When I realized which chapter I had to read today, I thought..."Oh the three wise men...easy." After reading it through I just sat there not knowing what I could really write about. The story is well known and obvious, right?
After several readings of the chapter one thing different about this passage that I noticed was looking at the many different instances of people obeying God's command or listening to his warnings whether it be through an angel appearing or a dream.
12And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
13When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him."
19After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead."
22But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth.
Each time they obeyed, there was fulfillment of prophecy and sets everything up for what we know now was God's plan all along.
This got me thinking about how many times I must have disobeyed God's command or the promptings of the Holy Spirit knowingly or unknowingly and how I may have missed opportunities to further God's will for my life and perhaps even in the larger scheme of things. If just one person in this chapter did not listen to or ignore God's warnings or command, where would we be today?
I know we don't have the angel of the Lord speak to us or show up in our dreams--I can never even remember my dreams and am convinced that I don't regularly dream when I sleep. But I am sure that I have missed opportunities, ignored 'promptings', did not spend time with God in prayer and the reading of his word to even be able to hear him because I am busy doing my own thing. I wonder what the effects of my disobedience have been so far? I'm afraid to know.
7 comments:
thank you, christine, for an excellent reflection. it also impressed me deeply that God spoke to His people 4 times through a dream, either for the purpose of instruction or warning.
how blessed we are that the individuals in the story responded in obedience to God's Word!
these days we can also "hear God's voice" and know the full revelation of His will through the Scriptures
which is probably why He doesn't often speak through dreams and visions anymore.
the problem is, we are always wanting to know the part of God's will that is not revealed (what job? whom to marry? etc).
we are not so keen to discover God's revealed will through His Word, because we are so reluctant to obey it.
i also have to wonder how many times i was disobedient to the Lord because i was not in communion with Him throughout the day.
oh christine... you're so right! the journey of the magi is so about obedience. can you imagine what his neighbors must have told him? you're going where? because of a star? then his wife: where are you taking all that gold...! their obedience was an exercise in faith, very costly in more ways than the obvious... great insight!
When I read this passage, what struck me was the evil force/actions taken against the newborn Jesus by Herod. I was wondering what would make a man do such evil even after hearing the Scriptures reveal the coming of THE Shepherd of Israel. The people God used to protect baby Jesus were instructed through dreams and visitations of angels but Herod -what was he inspired by? Was he visited by the devil or had demonic dreams instructing him what to do in order to protect his own throne? No, it was simply his own sinful heart- the same kind of heart we have.
I guess it's another reminder of how much evil a human heart is capable of. However, God's plan was not thwarted. As Christine wrote, God spoke to and used obedient people through dreams and visions. And, these are such personal and intimate means... I bet Herod probably thought he outwitted God somehow. Instead, even the result of Herod's evil actions fulfilled God's prophecies.
And, if God's good and perfect will gets accomplished despite the deliberate and active forces against Him, than surely, His will does get accomplished despite our "reluctant" and imperfect ways to obey him. I guess in the end, it is God alone who accomplishes His will and we are the ones that are blessed to take part if and when we obey Him.
Christine, you bring up a great point about obedience. It is a common thread throughout the passage, and I'm sure at times that those who God spoke to were hesitant or scared to obey his commands. Despite their feelings, they continued to obey faithfully. Praise God!
I know there are so many instances in my life where I deliberately chose to disobey God. And I think to myself, "Why can't you just listen for once?!" In those moments where I want to do just what I want to do, I am putting forth a more conscious effort to pray. I guess this may show the depth of my faith.
I really thank God for His mercy and grace in those moments when it's the most difficult to be obedient.
I'm amazed how long God had prepared these things for the day of Jesus' birth. Only in chapter two, there are four prophets come happened.
And about obeying his words, even a star were staying there waiting for 2 years to complete God's will. How impatient we are complaining there's no change in our lives even though we're obeying!
Wow...that point you make really made me think about how obedience and trust go hand in hand. In order to obey God and his commands, you need to completely trust in Him and his judgment. This is a very easy concept to know and understand but it is also very difficult to follow and an easy one to forget as well.
I think the problem with so many people is that they can't trust in God, who they can't see, hear, smell, taste, or feel. I mean I sometimes wish that God would physically sent an angel to speak to me like He did with Joseph in his dreams but nowadays God doesn't speak to us through dreams and visions but through His Word, prayer, and the Holy Spirit. But the question is would I still listen and obey if he did do that?
I think my answer would be no, I still wouldn't. I'm learning that when you choose not to read His Word or pray, it's obvious how much you truly know Him and his promises. So how can you trust in someone that you don't know really well. And I think this easily leads people to doubt God and his promises and therefore they will not obey.
And this point, that you made, has made me think about the hymn "What A Friend We Have In Jesus"; the last two lines in the the first verse: Oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bare. All because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.
I don't know why these lines popped into my head and I could be totally wrong here but when I think about all the times I fret over things because I'm worried and scared, I've noticed they were times when I refused to go to God because I didn't trust God and a lot of things could have been better and easier for me if I'd come to him in prayer, trusted in His judgment, and simply obeyed His commands.
It shows how foolish we are when we place our trust in ourselves and not in Him and how easily we choose not to listen and obey. Your reflection, Christine, made me think of that. ^-^
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