Jan 12 - Matthew 12, Job1&2, Psalms 12

“Jesus confronted their slander. “A judge who gives opposite verdicts on the same person cancels himself out; a family that’s in a constant squabble disintegrates; if Satan banishes Satan, is there any Satan left? If you’re slinging devil mud at me, calling me a devil kicking out devils, doesn’t the same mud stick to your own exorcists?”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭12‬:‭25‬-‭27‬ ‭MSG‬‬

    I love listening to Jesus Banter with the religious leaders of his day. It's like listening to our celebrities get destroyed by a well versed and knowledgeable person in our media today, then they do everything they can to cancel the person speaking truth because it makes the celebrity look bad. I mean we could really pull out so many examples of how we do this every day in our culture, so much resistance to change in our hearts. 

    Dan Mohler said it really well in a post he had yesterday Mohler's video. He notes that every time someone came at Jesus with a question, it was from a place of insecurity and a lack of genuine identity and Jesus never really answers their questions, He either responds with a new question or a hard statement of truth. (like the verse heading this post) 

    These guys were so convinced in their heart they needed to shut Jesus down that any miracle he did they tried to pin it to "Black Magic" or devils tricks. Just mind blowing. How often do we see miracles every day and blow them off as "luck" or coincidence instead of acknowledging the divine power and influence God has over our day to day lives? 

““There’s nothing done or said that can’t be forgiven. But if you deliberately persist in your slanders against God’s Spirit, you are repudiating the very One who forgives. If you reject the Son of Man out of some misunderstanding, the Holy Spirit can forgive you, but when you reject the Holy Spirit, you’re sawing off the branch on which you’re sitting, severing by your own perversity all connection with the One who forgives. “You have minds like a snake pit! How do you suppose what you say is worth anything when you are so foul-minded? It’s your heart, not the dictionary, that gives meaning to your words. A good person produces good deeds and words season after season. An evil person is a blight on the orchard. Let me tell you something: Every one of these careless words is going to come back to haunt you. There will be a time of Reckoning. Words are powerful; take them seriously. Words can be your salvation. Words can also be your damnation.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭12‬:‭31‬-‭32‬, ‭34‬-‭37‬ ‭MSG‬‬

YOU TELL EM JESUS . . . or is he talking to me too?

You also see Jesus predicting his own death here in reference to Jonah. 3 days in the belly. 

In 43-45 we get this warning, we can get cleaned up, sober, find the light. However if you don't fill it with something, you remain and empty house and the same mess that left you is going to find its way back in. 

    You actually see this when people go to rehab, they get removed from their environment of drug use, live in a peaceful supportive environment, and then get sent back out into the world without having ever really refilling their lives with meaning, and fall right back into drug use. 

““When a defiling evil spirit is expelled from someone, it drifts along through the desert looking for an oasis, some unsuspecting soul it can bedevil. When it doesn’t find anyone, it says, ‘I’ll go back to my old haunt.’ On return it finds the person spotlessly clean, but vacant. It then runs out and rounds up seven other spirits more evil than itself and they all move in, whooping it up. That person ends up far worse off than if he’d never gotten cleaned up in the first place. “That’s what this generation is like: You may think you have cleaned out the junk from your lives and gotten ready for God, but you weren’t hospitable to my kingdom message, and now all the devils are moving back in.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭12‬:‭43‬-‭45‬ ‭MSG‬‬

    I personally take the bible literally, so i do believe we are dealing with real spiritual beings here in this story, they can manifest as lots of different things when influencing a person, such as depression, disorders, diseases, anger, drug addiction. ect

JOB

    Job is one of my favorite books in the bible and i love that it falls right in the middle of Genesis. we get to meet job today, he is introduced as a very good man who is very wealthy. 

    We also get introduced to Satan here, 

“One day when the angels came to report to God, Satan, who was the Designated Accuser, came along with them. God singled out Satan and said, “What have you been up to?” Satan answered God, “Going here and there, checking things out on earth.””

‭‭Job‬ ‭1‬:‭6‬-‭7‬ ‭MSG‬‬

    Now this is a very interesting introduction to a story, we learn a few things here. one is that God still convenes with this fallen angel, although the story almost makes is sound like he somewhat tried to sneak in amongst the other angels. . . 

    God and satan have this debate over job, God see how good he is and satan wants to prove to God that it's only because he pampers him, so God gives satan permission to torment him. 

“God replied, “We’ll see. Go ahead—do what you want with all that is his. Just don’t hurt him.” Then Satan left the presence of God.”

‭‭Job‬ ‭1‬:‭12‬ ‭MSG‬‬

    So he loses his whole family except for his wife, i've heard a few narratives as to why his wife was left alive.  One theory is that since in marriage the husband and wife become "one flesh" she is protected under Gods decree to not kill job, the second one is that satan knew his wife would be contentious and bring more torment to him during this process of testing. 

so chapter 2 starts out the same way with God and satan talking about job, 

“Satan answered, “A human would do anything to save his life. But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away his health? He’d curse you to your face, that’s what.” God said, “All right. Go ahead—you can do what you like with him. But mind you, don’t kill him.””

‭‭Job‬ ‭2‬:‭4‬-‭6‬ ‭MSG‬‬

and then you see why i think the later about his wife being left alive 

“His wife said, “Still holding on to your precious integrity, are you? Curse God and be done with it!” He told her, “You’re talking like an empty-headed fool. We take the good days from God—why not also the bad days?” Not once through all this did Job sin. He said nothing against God.”

‭‭Job‬ ‭2‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭MSG‬‬

    In verse 11 we get introduced to his friends, they will have some very interesting conversations over the next few chapters. so lets pay attention to that, but remember that this is mans knowledge at the time about God, we get an insight into the theology from the era when Abraham was walking the earth. 

    Some things to note in this story, because it's a really weird story with lots of depth and meaning, but also i believe it is a literal story and not so much symbolic. It contains lessons to be learned from Job's life. God wants to bless us, be with us, walk with us and fellowship with us, that's his Character throughout the whole bible, when he seems really harsh it's because people are moving towards death and separation from him, and He cannot break away from who He is. Satan wants to steal, kill and destroy and rob God of his worship and bring it to himself. we will see this manifest as worship to other "gods" and well. . . you will see as you keep reading through the bible. 

Psalms 12- falls in 1 chronicles chronologically 

1 Chronicles 28:1 (KJV)

1Ch 28:1 KJV - 1 And David assembled all the princes of Israel, the princes of the tribes, and the captains of the companies that ministered to the king by course, and the captains over the thousands, and captains over the hundreds, and the stewards over all the substance and possession of the king, and of his sons, with the officers, and with the mighty men, and with all the valiant men, unto Jerusalem.