28-30, Matthew 22, Psalm 22: 1-11

Matthew 22: 11-14 (ESV)

“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’  For many are called, but few are chosen.”

I’ve always found verses 11 through 14 from Matthew 22 hard to understand until I read several Bible commentaries on these verses. Jesus told this parable about the kingdom of heaven to the chief priests and elders who came to him as he was teaching. This parable is about a King who arranged a marriage for his son and invited several people as guests to the party. The guest in this section of the parable had been invited to the wedding, but he was not wearing wedding garments. The man had been invited, but he did not bother to change his clothes to wear garments that were expected to be worn at a wedding. The Bible commentarians wrote that the man was invited, but he did not honor the King’s son by changing into the appropriate garments. The guest showed no love for the king or the son by bothering to even change his clothes. So the King  had the guest bound and cast into darkness. The guest in the parable had found faith to believe in God, but he remained unchanged by this faith and by Jesus Christ. When we are unchanged by our faith and our relationship with Jesus Christ, we will suffer and not get into the kingdom of heaven. Christ finished the parable by saying “many are are called, but few are chosen” to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. We can have the experience of being saved and invited into a relationship with God and Jesus Christ, but if our behavior is not changed by our faith or our relationship with Christ then God will not choose us to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. I love this interpretation of these verses because they make it imperative that a person of faith must demonstrate their faith in their behavior, and if you cannot do that then you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Day 33 Bible Readings – Job 27: 1-6 (ESV)

Job 25-27, Matthew 21: 33-46, Psalm 21

Job 27: 1-6 (ESV)

“And Job again took up his discourse, and said: “As God lives, who has taken away my right, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter, as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, my lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will not utter deceit. Far be it from me to say that you are right; till I die I will not put away my integrity from me. I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.”

In verses 1 through 6 from Job 27 Job tells his friends that even though he felt that God made his soul bitter, he did not want to tell any lies about God. Job wanted to hold on to his integrity and his righteousness. In his heart even though Job felt that God had somehow abandoned him and had let bad things happen to him, Job held on to his faith that God was a just God. I admire Job’s faith in God. Even though he had his whole life upended, he refused to give up on his faith in God. I know in my darkest days I did not have faith of Job, and I did not go through a tenth of the tragedies that Job had experienced. This year in reading Job, I have gained a new appreciation for his faith. Job’s faith in God was truly unshakable, and I would be happy to have a tenth of his faith in God.

Day 32 Bible Readings – Matthew 20: 28-31 (ESV)

Job 22-24, Matthew 21: 18-32, Psalm 20

Matthew 20: 28-31 (ESV)

“What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.”

In verses 28 through 31 from Matthew 20, Jesus explains to the chief priests and elder the parable of the Two Sons. In this parable, a man had two sons whom he asked to go work in the vineyard. The first said No but then changed his mind and went to work. The second son said the same, but did not go to work. Jesus asks the chief priests and elders which son did the will of the father, and they respond to Jesus and say the first son. Jesus then tells them that the first son are like the tax collectors and prostitutes who listened to John the Baptist and believed him and changed their lives. I’m sure the chief priests and elders thought they were like the first son. But Jesus told them No, because even though they say they are doing the work of God they have not changed their behavior. Jesus  explained to them that they cannot just say they are obeying God but not change their behavior. The sinners who listened to John the Baptist and changed their behavior are the ones who have really obeyed God. Jesus called out the chief priests and elders for being hypocrites, because they said to the people they were obeying God, and yet in private they were disobeying God.

Day 31 Bible Readings – Matthew 21: 12-13 (ESV)

Job 19-21, Matthew 21: 1-17, Psalm 19: 7-14

Matthew 21: 12-13 (ESV)

“And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

In verses 12 and 13 from Matthew 21, we read about the famous scene where Jesus drove out all of the money-changers in the Temple. Many people have interpreted these verses to mean that the church cannot ask people for money or something about Jesus not like money. But the people who write Bible commentaries have written that the money-changers were located in the outer courts of the Temple, which was the only place that the Gentiles could pray. It must have been hard for the Gentiles to pray since their whole space had been essentially turned into a market. I love how Jesus had compassion for Gentiles as well as Jews. Jesus wanted the Temple to be somewhere where all could pray, and not just Jews. The message of Jesus Christ spread very rapidly among the Gentiles first, so we in these verses how the God’s plan to include the Gentiles started with the compassionate act of Christ demanding that the prayer space for the Gentiles be as holy as the prayer space for the Jews.