SNAKES IN THE GRASS, NOT

SNAKES IN THE GRASS, NOT

Monday, August 07, 2017

Romans [NLT] 12:1-3 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.

Matthew [NLT] 3:1-10 In those days John the Baptist came to the Judean wilderness and began preaching. His message was, “Repent [G3340 μετανοέω; metanoeō; met-an-o-eh'-o From G3326 and G3539; to think differently or afterwards, that is, reconsider (morally to feel compunction): - repent. ] of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near. The prophet Isaiah was speaking about John when he said, “He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming! Clear the road for him!’” John’s clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild honey. People from Jerusalem and from all of Judea and all over the Jordan Valley went out to see and hear John. ⁶ And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to watch him baptize, he denounced them. “You brood [progeny]of snakes!” he exclaimed. “Who warned you to flee the coming wrath? Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones. Even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.

  In Sunday School class yesterday I was once again reminded of the important distinction between reading and studying God’s Word.

  Reading “O generation of vipers” (KJV) I always imagined snakes in the grass or a frightening snake pit as dramatically pictured in movie or video. This idea is far from what John was actually identifying the Pharisees and Sadducees as.

  Ryan, our rotation teacher for the day, had studied the real meaning of the phrase. The meaning the native Pharisees and Sadducees very much understood. Ryan explained in detail the lifecycle of vipers native to that land: After breeding the female kills the male and later the offspring kills their mother and so on repeating the sequence.

  Intrigued I thought “devour” and using e-Sword did a search resulting in pondering the exhortation from Paul recorded in Galatians chapter 5 “… you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another. …”

  Again, reading is good, study is better, μετανοέω resulting in life application is best for doing so is action of honest maturation that is true worship pleasing to God.

EBB4

PS. One of my MBI teachers always referred to “John the identifier.”, not “the Baptist.