Thursday 9 June

2 Samuel 14:1-15:12

The implosion of David’s family continues.  It is interesting that although David is forgiven of his sin, he is never the same again in terms of authority or of success.  We see the ease of the favour of God draining away from him as Joab and others conspire around him and Absalom the dandy begins to launch his impetuous conspiracy.  But, amid this narrative there is a magnificent phrase uttered by the woman from Tekoa (why this poor lady is never named I do not know).  “God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him”.  On one level this is clearly a manipulative statement put in her mouth by Joab as a method of getting Absaom the dandy back into town.  There is no editorial comment about whether or not it is correct - is is right that God does not take away life?  Ananias and Saphira would probably beg to differ...  But the second half of the phrase is wonderfully prophetic and indicative of the character of our God.  He is like a brilliant general, constructing cunning strategies and genius ideas for how he might advance toward his goal.  And his goal is this - to bring isolated and estranged people back to him.  His greatest genius idea was Jesus, dying to draw all men to himself.  His greatest cunning strategy was the church, being salt and light to the earth and declaring the glories of God to all nations.  Amid the chaos of the disintegration of Israel we hear a beautiful hope rising from the ashes; God does not want banished people to remain estranged from him.

Acts 5:12-42

Loads in this.  Way too much for a short snippet like a blog.  In this age of ‘emerging church’ and ‘Jesus encounters’ I think it is important to note that when people believed in the Lord they were ‘added to their number’.  People were converted to Christ and then they were converted to his church.  We should regularly see new Christians joining SWLV.  That’s just the way this thing works.  Verses 29-32 are really helpful for seeing what the apostles believed the core of their message to be.  It’s interesting to see how they frame everything around the resurrection.  It is the resurrection that means God must be obeyed and Jesus preached.  It is the resurrection that exalted Jesus to the right hand of God and it is the resurrection that enables Jesus to pour out repentance and forgiveness of sins to the world (the verse says Israel but I think we are allowed to extend that to the world knowing what we know about the rest of Acts).  We are people of the resurrection, proclaiming and demonstrating that Our God Reigns and that he is pouring out his real and tangible blessings upon us and, through us, upon the world.  The basis of all of this is that this stuff is real and you can experience it.  We should expect to see God’s fingerprints all over our lives.. 

Proverbs 14:15-24

“The folly of fools yields folly.”  Wow.  Thanks for that incredible insight O wise one.  That has made everything incredibly clear for me now...