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Daily Radio Bible Podcast
A NEW WAY HAS COME
Today’s readings are Job 23-24 and Mark 11-12. We are reading from the New Living Translation.
A fig tree is cursed, a temple is overturned, tenant farmers are killed, and a vineyard is reclaimed and given away to others. What’s happening? Judgement is happening. Judgement is coming to God’s people. Jesus is pointing to judgement. The passage reads almost like the Old Testament and prophets like Jeremiah and Isaiah. The impending judgement of the old system of the temple and this religious kingdom is about to come to an end. He curses the tree and he overturns the temple. A new way of approaching God is coming. A new priest and a new king are being revealed. There is a new temple and a new way of living in God. Jesus points to this when he quotes from Psalm 110. After Jesus is questioned he gathers a crowd together and he asks them why the teachers of religious law claim that the Messiah is the Son of David. David himself, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit said:
“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies beneath your feet.’ Since David himself called the Messiah ‘my lord,’ how can the messiah be his son?”
The large crowd listened to him with great delight. I encourage you to read Psalm 110. It’s a short seven-verse chapter. It’s about Melchizedek. He’s a somewhat mysterious person that shows up in Genesis 14. Abraham, the Father of Faith, acknowledges that Melchizedek is an eternal Priest and King. Abraham demonstrates his allegiance to this King and Priest by offering him a tithe of all that he has. Abraham himself, is a subject of this Priest and King, in the order of Melchizedek.
Jesus is teaching us, in this passage, that He is a priest in the order of Melchizedek. He is the fulfillment of this new way, this new system that God is bringing to pass in the person of Christ. The fig tree is cursed and the temple has been turned over. God is making all things new, with a new king and new priest in the order of Melchizedek . He is the King Eternal, God Most High. People of faith, like Abraham, are going to come and serve him and be his subjects. There will be people great and small who serve Him. In fact, this chapter ends with Jesus watching in the temple as a woman many thought was very ‘small’, a widow who had nothing but two pennies, enters. She comes because she is faithful. She believes. She comes and offers all that she has, her two pennies. They are an offering of faith because she is a person of faith. She worships God in faith as a subject of this new King and His Kingdom, in His new temple. Jesus tells us to look closely at her. He also tells us, in Psalm 110, to look closely at Abraham. These are people of faith. They live and worship in a new kingdom, under a new King, in a new Temple and in a new way, – in Spirit and in truth.
Look closely at Abraham, the Widow, and Melchizedek. And let your eye be drawn even closer to Jesus. May you see Him most of all.
You are loved!
