Tag: yoked

30.z. “Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket”

 

Matthew 5:14  “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

 Proverbs 4:18   But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.

 John 12:36    While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”

 Romans 2:19-20    and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,  an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—

 2 Corinthians 6:14   Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness

 Ephesians 5:8   for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light

 Philippians 2:15  that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,

 1 Thessalonians 5:5   For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.

 Luke 11:33    “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.

 Mark 4:21    And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand?

Jesus never challenged us to become salt or light. He simply said that we are – and we are either fulfilling or failing that given responsibility. A key thought in both the pictures of salt and light is distinction. Salt is needed because the world is rotting and decaying, and if our Christianity is also rotting and decaying, it won’t be any good. Light is needed because the world is in darkness, and if our Christianity imitates the darkness, we have nothing to show the world. To be effective we must seek and display the Christian distinctive. We can never affect the world for Jesus by becoming like the world.

“Poor world, poor world, it is dark, and gropes in midnight, and it cannot get light except it receives it through us!…To be the light of the world surrounds life with the most stupendous responsibilities, and so invests it with the most solemn dignity. Hear this, ye humble men and women, ye who have made no figure in society, ye are the light of the world. If ye burn dimly, dim is the world’s light, and dense its darkness.” (Spurgeon)

 “Christ knew that there would be strong temptation for the men that had it in them to be lights to hide their light. It would draw the world’s attention to them, and so expose them to the ill will of such as hate the light.” (Bruce)

 “Christ never contemplated the production of secret Christians, – Christians whose virtues would never be displayed, – pilgrims who would travel to heaven by night, and never be seen by their fellow-pilgrims or anyone else.” (Spurgeon)

The figures of salt and light also remind us that the life marked by the Beatitudes is not to be lived in isolation. We often assume that those inner qualities can only be developed or displayed in isolation from the world, but Jesus wants us to live them out before the world. Are you a light to those around you? Does it shine bright? Does it give illumination to those around you so that they are able to see Jesus Christ and the reason for your faith, obedience, and reliance? The light of Jesus Christ is nuclear, never needs batteries, is always charged, and always gives off light. We somehow lose our charge. The light of Jesus Christ becomes dim through us. Why???? The busyness of life will try to consume us, worldly passions will try to convince us, and selfish desires will pull at us.  It is when our guiding desire is to honor and glorify Jesus Christ in all we say, think, and do that we will find things of this world and its lust and passions will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

33. And the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven.

Numbers 25:1   While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Lord said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the Lord, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.” And Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.”

And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.

Exodus 34:14  (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),  lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice,  and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.

Numbers 15:39     And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after.

Deuteronomy 31:16    And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them.

Judges 2:17    Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the LORD, and they did not do so.

Jeremiah 3:9    Because she took her whoredom lightly

Deuteronomy 29:19-21     one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike.  The LORD will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the LORD and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven.

The path away from God’s love, grace, and mercy – and straight into His anger and wrath is one of choice.  Choosing to not only to do what seems right in their own heart and their own eyes and pleasing to them, but they do so thinking they are ok enough to be outside the disciplining hand of God.  It does not take long for the weeds of deception to overtake the mind and soul of man.  Neglect and complacent attitude with God’s word will give fertile soil for weeds of lies, deception, and false belief.

Matthew Henry commentary: The national covenant made with Israel, not only typified the covenant of grace made with true believers but also represented the outward dispensation of the gospel. Those who have been enabled to consent to the Lord’s new covenant of mercy and grace in Jesus Christ, and to give up themselves to be his people, should embrace every opportunity of renewing their open profession of relation to him, and their obligation to him, as the God of salvation, walking accordingly. The sinner is described as one whose heart turns away from his God; there the mischief begins, in the evil heart of unbelief, which inclines men to depart from the living God to dead idols. Even to this sin men are now tempted, when drawn aside by their own lusts and fancies. Such men are roots that bear gall and wormwood. They are weeds which, if let alone, overspread the whole field. Satan may for a time disguise this bitter morsel, so that thou shalt not have the natural taste of it, but at the last day, if not before, the true taste shall be discerned. Notice the sinner’s security in sin. Though he hears the words of the curse, yet even then he thinks himself safe from the wrath of God. There is scarcely a threatening in all the book of God more dreadful than this. Oh that presumptuous sinners would read it, and tremble! for it is a real declaration of the wrath of God, against ungodliness and unrighteousness of man.