Thursday 23 June

1 Kings 11:14-12:24

This is where it gets messy.  Up until this point we had pretty much a single narrative of God promising Israel a glorious future of prosperity and peace in his presence.  Now that begins to fragment.  There is no longer a single coherent entity of Israel.  We now have to deal with 10 tribes - often confusingly referred to as Israel - and one tribe (which is actually 2 tribes or maybe 3) - often referred to as Judah.  This splitting of Israel is not just a geographical matter; it has huge theological consequences.  It leaves a huge hanging question of what has happened to the hope of Abraham.  In Genesis 12:2 God said he would make Abraham into a great nation, not two great nations.  What is going on for goodness sake??  That is the question that is explored over the next 6 books (from 2 Kings until Esther) and that is spoken into by the prophets.  We, of course, have the huge comfort of knowing the answer, of knowing that the Abrahamic promise was still alive through this time, even if it wasn’t kicking.  We have the immense privilege of living after the birth of the One King who would re-unite the 12 tribes and then re-define and expand them to welcome in people of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.  But at the time of Rehoboam’s rule, while he was denigrating the size of his father’s reproductive organ (I guess having 1000 wives might do that to a man??) and promising scourging with scorpions, it must have felt pretty bleak for the poor old Israelites.  But the author of this history is keen to point out that this bleakness was not in any way an indication of the weakness or the failing of God.  In fact, it was quite the reverse.  When we find ourselves facing hard and dispiriting times, when it seems like some of the promises are failing then we can take comfort in this - God is not weak and he will pull us through.

Acts 15:22-41

From a theological perspective there is an interesting question over whether blood and the meat of strangled animals is still off-limits for us.  I personally don’t think it is.  Romans 14 & 15 show how Paul had already started moving away from these guidelines (in terms of what to do with food sacrificed to idols) within a decade or so of them being given. I suspect they were initially issued to ensure that respect was shown to the Jewish heritage of Christianity but with the passing of the years and the growing understanding of what The Way was about then this became increasingly unnecessary (from a social perspective at least).  What I love about this passage is how everything is couched in a desire to encourage others and not to burden them.  So many of us need encouragement and strengthening.  I know I do.  What a great way to approach church life and life in general for that matter - constantly looking for opportunities to build others up.  And not only looking for opportunities but also manufacturing them, even risking our lives to do so...

Psalm 77:10-20

Here’s the answer to the cliffhanger - how do we help those whose souls refuse to be comforted; encourage them to meditate on the works of the Father and to consider all of his mighty deeds.