Sunday 29 May 2011

Sunday Reading: Matthew 21:33-40

Key Verse: Matthew 21:40
40  When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?

Devotion:
There are many points in our bibles where the Israelites are talked about as being part of a vine and this is the place where this comes together. This parable is told in other gospels as well so it is something that all the disciples would remember; but now we know the history of what happened we can relate it better to those events than they did when they heard it. Hindsight always is the best sight, or is it?

There are so many places where hindsight is the best because we can then work out what should have happened and hopefully will not allow that to happen again. Each air crash that happens is followed by a period when investigators pour over the evidence left behind and try to recover the black box recorders which will then tell them what happened – but only after the event. Hindsight definitely allows people to rectify things after they have happened, but it will not bring back people from the dead. This is what we have to remember when we bring this parable into remembrance.

If we leave things until we have to look back and see that we were wrong, we are going to miss out on our Lord’s return. We will then be faced with having to admit to the truth or to cover it up and try to continue fooling ourselves into some sort of feeling that we might be safe. The only place that we can ever be safe is in Christ’s arms and if we turn our back on Him now, reject Him or persecute those that He sends in His name, then we are going to have to face up to His wrath when He does come back. God has not given this earth to do with it as we please but has rather set us in charge of it until He returns. If we are going to think that we can ignore the fact that we are His and that He is our God, then we will only fool ourselves into believing that we do not need Him.

Points to Ponder:
Do you think you are in control?

What has God given you to do?