Daily Devotion

This is the first of two incidents which show the opposition to Jesus quickly coming out into the open, and which make it clear that the immediate charge against Him was that He was a breaker of the Sabbath Law. He and His disciples were walking along one of the paths that intersected the corn fields. The fact that the disciples picked the ears of corn was, in itself, no crime.   Deuteronomy 23:25 is one of the merciful laws of the Old Testament which said that anyone passing through a cornfield was free to pick the corn as long as he didn't put a sickle into it. On any other day, there would not be a complaint; but this was the Sabbath. By plucking the corn, they were guilty of reaping; by rubbing it in their hands, they were guilty of threshing, throwing away the husks, and winnowing. The very fact that they ate it showed that they had prepared food on the Sabbath. To us, the whole thing seems weird, but to a strict Pharisee this was deadly sin; this was a matter of life and death.

 

This scripture contains a great general truth. Jesus said to the Pharisees, "Have you not read what David did?" The answer, of course, was, "Yes"-but they had never seen what it meant. It is possible to read scripture meticulously, to know the Bible from cover to cover---and yet completely miss its real meaning. Why did the Pharisees miss the meaning---and why do we often miss it? (1^st) They did not bring to the scriptures an open mind. They came to the Scriptures, not to learn God's will, but to find proof texts to their own ideas. When we read the scripture we must say, "Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening."(2^nd) They did not bring a needy heart. The person who comes with no sense of need always misses the deepest meaning of scripture. When NEED awakens, the Bible is a new Book. The sense of need unlocks the treasury of scripture. When we read God's Book we must bring to it the open mind and the needy heart---and then to us also it will be the GREATEST BOOK IN THE WORLD.

 

Life Application: How do you approach the Bible for personal reading? Is there a desire to find God in the Book, and what He is saying to you about what you need? There is nothing missing for us.

 

Praise/Prayer: My loving Father, almost every time I read the Bible I find You, and the kind of message I need. I love teaching the Bible because each time I do, I learn more about You, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Heaven, the angels, and that one day the dead in Christ will be gathered home to Heaven. I love reading the Bible because I learn so much. Amen!