Now it came to pass, as they went,
that he entered into a certain village:
and a certain woman named Martha
received him into her house.
And she had a sister called Mary,
which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.
But Martha was cumbered about much serving,
and came to him, and said,
Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?
bid her therefore that she help me.
And Jesus answered and said unto her,
Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part,
which shall not be taken away from her. Luke 10:38-42
This metaphor is not just for the instant but is about our life with Christ
Lord, do you not care that I’m doing all the work
and my sister does nothing to help?
But the Lord answered her,
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things;
one thing is needful.
Mary has chosen the good portion,
which shall not be taken away from her.” RSV
Mary has chosen the good portion which shall not be taken away from her.
They knew Jesus about the same amount of time,
but Mary knew that sitting at Jesus’ feet was a good use of time
Martha was trying to serve, probably making a meal
That doesn’t get done by itself
Martha found that to be more important than spending time with Jesus
We make choices all the time
In America, we choose a lot of material things above Jesus
We don’t have time because of the way our lives are structured
We may have become encumbered with this or that
Any character in the Bible who heard from the Lord spent time with Jesus
You can see that all the way from Adam, the first man created
to John in Revelation, the author of last book of the Bible
Moses heard from the Lord
He even went away from the people for days at a time
to spend time with the God of Israel
God spoke to him, he even argued with God,
or, presented his case to God several times that we know about
This time was at the very beginning
when Moses told the Lord to use someone else instead of him.
God was angry at Moses and he gave him Aaron as a mouthpiece:
And Moses said unto the Lord,
O my Lord, I am not eloquent,
neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant:
but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.
And the Lord said unto him,
Who hath made man’s mouth?
or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind?
have not I the Lord?
Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth,
and teach thee what thou shalt say.
And he said, O my Lord, send,
I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.
And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses,
and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother?
I know that he can speak well.
And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee:
and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.
Exodus 4:10-14
Noah was listening to God and he heard and obeyed the Lord
thus sparing his life along with a few others
who were spared because of his righteousness
Abraham heard from the Lord many times,
the Lord let him know that he was going to destroy
Sodom and Gomorrah before He did so
Abraham pleaded with the Lord
David was a man after God’s own heart.
King David was busy ruling kingdoms
and fighting enemies
Somehow, he found time to spend with the Lord
The psalms are filled with his dedication and honor to the Lord
It is very obvious, reading the Psalms
and several other Old Testament books
that David knew the Lord intimately and had spent much time with Him
You would have to know God well if He gives you a choice of your punishment:
And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly,
because I have done this thing: but now,
I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant;
for I have done very foolishly.
And the Lord spake unto Gad, David’s seer, saying,
Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the Lord,
I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord,
Choose thee Either three years’ famine;
or three months to be destroyed before thy foes,
while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee;
or else three days the sword of the Lord,
even the pestilence, in the land,
and the angel of the Lord destroying
throughout all the coasts of Israel.
Now therefore advise thyself what word
I shall bring again to him that sent me.
And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait:
let me fall now into the hand of the Lord;
for very great are his mercies:
but let me not fall into the hand of man. 1 Chronicles 21:8-13
Jonah was very angry with the Lord
that God did not destroy Nineveh like He said He was going to
First Jonah spent 3 days in the belly of a whale
for not being obedient to speak the word of the Lord to the people,
then, when Jonah finally did what he was supposed to do,
The people repented and the Lord changed His mind
He went to a hill and a tall plant grew
which gave him shade from the sun.
Then a worm killed it:
And God said to Jonah,
Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?
And he said,
I do well to be angry, even unto death.
Then said the Lord,
Thou hast had pity on the gourd,
for the which thou hast not laboured,
neither madest it grow;
which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city,
wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons
that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand;
and also much cattle? Jonah 4:9-11
Doest thou well to be angry?
I do well to be angry, even unto death!
That is a man who knows the Lord
God did change His mind at times in the bible
from what He said He was going to do
This hit Jonah’s ego hard
Who knows what was said to him by people
He must’ve felt somewhat embarrassed and estranged,
which was why he was up on the hill
without anyone else near caring if he had a little shade or not
It wasn’t like he could go into his house and pull the covers over his head
God was there for him,
and asked Jonah to see things from His perspective
Maybe Jonah could have been down there
answering the people if they wondered of the hard word
Jonah had for Nineveh that did not come to pass
because the Lord heard their cries and saw their repentance
It seems God was able to get his point across to Jonah
All of the prophets were good
at coming away from the world to listen to God
They fasted and prayed and mourned
over the people who turned away from God
They understood God’s very heart
Because God shared His heart with them
These examples depict the importance
of having an intimate relationship with Jesus, the Soon Coming King
Notice God’s mercy and grace and understanding
He showed to those who were close to Him
Choose the good portion which shall not be taken from you