Devotional Thoughts for Today
Matt. 12:24-9 (ESV): “But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, ‘It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.’ [25] Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. [26] And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? [27] And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. [28] But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
[29] Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.’”
To someone who says, “There are no absolute truths; everything is relative,” ask him whether he holds to that absolutely. If he says yes, then say, “You’re inconsistent and arrogant; if he answers no, ask him, “Then, why do you oppose what I believe?”
Here, Jesus, likewise, shows the absurdity of an argument aimed to discredit him. The Pharisees, jealous that “the whole world has gone after [Jesus]” (Jn. 12:19), accuses him of being on the same team as the head of demons. Jesus’ logic is simple: “If the devil and I are partners, why am I casting out his demons? Isn’t that like shooting yourself in the foot?”
After silencing them, Jesus explains the spiritual world through this odd parable. The strong man is the devil, “the prince of this world” (Jn. 12:31); his house, then, is the world. The goods in the house are people in the world over whom the devil “holds the power of death” (Heb. 2:14). How did this happen? When the devil was tempting Jesus, it wasn’t a lie when he said, “All the kingdoms of the world . . . [had] been given to me” (Lk. 4:5-6). The first man Adam, whom God had put in charge of governing the world, gave it away when he capitulated to the devil’s ploy, “for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him” (2 Pet. 2:19). Since “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23), the devil bullies the descendants of Adam with fear of death.
So Christ, coming into this world as an intruder to take back what was taken by the devil, must first bind the strong man. He succeeded when his substitutionary death on our behalf “rendered powerless [the devil] who had the power of death” (Heb. 2:14 NASB) since the penalty of sin has been paid.
Now, Christ through the church is plundering the house, meaning telling people that they are now free. But many choose not to believe that; as a result, they continue to live in “slavery by their fear of death.” Are you one of them? Christ has already finished everything to free you; all you need to do is believe.
Prayer
I praise You, Jesus, for coming into this world that had rebelled against God and chose the devil as its god. Seeing that we are miserable in our sins, You voluntarily took the penalty of our sins to destroy the work of the devil (1 Jn. 3:8), thereby freeing us. Thank You, Jesus, for your love, kindness and grace. Amen.
Bible Reading for Today: Isaiah 48
Lunch Break Study
Read 1 Jn. 5:18 (NIV): “We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them.”
James 4:7 (NASB): “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
Acts 16:16-8 (ESV): “As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. [17] She followed Paul and us, crying out, ‘These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.’ [18] And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And it came out that very hour.”
Question to Consider
- What are some benefits of Christ’s victory over the devil?
- Is there a part that we need contribute in order to experience Christ’s victory over the devil?
- The Bible talks about not giving the devil a foothold (Eph. 4:27). What are some casual habits or “harmless” sins in our lives that give the enemy a bigger hold to latch on to enslave us?
Notes
- The devil cannot harm those who are in Christ; he will even flee from us; he can be driven out from someone or even from us in the name of Jesus.
- We cannot continue to sin (habitual and unrepentant sins); we must resist the devil for him to flee; we must pray with the authority of Jesus by praying in His name.
- Sin is much like a snowball rolling downhill: it gets bigger and bigger unless it is stopped. An attempt to cover a little lie produces more lies; watching soft-porn leads to hard-porn; unforgiveness, in time, turns into a bitter personality; hoarding money always turns into loving it.
Evening Reflection
As you review this day, did you face any situation where you felt uncomfortable because of the presence of some people? Why do you think that happened? The path to freedom in many cases is honesty and humility. Pray to the Lord for wisdom and courage to live fully in the freedom that Christ has won for us.
Serving God is not only important, but it can be quite exciting. Let’s suppose that teaching the Bible interests you, but on what basis will your pastor give you that kind of responsibility? Similarly, in order for a baseball player to move up the ladder to one day reach the Major League, he needs to demonstrate his ability to hit and pitch better than others in the Minor League. One major difference: while God looks for faithfulness and honesty to evaluate, a baseball GM evaluates solely on output.
For that, look at Joseph who had every reason to quit on life. First, after his brothers’ betrayal, he became a slave in the house of an Egyptian official. Instead of pouting, Joseph so faithfully carried out his task that his boss “entrusted to his care everything he owned” (Gn. 39:4). But his life quickly hit rock-bottom when a false accusation landed him in jail. (It’s like going from AAA to A league). But rather than giving up, he continued to work faithfully; seeing this, the warden “put Joseph in charge . . . [of] all that was done there” (39:22). And it was from that pit that God brought Joseph out and “put [him] in charge of the whole land of Egypt” (41:41). What does this show? “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful” (1 Cor. 4:2).
Nabal from the OT era, described as “very wealthy” for owning 1,000 goats and 3,000 sheep, and this 21st century man have this in common: Not using worldly wealth to gain friends for themselves. During the days when David and his men roamed around to escape from the murderous pursuit of King Saul, they, in effect, protected Nabal’s sheep that were grazing out on the field. In fact, Nabal’s servants told their boss, “These men were very good to us” (1 Sam. 25:15). So, when the festive time of sheep-shearing came, David asked Nabal to share “whatever [he] can find for them” (8). Nabal didn’t gain any friend when he responded, “Why should I take my bread . . . and give it to men coming from who knows where?” (11). David, responding to Nabal’s foolishness with his own imprudence, sought to kill him! Fortunately, though the intervention of Nabal’s wife, Abigail, kept that from happening, Nabal soon died of heart failure upon being told later about David’s plot.
This isn’t the type of illustration that pastors would dare to use from the pulpit. There are several glaring character defects in this manger which no one should emulate. First, he is irresponsible, which got him in trouble with his master who lost money due to the manager’s negligence. Second, he is a lazy freeloader. About to lose his job, he is sure about one thing: “I’m going to neither dig (i.e., work) nor beg” (i.e., swallow my pride). Third, he is a criminal. Changing the numbers around in the accounting ledger so that the debtors appear to owe far less is no different from a desperate student sneaking into the registrar’s office to alter his grade: a reduction of olive oil by 450 gallons would’ve cost the master as much as $5,400 today.
The parable demonstrates that while Samaritans are willing to help a Jew in need, the Jews, including this lawyer, will never do that for Samaritans whom they despise as unholy. When Jesus asks, “Which of these three . . . was a neighbor to the man who fell in the hands of the robber?” and the lawyer’s responds, “The one who had mercy on him” (i.e., the Samaritan), that is a self-admission of guilt: If being a neighbor means having mercy on anyone who is in need of it—regardless of whether he belongs to my tribe or not, then I haven’t kept all of God’s laws because I have not loved the Samaritans.
Allegorizing the Bible can be fun to listen to because it attempts to dig out the “deep” and “hidden” meaning. One seasoned preached allegorized this parable in this way: the priest who walked away represents world religions that cannot save; the wine used to clean the wound points to the redemptive sacrifice of Christ; the olive oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit; the inn represents the church (“God cares for us through the church”); the two coins refer to the Old and New Testament. Though his points may be edifying, his interpretation wasn’t exactly exegetically sound (i.e., reading into the text instead of extracting the meaning). Ironically, the preacher never bothered to address the obvious meaning of the parable staring right at him: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:39).
Following the aftermath of the L. A. riots in 1992, our church, consisting mostly of Korean-Americans, donated food to a black church in L.A. To that, a close relative commented, “Why would you do that? So that they can beat up some more Koreans?” Some years later, as our church decided to adopt a Japanese unreached group to support the missions work there, church member who grew up in Korea loudly complained, “No, not Japan!”
So, why would a Jew feel uncomfortable hearing this parable? Because Jews wouldn’t do that for Samaritans, since they were considered a contemptible racial hybrid who disrespected their religion. The Samaritans, as offspring of the intermarriage between Jews and Gentiles (2 Ki. 17:24), deviated from Judaism by rejecting all but the first five books of the OT, insisting that the center of worship was mountain Gerizim instead of Jerusalem.
In many ways, the priest and Levite in the parable were no different: they appeared quite godly since they obeyed God’s law that kept the priests from touching the dead lest they became defiled. Especially on this day, the priest and Levite couldn’t afford to do that since, presumably, they were heading to Jerusalem because it was their division’s turn to serve in the temple. Knowing full well of the consequence of touching a dead body—“Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days” (Num. 19:11)—they weren’t about to jeopardize this long awaited opportunity to shine.
“Bobby” who was in my youth group in the early 1980s would’ve agreed with that conclusion. After a teaching based on the wise and foolish builders, I had the students draw a picture to show what they’ve learned. But when I saw Bobby’s drawing, it dawned on me that many Christians think this way: In the world according to Bobby, the natural disasters (rain, flood, and wind) in the parable struck only the house built on the sand (i.e., “bad Christians”), but the house built on the rock (i.e., “good Christians”) was completely spared.
The first time I really felt how illusory Bobby’s world was when my sister-in-law died of cancer at the age of 32; she left behind two small children. The second time was when my brother-in-law also died of cancer at 43; he, too, left behind two small children. Both were believers. And I didn’t find much solace in Kushner’s words: “I can worship a God who hates suffering but cannot eliminate it, more easily than I can worship a God who chooses to make children suffer, for whatever exalted reason.” But I felt that you should let the grieving parent mourn, while you bite your tongue and speak not. Elihu bit his while listening to Job defend himself against his misguided friends, saying, “It profits a man nothing when he tries to please God” (34:9), until he could bear no more.
To do that, Jesus went along with this man’s thinking based on the Law of Moses: “Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them” (Lev. 18:5), that is, obtain eternal life. Therefore, “Do this and you will live” implies that the lawyer had failed to keep God’s law perfectly, and as a result didn’t have eternal life. Feeling slighted, since he thought otherwise, the lawyer “wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” This is when the parable of the Good Samaritan is given, not necessarily because Jesus wanted to emphasize a lesson on loving our neighbors, but to help the lawyer see that “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Is. 64:6). Once the lawyer recognizes that, he is ready, not only to hear the gospel, but to believe it as well.