Luke 12: 22 -34
Let it Go
22 Then He said to His disciples, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. 23 Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? 25 And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 26 If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith? 29 “And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. 30 For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. 31 But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. 32 “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Approximately fifteen years before Luke was inspired to investigate and put down on paper his interviews of eyewitnesses of our Lord Jesus Christ, there was already in existence two other Gospels – Matthew and Mark. We search through both these and find that our Precious Holy Spirit had encouraged Matthew to comment on this teaching of our Master.
Matthew 6:19-34, 19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. 25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
I think many bible teachers make the mistake of trying to do topical sermons. In many cases if something happens to them during the week or is in the news then that is what they will address. For example Sunday was ‘Father’s Day’. When you look up some of the sermon sites you find numerous sermons devoted to ‘Fathers’. I am sure if you made your rounds to some different church’s you would most likely receive the same topic relative to Fathers.
I like it when you just follow the bible to wherever it leads you. After you finish one portion of chapter, then you know easily what to study for next week. You do not have to check your calendar to see what man created special day in which to preach on. Do you know what I am saying?
I have mentioned in previous studies that I see in the Gospels the amazing work of our Wonderful Holy Ghost. If you take your time you can see how He guided our Holy Adoni Yeshua into situations in which it would demonstrate some characteristic in which our Lord fulfills the prophecy of being the Messiah.
Do you remember from our last study where this guy came up to our Lord and asked Him to tell the guy’s brother to cuff up part of the inheritance money that he thought should be his? I see here in this portion of Scripture our Lord recognizing the significant truth that was brought forth by the man’s request to get our Lord to order his brother to share in the wealth he obtained. So, He takes here the opportunity to discuss what should be our thoughts relative to accumulating wealth.
As you take a look at both Gospels do you see anything that catches your eyes? I do! To me they both seem to say the same exact message, yet it appears that in Luke’s version he reversed Matthew’s account of our Lord’s teaching. Why do you think this is so?
I guess we can only guess until we meet Luke in Heaven. But I would like to give it the college try and give you my thoughts on why this teaching is reversed. First let us look at how Luke begins.
22 Then He said to His disciples, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. 23 Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? 25 And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 26 If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith? 29 “And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. 30 For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. 31 But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.
I treasure books. For one thing they cost so much money in college to purchase that when they offered to buy them back for a couple of bucks, I said, ‘no way’. Since then I have held onto every book I have come into possession with. However, since I found the wonder of the bible, all the other nice books to me are decorations on a book case.
Now if there are books that give me more information about situations or places in the bible then I am interested. In addition, the internet, if used properly, is of enormous benefit. If you research information regarding the Gospel of Matthew you will find that he wrote this book around 50 AD.
Now what Gospel was next written? – Mark. We are fortunate that those who put the Gospels in our Bibles placed them in the order that they were written. Therefore Luke wrote the third and then lastly John penned his.
Mark was given all his information from the apostle Peter. He put down this report about 5 years after Matthew had written his Gospel. Now, if you look up Luke you find out that he wrote his Gospel a little over 10 years after Mark’s Gospel. So, this is around 65 AD. Does this time now bring any thoughts to you? Well let’s kick this time up a few years and list the year 70 AD, does this time mean anything to you? This is the year that the Roman Army under Titus destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple.
When Luke penned his Gospel things in the world were heating up. The Roman Empire were fed up with all the problems being constantly stirred up by the Jews so they sent their army to deal with this rebel nation. This is why during the time of our Lord Jesus when Matthew was in our Lord’s very presence and heard these words where our Lord spoke of the near future disasters as described in chapter 24, “24 Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. 2 And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” 3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” 4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. 9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. 15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), 16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. 18 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. 19 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.”
Now what we read in chapter 12 takes on some new understanding. Our Lord has warned all the people now reading both Luke’s and Matthew’s Gospel that Jerusalem was going to be destroyed. If the people wanted to save their families lives then they needed to flee soon. Put yourselves in their position. Will the destruction come in their lifetimes or is it speaking about some distant period in human history. The people were concerned about all that they had invested in with their property, positions, and possessions. So, our Lord is teaching them about how to think properly look again at what He says about all the worldly pursuits. – “22 Then He said to His disciples, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. 23 Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? 25 And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 26 If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith? 29 “And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. 30 For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. 31 But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.”
What is more important than life?
I like to watch the history channel and it amazes me how evil humans have been to each other. I am especially dumbfounded over the rise of the Nazi’s. How could an entire nation follow such a demonic person who came out of no where and imposed such brutal dealings with other human beings. If you were a Jew during this time would you really be concerned with earthly items. No, you want to get somewhere safe. You do not want anything to weigh you down.
This is what our Holy Jehovah Elyon – The Lord Most High – was preaching to the people. He was saying to them, ‘Trust Me. I AM telling you ahead of time of what evil is going to happen. Listen and follow My directions and you and your family will be safe. Seek Me, My Kingdom, and My Righteousness, and I will take care of all your needs.’
This is why I believe that He goes on to encourage the people to ‘Trust’ Him. To me this is our biggest problem and that is turning over everything to His Rule and Authority.
32 “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Our Holy Jehovah Jireh – The Lord our Provider – is telling these people and to us to not hold onto things that will weigh us down. For we also are not suppose to take up root and settle in. For we are passing through unto a city whose Maker is our God.
