Notice on a slight format change:

Except for July 2012, these are mostly a collection of current devotional notes.

July 2012 is a re-write of old quiet times. My second child was born Nov 11, 1987 with multiple birth defects. I've been re-reading my QT notes from that time in my life, and have included them here. They cover the time before the birth and the few years immediately after the birth. They are tagged "historical." I added new insights and labeled them: ((TODAY, dd mmm yy)).

Friday, December 23, 2022

QT 12/23/2022 Matt 2:12-15, Comfortable life or servant?

Matthew 2:12–15 (ESV) —

12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

 

NOTE: There are a lot of supernatural ways that God could have resolved this issue. Instead, he takes the least supernatural method, Joseph flees the area with Mary and the child. The result is the death of many children two years old and younger, the grief of the parents, and the uprooting of Joseph's family. God is not at fault in any way since he gives life, and there are things much greater than life that we don't understand. Herod is at fault independent of the fact that God could have stopped him. At the garden, we chose to be our own gods. The fact that God intervenes at all is a wonder since we rebelled against him.

 

The earth does not have peace still. Jesus does bring peace to many lives of those who have truly been born again. Someday, it will have peace and it will because of Jesus reigning supreme. Until then, we suffer the consequences of our rebellion against God, mistakenly blaming him for our choices.

 

PONDER:

  1. What am I living for -- a comfortable earthly life, or to be God's servant to a rebellious world?

 

PRAYER: Father, life can be very hard at times. We chose this path when we decided to be our own gods. There is no true love in our hearts. We prefer to hate those who don't agree with us. We only really love ourselves. Forgive us for our sins and open our eyes to true healing.

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