The Words of Jesus

This morning I spoke to the children in our North Henry Academy in chapel as I usually do on Thursday. I used Matthew 5:6 to make the point the Lord had laid on my heart for the children. It says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." Of course, this verse comes from the Sermon on the Mount, which Jesus delivered to His disciples and to the multitude on the mountain. However in my morning Bible reading, I was struck by the fact that Psalm 107:9 is so similar to Matthew 5:6. It says, "For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness." Why do you think they are so similar? I have noticed that many of the things Jesus said are based on the Old Testament. The Old Testament is God's Word. Jesus came to give us God's Word as the Living Word. What is more reasonable than that He would draw upon God's written Word in the Old Testament to show us God's will? After all, Jesus did not come to destroy the Law or the Old Testament, but He came to fulfill it. That is what He did constantly by quoting the Old Testament and drawing upon its wisdom.

Of course, the same is true for us, even more. We do not need to be unique or so creative when we deliver God's Word. We ought to stick with the inspired Word of God as written in the New and Old Testaments. We can't improve upon it any more than Jesus could. In fact, the better we know the Old Testament, the easier it will be for us to understand the New Testament and to share the the Word of God clearly with others.

Tomorrow, I intend to read Psalms 110-112 and I Corinthians 5.