Verse of the Day 4/21

Through the Bible - 2 Samuel 1-3, Luke 19:11-27

 

Good morning,

For today's verse we'll go back to Luke 18 to the second parable on prayer.  The previous parable from Monday spoke of the widow giving the unjust judge a black eye.  Reading today's verse may hit us right between the eyes.

 

Luke 18:11The Pharisee took his stand ostentatiously and began to pray thus before and with himself: God, I thank You that I am not like the rest of men--extortioners (robbers), swindlers [unrighteous in heart and life], adulterers--or even like this tax collector here.

¹²I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I gain.

¹³But the tax collector, [merely] standing at a distance, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but kept striking his breast, saying, O God, be favorable (be gracious, be merciful) to me, the especially wicked sinner that I am!  - Amplified Bible

 

The Amplified Bible uses the word "ostentatiously" to describe the Pharisee's stance,.  Read Merriam's dictionary definition for the word, " marked by or fond of conspicuous or vainglorious and sometimes pretentious display".

The prayer was all for show.  Not only that, John MacArthur points out that "by exalting his own works, the Pharisee revealed that his entire hope lay in his not being as bad as someone else.   He utterly lacked any sense of his own unworthiness and sin." 

 

Contrast the "sinner", a man who was willing to face the reality of his sin, whose only response could be coming to Christ in humility and repentance.

Most of us will probably admit saying prayers in one form or another that resemble the pharisaical attitude, thinking that our prayers deserve to be heard over someone else's because in our judgment we are not like "the rest of men".

 

Rabbi Nichonias' prayer (about 70 AD) highlights the attitude, "I thank you, Lord my God, that you have set my lot among those who frequent the synagogue rather than those who sit on the street corners.  I run my cause for the life of the world to come, while they are heading for the abyss."

 

We may change the statement to the golf course or ball field instead of the street corner, but the attitude of the heart is still the same.

 

What should we be doing, how should we be praying instead?

In Christ,
Mike
mikevw@bellsouth.net
http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com
Eph 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace  NIV
Luke 18:9-14

 

The Story of the Tax Man and the Pharisee

 

He told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people: "Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: 'Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people — robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.'

 

"Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, 'God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.'"

 

Jesus commented, "This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you're going to end up flat on your face, but if you're content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself."

 

(from THE MESSAGE)