DCLM Daily Manna Friday 12 May 2023
TOPIC: Impenitent Leader
TEXT: Mark 12:1-12 (KJV)
KEY VERSE
“And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way.”
(Mark 12:12)
DCLM Daily Manna Friday 12 May 2023 MESSAGE
King David proved more discreet and tolerant in his time than the chief priests, scribes and elders did in Christ’s day. When Nathan the prophet exposed his sin through a parable, David set aside his ego and humbly accepted his inexcusable transgressions. He attracted instant mercy, although he could not escape the corporeal repercussions.
The leaders of Israel were not so. More than one thousand years later, Jesus spoke of the parable of the wicked husbandmen who hijacked God’s vineyard. They slew the prophets He sent to them for harvesting of the yields. In a final act of rebellion, they murdered the son of the owner of the field. Clearly, they understood, like David did, that the story targeted their forebears and them, as they were also scheming to kill Jesus the Son of God sent to reclaim the lost.
When the Lord sends preachers to address our shortcomings and sins, we ought to have remorseful conviction and repent. We should not resent His messengers or see them as personal enemies. It should lead us to thank the Lord for loving us such that He does not want us to perish and lose heaven. It fulfils His desire not to take pleasure in the death of the sinner.
God’s rebuke comes from various sources: the Bible, the sermons of preachers, Christian literature and online messages, etc. They are not meant to further alienate us from Him or from the church leaders He sends to us. His censures are Fatherly, plaintively designed to pull us from the mire when we break His laws and realign us to His love. Rejecting His overtures is the same as choosing the road to doom.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: A true Christian is grateful for the Lord’s rebuke as much as His commendation.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Corinthians 12-14
