2 Kings 21:1-22:20
It’s no wonder that Huldah issued such an apocalyptic prophecy against Jerusalem (22:15-17) - I don’t think being known as the wife of the grandson of the keeper of the wardrobe would have put me in much of a good mood either. “I’m a person in my own right!!” you can hear her seething through clenched teeth. Hilkiah, I imagine would have smiled “That’s right, dear, of course you are. Oh, and can you ask your husband’s grandfather to send me over a fresh ephod, this one is so last season....”
Scholars’ best guess is that the book of the law found in the temple was pretty close to our book of Deuteronomy so to receive all the curses found in that book would have been a pretty savage punishment (see Deut 28:15-68). It would have been so simple for Israel to have avoided them. How on earth could they ever have let such a precious book get lost? I wonder if it started by people recoiling against what they saw as the legalism of having the read the book every day. I wonder if they just grew a little bit complacent. And then, in their complacency, maybe the preciousness of the book faded in their minds. Maybe they lost sight of the vitality and direction that they could find in the book and just regarded it as something their grandparents used to look at when they didn’t know the freedom and the liberty that we know today. And then, maybe, they forgot about it altogether to dire and disastrous consequences. We mustn’t let that happen in our day. We mustn’t get pulled away from the Book. We mustn’t let it’s words concerning us be lost from our ears. We mustn’t let its preciousness be sullied in our sight. That way leads to curses and exile and tearing of clothes. O Lord, keep us from needing to tear our clothes. Help us always to treasure your book.
Acts 28:17-31
Mission accomplished? On one level, clearly not. On one level you could read this final passage of Acts and figure that Luke had simply got a bit bored and just decided to cut the thing short. But on another level Luke shows Paul has well and truly hit a home run. He has established a robust and flourishing mission base right in the centre of the most important city in the world. It’s like a businessman who started selling stuff out the boot of his car but now is doing a brisk trade from a premium premises on Oxford Street. The Way is no longer a marginal sect struggling to gain traction on the fringes of the Mediterranean; it has made it! It is influencing life and culture all across the Roman Empire. All across the Roman Empire people of every ilk and circumstance can find life in the glorious message of God’s grace. So is that it? Is that the end? No! You don’t get a premises on Oxford Street so you can settle down and congratulate yourself on your journey. You trade. You welcome anyone who comes to see you and boldly and without hindrance you preach the kingdom of God. That’s what we should be doing at SWLV. That is what it means to be church. Set up shop, welcome absolutely everyone and preach like crazy. Some will not believe but others will be convinced. And for those who are convinced, well, they can become part of the most incredible business venture that anyone has every conceived.
Proverbs 16:28-17:4
Grey hair is a crown of splendour. That’s funny, I have never seen that on the hair dye stuff that Lesley uses...
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