Posted by: Bill Hornbeck | March 26, 2010

God makes Christians as “birds upon the branch”.

Today’s devotion covers Luke 4:5-8 which covers the second temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.  (For those who are interested, if any, I covered the first temptation in a devotion on Luke 4:1-4 dated March 18, 2010.  You can find it if you scroll down to it.) 
 
Here is the Scripture for today –  
 
“5  And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 
                                    
 6  And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory;  for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.
                                       

 7  “Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.”

 8  Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.'”  Luke 4:5-8

I want to focus on the fact that the devil used riches to tempt Jesus.  Scripture tells us:  “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”  1 Timothy 6:10

This Scripture for today reminded me of Disney World.  I live in St. Petersburg, Florida close to Disney World in Orlando, Florida.  Yet, I would not want to own Disney World;  I could just visit it to enjoy it.  But even as close as it is, I have only visited it very few times.  My youngest son has not even been there.  The two points of this example is that we do not need to own things to enjoy them, and even then, we should not be obsessed with the thought of such things.   

“While recognizing  that all good gifts are from God, to help us contemplate the goodness of God, Calvin himself shunned the riches of this world.  He exhorted the flock:  “We are to be ready without regret to leave all that belongs to this world.”  God makes Christians, he wrote, as “birds upon the branch.” as quoted from Special Article titled “John Calvin as Church Reformer (2) by Professor Dykstra in the December 1, 2009 issue of The Standard Bearer linked here – Click here: http://www.rfpa.org/downloads/8605.pdf

I love that image.  We know that birds rest lightly on branches and are willing to leave the branch at any time for even the slightest reason.  In comparison, we know that those who love riches are too attached to the things of this world.  They think about them all the time.  They are unwilling to release their tight-fisted grip on them.  They are unwilling to do good, particularly when it means that they will need to leave their riches to do so.

A good summary of this point is in 1 Timothy 6:17 :  “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.” 

Both in this 1 Timothy 6:7 verse and the foregoing quote about Calvin, there are three points.  First, “God … richly supplies us with all things to enjoy”.  But, second, we should enjoy them like “birds upon the branch”.  Third, our hope should be fixed on God, and so, we should set on our minds on things above.       

In conclusion, using another bird analogy, Scripture also assures us and comforts us:  “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?”  Matthew 6:26

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