Pay Attention to Walk in Peace
The message of and the mysteries of God are not held in some sort of vault for only the elect to discover and understand. In today’s reading, Jesus was not talking to his disciples. Verse 54 says, “he also said to the crowds”. The message of learning to interpret the times and the signs of the times was for the average man and woman, you and I included. The implication being that we can miss what God is doing when we close our eyes, but if we pay attention, God will open up for us a world of explanations and expectations.
The book of Ecclesiastes contains a lot of thoughts and instructions about everyday life. One of the great lessons it teaches goes along with today’s reading. Solomon teaches about the importance of interpreting the signs by declaring that those who fail to do so find themselves trapped in evil. Ecclesiastes 9:11-12 says, “Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.” Discernment and I are struggling friends, yet God shows us throughout His word the importance of having discernment. When we refuse to stop pay attention to the signs around us, we so often find ourselves regretting a misstep or the trust of someone who didn’t truly deserve it.
Matthew Henry wrote, “Christianity has reason and natural conscience on its side; and, if men would allow themselves the liberty of judging what is right, they would soon find that all Christ's precepts concerning all things are right, and that there is nothing more equitable in itself, nor better becoming us, than to submit to them and be ruled by them.” The beginning of discernment is God’s word. God knows we are easily fooled and manipulated (some of us – myself included - more than others). That’s why He gave us such an extensive guidebook. Christ told us that we will know the heart of a man by the words he speaks and the fruit of his life. God told us through David that we need not be afraid of the unknown as long as we have the light of God shining upon our life’s path. Through Solomon, He tells us the danger of what happens when we stop using that light and try to make our own way. There are dangers around every corner that we will simply miss we don’t pay attention.
Satan wants to destroy God’s people and anything that brings Him glory. Let us learn to recognize the signs and take action before the snare is set and the net sprung. Most importantly, let us not miss the movement of God simply because we have our eyes closed to what He is doing. We have to look further than the end of our own noses. We need to pay attention to more than the struggle we find ourselves in or the even the excitement of where God has placed us in the moment. There are clues all around us, whispered in what is not spoken and hinted at in the movement of the world which point to God’s plan. He doesn’t want us to be ignorant because that’s when we fall, and no good parent wants to see their child get hurt.
Let me leave you with another beautiful bit of instruction from the book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 9, verses 7-10:
“Go, eat your bread with joy,
and drink your wine with a merry heart,
for your God has already approved what you do.
Let your garments be always white.
Let not oil be lacking on your head.
Enjoy life with the wife whom you love,
all the days of your vain life that He has given you under the sun,
Because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might,
for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.”
(Written by Keegan Harkins.)
References:
English Standard Version Bible. (2003). Crossway.
Henry, M. (1 Mar, 1996). Commentary on Luke 12 by Matthew Henry. Retrieved from
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