January 27, 2024

“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4.

After 40 days of fasting in the wilderness, Satan appeared to Jesus to tempt Him. According to Matthew, the first temptation was to make Jesus turn the stone into bread. To this was Jesus’ reply was the text mentioned above.

Jesus was quoting the Old Testament scripture of Deuteronomy 8:3. This is what the verse says: “So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”

The emphasis here is that it is God who provides. Up until this chapter in Deuteronomy, God speaks through Moses and emphasizes many times the importance of God’s people needing to obey His commandments. God keeps talking about the blessings to be received when His people are faithful to Him. God does not want His people to make the mistakes that their fathers made. So here in this verse, God is saying that we need to fully depend on God no matter what. God provides.

Perhaps that is what Jesus wanted to be an example as He was tempted. Yes, Jesus could have used His divinity to change the stone to bread. But He chose not to. Jesus chose to depend on the Father to become an example for us. We should follow the example of Jesus. We should continue to be faithful to God and put our full dependence on our Father who loves us.

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January 13, 2024

“It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.” Deuteronomy 1:2.

When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt to the promised land, it could have been a rather easy and short journey. But it took them decades to finally enter the land they were promised. It was actually the second generation that were born in the wilderness that got into the promised land. The first generation that first came out of Egypt never made it but all died.

Moses in Deuteronomy tells the readers that it takes only 11 days to get to Kadesh Barnea from Mt. Horeb. So if you add the time it took to get to Horeb from Egypt, the total duration of time still wouldn’t be that too long. Finally, when the people arrived in Kadesh Barnea, Moses picked out 12 spies, one from each tribe, to check out the promised land. The spies returned with good reports of the land.

At the entrance of the promised land, the people started to complain. “Nevertheless, you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the LORD your God; and you complained in your tents…” Deut. 1:26, 27. They did not even try to fight (even when they had God’s promises). They got scared.

And the LORD was angry. Therefore, He did not let this generation enter. In chapter 2 of this book, “So it was, when all the men of war (the first generation) had finally perished from among the people,” (Deut. 2:16) the LORD commanded Moses to fight for the land that God had promised. It took them 40 years to finally enter the promised land.

Do we get scared, too? Even when we have God on our back, do we need to get scared? I wonder how the Bible story would have changed if the first generation of people had trusted God and entered the promised land. I wonder how much things would have worked better had we learned to trust God from the beginning.

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January 6, 2024

“And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.” Luke 24:45.

Happy new year to you all. We say this each year, but time did go by real quick, didn’t it? I am just thankful to God for giving us another year of life. It’s exciting to think about the wonderful blessings God will allow us in the new year. Also, we can be assured that we are now one year closer to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

You know, when Jesus was arrested and crucified, the disciples and His followers fell into complete chaos. They didn’t know what to do. It seemed their meaning in life was gone and they were completely disappointed. When Jesus was resurrected, the disciples heard about it and yet they couldn’t believe what they were hearing. It didn’t convince them. Finally Jesus appeared in front of them. And you know what Jesus did? He gave them a Bible study! It was a refresher for them. It was not the first time they were studying the Bible but Jesus had to spend time in explaining to them the Bible.

A similar experience is found in the first part of the chapter as Jesus decided to walk with the two disciples as they were heading towards Emmaus. Verse 27 says, “And beginning at Moses and the all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” It was not like they never heard of it before. They forgot. 

I pray that in the new year that we make it a habit of studying the Word of God regularly. One thing I noticed with long-time Christians is that they are familiar with the beliefs and teachings of the Bible but when asked in detail, they don’t know how to answer them. It’s because we don’t study the Bible regularly. The one time study in the past is not good enough. You cannot rely on the pastor’s sermon on Sabbaths. You have to study the Bible for yourself on a regular basis. The New Year is here, please study the Bible. If the disciples couldn’t remember the Scriptures (especially when they were with Jesus for over 3 years), how can we remember the Words if we don’t study them regularly?

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