Sun.’s Devo - The Law and Grace

Read: Exodus 21:22-23:13; Matthew 24:1-28; Psalm 29:1-11; Proverbs 7:6-23
In the Old Testament the law was “eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for word, bruise for bruise.” Jesus came teaching a new covenant. He taught to love your friends and love your enemies and to do good to those who hurt you and despitefully use you or say all kinds of mean and slanderous things against you for the gospel’s sake. He taught forgiveness. The children of Israel were children and first they had to learn how to treat one another fairly. This is the law of the land. Jesus’ law was the law of the heart. Only those who had his heart could follow his law because it dealt with heart issues. The world does not have a changed heart so they must have laws to keep the world safe. God’s Mosaic law was teaching the people justice. This is how God will judge the world in the end. We will totally skip judgment because of the blood of Jesus but will be rewarded for our good deeds.
Romans 7:14 says that the law is spiritual which means that all the laws have spiritual meanings as well as natural. Let me show you how that works. Exodus 22:1-4 talks about the thief. We know that the thief is the devil who comes to steal, kill and destroy. In these verses the thief steals, kills and sells an ox that belongs to someone else. An ox has to do with your strength to provide for your family in every way. The thief must restore to the person four to five times what he has stolen depending on the value of what he has stolen. If the thief is caught in the act and killed then no blood is to be shed for him. The blood of Jesus will never save the devil. He has made his choice. If he is caught with the goods and they are not harmed then he just has to restore double. The devil has stolen from us our wealth, our peace, our joy, our children’s hearts but God said that he would restore to us the years that the locust has eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm with his great army that he sent among us. We will eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord. We will never be ashamed. We can demand that the devil pay us back at least double for what he has stolen from us. That is a promise.
When the disciples asked what would be the sign of his coming and of the end of the age. Jesus gave them a list: the deception of false prophets, unrest in the nations, famine and pestilences, earthquakes, persecution, and world-wide evangelism. He warned them when they saw the abomination of desolation stand in the holy place they were to flee to the mountains. Then great tribulation will take place and Jesus will come back. I think it is important for us to realize what time we are living in. We cannot think that this is talking about today or we will not live out our destiny. We are to rule and reign on the earth and do the greater works that Jesus talked about. We see many of these signs now but they have been going on for a while. We need to live like kingdom kids and bring heaven to earth first before Jesus is coming down to rescue his bride. We need to live like the bride first and let Jesus live through us.
What ever you believe…. do not live in fear. It is a win-win for the people of Christ.
Lord, thank you that you bless your people with peace.