Deuteronomy 31:30-32:52
It’s a bit embarrassing but the truth is Moses’ song really isn’t very good. I mean, the lines don’t rhyme, the rhythm is sketchy and it doesn’t even have a chorus. Can you imagine the look on all the people’s faces as they stood in eager anticipation, looking up with longing at their dear leader, waiting for him to bring them the latest revelation from their great God and then for him to start singing them that?? One can only hope that Moses had a gloriously deep and rich baritone voice to mask the joltingly unpoetic nature of the lyrics. But aside from all this, it is fascinating that the Israelites were so concerned with legacy and were so convinced that legacy was formed through teaching. It seems that they were always alert to the long-term, always thinking of how they could provide for the ones who were to follow them. And, rather than finances and nest-eggs, the thing that they obsessed about passing on were truths. Truths about the glorious provision and love of their God and of the calamity of rejecting Him. I wonder if I value enough passing truth onto my boys and those coming up behind me? I want to, I really want them to know and love the bible. Maybe I should write them a song...
Luke 19:45-20:26
Flip. Jesus made people want to kill him. That is quite something to take in. And these weren’t robbers or criminals or violent men - they were the respectable people of the day. Jesus wound these people up so much that he made them actually contemplate murdering him (something that would break one of their 10 most sacred rules). I can’t think of many people who respectable people want to kill. You’d have to be fairly extreme to stoke people so much that they would bloody their hands to be rid of you. And that is what Jesus was. He wasn’t just a rabbi bringing new and authoritative teaching or just a prophet announcing a new and vibrant hope but he was both of these and more. He was the owner of the temple; he governed where God’s presence appeared on earth. And he was intimately related to the One who owned and oversaw the people of the covenant. Jesus’ claims could not be higher. He claimed authority over every jot and tittle of religious life, every iota of humanities’ identity and every last denarius of people’s resources. Such a claim was so manifestly offensive, so grossly intrusive that no individual could escape from it. The only options were to accept it in astonished silence or to come against it with violent plotting. This is not a ‘nice’ thing that we are in. It is either astonishingly good or extraordinarily corrupt.
Psalm 48:9-14
It’s interesting how the psalmist saw a crucial part of God’s role as giving guidance to his people.
