Matthew 3:7-9–Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation

Posted by Seth on Mar 19, 2010 in Bible Study, Daily Devotions |

Matthew 3:7-9–Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation

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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Matthew 3:7-9 wherein we hear a prophet tell it like it is and remind us about our purpose.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

Some people have the gift of tact and others…don’t. But some of the people who are not the greatest users of it are perhaps often the ones who speak truth better than anyone else. Think upon the scene presented here. The wild and crazy looking John the Baptist who saw things with greater clarity than any mere man of his time was baptizing scores of people who answered his call to repentance before God. The crowds were likely contrite but blessed and hopeful when some of the religious leaders entered the scene. Their wet-camel-fragranced baptizer suddenly began screaming insults at the newcomers who apparently wanted to identify with the people in a pseudo holy politician-like fashion through baptism. One would think that this should have incited an argument, but what could the Pharisees and Sadducees say after John’s comments? They were proud to be, above everything else, learned offspring of Abraham and their opponent wasn’t impressed. God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. We might say then that John had put them on the level of a snake under a rock.

What these folks didn’t get then and, for the most part, never ended up understanding is that coming into a true relationship with God changed everything about one’s life. If they and we are to escape the wrath of God, hope in self must be transferred to hope in Him. Living for self must be transformed into living for Him. For the Pharisees and Sadducees to be baptized by John, they needed to stop their current snake-like ways with self-exalting mentality and bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Probably they had heard a bit of John’s message: Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. They knew then that a keeping of oneself from sin was part of the equation, but they didn’t get the fruit-bearing part of his call, which really meant that they didn’t understand repentance either. In John’s mind and throughout Jesus’ teachings as well, repentance is presented as something that is always accompanied by new, God-glorifying works and not merely abstinence from things outlined as taboo in a religious system.

Sometimes it takes a character like John to yell out a bit of truth to refocus our attention. His calliig was to prepare the way before Jesus who would arrive on the scene next, standing greatly in contrast with the earlier visitors just witnessed. Knowing this, what we should hear when John speaks is that we need our lives changed by and for the Savior, experiencing purification and new purpose. How are you and I doing in that arena? Let us seek the Lord surrendering our all today.

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