Tuesday in Week 6 of Pentecost
Daily readings
Tuesday
Numbers 16:20-35 Romans 4:1-12 Matthew 19:23-30The Numbers reading this morning is problematic for me. I have never understood why the children and household of Korah should die when it was nothing they did that was being punished. I suppose no one is guiltless though and every breath we take is an example of the Lord's mercy, but that is not a very satisfying answer to me. Maybe someone can explain that passage to me someday, along with the killing of everyone in the city of Jericho as well.
Romans continues explaining salvation through faith. What can I say? It seems to me that Paul is very clear in the passage we have been working our way through for the last few days.
Matthew 19 continues with the astonishing statement of Jesus,
"Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. 24Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." 25When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?"
26But Jesus looked at them and said,
"With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."I used to think that this passage was somehow directed against only the rich, until I remembered that "all have fallen short" and that I was most certainly amongst the all. :-) The silly idea that the poor are somehow more virtuous and worthy of being saved by God because of their poverty took me a long time to shake. I suppose those who see material blessing as indicative of God's approval have the same difficulty, which is the purpose of this passage I would suppose? I don't know.
It's 5:00 am while I'm reading this so I'm not really fully awake. My intention is to do this reading the day before, when I have time and inclination. So far that has not happened as often as this last second drowsy reading and commenting. I don't think its very useful to do it this way, therefore, I resolve to work harder at reading the passages in advance and actually taking some time to think about them, and comment on them when I'm fully awake.