Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 10-12.

Matthew recounts some very important, and basic, points of what Jesus taught in today’s passage.  I believe that many of them are linked together, but am not sure I will be able to express that link.  I am going to go through these various points and pray that the Holy Spirit guides my words to make it all come together.

When Jesus sent the Twelve Apostles to preach His message, He gave them the power to cast out impure spirits and cure disease and sickness.  Then He told them to be shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.  My father always said that meant that we should not be naïve, we should be fully aware of the ways in which people will try to trick, mislead, and cheat us, but we should act as if we did not.  That does not mean that we let them take advantage of us, but we should do what we can to help them.  Jesus goes on to tell the Apostles (and I believe us) that they will be arrested and hauled into court, but that they should not worry about what to say, or how to say it, that the Holy Spirit will speak through them (and us) in those situations.  I believe that applies to more than just situations when we are in front of the authorities.  In fact, I am convinced that there are days in which the Holy Spirit manages what I write here more than I do (I pray that the Holy Spirit do so every day, but I know that there are days my pride takes over).

Actually, Jesus tells us not to worry at all, a message which permeates much of the Gospels.  He tells us that God cares even for sparrows, which are of limited value.  We need not fear because God values us more than He values sparrows.  Jesus goes on to warn us that if we chose to follow Him, the world will treat us no better than they treated Him, and they accused Him of being a servant of Beelzebul.  If we acknowledge His lordship over us, people will think the same of us, but if we do not acknowledge His lordship, He will not acknowledge us.  Which brings me to the last point I wanted to touch on today.  When John the Baptist’s disciples asked Jesus if He was the One for which they were waiting, Jesus replied, “The blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.”  Let us strive to live so that a similar defense can be made of us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.