October 17: Time Between the Testaments

In today's writing, the commentator describes the world into which God the Father would send His Son, Jesus Christ, to seek and save the lost. From the text, we gather that God had orchestrated a world in which the Gospel might take root and grow, giving the world a common Greek language and Roman law to allow the faith to spread. In Judaism itself, we find a religious culture that had turned away from seeking after God Himself, but rather focusing on legalistic righteousness. The rabbi (with his knowledge of the law) had come to supplant the priest, who stood between God and man and offered sacrifices on behalf of the people.

Political developments had prompted the Israelites to embrace the concept of a coming political champion in the Messiah, one who would overthrow the Roman authorities and restore Jewish rule over the Promised Land. In the coming weeks, we will see many tensions among both the crowds and the disciples and Jesus, Who does not fit the molds assumed for Him.
God's sovereignty gives order and ushers His goodness into the world. Praise Him for His purpose and plan!

"May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine upon us,
that your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you." (Psalm 67:1-3)

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'" (Acts 17:24-28)

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified." (Romans 8:28-30)