So, we’re back from vacation and I finally get to read my “real” Bible. I decided we had so little room for a week’s vacation that I would just use my Bible app on my phone. It obviously worked fine and I was able to cross-reference a few verses to other versions of the Bible with much greater ease, but there is just something sweet and relaxing to me as holding my Bible in my hands. I think it’s because I can’t get distracted by anything else when it’s only my Bible. I have reminders popping in on my phone that tend to misdirect my focus. Even a small distraction can get in the way when you’re trying to fully focus on God.
The passage of Scripture I began to read was in Matthew 7 & 8. This passage caught my eye as I have been praying about a deeper desire to pray more specifically for those around me. The passage states, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks received, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (v.7-8 NASB). The idea of asking, seeking, and knocking is viewed as constantly asking, seeking, and knocking. We are supposed to continually do so and not give up when the door doesn’t open or we feel we cannot hear God. This is a good reminder to not pray for a family member or friend once, but to continually bring them and their needs before the Lord.
I continue my reading of it being hard to enter the kingdom of heaven, only good fruit can come from good trees, the wise and foolish man, and various healing accounts performed by Jesus. Then, I read of the calling of Matthew. Jesus is sitting with the tax collectors and sinners when he replies in chapter 9:12-13, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
This struck a nerve with me today as I was thinking this morning that this is the best vacation I have had in which I was able to control my blood sugar. I worked really hard to keep it in check and my hard work paid off! But, I’m still sick and I need my physician. Now, I realize Jesus was simply making an analogy, but I’m giving you the background of why I related to this.
Oh, and remember how excited I was to be reading from my “real” Bible? Well, my real Bible had nothing to say about the verse I wanted to learn more about; you know, about the sick needing a physician? That was a bit frustrating, but then I read His words, “but go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice”. My Bible had some cross-references for me on this one. I love Jesus’ humor. He was talking to the Pharisees when He said this and He was quoting from Hosea 6:6; of which the Pharisees fully knew what that meant! Hosea 6:6 reads, “For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
Do you get the humor? Here are the Pharisees who were making the sacrifices and burnt offerings to God just as the law demanded. They were the “religious police” of that day. They had no room for the tax collectors in the synagogues and here Jesus was sitting among them. The Old Testament verse is stating that not only should you have loyalty to God, but you should treat others around you properly (including tax collectors). The knowledge of God requires humility and not a know-it-all attitude. I like how my study Bible words it, “Sacrifice apart from faithfulness to the Lord’s will is wholly unacceptable to Him”. Basically, Jesus said to the Pharisees, “You think you’re all that, but I really don’t care about you pretending to keep all my laws. There is no meaning or emotion behind your actions. The very people I am sitting among realize their need for me and I prefer their presence over what you offer Me.”
Are you a tax collector or a pharisee? Are you simply going through the religious motions or are you experiencing the heart-felt need for a doctor in your life? We might regularly visit our doctor when we’re sick to get some medicine, but we need to remember in our humanness how sick we are without God’s grace and mercy upon our lives.
Need to schedule a visit with The Doctor?
© 2012 Susan M. Sims
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