Tuesday 28 June

1 Kings 20:1-21:29

It’s no wonder Ahab was so willing to give his wives to King Ben-Hada of Aram.  The poor bloke had been married to Jezebel far longer than any sane person could take and he must have been only too glad to palm her off to some jumped-up little squirt who really didn’t have a clue what was coming to him.  “Just as you say, my lord the king, I and all I have are yours” said Ahab as he tried to keep the look of utter glee from creeping across his face.  I just love this so much.  For me the passage is positively dripping with all the great things that the Old Testament offers.  Indeed 20:11 contains one of my favourite quotes of all time, but what I want to pull out today is the Aramean presumption that Yahweh’s power was confined to a particular territory - the hills - and that he could just be overcome by taking him on on home turf - the decidedly un-hilly terrain of the plains.  As thick as they may sound they were actually pretty much in tune with the prevailing wisdom of the day - that a god’s power was restricted to a certain area.  And, isn’t that heresy still making its presence felt today?  Leaving alone the whole separation of church and state isn’t it just so easy to think that while Jesus’ words are helpful for church stuff, they just don’t cut it at work?  Isn’t it just so easy to think that  the bible is great and really helpful for people who go to church but really has nothing helpful to say to those who live in the world?  Don’t we just find ourselves so quickly labeling God as the god of the hills whose power just isn’t up to aspects of life in this modern world?  When we do we could do worse than follow the example of Ben-Hadad and put sackcloth round our waists and ropes round our heads, and making our submission to our God - your servant....  Please let me live....

Acts 18:9-19:13

I never took Paul for a scaredy-pants.  I don’t suppose many of his friends did either.  But Jesus sees the innermost struggles of mankind.  He himself knows the sheer force of fear, having battled it at Gethsemane.  He knows how fear can make the foundations of the earth feel like they are disintegrating beneath your feet.  “Do not be afraid” he says.  DO NOT BE AFRAID.  This isn’t some bland platitude, a well meaning buddy saying that everything is going to be OK while you know very well disaster is coming.  No, this is the sovereign God.  This is Yahweh Elohim - the exceedingly mighty One who is and will be.  When he says do not be afraid we know that means two things - firstly, that fear is an impostor that has got way too big for its boots.  Life in the kingdom is not meant to be dictated by fear of people and fear of circumstances.  That is not how God made us to live.  Secondly, we know that our fear is controllable.  Rather than let our fear master us, we should and can master our fear.  Through the power of the Spirit we can overthrow this tyrant in our lives.  With four words Jesus issues the death sentence to one of the greatest enemies of our day.  He locks the writhing beast in the stocks and hands us the axe.  ‘Take off the head’ he commands.  Will we obey and know freedom, liberty and the exhilaration of life as God wants it or will we reach down and unlatch the stocks, welcoming fear back to bully us and abuse us?  It’s our choice.  I want to make the same choice as Paul.

Psalm 78:32-39

Yet he was merciful (v38).  I’m so, so thankful for that ‘yet’.