Matthew 20:29-34
Have you been in need of help, help beyond any fix that man
has been given, like the cure for stage four cancer, like the loss of your
eyesight, or even a child in rebellion, what or whom do you turn to? Often when circumstances bring us to a place
of desperation we are confronted with few options, one is to be angry with God,
and it is a long dead-end street, or we can by the faith He has given us run to
Him. In the book of Daniel, we are given
an example of believing faith, the faith that God gave Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego. Do you remember the account about
king Nebuchadnezzar having a golden image made and all the people were to
bow-down and worship it. “Then
Nebuchadnezzar in furious rage commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
be brought. So they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar answered
and said to them, “Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do
not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? Now if you
are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp,
bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I
have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be
cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out
of my hands?”
And as all things in life everyone has a choice, worship the
image, or burn in a fiery furnace, and this was their choice; “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and
said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this
matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the
burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if
not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship
the golden image that you have set up.” You and I are confronted with this same
choice, not a fiery furnace, but a world that tells us to keep our mouth shut
about what God calls evil, like preying on the poor, and calling it “Reverse
Mortgage,” or letting some evil teacher in a government school tell your child
that being a homosexual is a good thing, or that a government that lies to its
people is just spin and everyone does it so it is ok.
The
two blind men in Matthew’s account of Jesus and his disciples leaving Jericho
and the large crowd following and these two guys standing by the roadside,
heard that Jesus was passing by and they began to yell, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” What have we learned about crowds, is it not
that they will push you out of the way to see the one they are following? The crowd did not care one bit for these
blind men, they came to see Jesus, and so they said to them, shut up, but
Matthew tells us that was like pouring gas on a fire, they just yelled
louder, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” It should be apparent that these
blind men had the same faith as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and their
only hope of sight was Jesus. Matthew
tells us that Jesus stopped, and called them and said, “What do
you want me to do for you?” “They said to him,
“Lord, let our eyes be opened.” And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and
immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.”
We
should all identify with the two blind men, for we all came into the world
blinded by sin, and many of us went to all the self help clinics the world had
to offer, like religion, and yet we still are blind, and God gave us the faith
we needed to yell louder than the crowd, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” And I can only tell you what Jesus
did for me, He touched my eyes and I can now see, He changed my heart from fear
to love, and now I can love the Lord my God, and my neighbor, and He is still
working on me so that I can do it with all my heart and love my neighbor as
myself.
From
the Back Porch,
Bob
Rice
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