The FaithOfJesus2 Daily Devotional

Focus:

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( FaithOfJesus thread begun by RandyP )

Today's Verse:

kjv@Luke:21:1-4

kjv@Luke:21:1 @ And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.

kjv@Luke:21:2 @ And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.

kjv@Luke:21:3 @ And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all:

kjv@Luke:21:4 @ For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.

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Today's notes:

Context:

• Before - Luke:20:41-47 Whose Son Is the Christ ?
  
• After - Luke:21:5-38 Signs of the End of the Age
  

kjv@Mark:12:41-44

Study Resources:

dict:easton treasury

G4052 abundance/excess

G5303 penury/deficit

Notes:

Does Luke know that he has lined up the story of the widow's mites to follow the widow's house devoured by the scribes? Was it by accident? Well if so Mark made the same accident. Matthew without covering the widow's mites launches directly into a long "woe" to the scribes and Pharisees chapter kjv@Matthew:23 on His way out the temple; placing it at the same time and context.

What do the scribes have to do with the widow's condition? Mark and Luke's context frames our discussion by their love for prestige and position and power. One would not necessarily have to physically steal her possessions away to have a similar effect on her by the type of religion as a whole required to feed their excess. The woman is reliant on their wisdom and guidance in the absence of her husband, her devotion to them and their counsel is bankrupting her. Then comes Mark's previous entry regarding the misconfiguration of their doctrine of Corban kjv@Mark:7:11-13. Remember these scribes are the appointed interpreters of scripture and instructors publicly of the law and oral traditions. They can be stealing away from the widow indirectly by their doctrine through the children of the widow and the religious gifts the children are unrepentantly offering.

Undoubtedly, Matthew is going to give us the most precise indication. Here is what he records as going on not only for the widow but for all the adherents of the scribes faulty religion:

1. Laying burdens on others too grievous to bare that the scribes themselves won't place on themselves also.
   
2. Their works done to be seen by men.
   
3. Shutting up heaven to others without going in themselves.
   
4. Making pretense of long prayers while devouring widow's houses.
   
5. Proselytizing new converts far and wide making them twice as evil as they.
   
6. Being blind guides with their sorted doctrines.
   
7. Having religious form without having the appreciation for the weightier matters of law/judgment/mercy/faith.
   
8. Legalistic on lesser outward matters and yet being filled with extortion and excess.
   
9. Memorializing with the intent of capitalizing on they the image not necessarily the content of the very same prophets that they have killed.
   
10. Refusing Jerusalem to tuck back under the wing of God.
    

Now think of all the ways that what they are doing direct and indirect can leave this woman with two last mites. What she is giving she is giving unto God. What they are taking from her at the treasury therefore is God's. They are made ministers/husbandmen for the Lord of the fruit that HE rightfully expects. What she is receiving from them in return is either bankrupting her or else blatantly robbing her blind.

If we are only to take from this temple observation by Jesus that this wonderfully devout women has given from her heart everything, well yes indeed she has. Perhaps though we should at the same time consider the present oppressive conditions to which she is giving it.

Key Messages:

Declaring Certainty

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Further Resources:

Comment Board:Luke:21:1-4
index:FAITHOFJESUSDEVOTION - Devotional Index
strkjv@Luke:21:1-4 rwp@Luke:21:1-4 mhcc@Luke:21:1-4
FaithOfJesus2 - Devotion Index

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