Wednesday 4 May

Judges 1:1-2:5

We all need to visit Bokim from time to time.  Certainly the Laodiceans needed to visit it in Revelation 3.  There seems to be a natural inclination in the heart of mankind to neglect the things of the heart, to let the first love fade.  You can put whatever language you want on it; letting the urgent over-ride the important, seeking the gifts over the giver, doing rather than being, being a dufus etc etc.  The over-riding message of today’s section and of Judges as a whole is that people can’t seem to help themselves from straying from the Lord.  Given half a chance people start to enjoy other people’s altars.  Given half a chance, people sin.  But the great, overwhelmingly good news is that the angel of the Lord will come and meet us at Bokim.  The angel of the Lord comes not with fire in his hand but with a warning and an invitation.  The invitation is to weep aloud.  The invitation is to recommit to devotion to the Lord.  There will be consequences for the sin - snares and thorns will scratch our sides - but the Lord in his overwhelmingly great mercy will relent from breaking his covenant of love.  And, of course, we know that Bokim is just a type of the greater mercy, the greater invitation that was to come.  Bokim is Golgotha.  Bokim is God himself, arms stretched wide, dying on a cross. Bokim is Jesus asking us “why have you done this” and begging the Father “forgive them, for they know not what they do”.

John 4:1-26

Yesterday we saw Jesus calling an individual to be born again.  Today he begins to unite nations.  The woman at the well could, to some Jews, represent the most depraved aspects of Samaria; someone who has walked away from the inheritance of Moses, and worse than that, a woman, and, worse than that, a brazen hussey.  And yet Jesus wipes all the labels off her and calls her into a new population of worshippers.  It’s not that Jesus calls her to become Jewish but rather that he calls her to come as a Samaritan to worship the God of the Jews (albeit that the worship must happen in Spirit and in Truth).  And in this we see John pointing way beyond this random little lady and towards all the people of Samaria and perhaps even to the ends of the earth.  John wants to put the marker down right at the kick-off - this Messiah Jesus will not skirt his kingdom around cultural differences or national boundaries.  This Messiah Jesus will not be inhibited by the oppressive walls and rules of mankind.  This Messiah Jesus is claiming authority and jurisdiction for his Father across the whole of the twelve tribes and even beyond.  No-one is excluded on the basis of their background - all are different from God anyway as He is spirit and we are flesh.  The offer is open to all to become true worshippers.  We have not at this point in John seen what true worshippers look like but I’m already struck by how significant this idea is.  We are not calling people to conform to any particular culture but simply to worship this particular God.  There is huge scope for diversity in the kingdom.  Jesus’ tent is a very broad tent.  As Paul says in Ephesians, the desire of God is to bring all things together under the one head, Jesus.  And again in Galatians, there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female for we are all one in Christ Jesus.. we are the true children of Abraham... and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.  This is an extraordinary, life-filled, brimmingly diverse family in which we belong.  What an absolute privilege to be part of it, and to have Jesus holding it all together as our King.

Proverbs 11:9-18

It’s amazing to think that a whole city can be exalted through the blessing of the upright.  Oh that that would happen for London.