Monday 28 February

Leviticus 4:1-5:13

A genuinely fascinating section on unintentional sin.  Before I stumbled across this passage I used to wonder whether it was possible to sin unintentionally, especially when I remembered my Sunday school teaching that it is “the thought that counts” and “it’s not so much what you do but why you do it”.  But now I’m convinced that these Sunday school platitudes are like rusting, hole-ridden shipwrecks-in-waiting rather than dependable, sea-worthy vessels for life.  Motivation is important but you can’t deny that actions matter by themselves.  And we see that when you did act in a way that is displeasing to the Lord you couldn’t just fire off a quick sorry and move on - you had to follow a factory-like process of mechanically atoning for your guilt.  You get the sense of the tabernacle being more like an abattoir than a place of worship with the priests butchering animals, scraping off fat, flicking around blood and lugging huge chunks of meat off to be burned outside the camp.  Surely their lovely ephods would have stunk to high heaven?  It all builds into a picture of sin being a gross stain on the tunic (or ephod) of Israel that the people have to scrub their knuckles raw trying to get out.  Obviously I’m utterly delighted that we no longer have to go through such rigmarole but, at the same time, I do wonder whether I approach forgiveness in a truly biblical way.  If I had to take one of my flock and offer it to the Lord every time I sinned, unintentionally or otherwise, it would only be a couple of days before I would be bankrupt.  That has got to be something for me to think about...

Mark 10:13-31

More on the down-ward spiral of faith, this time honing in on status.  Mark’s thrust seems to be that if you aren’t willing to be considered scum then you need to step off the Jesus-train.  There is nothing glorious about being last, about being dirt poor or about being like a little child.  As Job found out, even a holy person in such a position will be patronised, despised and disrespected.  The bitter truth is that people who are last have next to no status; they are assumed to have not worked hard enough or to have messed up personally or to be just plain ignorant.  People generally don’t listen to the poor just as they don’t listen to children; they are there to be looked after by us, not the other way around.  So Jesus call to become ‘the last’ really is very hard.  And the accompanying call for us to respect ‘the last’ is gratingly counter-cultural.  As I think about that I’m struck by what an amazing thing it is to be part of a church of people who are prepared to knuckle down and divest themselves of status.  Of course we could do it more but we are headed in the right direction!  And we can take heart that while we may be disrespected and patronised and persecuted by those around us, Jesus is preparing for us a hundred times more than we have ever left or given away.

Psalm 27:7-14

I think we’ve read enough of the psalms now to begin to get a feel for the life of faith as experienced in Israel.  It was a life of struggle and hardship, of tensions in relationships and fleeting doubts but, amazingly, it was one in which a deep sense of optimism reigned.  Unquenchable joy always seems to simmer just under the surface and a deep, residing hope in God seems to burn the coals of daily life.  Above all, God seems like he is always within touching distance, sometimes agonizingly difficult to grasp, but always within sight and always moving towards the worshippers who are seeking him.  

Sunday 27 February

Leviticus 1:1-3:17

I’m sure we all felt an unbridled joy when we opened our bibles today and saw the succulent delights of Leviticus waiting for us.  I know this book is the butt of all Christian jokes about the joys of the bible and, after today’s reading, I suspect we all know why.  I don’t think I’d realised before that Leviticus is actually a direct prophecy given to Moses so, if nothing else, it should serve as a warning always to carry a pen when you go to seek some direction from the Lord.  The continual refrain throughout this section is the phrase “aroma pleasing to the Lord”.  This is actually quite something.  It cries out about the glorious potential we have as bits of God’s creation, to be able to take some other bits of God’s creation and actually do something with them that pleases our maker.  And from this perspective these instructions don’t seem quite so dull, rather, they seem more like a recipe for baking a cake that you know will bring a huge smile to the face of the one you love.

Mark 9:33-10:12

I know only too well the volcano of awkwardness that would have spewed up inside each of the disciples when Jesus asked them what they were talking about on the road.  It’s that moment when you realise what a dufus you are being for thinking that this stuff is about you and your reputation.  Jesus turns all that posturing on its head and reinstates himself at the top of the pyramid.  And, in fact, it’s not really a pyramid at all as a pyramid implies a hierarchy among Jesus’ followers that just does not exist.  Maybe it is more like a funnel with everyone continually swilling themselves down towards the bottom as they welcome, serve and protect those around them.  Only Jesus has any status here - we are all merely his servants.

Psalm 27:1-6

Verse 4 is the big player in this psalm but check out verse 6 - David giving shouts of joy as he hands over his sheep (or whatever) to the priests.  What a maniac.

Saturday 26 February

Exodus 39:1-40:38

We have already commented on the forensic nature of the obedience of Bezalel and Oholiab and now we see the result of it; God approves of the work by filling the tabernacle with his presence.  It is highly unusual for any group to make so bold a claim as this; that they actually have their god living among them.  I believe that most of the other religions of Moses’ time, and most today, stretch only so far as having a symbolic image of their god in their grasp while the real presence of their divine is based in some distant realm or land.  It is really quite presumptuous, and a provocative twist on the common understanding of a human-divine relationship, to actually have God’s presence coming down and dwelling among his people.  I would have loved to have seen such a thing - to have peeked out of my curtains as I’m going to bed just to check the fiery cloud is still there and then to have gazed at it with wonder as I munch on my cornflakes in the morning.  How reassuring and faith-building would that have been?  And yet, I’m struck that we actually have it better than this.  In a yet-further twist on the human-divine relationship we no longer have to look to the horizon to see the cloud of God, He has now come down and dwelt in our very midst - in our hearts by his Spirit and in the church as we gather.

Mark 9:2-32

Peter and the disciples seem to me to be in a position that I so often hold. Firstly, God has shown him amazing things about Jesus but he hasn’t realised quite how important he is.  Peter thinks Jesus is just about on a par with Moses and Elijah - a super holy prophet of God - but he needs to have his head rocked so he grasps that Jesus is even several levels above that.  Secondly, Peter hasn’t quite realised the expansiveness of what Jesus is doing.  He has understood that Jesus is coming to bring a new age upon Israel but his brain can’t comprehend that Jesus is actually annihilating the power of death and unleashing the overwhelming power of resurrected new life into the whole of the world. Thirdly, Peter hasn’t grasped the immensity of the resources that Jesus has given him.  Peter and the other disciples know that they can cast out demons but when a tricky case presents itself they begin to wonder whether they have met their match. They have not appreciated that through prayer they can call on the unrivaled power of the Kingdom which makes every single thing a possibility. And, fourthly, Peter has understood that following Jesus involves a cost but cannot compute the bleakness of the path that Jesus, and he, will have to tread.  This passage is a jolt out of any kind of complacency; all that we know of Jesus is the tiniest fraction of what he has for us. Following Him is a stretching and exhilarating place to be.

Psalm 26:1-12

Sometimes David sounds so smug you just want to spank him round the face with a wet kipper.  But I don’t think he really is being smug. I think he is just laying himself out before the Lord and asking for more of his mercy.  It is no bad thing to recognise the good that the Lord has put in you.

Friday 25 February

Exodus 37:1-38:31

Goodness me, what the heck am I meant to say about that?  It sounds like someone trying to describe the inner-workings of a museum display cabinet.  Why on earth didn’t they just take a few pictures and stick them into these pages?

The only enthusiasm I can muster is to point out that the weight of gold used was the same weight as this military jeep (minus the people):

 

At today’s prices this weight of gold would cost £34.6million.  That is quite a lot (I didn’t believe my maths when I first worked it out).  And, actually it causes me to be quite intrigued by the whole description.  This passage, dense as it is, conveys the immense value that Israel placed upon the presence of the Lord.  He is not some runt god to be carved out of a piece of wood.  Rather, he is the Lord of the entire universe whose glory can only begin to be reflected by extremely intricate moulding of a 4x4-sized hunk of the most precious material known to man.

Mark 8:14-9:1

Peter’s confession of Jesus as Christ is often referred to as the turning point of the gospel.  But is this correct?  What was Peter confessing?  Was he saying that he believed Jesus to be God?  I don’t think so. I think he was more likely saying that he believed Jesus was the divinely-appointed-but-human king of Israel who was going to bring about the glorious end of exile and usher in the much-heralded Age of peace and prosperity.  This is broadly true, but is not accurate enough to warrant a confident change of approach by Jesus.  As we can see, Jesus did affirm his identity as the Christ - as the Messiah who was going to bring about the glorious new age for Israel - but he warned the disciples not to speak of it as he was bringing two fundamental twists to the prevailing understanding of the concept.  Firstly, his Christ-ship was not to be like David’s rule (the closest Israel had previously got to such a Messianic figure) with military victories galore.  Rather, Jesus’ Christ-ship was to be defined by suffering and rejection and death followed by resurrection.  He would bring in the new age through his own destruction, not his own elevation.  Secondly, Jesus was not going to do this as a man on the behalf of God but as God himself.  He wouldn’t just bring in the new age but he would define it.  He himself would choose to give life to those who follow him and to push away those who were ashamed of him.  This must have blown the disciples’ minds and certainly Peter was completely clueless that this was what was going on when he made his confession about the Christ.  So where does that leave us?  I guess it leaves us concluding that confession of Jesus as the One who came to save us is great, but not enough.  Jesus demands more than just reverence and allegiance - Barack Obama can have that.  Even Wayne Rooney can have that.  Jesus demands obedience, he demands worship, he demands loss of life and forfeit of soul.  He demands that we make him the very God of our lives and, consequently, that all our actions, all our thoughts, all our systems for interacting with the world be submitted in entirety to him.  That is not easy.  That is not something that we achieve by our confessions or our decisions - it is entirely dependent on His Kingdom coming with power into our lives.

Proverbs 6:1-11

I’ve always found this interesting - following God is not about taking others problems onto yourself. In fact, the bible says that is a stupid and dangerous way to live.

Thursday 24 February

Exodus 25:1-36:38

We know the Vineyard philosophy that there is no distinction between the spiritual and the secular.  The common illustration used is that life is all mixed up like a chocolate milkshake rather than segmented like a grapefruit.  Here is a passage that under-girds this position.  Bezalel and Oholiab are two blokes who like to chop wood.  They are also a bit nifty with a sewing needle and no-one should judge them for it.  These skills may sound spiritually inferior to strumming a guitar or leading a bible study but, in fact, they are gifts that have been put in these ancient-times Trinny and Susanna by the very Spirit of God.  So we take from this a massively significant point - God loves art and craft and he wants it to be done well.  And, if I may expand this point, this strongly suggests that His Spirit is keen to equip all people with skills to do their jobs in such a way that glorifies Him, not just by bringing colleagues to faith but also by performing their tasks with flair and ability.  So practicing hobbies and enjoying art is not wasted time; entertainment can be holy and work can be too.  The airy-fairy, for-church-only idea of holiness that is prevalent across christendom is blown out of the water by this robust and practical demonstration of the breadth of the Spirit’s work.  I know we know this, but it’s good to see it in black and white in the bible.

Mark 7:31-8:13

I find this thing about giving a sign pretty confusing.  Why does Jesus throw such a strop about it?  He doesn’t quite slam his bedroom door but he just about pulls all the other teenager tricks; sighing loudly, giving a chippy response and storming off into the distance.  The reason it seems tricky is that Jesus has, after all, come to earth to show people the reality of God; he is on a mission and he has a message to bring.  He does ‘signs’ (as John calls them) all the time which point to him being the Christ and he even says as much to John’s disciples (Matthew 11:5).  I think, therefore, that the bible encourages us to seek signs of the Kingdom of God, to pray for evidence of God’s reality and to cry out to him for greater demonstration of himself in the world.  So there must be something about the Pharisees request which sets it apart from such positive seeking.  Unfortunately, I don’t think we get told exactly what their error was, other than that they came with a mind to catch Jesus out.  While I haven’t reached a conclusion in my thinking on this, my working hypothesis is that trying to make Jesus into a performing monkey is going to drive him far away.  Trying to make this thing about me judging Jesus has got to be a bad way to go.  But seeking him, crying out to him for healing and letting him be the judge of me could well result in him feeding me bread, loosening my tongue and opening up my ears.  

Psalm 25:16-22

You can be at absolute rock bottom, you can be in anguish, lonely and afflicted and yet be right in the heart of biblical faith.  For biblical faith recognises such a place and, at the same time, clings to the fact that there is One who can redeem you from it.

Wednesday 23 February

Exodus 33:7-34:35

Sometimes you come across a bit of the bible that is dripping with so much juice that you just don’t know where to start sucking. For me, this is one of those bits.  You could spend decades meditating on God’s names in this passage “The LORD - I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion”, “The LORD, The LORD, compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin...” and “Jealous”.  Maybe I should be writing about those - I try to keep my focus on what the passages are saying about God rather than about people - but I can’t help feeling that it would be a crime not to look at the interaction between Moses and his God.  The thing just sounds so extraordinary, a bit like a man and his lovable, loyal dog - and I’m not sure who sounds more like the dog.  From one angle it’s like you see God wagging his tail and bounding up to Moses, licking his face and curling up alongside him.  From the other angle you see Moses straining every sinew to search for his master, whining with longing to be allowed to stay with him and taking himself to the edge of starvation just to obey his commands.  It utterly reeks of intimacy.  And it’s all the more extraordinary when we think that this is under the old covenant, before the access to God has really been opened up by Jesus.  This face-to-face relationship must surely be available to us now?  I think I need to build a tent.

Mark 7:1-30

An interesting chapter in Mark as the brackets show the book was written for non-Jews, possibly as an early evangelistic document that was handed round to some of the Pauline churches.  But that, I fear, is a slight distraction from the main thrust of the passage.  I think the big punch being pulled by Jesus is to accuse the Pharisees of denying the seriousness of the Fall.  For them, using lots of soap and avoiding dodgy kebabs (OK so this is a major paraphrase but I hope it makes a point) was sufficient to walk through life in a righteous manner.  They were, in effect, suggesting that the Fall was nothing more than an intrusion on life that could be managed away through some good self-help principles.  But this is a gross deception and a horrific distortion of the teachings of the bible.  Genesis 3 teaches that the Fall was not just an intrusion on life but a complete corruption of it.  Jesus affirms this, showing that people are not the victims of the problem but they themselves are the problem.  Only by swapping people’s hearts for something else will solve this crisis.  Can I say, at the risk of offending loads of people, that I think Christian culture and the church is hugely at risk of under-playing the seriousness of the Fall.  I get a sense that we believe simply demonstrating a good life and, when asked, talking about the practices that God desires will be enough to save the world around us.  But it won’t.  It absolutely won’t.  Receiving tips and hearing ideas (even divinely inspired ones) will only help people appear more together but, unless they can swap their hearts, they are still headed on a downward trajectory.  We, as the church and the people of God, need to call people to the only One who can give them a spiritual heart-transplant and to beg them to ask Him for it.  This is the mission of God as understood by Mark and this over-riding conviction is what drove him to write his gospel in the first place.

Psalm 25:8-15

“The Lord confides in those who fear him”.  What an evocative image of relationship with the Lord.  I want him to confide in me! O Lord please increase my fear.

Tuesday 22 February

Exodus 31:1-33:6

The worship of the golden calf is the sin of Adam expanded to a community level.  The rebellion it represents and God’s response to it are foundational for understanding the dynamics of the covenant relationship between God and his people.  Some of the foundations may surprise us.  Primarily, there is no indication in this passage that God is willing to overlook this sin.  Rather, we see that their idolatry must be punished and that the whole covenant deal is now in jeopardy (God will no longer go with his people).  The Levites’ killing spree and the plague may sound harsh but they are God’s appropriate punishment for the idolatry of his people.  They set the marker down that God is not to be mocked and that he won’t tolerate unfaithfulness.  If this seems a bit of an over-reaction by God then I fear we have not really understood the offensiveness of us giving our worship to other things.  Imagine a couple on honeymoon.  The bride gets up on the first morning to go for a swim and takes off her wedding ring and engagement ring so she doesn’t lose them in the pool.  After her swim she returns to the hotel room to find her husband having sex with the room-service maid right there in their marriage bed.  And not only that, but the groom has taken his wife’s wedding ring and engagement ring and has put them on the maid and is telling this maid how glad he is to have married her and what a wonderful wife she is.  This disgusting image (found in Hosea & Ezekiel) shows the horror of what God’s people are doing to Him when they look to other things for security and hope.  God doesn’t just wave such things off -  his blood boils at such displays of ingratitude and disrespect and he takes retributive action to stamp it out before it becomes endemic. In this action though, there is mercy - God could destroy his people straight away but he doesn’t; he gives them the opportunity to respond to his anger.  They can choose to continue in their rebellion and face the consequences or they can strip off their ornaments, repent and beg Yahweh for forgiveness.  What is incredibly clear is that even if the people choose to repent, it is still entirely up to Yahweh as to whether he will have anything more to do with them.  We wait with bated breath to see what choices he makes...

Mark 6:30-56

These people were desperate to see Jesus - they ran around a lake to get to where he was going, they didn’t stop to get good supplies and they stayed until all the local shops had shut.  Jesus responds to this desperation with compassion.  (It’s interesting to note that this compassion initially causes Jesus to teach the people - how often do we regard teaching people the bible a compassion ministry! - and then, after he has given them spiritual food, he miraculously provides physical food for them.)  I often wonder whether I would enjoy more of Jesus’ provision for my life if I was willing to abandon more in seeking Him.  Although I like to be in his presence, I feel that I put quite a few restrictions on the manner in which I will seek him; having sufficient food and not messing with my carefully-planned time-table being two obvious ones.  I feel I need to repent of this and just try to be a desperate seeker, hanging on his every word rather than expecting him to speak to me in the 20 minute slot that I’ve allotted to him.  After all, Jesus’ feet treat water like concrete and his cloak is more effective than penicillin, if I was to glimpse just a little more of Him, I know I would be completely amazed.

Psalm 25:1-7

“To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul” I wonder what this actually looks like?  I have this image of a middle-aged woman in a slightly-too-snug leotard doing a liturgical dance move.  Surely lifting up my soul has got to be more attractive than that?

Monday 21 February

Exodus 29:1-30:38

Doesn’t this ‘wave offering’ strike you as just a little bit funny?  I can’t get an image out of my head of a man tentatively holding up a bloody piece of lamb and gingerly shaking it in the direction of the arc of the covenant, wondering how long he needs to do it before the wave offering is ‘complete’ and he can be spared any further embarrassment.  I wonder if they had a certain number of wafts that they felt would be sufficient?  

The thing that strikes me most about this section is the systematic and grueling manner in which Israelites set things apart exclusively for worship of the Lord.  The tabernacle is the most obvious example but you also have the Aaronites themselves, the incense and the anointing oil, to say nothing of the breath-taking volume of animals and grain that were cast upon the fire of the Lord.  Even the people themselves felt it was appropriate to pay a ransom to atone for their lives, probably for them not being given over exclusively to the worship of the Lord (and in this context worship of the Lord meant temple/tabernacle-worship, not life-style worship).  Comparing this sense of obligation to the modern laissez-faire approach to church and house-group attendance may not quite be fair but it does leave one feeling a deep sense of embarrassment.  The form of this corporate worship (animal sacrifice etc) has certainly been overthrown but I wonder whether the substance of it (absolute priority above all things) is still meant to be in play.

Mark 6:6b-29

Mark’s account of Jesus sending out the 12 could sound over-whelming.  Jesus commands the disciples to go on a journey and to take nothing with them, making raspingly clear that nothing means no extra thing.  He tells them to give themselves wholly to those who receive them and to swiftly move on in judgement (shaking off the dust is a sign that even the land of that place has been tainted by the sin of the people) from those who don’t.  This is challenging but, you know, I think we can manage it - it is essentially deciding to “work where God is working” and to detach from possessions; something we probably agree with, even if it is easier said than done.  

We may particularly baulk at the message of the disciples - calling people to repent rather than “sharing the love of Jesus with the world”.  I hope you’ll be encouraged by a quick thought on this: repentance, I believe, would have been heard by Israel as much as a positive act as a negative one.  It was a word of promise of the coming of the end of exile more than a finger-pointing warning about fire and brimstone.  Admittedly, it did require people to acknowledge that their current state was one of exile - of punishment for past trespasses and of separation from the presence of God but I think there are scores of people today who absolutely feel that they are in this position.  Some are haunted by their demons, some are wracked by their sicknesses and others are crippled by loneliness and guilt.  Many, many people are crying out for some hope to be injected into their lives.  We have this hope and we have the means of injecting it; through preaching (talking), through praying (laying on of hands) and through (intentionally giving people our time.  As we do this, as we follow the example of the 12, we will see time and again the kingdom of God breaking into the lives of the people around us.

Proverbs 5:15-23

I have it on the good authority of John Mumford that this is about orgasms.  Don’t go looking for sexual gratification at work or on the street but seek regular orgasms with your spouse.  Not only is it a fulfilling way to do life but it is also an act obedience to the word of the Lord.

Sunday 20 February

Exodus 27:1-28:43

In case you got as lost as I did, here is a picture (from blueletterbible.org) of what was prescribed for the tabernacle:

The remainder of today’s section focusses on the tabernacle togs for Aaron and his sons.  I really love the fact that I can show up for church in old jeans and with toothpaste  down my T-shirt - I wouldn’t want to change this for the world - but, it is humbling to see quite what an extent Aaron had to go to just to be able to enter the presence of the Lord.  The outfit sounds hot, heavy and uncomfortable, especially to wear in the middle of the desert.  But it is also stunningly beautiful and richly evocative of the representative and transactional nature of Aaron’s business with the Lord.  He was, and always would be, a representative of his people to God and of God to his people.  He brought before God the trespass and the thanks of his community and brought back to his community the mercy and the splendour of God.  He is a fascinating picture of what the priesthood of all believers is actually meant to convey.

Mark 5:21-6:6a

Shame.  It’s an ugly word that gnaws at your innards.  And yet it hangs around Jesus like an unshakable fug.  Some people, like the synagogue ruler, have to put themselves through it for the sake of their loved ones (it can’t have been at all easy to wriggle and squirm around on the floor in front of the people you were meant to be leading), and others, like the bleeding woman, are put through it by Jesus for the sake of their healing.  But, they were the lucky ones.  The ones who really suffered were those who were not willing to shame themselves, preferring instead to take that particular stick and shake it at Jesus.  The grieving relatives just thought they knew better than Jesus and broke from their mourning to make sure everyone knew it.  The inhabitants of his home town were possibly envious or threatened but, either way, they chose to turn that feeling into a finger-pointing rejection.  The tragedy is that all of these had a chance to walk into the life everlasting but were the victims of some inner dialogue that recoiled at the prospect of tutting tongues and shaking heads.  I think this is where the rubber of humility hits the road of discipleship.  How much shame are we willing to take for the sake of following Jesus?  I know that my appetite for it is tiny, but I’m praying that God gives me the stomach for it anyway.  After all, I know this - that He opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Psalm 24:1-10

This incredible psalm is the outworking of the defining features of Judaism - covenantal creational monotheism.  Monotheism -  there is one Lord and one King of Glory; creational - this Lord made everything and can come into it as and when he desires; covenantal - relationship with this Lord is possible for those who are willing to follow the terms of his covenant of holiness.  It is a truly brilliant picture of how theology, when done well, can hugely enrich the life and worship of the believer.

Saturday 19 February

Exodus 25:1-26:37

I know what Jesus said about the widow and her coin but I still think that the guy who brought a bit of scarlet yarn would have had a terrible sinking feeling when he laid it on the altar and then saw behind him a gang of his relatives bearing an entire sea cow on their shoulders!  Thinking about it, it must have been quite an undertaking to have sourced such an animal in the middle of the Desert of Sinai.  And it was not just one that they needed, but enough to cover the entire outside of the tabernacle.  It’s amazing how demanding God is of the Israelites considering that they are wandering in the wilderness and have only just been moaning about their poor little parched throats.  He doesn’t hold back on his meticulous and extravagant plan for the sanctuary but puts it out there and challenges the people to meet his request.  God never seems to lower the bar for him to dwell among his people - he demands momentous amounts, and then more on the side.  But the reward for such sacrifice is so beautiful and so gratifying that it more than outweighs the cost of every single penny.  After all, as Moses and Joshua show us in a few days time, it is only in the experienced presence of the Lord that true life is found.

Mark 4:30-5:20

When I was studying theology there was a lot of talk about this cushion that Jesus was sleeping on (4:38).  The common theory among theologians is that Mark is the first gospel written and that Matthew and Luke then copied Mark, cutting out some of his eye-witness observational points (sleeping on a cushion and, later, in the feeding of the 5,000 the fact that the people sat down on the ‘green’ grass) and then adding their own theological slants.  The theory raises some interesting points and can lead us into some valuable thinking about who the gospel writers were and what intentions they had for their works.  But, what seems to me more than a little perverse is that we have here a story about a man rebuking a lake - and it listening! -  and the main topic of conversation that spins out of it surrounds the item that the man had under his head when he was sleeping.  Surely this is a catastrophic distraction from the head-funking revelation of power that quaked the earth from that boat.  Surely this is the plight and the rebellion of mankind summed up in one neat anecdote?  As people we just seem to have an innate inability to focus on the glory and power of God.  We seem to set ourselves up to discuss and analyse from a distance rather than front up to the truth and eyeball it out.  I’m determined, in the power of the Spirit, to buck this trend and to fixate myself on Him; the one who said to the wind “quiet, be still” and it became completely calm.

Psalm 23:1-6

There is a great little book on this psalm called “A shepherd looks at Psalm 23”.  It’s written by a shepherd called W. Phillip Keller and draws out a lot of the imagery that is caught up in this incredible poem.  I think the more we get to grips with the grubby reality of shepherding the more we are touched and enthused by the tangible love of God that is illuminated in this psalm.

Friday 18 February

Exodus 23:1-24:18

I think there are at least 5 things in this passage that you could write fascinating books about. A tiny bit on each one (I’m sure we’ll come back to them in subsequent passages); 1) the sabbath year or sabbatical which is not about recharging your own batteries but is an act of compassion to the poor. How about taking 1 year off in 7 to do something compassionate? 2) the 3 festivals a year where everyone got together to give of their first-fruits to the Lord. I think New Wine etc have a flavour of this although, again, it is interesting that these are focussed on us receiving from God as much, if not more, than us giving to God.  3) the business about Israel kicking the current inhabitants of the promised land. ah. this is a little more tricky and definitely can’t be covered here. 4) Moses sprinkling blood on people - how sick is that??  Imagine if they started doing that at church? It’s interesting that both covenants, new and old, are based on the cleansing power of blood. 5) The amount of waiting involved in Moses receiving the tablets from God.  He stayed in the cloud for 6 days before God spoke.  The longest ministry time I’ve ever managed was about 65 minutes and half of that was eating a doughnut.  All in all this is a truly incredible section that, if we let it, could completely revolutionise the degree to which we see God meeting us in our world.

Mark 3:31-4:29

Like trying to fit a stomach in a corset, I just can’t seem to cram all the bits of Mark into a tightly-defined package.  These different segments all seem to point in slightly different directions; all talking, to some extent, about responses to the gospel but all taking slightly different things away from it.  The overall message, if there is one, is that what people do with Jesus is what really defines their destiny.  If people are open to him, generous towards his words and accepting of his direction then not only will they be as deliciously fruitful as ripe grain but they will also find themselves welcomed into his royal family.  They will given a permanent status in his household and they can expect a continual level of intimacy with him.  Jesus is continually creating new ties and expand his camp.  The only question is whether we are going to be part of that.

Psalm 22:22-31

I once heard a talk that linked the end of this psalm - “he has done it!” to Jesus’ cry on the cross “it is finished!”.  Genius. By the preacher, but even more so by God for sorting out the whole thing.

Thursday 17 February

Exodus 21:1-22:31

It’s quite an insight into the bickering, almost anarchic nature of Israeli society that the Lord felt the need to set before them laws on what to do when two fighting men injure a pregnant woman or when someone burns down another’s grain.  It is my hunch that these were exactly the sort of issues that were being brought to Moses on a daily basis and that Jethro counseled him delegate to others.  These laws, then, rather than being the guiding principles for covenant living on the level of the 10 Commandments were probably more akin to laws that were held by the courts and which the common Israelite may never have read (lucky them!).  There is in here though a few key phrases that gleam like diamonds in the ruff.  Firstly, we see where the “eye for an eye” principle is derived from (and we note that it is a legal, not a personal, guide for retribution). Secondly we see the betrayal price for Jesus being the equivalent of recompense paid for your bull goring to death my slave (there’s some interesting mileage in exploring if there’s any theological meaning in that).  And, thirdly, we get this glorious final section on ‘social responsibility’ which is richly underpinned by the principles of mercy and holiness .  It is almost offensive to modern ears to hear God claim that he is compassionate while also saying that if anyone sacrifices to any other god they must be destroyed.  This, I think, it the critical difference between holy compassion and the current fashion for tolerance.  Compassion seems to extend to those (seduced virgins, aliens, orphans, widows) who are trapped in conditions where their choices are limited and prospects are grim, whereas tolerance seems to extend to those who have many options and who have decided to walk away from God’s requirements for living.  We need to be careful that we ferociously uphold the true concept of compassion, refusing to let it turn into a softness on sin, but rather storing it like fire in our bellies, driving us to actively care for the disadvantaged around us.

Mark 2:18-3:30

We concluded yesterday that Mark understood Jesus as being a super-healer, coming to make straight any crooked paths that he found.  We now come onto the question of who has given him the authority to perform his healing.  If you like, Mark is looking at which school of medicine Jesus is practicing under.  The natural assumption was that Jesus had come as a Jewish healer-prophet but, he didn’t seem to be wearing their uniform correctly or following their standard working practices.  When challenged about this Jesus claims not only that he comes on his own authority but also that he is redefining the whole concept of what it means to be a Jewish healer-prophet.  This seems to be equivalent to a BA employee showing up to work one day wearing a different uniform, treating customers in a different way and claiming that they were now the boss of the company.  I suspect that neither the shareholders, nor the BA CEO would not stand for such activity for long, especially if it made headline news.  So it is not surprising that the Pharisees and the Herodians plotted both to kill Jesus and to smear him as an agent of Beelzebub.  What is surprising is that Jesus neither completely ignored nor pre-occupied himself with winning this ideological battle but rather got on with his job in hand; healing diseases, exorcising evil spirits, appointing apostles and teaching about the authority of his kingdom.  Mark shows that Jesus was about so much more than just proving the authorities wrong; he is about tying up Satan and robbing him of all of his possessions, be they the sick, the possessed or the ideologically-misguided.  As the gospel of Mark unfolds it becomes increasingly clear that Jesus’ call is for us to become fellow-robbers with him.

Proverbs 5:1-14

I love the way that the proverbs just put it all out there.  No inhibitions or qualms about addressing a major issue that could be the downfall of the people.  Beware of the flirts; they always take more than they give.

Wednesday 16 February

Exodus 19:1-20:26

Don’t point your penis at the Lord (vs 20:26).  That, along with a ban on using chisels, seems to have been one of the 12 Commandments that didn’t quite make the cut to the final 10.  But, joking aside, it is quite a strange idea that the Lord would be offended by that particular part of the anatomy as we know both that he made it and that it featured heavily in his preferred method for identifying his own people.  What seems to be going on here, I think for the first time in the post-Eden narrative, is that the Lord is directly addressing the consequences of the Sin of Adam.  We read it time and time again in chapter 19 that the Israelites have to take every precaution to avoid the Lord breaking out against them.  Now, after the Fall, there is something inherently impure about people and it is everything that the Lord can do to prevent his presence from exterminating them.  That is the best context for understanding the 10 commandments.  They are not 10 principles for how to live a good life (although they can be used in that way) but rather are the hazard warning signs that sit above the door leading to the covenant relationship with God.  They are a siren blaring out the dangerous unapproachability of God and they are the head-to-toe protective clothing that might, if you are lucky, prevent you from suffering instant death at his hands.  And yet, once this first level has been appreciated, you can perceive amidst the warnings some drops of His forbearance and His mercy, of His desire to show love for a thousand generations and to see His people live long in the land.  You see, dumbfoundingly, that although people stink, the Lord wants to have us around and that, although we are wicked, the Lord wants to call us his own.  How on earth he restrains himself from destroying us is a wonder and a mystery, at least until the cross unveils his glorious solution to the conflict between his love and his justice.

Mark 1:29-2:17

Mark’s short, sharp anecdotes create quite a wild and chaotic feel to Jesus’ ministry.  He seems like he is constantly darting from one thing to the next, dynamically reacting to the swarming mass of need that surrounded him.  But, looking a second time at today’s reading shows that while Jesus may often be surrounded by mayhem, he nearly always instils upon that situation some harmony and order.  It is like he is putting into practice the Isaiah verse quoted at the start of the gospel - he is making straight the crooked paths.  Whether healing a fever or casting out demons or walking away from crowds or forgiving a paralytic’s sins or calling a tax collector Jesus interacts with broken, misdirected people and he snaps them chiropractor-like into a new pattern of wholeness.  Indeed, I think we might be onto something in believing Mark saw Jesus in this way as we see him, at this formative stage of proceedings, describing Jesus as the doctor who has come to call sick sinners to leave their mess and be healed by him.  With this primary image established, we see Mark, tomorrow, moving on to tackle the next aspect of Jesus’ activity.

Psalm 22:12-21

The continuation of the prophetic worship which we started yesterday and, in it, a couple of predictions of the future that are so accurate it is like someone has put your head inside Big Ben and turned the hands to 12 noon.  It is positively dizzying to see God unfolding his plans to his people so far in advance of him fulfilling them.

Tuesday 15 February

Exodus 17:1-18:27

As soon as you read that they are setting out from the Desert of Sin you know they’re in trouble don’t you?  Who on earth would have come up with such a depressing name for a place??  Anyhow, this embarrassing little water-fight scene illustrates pretty clearly what can go wrong with us human beings.  (I speculate that the concept of Sin could be derived from this episode - ie the act was named after the desert rather than the other way around).  The first problem is that the focus of the Israelites is entirely on the human level; they credit (or discredit) Moses with the exodus from Egypt and look to him, not God, for provision.  Secondly, they develop a victim mentality, focussing solely on their own condition and constantly talking about what they feel they are lacking.  And, thirdly, they allow this sense of being wronged to turn into an anger towards their leaders and God, understanding themselves as being parties fundamentally in conflict with their leader (and by association their creator).  The author of Exodus sums up this quarrel as being about whether God is among them or not, which is very interesting as the Israelites never put it this way, nor even do they seem to acknowledge that God has a part to play in this at all.  So, we could conclude that the symptoms of sin are too great a focus on the human level, a victim mentality, and a hostility towards others, especially leaders; while the cause of sin is a doubt of the goodness and the closeness of God.  This is a useful concept to hold in our minds, especially for when we later get onto Paul’s letters but also for now, as we seek to eradicate any suggestion of sin from the way we got about life.

Mark 1:1-28

I have this obsession with continually trying to unpick and refine my understanding of Jesus to ensure I’m rooting out all my own little preferences and letting the text, and the Spirit, dictate to me what my understand of Him should be.  So I find the start of Mark slightly muddling.  There are so many different concepts of Jesus being chucked out that you feel a little like you are being flung around on a wurlitzer.  We are told Jesus is the Son of God, that he is the coming Lord, that he will baptize with the Holy Spirit but then we see him getting baptized and the Spirit falling on him, then he is the proclaimer of the good news, then he asks people to become fishers of men, then he is described as the Holy One of God and then he quickly becomes famous as the one whose teaching has authority.  Trying to unpick all this lot and work out what is the easiest place to start with Jesus is no easy task.  Mark’s gospel seems to be a little like this, continually giving you short, sharp jabs from all different angles so you struggle to retain your balance and end up “trembling and bewildered” just like Mary at the end of the very earliest versions of the gospel (earliest versions end at Mark 16:8).  I suspect this is partly what Mark intended; to frustrate anyone who thought they could pin Jesus down as one particular type of religious personality and to emphasise that this is God in human form that we are talking about.  It’s a sheer ruddy miracle that the Divine was compressed down into a human being anyway, so it is no wonder that your brain feels like it is taking a serious pasting when you try to neatly grasp Him.  Mark is not going to be a particularly comfortable ride but, as my father always used to say, if it doesn’t kill it, it should make us stronger.

Psalm 22:1-11

It’s a shame this didn’t come 2 days earlier to coincide with Matthew’s crucifixion narrative as that would have displayed the sheer magnitude of the prophecy that lies in this psalm.  But, what the heck, it’s still pretty mind-blowing whenever you read it, especially when all the 31 verses are read together rather than being split over 4 days.

Monday 14 February

Exodus 15:1-16:36

The instructions about mann are the first time that the concept of the Sabbath is described to the Israelites.  Following on as they do from the highly-specific instructions about celebrating the passover (which we read 2 days ago) we see Moses beginning to construct a highly prescribed and highly symbolic pattern of life for the people of God.  I suspect that such activity today would quickly be labelled legalism but I really don’t think that is what is going on here.  I think one of the best ways of understanding it is to say that the Israelites lived rather than read their theological learning.  Their daily life was so inextricably tied up with their doctrines about God that anyone in the community could look at their monthly calendar and understand who it was that was looking out for them, what sort of character he had and what kind of behaviour he expected from his people.  So, Sabbath showed that it was actually Yahweh, and not their own or their family’s hard work, that caused them to have food on the table; that Yahweh was a God who knew and cared for every individual equally; and that he wanted his people to live in daily dependance on him.   This was a super-strong corporate impulse to resist self-reliance and individualism and to make faith in God an experienced reality.  I believe that faith as an experienced reality is something that God and the world is crying out for the church to recapture; maybe similar rigid theological practices could aid us in reaching that goal?

Matthew 28:1-20

Wow! It’s actually such an abrupt ending to the gospel that you feel like you are dropping off a cliff.  We only just got our heads round the fact that Jesus died and then, before we have time to take our bearings, he lightning bolts a couple of soldiers, cheekily greets the women while they are sprinting down a track, issues the great commission and, well... that’s it!  I guess Matthew feels like he can cut things off so quickly because his case has already been made and the application points are self-evident; if Jesus has actually been raised then the whole world must be told about it.  He hasn’t really explained what it means to make disciples, other than to do what Jesus did - find people working away at their jobs and call them into being fishers of men - and he has barely name-checked either the Holy Spirit or baptism throughout the whole of his volume.  But I love the fact that Matthew doesn’t take the time to fully explore these issues here.  It’s almost as if he doesn’t want to take the edge off people just getting on and making disciples.  And that urgent, never-look-to-the-side edge is one that I am desperate to capture.  I’m desperate to blitz my community with invitations to follow Jesus.  I just want to go and call people into the service of the king, never mind about all the ins and outs of what that may look like. After all, the only things that really matter are that Jesus is the one with all the authority in all the universe and he is with me every moment of every day until he decides to bring my life, or this age, to its end. 

Psalm 21:8-13

I was wondering what I should write in Lesley’s valentines card but, having just read this wonderful love-song to Jesus, I can think of nothing better than just copying one of its beautifully romantic epithets - “Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies; your right hand will seize your foes”...

Sunday 13 February

Exodus 13:1-14:31

The parting of the Red Sea is probably the defining image of the saving activity of God.  OK, I can you see you unzipping your heresy stick right now and getting ready to whack me with it.  I appreciate that it is a fairly bold claim to place the deliverance from Egypt over and above the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus but do bear with me; I have not suddenly abandoned the great truths of the new covenant.  No, what I am asserting here is that we can’t properly understand the beauty of the cross unless we have previously been a courting with the parting of these waters.  The Old Testament brims with exultation of the exodus, pointing back to it as the ‘thing’ that God has done for his people.  But, by the time of Isaiah and some of his fellow lunatic prophets, it is becoming  increasingly clear that God needs to do a ‘new thing’ to achieve a real deliverance of his people from the wickedness and slavery that engulfs them.  The people of Israel start to look forward to a second exodus where they will not only be set free from the enemy troops arrayed against them but will also know freedom from the stoney-hearted, wearying, wilderness-infested way of living that clings to them.  So, when Jesus talks about forgiving sins and giving his life as a ransom for many, he is not bringing a new idea to Israel.  No, rather he is claiming that he has in his own body the new version of the plagues, the defeat of Pharoah, the parting of the Red Sea and the access into the Land flowing with milk and honey.  It’s no wonder the religious leaders wanted to kill him as a blasphemer.  And it is no wonder that the early church, when they finally got their heads round this, went completely bonkers in worshipping him.

Matthew 27:45-66

You know as well as I do about Psalm 22, the temple being torn and the people being raised from the dead (I wonder how they actually chose to appear to people?  I mean if you’ve been dead for a while and are now back alive you would like to make a bit of an entrance wouldn’t you? Maybe with a bit of smoke and a drum roll; you could seriously mess with people’s heads!).  You probably also know the serious girl power thing that is going on here but I think it is so surprising that it is still worth drawing it out.  We don’t know who Matthew was exactly (or at least I don’t) but he was obviously deeply knowledgable about Jewish beliefs and customs and well able to construct a decent argument.  So it is pretty astounding that he gives this group of mothers and others such a high profile in the narrative.  At the time there would have been a lingering air of suspicion around a man collaborating so closely with so many of the ‘weaker sex’ and their testimony about Jesus’ death and resurrection would have added nothing in a court of law.  So why did Matthew choose to include these disreputable details?  Well, it is clear that for Jesus and the disciples these ladies were fundamental to the story; they formed the backbone of support for Jesus throughout the toughest episode in his life, they kept watch over his tomb while Pilate was sealing it and putting guards on it and, in my mind, they almost certainly formed the basis of the new Christian community that arose out of the witness of the resurrection.  In short, they were probably the first disciples to ‘get it’.  Most of the bible is understandably dominated by tales of men; it would be inconceivable in the society of the time for it to be any other way.  But, in places, it exposes the shocking level of respect and empowerment that Jesus gave to the ladies around him.  It really is a great thing to be part of a church that emulates this and tries to treat women in the same way today.

Proverbs 4:20-27

“Let your eyes look straight ahead”.  I like that! It seems to be about treading the path that the Lord has prepared for me and not worrying about what I might be missing out on.

Saturday 12 February

Exodus 11:1-12:51

And so the liberation is achieved!  What a truly astounding and glorious thing it is that God does for the Israelites, freeing them from the centuries-long stranglehold of submission to Pharaoh.  It is worth pausing and reflecting on quite how extraordinary and how significant this thing was that God did for his people.  He categorically and completely proved that he was master over every aspect of life and that he had chosen Israel to be his own special people.  He has crushed the anthropocentric kingdom of Egypt and exposed the power and dominion of the theocentric kingdom of Israel.  As Moses predicted, even Pharoah’s officials line up to bow down before the Israelites and acknowledge the fact that their God reigns.  God has done what he always seems to do; turning the world upside down to turn masters into slaves and slaves into masters.

And God’s desired response to this momentous event seems to be an OCD sufferers dream come true!  (With the exception of the grisly business of smearing blood around the front door.)  I would have thought that this deliverance would have called for a wild and revelrous party but it seems the Lord has more of a Gina Ford-style evening in mind.  The restrictions on how the passover should be commemorated are detailed and demanding but all call the partaker into the reality of the event.  They also leave the Israelites in no doubt that the Passover was not just about them but about the demonstration of the unrivaled reign of Yahweh upon this earth.

Matthew 27:11-44

What Matthew masterfully shows is how each of the different sets of people at the crucifixion have received some revelation about who Jesus is but have refused to re-engineer their lives around it.  Pilate is told that Jesus is the King of the Jews and his wife has been warned in a dream but he carries on with his activities as normal, thinking, bizarrely, that giving his hands a quick tinkle in some water is sufficient response to the fact that he is about to crucify his God.  Others, such as the soldiers and the crowds, have glimpsed Jesus’ kingship and saving power but prefer to stand themselves above or outside of this claim, aggressively mocking him for it or suggesting that his supporting evidence isn’t quite yet strong enough to gain their approval.  What a disgusting thing this is.  How stupid to think that we can watch God in a detached manner and pass judgement on Him according to our own rules and opinions.  Matthew’s implicit invitation is that we climb inside this narrative and submit ourselves to the revelation of God that is taking place in this Place of the Skull.  We have to walk this ground with humility and openness, prepared to be completely undone and remade by this history-quaking and earth-shaking event.  Life can not go on as normal after we have truly understood the cross; either we choose to drink its blood and follow its call or we close our ears and live forever with its blood on our hands.

Psalm 21:1-7

My first thought is “who gives a fig about what God did for the king?”  But then, I remember that through Jesus we all have access to the royal blessings and suddenly I find I’m quite happy to offer some naturally-occurring fruity laxatives to find out a little more...

Friday 11 February

Exodus 9:1-10:29

What I find fascinating about this narrative is that it doesn’t give any indication as to what the Israelites were making of all of this.  As the passage says, the purpose of these plagues was to convince the Israelites that Yahweh is the Lord and that his name should be proclaimed in all the earth. And yet, the only mindset that we get insight into is that of Pharaoh and his officials.  I wonder why this is?  My guess is that to focus on the faith levels of the Israelites after every plague would have misrepresented what was going on here.  The Israelites are not the major players in this drama - they are just the passive recipients of the dynamic deliverance of their God.  It’s like the Lord is on fire, driving forward his agenda with such relentless determination that every other character can just stand and gawp.  This is what I think our religious experience should be; seeing God doing amazing things for the sake of glory and to the benefit of his people.  If our attention is most often on ourselves, for whatever reason, I suspect we have walked away from the biblical direction for our faith.

Matthew 26:69-27:10

I love the way Matthew name-checks Jeremiah here, grabbing a slightly obscure section of the wailing prophet and pulling it right into the centre of the Jesus story.  It’s like the whole of the Old Testament witness is drawn like a magician’s cloak around the life of Jesus, and then, after an appropriate drum roll, the new and startling work of God is plucked out from the middle of it.  This is important.  For Matthew, there is no discrepancy between Old Testament and New Testament, no “mean God” followed by “loving God” or however people have wanted to talk about it.  Matthew and the other New Testament writers, including Paul, all saw Jesus as a Jewish saviour who was bringing to culmination the redemptive work of God that had begun with Abraham (or perhaps Noah, or even Adam!).  God has been the same all the way, even if the degree to which he has revealed himself has grown.  We need to fully buy into this or else we are in great danger of wrenching Jesus out of his historical and theological context and turning him into whatever we may want him to be.  And that, in part, is what Judas appears to have done, viewing Jesus as a rabbi rather than as the Messiah of God, and then acting upon this understanding to catastrophic effect.  By the time he realised what he had done, it was too late for him.  To protect against this we need to mine the scriptures, become au fait with the whole counsel of God and continue to seek Jesus in a worship-filled life.   Doing this will continually open us up to voice of the Spirit who will lead us into all truth.

Psalm 20:1-9

“We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God”.  Firstly, what an amazing thing that people would be so delighted in another’s success that they would whoop and holler about it.  And, secondly, who would have thought that banners were a biblically-prescribed method of worshipping our God?? I think I better nip down the shops in readiness for Sunday...

Thursday 10 February

Exodus 6:13-8:32

Uh oh, someone else is on about their family tree again.  Yawn.

Here we get the ultimate “my dad is stronger than your dad” head-to-head, with Pharaoh’s dad gradually looking more and more pathetic by comparison.  (It’s fascinating that Pharaoh’s secret arts can turn water into blood and can herd together frogs but can’t turn dust into gnats - what is that about??)  It soon becomes undeniably apparent that Yahweh is crushing the gods of Egypt and that Pharaoh, even though he is in a double nelson with his face pressed against the floor, just won’t give the tap of surrender.  The resounding message for those who will hear it is that Yahweh is stronger than every other force in heaven and earth.  If you nail your colours to any other mast you are just choosing to lose.

But there is a tricky question that comes out of this section - did Pharaoh even have a choice about granting Moses’ request?  The text itself says that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that he just couldn’t give in.  Is it fair then that Egypt gets decimated through no apparent fault of their own?  Paul, in Romans 9, addresses this very issue and comes to the conclusion that God can do whatever he wants because he is the boss.  Not the most palatable of truths to swallow for your petit-dejeuner!  But, we aren’t in this thing because it is palatable.  We are in it because we are convinced that it is true.  God doesn’t have to conform to our desires, we have to conform to his!   There is so much more to say on this but no space to do so.  I am sure we will come back to this theme on numerous occasions on our voyage through the story of God.

Matthew 26:47-68

The scent of desperation lingers across this whole passage.  People desperately trying to keep the river of God flowing down their nicely controlled channels only to have it bursting the bank in every imaginable direction.  And the tsunami really hits when Jesus knocks flat the snide and self-serving questioning of Caiaphas. Jesus’ response “in the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven” smashes through every pretense that the ruling high priests were the divine-appointed guardians of God.  Jesus references Daniel 7, thereby declaring that a time is soon coming when the corrupt kingdoms that rule the world will be completely and utterly overcome by a new kingdom, implemented by the Ancient of Days and overseen by the utterly sovereign Son of Man.  Jesus is telling Caiaphas “You’re spent. Your tightly-controlled and self-centred approach to religion is through.  A new way of doing religion is coming upon the world and you will have no authority in it.  This new way will be open to all people, regardless of social status or breeding.  This kingdom will never fade or perish.  And it will be defined by multi-lingual and multi-faceted worship for the sovereign Son of Man.  Caiaphas’ reaction to this statement, of spitting it back in Jesus’ face and calling on the dogs, is a tragic and horrifying demonstration of people’s arrogance and determination to remain masters of their own fate.  Please Lord, would you save me from such a fate.

Psalm 19:7-14

Isn’t verse 14 brilliant?  In fact the whole of this section is pretty stupendous.  I wonder if I can memorise it and use it a bit more in daily life.  And then I could wheel it out at some corporate prayer meeting and everyone would be so impressed...

Wednesday 9 February

Exodus 4:1-6:12

There is more evidence of the character of God in this passage than there are calories in a Big Mac. He does this curious little dance with Moses, telling him Pharaoh ‘may’ believe the three little party tricks that He gives him.  I don’t believe for a minute that God intended the signs to convince Pharaoh; rather they seem to have been for Israel, to show them that the God they worshipped was alive and making his presence felt among them.  It’s fascinating that God seems to shape his interaction with his people around the enhancement of their faith in him.  As we saw yesterday, God’s primary goal seems to be to wed his people to himself, even over and above freeing them from any cruel bondage that they may find themselves in.  When Moses asks why God has brought trouble upon his people, God responds by telling Moses about His character.  The message is clear - God is willing to let trouble come to us so that we can discover more about who He is.  

And then there is this bizarre ‘bridegroom of blood’ episode.  The language is very unclear as to whether it is Moses or his son who is nearly killed but I think the NIV is probably correct in assuming Moses.  So what does this tell us about God?  Well I think that it demonstrates that he is even willing to jeopardise his plans if his people do not commit themselves to holiness.  For Moses to not bother getting circumcised even after God has revealed himself so vividly is a huge act of disrespect. God has described circumcision as the sign of the covenant between Himself and his people.  If one of his people will not subject themselves to this simple (if painful) act of devotion then he will not tolerate their presence any longer.  There is no wriggle room in this thing; for God, lack of devotion to Him is a game-breaker.  It makes you wonder how many major redemptive works of God are currently suspended due to the lack of devotion of His people.

Matthew 26:31-46

I struggle to get my head around the description of Gethsemane.  The level of emotion that Jesus displays and the enormity of the situation is a little too much for my task-centered brain to process.  I tend to just look at the end result and experience a fleeting moment of sadness over the fact that my beloved saviour is being roughed around by a gang of ignorant upstarts.  But I like the fact that the editors have stopped this passage before the actual betrayal takes place - it forces me to dwell a little in this agonising garden.  And as I sit here in Costa I feel myself starting to well up at Jesus’ declaration “my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death”.  This is the very soul of God, the immortal and ever-lasting soul that created all things and is enthroned above all things.  Why would he be so overwhelmed with sorrow at the fate of this world?  How could he feel such a depth of emotion as this?  I’m completely floored by the fact that he found this such a horrendously heart-savaging experience.

Proverbs 4:10-19

I’m struck by the declaration that “Instruction...is your life”.  At a time when reading was a rare skill this is a clear call to get up close and personal with the older and wiser people of God.  I find I naturally withdraw and don’t disclose or press-in to relationships but I realise that by doing this I am missing out on life.  An openness to people and to the thoughts they offer is a crucial part of walking along the straight paths of God.