Fri.’s Devo -Being Responsible

Read: Joshua 16:1-18:28; Luke 19:1-27; Psalm 87:1-7; Proverbs 13:11 The sons of Joseph received their allotment which went to Ephraim and the other half of the tribe of Manasseh. The tribe of Ephraim could not drive out all the Canaanites out of Gezer so they made them their slaves. *** The tribe of Manasseh had a descendant who had only daughters who came to Joshua to remind him that Moses had already ruled that they should have their own land and so Joshua gave them their own land. The men of Manasseh were not able to drive the Canaanites out of five of the towns they were given. The tribes of Joseph complained that they were too large and needed more land. Joshua gave them more land but told them that they were to drive out the Canaanites from those towns even though they were strong and had iron chariots. Joseph wasn’t taking their excuses. They ended up later making them slaves. *** Joshua met with the rest of the people at the Tabernacle in Shiloh. He rebuked them for not taking possession of the rest of the land and receiving their inheritance. He told them to send out spies and divide the rest of the land in portions so they could pick lots to assign the land to the remaining tribes. They did, and the first allotment went to Benjamin. *** In Luke, there was a man named Zacchaeus who lived in the town of Jericho. He had become very rich being a tax collector. He was also very short in statue. Jesus was coming through their city and Zacchaeus wanted to see him. Because of the crowd and his height, he had to climb a sycamore tree to be able to see. Jesus saw him and told him he was coming to his house to eat that day. Zacchaeus was elated but the people were offended that he would choose to eat with a notorious sinner like Zacchaeus. *** Zacchaeus was overwhelmed with Jesus, he began repenting and confessing his sins. He told Jesus he would give his wealth to the poor and repay four times what he had stolen from the people. By Jesus choosing to eat with Zacchaeus, the whole city was blessed. He couldn’t have chosen a better person to eat with. Jesus exclaimed that salvation had come to this house. This was a perfect picture of salvation. Jesus had come to do just this - save the lost. *** Jesus gave the people a parable showing the progression of the kingdom. A certain nobleman was called away to be crowned king in a distant empire and then he would return. He divided ten pounds of silver among ten of his servants. When he had gone his people sent a delegation to find him and tell him they didn’t want him to be their king. *** He continued to the far kingdom and received his crown then came back to see what his servants had done with his money. The first had used it to make ten more. He was commended and since he could be trusted with money, he was given to rule over ten cities. The next servant had invested and made five times that amount. He was given five cities. But the third brought back the king’s money and gave it to him. He told him he was hard and took what wasn’t his, so he was giving him only what was his. Then he gave him his one pound of silver. The master called this man wicked and took his one pound and gave it to the man who had made ten because he was a better steward of his money. How we deal with money is a good test to show how responsible we are with other things. There is no better investment than investing in the Kingdom of God. *** Lord, may we remember that all we do in the natural has spiritual rewards or spiritual consequences. May we live with the wisdom and fear of the Lord.