Responding

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

RESPONDING

Luke 3:1-6

3:1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar — when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert. 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: "A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. 5 Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. 6 And all mankind will see God's salvation.'"  

NIV

We are being told the time setting of the beginning of the events which will lead to our redemption. Not that it hasn’t already began with the birth of Jesus, or rather the conception of Jesus, or actually with the creation, but this is the beginning of the revealing of the truth to mankind, which again really already happened, so we cannot be certain exactly how to describe this time setting. Luke tells us who was in power because it will be meaningful at some future time. What we should focus on in this section of the Gospel is the fact the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert. John responded to the word of God and went into all the country around Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Although John had a special calling to prepare the way for the Lord, the point is the word of God came to him. Was John the only person the word of God ever came to? Can the word of God come to us? In fact, the word of God does come to others, and it comes to us. It may not come to us with a calling to go into all the country around our homes preaching a baptism of repentance, but the word of God does come to us with not only a calling on our life for some sort of service to him, but it comes with instructions as to how to live. As john responded, do we? Do we respond to the word of God? Although it is true that the whole of the Bible is the word of God, and although it is true, the bible is chuck full of instructions for holy living, and although it is also true we fail to respond completely at all times to all the word of God, he also speaks directly to us. In order not to put God in a box, we need to see he could speak directly to us either through the Bible or through an audible voice, or through the Spirit. He might present us with a vision, or some other form of attention getting way in order for us to listen, but the word of God does in fact come to us and we need to respond when it does. If the word of God comes to us through an audible voice, how could we ever fail to respond? If the word of God comes to us through the Spirit, again how could we not respond? If the word of God speaks to us from the scriptures we need to respond, not doing so would be disobedience and that is nothing other than sin, yet the fact is we do not respond as we should to the word of God through the scriptures. What we need to learn is to respond when God speaks. He is God, we are his creation. He is God and when God speaks we need to listen and respond.