Todays readings.. 1 Chronicles 2, Ezekiel 15, Luke 11

“THEREFORE BE CAREFUL LEST …” 

Our chapter in Ezekiel once again is the message the prophet receives from the LORD to send to the people in Jerusalem who are facing the potential destruction of their city and of Solomon’s wonderful Temple. 

They appear to have had the expectation that the LORD would not allow its destruction!  But today’s message ends with the LORD saying, “… when I set my face against them…  I will make the land desolate, because they have acted faithlessly, declares the Lord GOD.”  May our Lord never set his face against us! But he will against some!  For example, recall what we read yesterday in Luke ch, 10 v.15.  The people of Capernaum had been wonderfully blessed in seeing many of Jesus’ miracles, but did they appreciate them! The comment of Jesus shows they did not – and how many people today have God’s word readily available. But do they appreciate this?

In Luke ch. 11 today we read the teaching of Jesus in which he draws lessons from simple truths, he says, “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness.” [v.34]  Then comes the lesson, let not this lesson be seen as ‘too simple’ that our heart does not feel sufficiently challenged by it.

“Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness”.  Do we ‘see’ the point? Physically there is a huge contrast between light and darkness – but, in the spiritual sense, our minds can be ‘blind’ to the contrast.

May the next verse (36) be wholly true for us, “If then” (what a vital ‘if’ this is) “If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”  God’s word alone can make our minds (and as a result our words and actions) “wholly bright.” “Therefore” let us all “be careful lest … “