I Chronicles 7-9
The gatekeepers are important. Their names – along with their particular responsibilities – are listed in chapter 9.
Why are they important? They are the ones who are responsible to see who and what comes in and who goes out of the temple. They check the merchandise and they check the furnishings. They also check the people.
Today, we are all gatekeepers. We have our eye gates, our ear gates, and our thought gates, and we are responsible to take charge of what we let into our temples. We are now the temples of the living God.
All around us are evils which can contaminate the temple. Of course, on one level, there are drugs and alcohol; on another level there is pornography. On a third level there is all of the false information which would try to compromise God’s message. Then there is doubt and unbelief which tries to come in.
We are all gatekeepers, charged with the responsibility of protecting ourselves from the ravages of the enemy.
Then there is the other side. We also need to make sure that we let in the Word of God and all that He has for us. We don’t stand there empty, but full of His thoughts, His ideas, His leading to do what he desires.
As we keep ourselves from the contamination of evil forces, and fill ourselves with God’s purposes, we’ll be standing in His grace and His pleasure.
John 6: 22-45
John’s gospel really goes deeply into the spiritual truths, doesn’t it?
Yesterday we saw where the baskets of bread and fish were broken and spread out to the multitude of people present. Now we see that Jesus is proclaiming that He is the bread which has come out of heaven. He is the Bread of Life.
Jesus is the Bread which, not many days from now, will be broken for us and divided among us so that we can receive God’s zoe life.
The Pharisees have another fit. What in the world is He talking about? We know that His father and mother are Joseph and Mary, and He is saying that He came down from heaven?!
Jesus goes on to explain that only those whom the Father draws are His. He recites Isaiah 54:13 “They shall all be taught of God.”
At this point, Jesus is saying things that only born again believers will eventually understand, but those whose hearts are right will not reject Him for what He says. Even if they don’t truly understand, their hearts will be stirred to trust Him.
Not the Pharisees. They are very quick to reject Jesus over anything they can think of. They are jealous of Him because of His following. Not wanting to lose their power, they are happy to find any “gotcha” moments they can.
Jesus obliges the supposed scholars by throwing those “gotcha” moments often. He is exposing hearts as many are drawn to Him.
If we see passages of scripture which we don’t understand, rather than rejecting them outright, we must always allow the Holy Spirit to explain. As we ask for explanation, He will give it to us…when our hearts are right.
