Joshua 11:1-12:24
Hahaha, I love the preposterousness of the list of the kings each with the word ‘one’ next to them! Why on earth did they feel the need to write ‘one’ at all - why not just list all the lands and then say “31 kings in all”. Sometimes the bible is so wonderfully eccentric it just utterly delights me. I love the fact that God’s people can be flamboyant or anal, trend-setters or odd-balls and He just welcomes them all in and affirms the way he has made them. And the list itself is quite an extraordinary thing. It represents the against-the-odds progression of the promise of God for the people of God. It shows that despite Israel ignoring the covenant and bankrupting themselves, God has kept crashing them forward, leading them to a land of milk and honey, giving them victory over their enemies drawing them closer to the fulfillment of His promise. Although the book is called Joshua it really is God’s story, it really is His victory and His triumph, it was He who defeated the 31 kings who tried to destroy Israel and He who called the people of Israel to Himself. Our God is strong and mighty and he sticks closer to us than a brother, overlooking our rebellion and waywardness and lavishing upon us gift after gift, triumph after triumph, promise after promise. This whole world is caught up in God’s story; in God’s redemption narrative. What an utter delight and privilege that we can be co-labourers with Him in his work as he goes about fulfilling every promise that he has every made to the world.
Luke 24:1-35
Oh yeah mama! That is what we’re talking about! Some of the companions went to the tomb but they did not see Him. Some rolled away the stone but his body they did not find. Death couldn’t hold Him, the grave couldn’t keep Him. It tried - oh boy did it try - but the power that lived in his flesh refused to yield to its grasp. This One would not end that way. This One could not end that way. He is the one that the centuries of writings were about, He is the One who took upon himself all the suffering of all the ages and yet would not stay dead. There was something in his flesh, something in his blood, something in his very soul that could not be quashed by even the mightiest assault of the darkness. Jesus is risen! And with him rises all the hopes of Israel, all the promises of the covenants, all the salvation of the world, all the hope for mankind. And yet, after this glorious, majestic, bone-shaking and history-shattering event we find the man Jesus strolling along a road from one city to one village, passing the time of day with a couple of crestfallen travellers. This One that all the Old Testament was about, this One who triumphed over every principality and power, this One who was taking unsurpassing glory onto Himself was happy just to humbly chat with a couple of guys who thought that their world had caved in. This is the extra level of glory that rests upon this Man, that he would sneak alongside us and listen to us and cause our hearts to burn within us.
Psalm 51:10-19
From personal brokeness comes a passion for Zion. From repentance comes a desire to see God glorified in his church and his world.
