by Sal Huckel

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Produce fruit in keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8).

Read Matthew 3:1–12

Today’s passage invites us to the banks of the Jordan, where John the Baptist was preparing the way for Jesus’ ministry. His humble lifestyle and calls to repentance were already bringing the people to respond to their sins and be baptised by John in the river. Not surprisingly, also came the conflict with the Pharisees and Sadducees.

John’s reprimand and call to repentance is stark. We might feel that it was well deserved. After all, we do know much about the Pharisees and the Sadducees and their apparent hypocrisy. Paul himself was a Pharisee. While the Pharisees and Sadducees had doctrinal disagreements, they were united in their efforts against Jesus. Here, John’s warning is for them all.

What can we learn here today? We can study the baptism John was bringing, how Jesus’ baptism is the one we need and the meaning it has for us now to be baptised into Jesus’ baptism. We can also ponder what it means to ‘produce fruit in keeping with repentance’. How does that look? What do we need to repent of? We sometimes hear that Jesus simplified the Ten Commandments and that we don’t need to worry about all of those anymore; we are not ‘under the law’. However, Jesus said he did not come to destroy the law or the prophets but to fulfil them (Matthew 5:17).

Unless we understand God’s law, we cannot properly repent. We may feel the law is less prescriptive and onerous ‘since Jesus’, but if we begin to unpack the Ten Commandments and look at Martin Luther’s explanations – the Small Catechism is very helpful on this – we will see that they go further than we might expect. It’s a misleading idea that ‘Jesus replaced them’. Helpfully, rather like the ways in which it is best to teach children, Luther offers positive instruction to further expand on the negatives.

Start today with commandment number one: ‘You shall have no other gods before me.’ We don’t have to look very far to see the things that compete for our attention, love and trust. How can you fear, love and trust God above all things today? To produce fruit in keeping with repentance, we need to follow through with this.

Father God, help me to more fully understand the law written in our hearts (Romans 2:15) and produce fruit in keeping with repentance. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Sal is married to Pastor Matthew Huckel, and they live in Victoria with their six children, enjoying their ministry with Moorabbin–Dandenong Lutheran Church. Their two eldest children are excited to study at undergraduate and postgraduate levels during term time in Sydney. Theology, music, philosophy, literature and history are passions the family shares and explores together. Sal loves writing, speaking and walking to the beach at every opportunity.

by Sal Huckel

Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.

When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream (Matthew 2:13a).

Read Matthew 2:13–23

I smiled when I read this passage and saw that Joseph had two more dreams instructing him where he should take his family. We usually think of Jacob’s son Joseph as ‘the dreamer’, yet Mary’s husband Joseph seems to come a close second! Jacob’s son Joseph’s own life was saved through his dreams and ability to discern the dreams of others. Mary’s husband Joseph’s dreams saved the life of Jesus, Son of God!

We might wish we had dreams like this to make our decisions easy or give us a ‘hotline’ to God’s plans. However, we must accept that we have all we need in Scripture, and we have the prayers that Jesus taught us to seek the Lord and his will for our lives. We have the promises of Scripture and new life in Christ through our baptism.

Yet still, the Scripture reading for today is full of tragedy and grief with the slaughter of the innocents. Jesus was saved so that we might all be saved – but many children were killed through the orders of Herod. Again, we are reminded of the sin in the world that Jesus came to redeem us from. Ever since the Fall, death and murder have never been very far away. When we are devastated by the news that we read about and think that we must be in End Times, we have much to look over in Scripture to show that people are still doing the evil things they were doing centuries and centuries ago. We have Jesus’ promise of a new heaven and a new earth to look forward to – and today’s reading and faithfulness of one man protecting his family and following the Lord’s instruction is one part of that story.

Lord, thank you for coming into the world to save sinners. Help me to trust you and throw off the sinful nature daily, putting on my baptism clothes and walking in the freedom I have through your death and resurrection. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Sal is married to Pastor Matthew Huckel, and they live in Victoria with their six children, enjoying their ministry with Moorabbin–Dandenong Lutheran Church. Their two eldest children are excited to study at undergraduate and postgraduate levels during term time in Sydney. Theology, music, philosophy, literature and history are passions the family shares and explores together. Sal loves writing, speaking and walking to the beach at every opportunity.

by Sal Huckel

Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.

And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route (Matthew 2:12).

Read Matthew 2:1–12

As birth stories go, the story of the birth of Jesus (as told by Matthew) has less about Mary and Jesus and the familiar aspects of the Nativity and more about the other people involved in the fulfilment of Scripture.

Today, we read about Herod, the wise men and the prophecy that has Herod worried enough to seek out Jesus and kill him. Interestingly, the wise men were Gentiles, likely practising astrology and magic that did not honour the Lord. Nevertheless, they play a part in the fulfilment of Scripture, protecting Jesus from Herod’s plans.

While nothing in Herod’s words would have indicated to the wise men that he had very different plans for going to worship Jesus, they had no problem with being receptive to – and following – the instructions received in a dream to travel a different way.

It is sometimes comforting to think about how the Lord orders our steps – even the steps of others – to ‘work his purpose out’ in our lives. The wise men followed the instructions given to them in their dream, discerning that this was the necessary course of action, ignoring Herod. Through this obedience, Jesus was saved. We know this is not going to be the only brush with Herod’s plans for Jesus’ death. It is not the last time an angel of the Lord will intervene to save him – again, through human obedience to God’s will.

Sometimes, we may find that we have no idea about what God wants us to do – or not do. Particularly where our choices do not clash with Scripture, we can find we have an open choice that perhaps doesn’t matter one way or another. Yet, other times, we find that our instinct is not to listen to a certain person’s advice or take a certain path. However we end up making our decisions, we know that God has a plan and purpose for our lives, and nothing can snatch us out of his hand (John 10:28).

Lord, thank you for the lessons we learn in Scripture. We read of the faith of those who have gone before us and followed your commands. We learn how you include those who do not even know you in your plans. We learn about your faithfulness. May we be encouraged to trust you and not lean on our own understanding. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Sal is married to Pastor Matthew Huckel, and they live in Victoria with their six children, enjoying their ministry with Moorabbin–Dandenong Lutheran Church. Their two eldest children are excited to study at undergraduate and postgraduate levels during term time in Sydney. Theology, music, philosophy, literature and history are passions the family shares and explores together. Sal loves writing, speaking and walking to the beach at every opportunity.