Saturday 9 July

2 Kings 18:1-19:13

Nice try Sennacherib.  You’ve certainly got some bluster in you.  You certainly gave your underlings an impressive line of argument.  Yeah, that was a pretty nice try.  Shame you seriously under-estimated your adversary.  Shame you brought a plastic sword to a gun fight.  I do agree that you have good pedigree - that cannot be denied.  But sadly you were up against a vastly superior species.  I hope your sons’ sword did not hurt too much (see tomorrow’s reading for the end of the story).  Echoes of Sennacherib’s voice can be heard all over the place today decrying faith in God, insinuating that belief in God’s protection is idiotic and doomed to failure.  Many of these are full of bluster.  Many of them wax lyrical about the extent of their pedigree.  We do not need to answer them.  God will rebuke them in his time.  We should seek the comfort of the flock though.  We should pray for our brothers and sisters that they would hold firm and not be afraid of what they have heard.  God is totally awesome.  He has protected his people thus far.  He still has the whole world in his hands.  He still knows the number of hairs on our heads.  Some underlings word’s won’t change that.  They are just underlings.  He is the king of kings.  

Acts 27:13-44

Ner ner ni ner ner - I told you not to set sail from Crete.  It’s not where I would have started.  It does sound a little childish.  But then again I’ve never had an angel appear to me at night so I suspect I’m slightly unqualified to speak on the subject.  Where Paul ended though, where he ended is surely admirable and inspiring and something to emulate.  “Keep up your courage, men, I have faith in God...”  Is that not the cry of the Kingdom to the drowning world?  Take courage, people! Take courage! There is hope of your lives being saved.  Align yourselves with us, buy into our faith in our God and he will shield us from real harm.  It will happen just as he has told us.  It won’t be a struggle-free ride - we will still run aground on some island - but we will be saved.  We will see our God sparing our lives from this calamity.  It is certainly a great message.  It certainly is a message of hope.  But do we believe it is necessary?  Do we really believe the storm is raging?

Psalm 82:1-8

“defend the cause of the weak”