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Thursday Nov 16, 2023
Thursday Nov 16, 2023
Big Story - Act 4 Scene 1: The life of Jesus
with Roger Kirby
Of course we are now approaching the climax of the Biblical story: the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. But there is a curiosity here. The ancient creeds of the Christian church say things like: … born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate … without a word about his life in between. We, too, give a great deal of attention to Christmas and Easter, but probably not so much to his life in between. Yet, at a rough count, there are only 4 chapters in total in the 4 Gospels about his birth, 14 about his death, but no less than 73 about his life in between. What, in our excitement about his birth as a human being, the incarnation, and his death, for our salvation, are we missing?
The stories all 4 gospel writers tell concentrate on 3 things: first that Jesus was the long expected Messiah and secondly and closely associated with that that the Kingdom of God had arrived, and thirdly that this Messiah and this Kingdom are not as expected but modest, humble, quiet and suffering and therefore, very surprisingly, are the nature of God himself. Jesus clearly knew that it was of fundamental importance that these facts should be seen and understood by the people amongst whom he lived and taught before his death on the Cross.
First then: the Messiah and his Kingdom. These things interlock so tightly it is impossible to talk about them separately. They go together. These days we are very familiar with the power of the urge people have to be governed by their own people even if that government is not very good. Most of the wars we hear about in the world today are caused by a small group of people wanting to break away from a larger group and be their own masters and them to impose their ideas and their control on other people. It was just the same 2000 years ago. Rome was in control and although this meant that most of their world was peaceful the Jewish people were not at all happy with the situation. Their ancient scriptures seemed to suggest that things would be quite different. Psalm 89 says: “I will sing of the Lord ’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself. You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant, ‘I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations. … I will maintain my love to him forever, and my covenant with him will never fail. I will establish his line forever, his throne as long as the heavens endure.”
The Jews of Jesus’ time might well ask how did what was happening fit into that? And they did ask, many times and in many ways and could not understand it. It was David’s heirs who were supposed to rule over the Lord’s people, not the Romans and their puppet kings who were actually doing so. In particular there was to be one man, David’s heir, the Lord’s anointed, the Messiah who was to lead the people of God. Where was he?
Then there is the prophecy of Daniel: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” He was to rule not just Israel but all nations. Why was that not happening?
John the Baptist was put in prison and from there he asked a very specific question of Jesus: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” by which he clearly meant are you the Messiah, David’s heir of the Psalms, the son of God of Daniel, or not?
Jesus replied in words that closely followed the statements of Isaiah chapters 35 and 61, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. That was a very loud and clear ‘yes, I am the Messiah’.
Then again in John chapter 2 we read that Jesus said: “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” John explains that the temple he had spoken of was his body. So Jesus was saying that he was the replacement temple, the new place where God was specially present.
We saw in our last scene from the Old Testament that the temple was the dwelling place of God and that in any spiritual sense it had been completely removed from the building in Jerusalem. Only now is it back again in the person of Jesus. Jesus called himself “I AM” on some 14 occasions according to John. Seven times this was with another word such as ‘I am the bread of life’, but on another 7 occasions he said ‘I AM’ with no other word (usually translated I am he) thus using the Old Testament word for God. He could not have made who he was clearer.
If he was the Messiah that meant his kingdom had arrived. Matthew tells us Jesus said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” and proclaimed the good news of the kingdom. And, of course, he framed many of his parables with ‘the kingdom is like … ‘. Understanding of what Jesus was saying is a surprisingly modern thing. Not so very long ago there were arguments between those who thought the kingdom was what the church was doing and those who thought it referred mainly to what would happen when Jesus returned in glory. It is now clearly understood that he inaugurated his kingdom during his lifetime, that it is still here, but has not yet become clear to all the world because it is not yet here in all its eventual glory. That is summed up in the phrase ‘now, but not yet’ which is implicit in the prayer Jesus taught his disciples: ‘your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ Understanding and holding that tension is enormously important for all of us who seek to follow Jesus.
In seeing that the Kingdom has been established by Jesus during his lifetime we have also seen that beyond any doubt he was the Messiah. And so we come to the third point: the Kingdom was not what was expected then or even what many people, even today, think it should be like.
It starts with the story of a baby, a baby because of whom all the other male babies in the immediate area were killed. He was surrounded by suffering before he could say a word! Then he was a refugee in Egypt for several years. He lived in obscurity for 30 years. When he finally started to speak publically he was identified as Mary’ son and the brother of James, Joseph, Simon and Judas, or Joseph’s son, not as himself. Before long he had to go up to the great festivals in Jerusalem quietly, secretly, because of the authorities.
Then, of course, he had to suffer the terrible pain and horrible indignities of crucifixion. All those things that happened to him fitted well with the great prophecy of Isaiah in chapter 53, “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him.”
In all that suffering he was the King of Love. He introduced into the world a much more positive idea that people should look after each other, care for the weak and struggling, be compassionate, than there had ever been before.
He was the Messiah; he had founded his Kingdom, the Kingdom of God; it was not at all like the Kingdom they expected and wanted.
So what?
To put it in a phrase: ‘the way up is down’. It was for Jesus. It may well be for us. He said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” In saying that he showed how complete was his understanding of human nature. It is an amazing thing that Christians, dedicated to love and peace, should be so attacked and mistreated all round the world. To be sure there have been episodes in church history where the antagonism has been merited but the general trend of church history has been for peace and love. One might wonder what the world would be like if Jesus had never lived, never taught, never set his great example of how to bear suffering.
Paul understood very well the implications of setting out to follow Jesus as Lord and Master. . He said, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death”.
Peter said, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.”
All this is a hard thing to understand, hard to believe that this is really the way that it is – particularly if you live in one of the parts of the world where open persecution is not known or minimal. If however you are not so fortunate and live somewhere where it is really tough to be a Christian I think you will understand what Jesus, Paul and Peter meant very much better, and, if not exactly glorying in your difficulties, understanding that they are what strengthen and toughen the Christian and the church.
In the eyes of the world these things are down and to be avoided at any cost, but in the Kingdom of our great Lord and Saviour “ the way up is down”!
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Wednesday Nov 15, 2023
Wednesday Nov 15, 2023
Psalm 105
1 Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name;
make known among the nations what he has done.
2 Sing to him, sing praise to him;
tell of all his wonderful acts.
3 Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.
4 Look to the LORD and his strength;
seek his face always.
5 Remember the wonders he has done,
his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,
6 O descendants of Abraham his servant,
O sons of Jacob, his chosen ones.
7 He is the LORD our God;
his judgments are in all the earth.
8 He remembers his covenant forever,
the word he commanded, for a thousand generations,
9 the covenant he made with Abraham,
the oath he swore to Isaac.
10 He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant:
11 "To you I will give the land of Canaan
as the portion you will inherit."
12 When they were but few in number,
few indeed, and strangers in it,
13 they wandered from nation to nation,
from one kingdom to another.
14 He allowed no one to oppress them;
for their sake he rebuked kings:
15 "Do not touch my anointed ones;
do my prophets no harm."
16 He called down famine on the land
and destroyed all their supplies of food;
17 and he sent a man before them-
Joseph, sold as a slave.
18 They bruised his feet with shackles,
his neck was put in irons,
19 till what he foretold came to pass,
till the word of the LORD proved him true.
20 The king sent and released him,
the ruler of peoples set him free.
21 He made him master of his household,
ruler over all he possessed,
22 to instruct his princes as he pleased
and teach his elders wisdom.
23 Then Israel entered Egypt;
Jacob lived as an alien in the land of Ham.
24 The LORD made his people very fruitful;
he made them too numerous for their foes,
25 whose hearts he turned to hate his people,
to conspire against his servants.
26 He sent Moses his servant,
and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
27 They performed his miraculous signs among them,
his wonders in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness and made the land dark-
for had they not rebelled against his words?
29 He turned their waters into blood,
causing their fish to die.
30 Their land teemed with frogs,
which went up into the bedrooms of their rulers.
31 He spoke, and there came swarms of flies,
and gnats throughout their country.
32 He turned their rain into hail,
with lightning throughout their land;
33 he struck down their vines and fig trees
and shattered the trees of their country.
34 He spoke, and the locusts came,
grasshoppers without number;
35 they ate up every green thing in their land,
ate up the produce of their soil.
36 Then he struck down all the firstborn in their land,
the firstfruits of all their manhood.
37 He brought out Israel, laden with silver and gold,
and from among their tribes no one faltered.
38 Egypt was glad when they left,
because dread of Israel had fallen on them.
39 He spread out a cloud as a covering,
and a fire to give light at night.
40 They asked, and he brought them quail
and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
41 He opened the rock, and water gushed out;
like a river it flowed in the desert.
42 For he remembered his holy promise
given to his servant Abraham.
43 He brought out his people with rejoicing,
his chosen ones with shouts of joy;
44 he gave them the lands of the nations,
and they fell heir to what others had toiled for-
45 that they might keep his precepts
and observe his laws.
Praise the LORD.
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Wednesday Nov 15, 2023
Wednesday Nov 15, 2023
Big Story - Act 3 Scene 3: The decline of Israel
with Roger Kirby
The story begins with the Lord having no resting place. His presence was symbolized by cloud and fire in Exodus 13: 21, 22. “By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.” This was associated with a “tent of meeting” where the Lord would go to speak to Moses outside the camp, Exodus 33:9 “As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses.” This arrangement was superseded by the tabernacle, a much more ornate structure for which precise instructions are given in the later part of the book of Exodus. In the last chapter of Exodus we read “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”
All that detail is clearly intended to emphasize the way in which the Lord was present with and in the middle of his people.
The deeply spiritual quality of the people of God as they set out from Egypt soon begins to deteriorate. There are many references to the tabernacle in the early part of the book of Numbers as it records the movement of the people through the wilderness towards the promised land but the number of references fades away as they progress. There is casual incidental reference to it being in the land, at Shiloh, towards the end of the book of Joshua, but no reference at all in the book of Judges when they are in the land. That serves as a clear indication of the decline in the concern for the Lord as they settled in the land and their attention became absorbed with the planting of land and the general workload of the farmers that they now were. The sons of Eli tried to use the Ark of the Covenant taking it from within the tabernacle as a talisman. That idea was very unsuccessful; it was lost in battle because it was not a talisman. The Philistines had to return the ark because all sorts of problems accompanied its presence in their land.
It was a sign of the deeper spiritual life of David that he organized the return of the ark to Jerusalem and endeavored to give it a right place in the worship of the Lord by the people. He wanted to build a proper temple for it to be housed in but was told that he had spilt too much blood and it would be his son, Solomon, the next king, who would build the temple. Again we can see that the presence of the Lord was in doubt. David had a good and proper desire that the presence of the Lord should be understood and honored amongst the people but there had been too much strife and blood shedding for that to be permitted. These were the people who were supposed to carry the name and the worship of the Lord to all nations. They were not doing very well!
There is a brief interlude when things seem to be improving. Solomon builds a magnificent temple and, we are told, when he has the Ark of the Covenant brought to it and installed there is visible evidence that the Lord was there and approved of what was happening. 2 Chronicles 7: 1 -3 reads, “fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled it. When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the Lord above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord.”
But it didn’t last and in fact goes from bad to worse. The books of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles both record a sorry tale of bad king, bad king, bad king, good king, bad king etc. we don’t get a lot of detail, as we did in the book of Judges, but things must have been even worse. Not all the kings were in the line of David. Brother killed brother or uncle to retain the throne. It was all just the same as it is in any part of the history of those days. Idols were set up and worshipped. Prophets made their prophecies up as they went along to satisfy the king and retain their positions or were ignored or killed.
And then we come to one of the saddest and most surprising pictures of all in the story of the people of God in Ezekiel 10 and 11. Ezekiel has a vision. “Then the glory of the Lord rose from above the cherubim and moved to the threshold of the temple. The cloud filled the temple, and the court was full of the radiance of the glory of the Lord. Then the glory of the Lord departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim. While I watched, the cherubim spread their wings and rose from the ground, and as they went, the wheels went with them. They stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. These were the living creatures I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the Kebar River, and I realized that they were cherubim. Each one went straight ahead. Then the cherubim, with the wheels beside them, spread their wings, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. The glory of the Lord went up from within the city and stopped above the mountain east of it. The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the exiles in Babylonia in the vision given by the Spirit of God. Then the vision I had seen went up from me, and I told the exiles everything the Lord had shown me.”
The glory of the Lord, the Presence of the Lord, had left the temple. That was Solomon’s temple, which was destroyed by the Babylonians shortly after. Building of a replacement temple started more than 80 years later when the exiles returned from Babylon but there is no record that the visible presence of the Lord was ever there. The same is true of Herod’s temple, which replaced that one some 500 years later. They had lost the visible presence of the Lord symbolizing their spiritual weakness and failure. Israel had failed in their God given task. Failed badly. They had lived and acted no better than any of the other nations around them and the Lord had punished them for their failure with the exile and the general weakness of their position. It is not difficult to sympathize with them, placed as they were, between the greater nations of Assyria/Babylon and Egypt. Perhaps if the had acted in the way they should have done, honoring the Lord and working towards the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham, they would have been able to maintain their national position against the greater nations. But they didn’t so they couldn’t.
Would the Lord ever return to his temple? Yes, but not as they expected.
So what?
you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.”
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Tuesday Nov 14, 2023
Tuesday Nov 14, 2023
Psalm 144
(As read by Anne)
144:1 Blessed be Yahweh, my rock, who teaches my hands to war, and my fingers to battle:
144:2 my loving kindness, my fortress, my high tower, my deliverer, my shield,
and he in whom I take refuge; who subdues my people under me.
144:3 Yahweh, what is man, that you care for him?
Or the son of man, that you think of him?
144:4 Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.
144:5 Part your heavens, Yahweh, and come down.
Touch the mountains, and they will smoke.
144:6 Throw out lightning, and scatter them.
Send out your arrows, and rout them.
144:7 Stretch out your hand from above, rescue me,
and deliver me out of great waters, out of the hands of foreigners;
144:8 whose mouths speak deceit,
Whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
144:9 I will sing a new song to you, God.
On a ten-stringed lyre, I will sing praises to you.
144:10 You are he who gives salvation to kings,
who rescues David, his servant, from the deadly sword.
144:11 Rescue me, and deliver me out of the hands of foreigners,
whose mouths speak deceit, whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
144:12 Then our sons will be like well-nurtured plants,
our daughters like pillars carved to adorn a palace.
144:13 Our barns are full, filled with all kinds of provision.
Our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields.
144:14 Our oxen will pull heavy loads.
There is no breaking in, and no going away, and no outcry in our streets.
144:15 Happy are the people who are in such a situation.
Happy are the people whose God is Yahweh.
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Tuesday Nov 14, 2023
Tuesday Nov 14, 2023
Big Story - Act 3 - Scene 2 - the LORD reveals himself
with Roger Kirby
- he tells them his name;
- he carries out many overt acts demonstrating the power of his activity on their behalf;
- he stations himself in the middle of his people to travel with them. That is knowledge, action and presence.
1. Knowledge. When Moses, seeking authority for what he had just been commanded to do, asks what God’s name is he gets 3 answers. In Exodus 3: 13 – 15 we read: “Moses said to God, ‘Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name? ’ Then what shall I tell them?’.
God said to Moses,
- “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites:
- ‘I am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites,
- ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers —the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob —has sent me to you’”.
2. Actions. The sequence of miraculous events carried out in Egypt through Moses as the human agent, established the uniqueness, the power and the authority of the Lord beyond question. (One example is in Exodus 7: 8 – 13) “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle, ’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a snake.” So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said”. These demonstrations of miraculous powers were then followed by the two miraculous events that constituted redemption out of Egypt: the passing over of the first born sons of Israel while those of Egypt died on one terrible night and the crossing of the Red Sea and the destruction of the pursuing Egyptians.
3. Presence. Perhaps easily overlooked is the statement of Exodus 13: 18 – 22. “So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle. After leaving Sukkoth they camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people”.
This developed into the formal structure of the ‘tent of meeting’. Exodus 40: 34 – 38: “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels”.
The Israelites were instructed to camp by their tribes in a square round the tent (Numbers 2: 1 – 2) “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: “The Israelites are to camp around the tent of meeting some distance from it, each of them under their standard and holding the banners of their family”. This symbolically indicated the centrality of the Lord amongst his people, Israel.
Thus were established 2 apparently contradictory facts about the Lord: unlike all the gods (=idols) of the surrounding nations. He was invisible and he was the God with whom they could have the closest of relationships – no distant, silent, unknowable God was the Lord.
So we read in Deuteronomy 7:7–11 “The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. But those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction; he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him. Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today”.
And above all there is the Shema, Deuteronomy 6: 4, 5, “Hear, O Israel:The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength”, words which the faithful Israelites were later taught to say as their declaration of faith every day.
Note that I am not listing the giving of the Law on Sinai as a major part of the Big Story. The people of Israel did not become the Lord’s people by keeping the Law; they kept the Law because they were the Lord’s people.
So what?
The sequence is exactly the same for us though it must be updated in the light of the story of Jesus. First we need some knowledge of God. There is plenty to be heard and read about him on this website though it is better by far to read it for yourself directly from the Bible, if you have one. Second, we need to experience the action of the Lord on our lives. This is when the Holy Spirit comes to us and turns us round to walk in the Lord’s way. The immediate results in our own lives may not be very obvious, but then what was going on in Egypt probably wasn’t very obvious to the ordinary, average Israelite, who had been making bricks without straw, until they actually crossed the Red Sea and saw the Egyptians drowned. Third, we need to recognize that from the moment of our redemption the Lord, Christ, the Spirit, is at the very centre of our lives. From then on ‘your life is hidden with Christ in God’, or as one paraphrase puts it ‘Christ is the secret centre of your life’!
The presence of the Lord in the middle of his people was of fundamental importance for them. Be sure that the presence of the Lord in the middle of your life is of fundamental importance for you!
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Monday Nov 13, 2023
Monday Nov 13, 2023
Psalm 53
(as read by Jenny)
For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Mahalath.” A contemplation by David.
53:1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” T
hey are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity.
There is no one who does good.
53:2 God looks down from heaven on the children of men,
to see if there are any who understood, who seek after God.
53:3 Every one of them has gone back.
They have become filthy together.
There is no one who does good, no, not one.
53:4 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge,
who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on God?
53:5 There they were in great fear, where no fear was,
for God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you.
You have put them to shame, because God has rejected them.
53:6 Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When God brings back his people from captivity, then Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
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Monday Nov 13, 2023
Monday Nov 13, 2023
Big Story - Act 3 - Scene 1 - Israel - Abraham
with Roger Kirby
All right – I know I have got it wrong! Abraham came before Israel, but he was part, the first part, of the story in which Israel was the major player so I stick by my heading.
Amazingly God’s original plan had not worked out. God had created a perfect world, so perfect that he said it was ‘very good’. Into it he had put a man and a woman and, because they were made in his, God’s, image they had the power of self-will and decision making. And it had all gone wrong. Mankind was unable to relate to God because God was holy and pure and they were neither. What could God do about it – working within his self imposed limits that it would be done through human beings?
What God chose to do was to take a man from whom would come a family, and from that family a nation, and give him the responsibility to turn it all around and make it work. That man was Abraham.
In the same way that God later said he did not chose Abraham’s descendants because of anything in them but simply because ‘the Lord loved them’. I think we must assume there was nothing special about Abraham. We will never know when or why the Lord spoke to him and compelled him to persuade his father to take his whole family out from one of the best and most comfortable cities of the ancient world, Ur of the Chaldees, and trek over a thousand miles to a small hill country area.
The promise the Lord gave to Abraham is of fundamental importance to the whole Biblical story and to the whole world, up to and beyond our present day.
Here it is, from Genesis 12: 1 - 3: “Go …. to the land I will show you.
I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed hrough you.
Here we have
- a promise of land,
- a promise of many descendants,
- a promise of great blessing through him,
- a warning that the world will be divided into those who are blessed and those who are cursed through him.
I think, before going any further, I should list what has happened as a result of those 4 ideas. The detail will get filled in as we go through these studies.
- the land is no longer Israel. Paul said that ‘Abraham would be heir of the worlds”. Romans 4:13.
- the many descendants are not just national Israel, indeed not really national Israel much at all now but us! Paul said: If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:29.
- the great blessing has come through Jesus Christ: his life, death and resurrection.
- Paul updated the warning when he said in Romans 1: 18, 19: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.”
So all these things said to Abraham more than 3000 years ago are still important today.
But, in fact, it is more than a promise. If you buy a book from a friend you promise to pay. But if you buy a house from a friend something more than a promise is needed. You are into the world of lawyers, legal documents, and a covenant – an unbreakable agreement between the two of you. And the Lord sealed a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15: “The Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.” Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram”.
That describes what we would think a very curious procedure, but it was the way they did covenants in those days. It was the way a high king made an agreement, a covenant, with a lesser king. The high king would protect the lesser king from other high kings. The lesser king would provide fighting men to form part of the high king’s army when he needed it – perhaps to defend another lesser king from another high king. The situation between the Lord and Abraham was sufficiently similar for the procedure to be applied.
The fundamental statement on which Abraham and eventually the whole Biblical story is centered is Genesis 15: 6. “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” Paul uses it in Romans 4: 9 when he says: “we have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness.” Here faith/faithfulness/believing loyalty is established as the necessary and only prerequisite for a relationship with the Lord God. All other subsequent attempts to add various activities and actions in worship and living are just plain wrong.
The story unfolds with many ups and downs through the lives of Abraham, his son Isaac, his grandson Jacob who had the 12 sons who began the 12 tribes of Israel, and his great-grandson Joseph who, with the best of intentions, moved the whole 12 families down to Egypt. The return from Egypt, some 400 years later, the Exodus as it s called, is the next major event in the Biblical story.
So what?
Abraham is the great paradigm of faith (A paradigm, pronounced paradime, is not just an example of something or even a good example. It is the one outstanding example that all others should copy. So Jesus gave his disciples the parable of the Sower and the Seed as the one great paradigm of how all the rest of the parables should be understood.)
The first outstanding thing Abraham did was to make a journey, a huge journey, particularly huge for a city boy, through wild country, difficult country past bandits galore. He didn’t get it all right. We read in Genesis 12 that he failed to stop in the hill country he was to be given when he should have done. He kept going, eventually reaching Egypt and big trouble.
The writer to the Hebrews says: “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
We too have a journey to make – the journey of faith. We too won’t get it all right; we will make mistakes. But if we walk in step with the Spirit of Jesus we shall get there.
The second outstanding thing Abraham did was to obey the instruction from the Lord to take his only son, on whom all the promise of descendants rested, to the hill of sacrifice where he was only stopped at the last minute from killing him as a sacrifice (something far outside what we would ever consider possible). That was a huge test and we may well hope that nothing like that will ever come our way. But to go back to the journey idea – some preachers make it sound as though all that matters is being born again. But we are born to a new life, not to a static state of eternal babyhood. The beginning matters, as a wedding matters, but it is the marriage that determines what the real outcome is. Not for nothing is the Christian life called the Way in the book of Acts; Jesus said follow me; he describes himself as the shepherd who leads where the sheep are to follow. What is the Way you are going?
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Sunday Nov 12, 2023
Sunday Nov 12, 2023
Psalm 52
(as read by Jenny)
For the Chief Musician. A contemplation by David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, “David has come to Abimelech’s house.”
52:1 Why do you boast of mischief, mighty man?
God’s loving kindness endures continually.
52:2 Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
52:3 You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking the truth.
Selah.
52:4 You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue.
52:5 God will likewise destroy you forever.
He will take you up, and pluck you out of your tent,
and root you out of the land of the living.
Selah.
52:6 The righteous also will see it, and fear,
and laugh at him, saying,
52:7 “Behold, this is the man who didn’t make God his strength,
but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.”
52:8 But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in God’s house.
I trust in God’s loving kindness forever and ever.
52:9 I will give you thanks forever, because you have done it.
I will hope in your name, for it is good, in the presence of your saints.
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Sunday Nov 12, 2023
Sunday Nov 12, 2023
Big Story - Act 2 - The Fall
with Roger Kirby
It seems rather extraordinary but that seems to be what happened to God, the Designer and Creator of all that is. He had planned and built the perfect world for Adam and Eve and their descendants, put them in the most perfect garden ever, and they – the two of them – had immediately spoiled it and brought the whole scheme crashing to the ground. I know we say God knows everything including the future but in the introduction to the story of the Flood we read that the LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth and his heart was deeply troubled. God was disappointed – whatever the systematic theologians may say are his attributes.
Adam and Eve were the first to get it wrong and therefore most at fault. Genesis 3: 1 – 11 says: “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die. ’” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”
So Paul says: sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people. But that is not the end of the problem. We have 3 more accounts of the sinful nature of people in the next 8 chapters. First: Cain and Lamech commit murder. Second: things get so universally bad that God sends the great Flood. Third: mankind, again in the plural, get so above themselves God has to organize the confusion of languages at Babel. Not a good set of stories!
But we need to start at the beginning. The story of Adam is important for many reasons. The one I would highlight as very significant but often overlooked is the fact that we are being told humankind started in just one place with just one person. Men and women did not become spiritual beings made in the image of God through the slow evolution and development of many people. No. Only one person, Adam, was created as a true fully human being. Because he was male there was a problem! In most ancient stories of the beginning of humanity the first person was female, which made things much easier because then others could be born from that first person. But Adam was male so Eve was made from his side. That is realistic because the human world is a male dominated world simply because men tend to be stronger than women. We may not like that – particularly if we are female – but that is the way it is. Only with Jesus, the way he treated women, and the early church, and the way they gave women an equal status with men, do we begin to see the raising of women towards equality with men. Then in the last few decades with the increasing sophistication of modern machinery needing brains and skills of dexterity rather than strength, women have started to equal men in their work place skills – but that is another story!
When Paul said “all have sinned” he made the most accurate statement ever of the nature of men and women. Sin and evil cover this world of ours as we can see from any daily newspaper or TV news bulletin. Some try to say mankind is getting better and better but there have been more terrible wars and more ghastly treatments of man by man in the last 100 years than ever before.
The Bible story continues with the murder of Abel by Cain. “Am I my brother’s keeper” asked Cain thinking the answer was “no”. Jesus pointed out that the much better answer is “yes” by telling the story of the Good Samaritan.
To emphasize that the problem was, and is, a worldwide problem we have the story of the Flood in Genesis chapters 6 to 8. Although, like Creation, that is much argued over, the message of the story is quite clear: sin and evil are a world wide problem and yet God has promised never again to deal with it on a worldwide basis. Our world will only come to an end when it is replaced by the new heavens and the new earth. Paul says: “the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.”
The fourth and final story of the descent of the human world into the mess of sin and evil that became its standard state is the story of Babel. The multiplication of languages is depicted in this striking image. Biblically the reversal of this commenced at Pentecost when we read in Acts 2 : “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God- fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they said we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd:“Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
“‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.”
Practically, on a world wide view not much changed – until now – leading to our present dependence on the World Wide Web and the consequent dominance of the English language.
So what?
We live in surprising and exciting days. Babel is not, and never will be, completely reversed. But in our lifetimes one language, English, has become more widely understood than any other ever has been since Babel. More people speak Mandarin or Spanish as their first language – their mother tongue as we call it – than do English. But the effect of the Internet has been that more people can now understand or even speak English than have ever been able to do so with any other language.
A good example of that is what you are listening to or watching right now. Dave Roberts is one of those who have caught the vision of what is possible today, in English, through his Partakers site. Make sure that you make the most of these opportunities. If your mother tongue is not English you may struggle a bit to follow all he, and we, say or write. Persevere – use a dictionary if we get above ourselves and use unusual words. Sorry!
Just one question – who do you share it with? It doesn’t matter if your translation is not perfect. Make the most of it you can. Turn it into the language of those of your friends who have less English than you have. Share the glorious news of the Good news of Jesus as much as you can and the LORD will bless your every word. WOW.
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Saturday Nov 11, 2023
Saturday Nov 11, 2023
Psalm 71
71:1 In you, Yahweh, I take refuge. Never let me be disappointed.
71:2 Deliver me in your righteousness, and rescue me. Turn your ear to me, and save me.
71:3 Be to me a rock of refuge to which I may always go. Give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
71:4 Rescue me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
71:5 For you are my hope, Lord Yahweh; my confidence from my youth.
71:6 I have relied on you from the womb. You are he who took me out of my mother’s womb. I will always praise you.
71:7 I am a marvel to many, but you are my strong refuge.
71:8 My mouth shall be filled with your praise, with your honor all the day. 71:9 Don’t reject me in my old age. Don’t forsake me when my strength fails.
71:10 For my enemies talk about me. Those who watch for my soul conspire together, 71:11 saying, “God has forsaken him. Pursue and take him, for no one will rescue him.”
71:12 God, don’t be far from me. My God, hurry to help me.
71:13 Let my accusers be disappointed and consumed. Let them be covered with disgrace and scorn who want to harm me.
71:14 But I will always hope, and will add to all of your praise.
71:15 My mouth will tell about your righteousness, and of your salvation all day, though I don’t know its full measure.
71:16 I will come with the mighty acts of the Lord Yahweh. I will make mention of your righteousness, even of yours alone.
71:17 God, you have taught me from my youth. Until now, I have declared your wondrous works.
71:18 Yes, even when I am old and gray-haired, God, don’t forsake me, until I have declared your strength to the next generation, your might to everyone who is to come.
71:19 Your righteousness also, God, reaches to the heavens; you have done great things. God, who is like you?
71:20 You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.
71:21 Increase my honor, and comfort me again.
71:22 I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God. I sing praises to you with the lyre, Holy One of Israel.
71:23 My lips shall shout for joy! My soul, which you have redeemed, sings praises to you!
71:24 My tongue will also talk about your righteousness all day long, for they are disappointed, and they are confounded, who want to harm me.