based on the LGG’s Advent Study, Rejoice/ w1d5
Scripture: Luke 1:76-79(78-79); Hebrews 4:14-16; Mark 1:40-45
Because of God’s tender mercy,
Luke 1:78-79
the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us,
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
and to guide us to the path of peace.”
Observation and Application from the Journey
Today’s journey takes us through three short and beautiful passages that reveal the message and essence of God’s love and beauty. Take a minute and check them out – you will see just how tenderhearted and full of mercy God is. You will see the power and love and light of our Savior, and if you look closely at the last two passages, you will see the depth of what He endured on our behalf. Look even closer at the last passage, and you will see the importance of our obedience and the impact our disobedience can have on the gospel message.
Luke reveals more of Zechariah’s song of praise, where he describes God as tenderhearted and merciful, and because of this, He sent Jesus, who lit up the dark world and gave all who would believe in Him a way to be set free from the penalty our sins deserve and instead receive eternal life.
The author of Hebrew reveals Jesus as our Great High Priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses because “He, Himself, has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sinning.” Because of this, we are able to “confidently approach His throne of grace and receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help.”
Finally, and perhaps my favorite portion of today’s journey, are the words Mark writes about Jesus healing the leper. I love knowing that while Jesus could have simply spoken, and the man would have been healed, He first reached out and touched the leper. However, there was one other thing that really jumped out to me from the story; – Jesus gave instructions to the healed man, actually Mark writes that after the man was made clean, “Immediately Jesus sent the man away with a very strong warning – not to tell anyone, but to go, show himself to a priest, and bring the offering that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” But the man did not obey, not only did he not go to the priest but he began to tell everyone what Jesus had done. This may easily be seen as unimportant to the story or to us, but don’t miss this important truth: Because the man did not obey the warning Jesus gave him, Jesus’ ministry was adversely affected. – As best described by the bibleref.com commentary:
The man healed of leprosy doesn’t understand the significance of Jesus’ command, so he doesn’t follow it. There’s no way to know what spiritual damage he caused, but it had a direct influence on Jesus’ ministry. For the time being, Jesus can’t enter a town, stay at a friend’s house, or go to the synagogue. He has no problem going to lonely, desolate places to pray and spend time with God the Father, but now He lives in the wilderness, with His growing crowd. Instead of defining the context of His ministry, He’s forced to work with what He has. As a result, He accumulates crowds that can only be fed by miracle (Matthew 14:15; 15:33) and has no place to lay His head (Matthew 8:20). …Even though Jesus heals the man and makes him ceremonially clean, the man still has free will, and he uses it. We do the same thing when we think we know best and ignore God’s commands. God can redeem any situation that comes about because of our disobedience. And yet, that doesn’t mean the outcome will be as good as it could have been. The initial failure of Israel to enter the Promised Land is a classic example: God redeemed the situation, but the nation suffered forty years of loss and wandering before finally achieving their goal. Very often, we don’t know the reasons for the rules given in the Bible. But we should trust the One who gave them enough to follow anyway.
Read the full commentary @ Bibleref.com
The way we live can have a positive or negative impact on the Gospel. 🦋
Me From the Inside Out 