DEVOTIONS - MORE MATTHEW BLOG

Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

In this parable Jesus is very blunt about how the Jews have treated the men chosen by God over the centuries. They have continually rejected God’s advances toward them and shown that rejection in how they have treated the prophets of God.

Originally God created the world and planned that all people in the world would have that special close family relationship with Him. Then man sinned and the whole world turned against God and followed the ways of the devil. So God wiped out the world with the flood and started over with Noah and thought once again He could have a close relationship with all men. However man continued to reject God and do exactly what he wanted rather than pursue a relationship with God. So God decided that He would pick one man and from his family he would create some people who would be His children here on earth and enjoy a special relationship with Him. God chose Abraham and the children of Israel were born. The idea was that everyone in the world would see them and how they were blessed and want to serve the same God that they served and then the whole world would come to have a great relationship with the creator God. But the children of Israel learned to live for themselves and not for God and they were not a great example for the world to follow, in fact they turned to other gods and as was stated before rejected all of God’s attempts to draw them back to Him.

So God came into the world Himself as Jesus the Christ, the Son of God. But the Jews rejected Him and in fact killed Him rather than turn again to God and the special relationship that He wanted to have with them. So now God is telling the people of Israel that from now on the relationship will be the key, not their family heritage. Those who believe in Jesus will have the special relationship, even if they were not Jewish to begin with.
So today the “children of God” are not the Jews, but all of those who believe that Jesus is their Savior and trust completely in Him for salvation. This is good news for us gentiles!

With whom do you identify in this story?

Have you ever felt as though you deserved to be a part of God’s family?