Mark Tabata’s Weekday Devotionals:
Friday April 24 2026
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Proverbs 27:1-Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth.
Many years ago, I was in a jail ministry service in another part of Kentucky. We had several members of our party that night who were elderly. Two of them, Haliburton and Ben (Haliburton’s wife), had come along also to minister. As the residents were being brought into the chapel area, I turned around and began speaking with the other members of our church family about the order of services. Our plan was to spend the evening discussing questions and objections that the incarcerated gentlemen had about God and the Bible, and we had let them know the subject matter beforehand through the deputies who were bringing them out to church.
As we were planning our service, I turned around to a large commotion. Two of the young men were throwing hands and they weren’t being shy about it! As punches were exchanged and vulgarities littered the air, Haliburton and I both jumped in to to separate them. As we did so, one of the inmates slugged Haliburton right in the mouth and bloodied his lip. At that moment, the deputies charged in and tased both of the men involved, quickly ending the altercation. Our church services were cancelled that night, and we left.
This was in the year 2007.
Fast forward to the year 2022, shortly before Heather and I had to relocate out of Perry County. I was in jail ministry, and a group of gentleman joined me in the chapel. When I announced that we were going to be discussing objections that people have raised to Christianity over the years, a young man named Doug (not his real name) said that he was eager to raise his objection against the Bible.
Doug: I have had this argument against the Bible for years! When I was younger I asked two preachers and they told me that they couldn’t answer it. So I’ve been an atheist most of my life and I don’t see any reason to accept the Bible.
Mark: Well, I don’t know if I can answer your objection, but we will hear it out and talk about it. And whether or not I can answer your objection, I can right now provide you with plenty of evidence that there is a God and that the Bible is His Word.
(We then spent about forty five minutes discussing evidences along those lines before we got to Doug’s objection.).
Doug: Is the Old Testament the Word of God?
Mark: Yes, as lots of evidences demonstrate (and we just looked at a few)!
Doug: But if it is the Word of God, why did Jesus contradict it so often?
Mark: I’m not sure what you mean. Where did Jesus ever contradict the Old Testament?
Doug: In the Sermon On The Mount.
Matthew 5:21-22-You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.
Matthew 5:27-28-You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.’ 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Doug: And there are several more times Jesus did this! He quoted from the Old Bible and said, “here is what God says.” Then He would say, “Now here is what I am saying.” If both the Old Testament and the New Testament are the Word of God, shouldn’t they be in harmony?
Why would Jesus say that He is saying something contradictory (in the New Testament) to what God had said (in the Old Testament)?
How can Jesus be sinless and say the complete opposite of what God says? Isn’t that the essence of sin?
Mark: That is an excellent objection and well-spoken!
Doug: Thank you. Are you going to tell me that there isn’t an answer to it?
Mark: No, there is an answer. Can we work through it together?
Doug: Yes please.
Mark: Usually in His ministry, when Jesus quoted from the Old Testament, do you know the words He usually used when doing so?
Doug: Ummm….was it “it is written?”
Mark: Yes!! Very good. Now notice that in all these passages in Matthew 5, Jesus doesn’t use the regular phrase, “It is written.” He used the phrase, “You had heard that it was said to those of old.” Jesus then introduces the traditions of the Rabbis which twisted the Old Testament Scriptures out of context, which they did to try and justify their traditions.
Doug: I don’t understand.
Mark: Okay, let’s look at Matthew 5:27-28. The Jews of Jesus’ day had come up with a list of sexual acts a man could perform with a woman where it wasn’t considered “adultery.” They twisted that Scripture to say they hadn’t committed adultery, but one of the other Ten Commandments said that you shall not covet (Exodus 20:17). They had deliberately twisted Scripture out of context to justify their tradition and sinful practice.
Another example is down there in Matthew 5:
Matthew 5:43-45-You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
The Pharisees quoted Leviticus 19:18 about loving your neighbor as yourself, and then added “and hate your enemy.” Do you see anything wrong with that?
Doug: I’m not sure.
Mark: Let’s look at the verse being quoted.
Leviticus 19:18-You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
Doug: Wait, I think I see what you mean. The person you would want to take vengeance on and have a grudge against is your enemy.
Mark: Excellent! Now keep going with that….
Doug: So the neighbor that you are to love as yourself includes your enemy. And they twisted that in Christ’s time to say that it’s okay to hate your enemy.
Mark: Bingo.
Doug: So then in Matthew 5 when Jesus said, “but I say unto you”….He wasn’t saying that His teaching is different from the Old Testament….
Mark: You got it. He was saying that His teaching was what the Old Testament had said all along, and that was in contradiction to the way the Pharisees misapplied the Old Testament to justify their wicked traditions.
With that, Doug’s objection to Christianity dissolved.
But that isn’t where this story ends.
Somehow our jail group that night got into a discussion of the event that had happened with Haliburton getting slugged in 2007. We had been told that one of the boys had robbed the other boy on the outside, and they got into it that night at church services in our jail ministry when they saw each other. Doug (who had been quiet and not said anything for a while) now spoke up.
Doug: Brother Mark, what happened to that elderly gentleman?
Mark: Doug, he and his wife moved out of state a few years back. And he just recently passed away.
Doug: Brother Mark, I was the man who punched your friend that night.
And Doug began to weep.
I just stood for a moment, not knowing what to say.
And then I walked over and sat down beside Doug, putting my hand on his shoulder.
Mark: Brother, I know that Haliburton would be the first one to forgive you for that. That’s the kind of man he was. And you know what else he would do? He would tell you about how God loves you, and He would encourage you to seek His forgiveness.
I wish I could say that Doug repented and was baptized into Christ that night, but he wasn’t. I don’t know where he is, or how he is doing: but I hope he is well, and has sought the Lord’s forgiveness. I think about those events often.
But you know what really gets to me when I start dwelling on it?
Doug also told me that he had planned on raising his objection to the Bible that night, all those years earlier, when he had gotten into that fist fight.
How differently might his life have gone if he had asked that question years earlier?
Would coming to faith in Christ at that time have helped Doug through the struggles he had endured from then till 2022?
Could the devil have worked through that circumstance to keep Doug from finding the Lord’s Word when he was so much younger?
I don’t know.
What I DO know is that we need to take advantage of the opportunities to seek God now, while we have opportunity.
Isaiah 55:6-7-Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.
John 9:4-I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.
Lord, grant us wisdom to seek You while we have time. Amen.