Outline: -
‘...THE MEASURE YOU USE WILL BE MEASURED TO YOU…’
(Seven Samples from Scriptures)
Bro. David Manchala, Hyderabad
All the Scriptures generally are concerning Jesus Christ. In Old Testament History we see His ‘Foreshadows’, in Poetry His ‘Feelings’, In Prophetic writings ‘Foretelling’s’, whereas in the Gospels ‘Facts’. In Acts and Epistles ‘Fruits of Christ’, in Revelation ‘Finality in Christ’.
As we already know four Gospel writers portrayed Jesus Christ in 4 different ways. Matthew portrayed Him as Sovereign King, which is why we see His authoritative sermons in the first Gospel i.e., ‘What He said”. In the Gospel of Mark ‘What He Did as a Servant, In Luke as the Son of Man, what he did and said is focussed equally. In the final Gospel of John ‘What He is’ as the Son of God was focused on His glories.
We will find five discourses of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Matthew. Each ending with the phrase ‘and it came to pass’. They are: -
The first discourse is called ‘Sermon on the Mount”. There are many ways to approach this topic. Other brethren have contributed to this. We will see some Christian living principles from Matthew 7:1-2. Apostle Paul wrote in his epistle Galatians ‘a man reaps what he sows’ (5:7) based on this Jesus’ principle only. Let us see 7 examples from the Old Testament:
- Jacob deceived his father with a raiment, later he was deceived by his sons through a raiment (Genesis 27:15; 37:32)
- Pharaoh of Egypt commanded his people to throw every Israelite new-born boy into the Nile River, later his chariots and entire host were drowned in the Red Sea (Exodus 1:22; 14:27,28)
- Adoni-Bezek had cut off 70 kings’ thumbs and big toes, later he was seized and his thumbs and big toes were cut off (Judges 1:7)
- Abimelek killed his 70 brothers (sons of Jerub-Baal) on a single stone, later he was killed when a woman dropped an upper millstone on his head (Judges 9:18, 53)
- Saul thought that he would pin David to the wall but later his body was fastened to the wall of Beth Shan (1 Samuel 18:11, 31:9-10).
- David sent Uriah to the frontline in the battle where the fighting was heavy so that he was struck down and died later He lost his 04 sons (1 Samuel 12:15; 2 Samuel 12:1-6).
- Daniel's colleagues plotted against Daniel to cast him into the den of lions; later they were thrown into it (Daniel 6:7, 24) and we can cite a few more examples in the New Testament also.
Therefore, let us live according to the living principles which came from our Saviour’s lips - ‘...the measure you use will be measured to you…’ G&P
