Tuesday 2 August

1 Chronicles 12:23-14:27

It’s always trouble when you get something second hand.  It’s as if David has looked up “Ark of Covenant” on ebay and found some bloke in Kiriath Jearim was doing a collection only deal on it.  But, when he got halfway back he discovered that some bits were missing.  And they were pretty crucial bits.  They ended up causing a fatality.  But David can’t just blame the previous owner.  The strangely redundant two gold rings on either side of the Ark should have given the game away as soon as David saw the Ark.  His research into Exodus 25 also should have alerted him to the need of two long poles of acacia wood that must never be removed from the Ark.  But David seemed to be strangely ambivalent about such things.  He seemed to think he could come up with his own way of transporting the Ark. Maybe he thought he was doing God a bit of a favour.  Maybe he thought God would be so pleased that someone was finally paying some interest in Him that He wouldn’t care about His Ark being treated in a slap-dash way.  But, he misjudged his God.  He failed to grasp the unapproachable holiness of Yahweh.  David hadn’t properly understood the inexplicable privilege of even being able to think about the Lord, let alone touch him.  This passage calls us to check our own selves.  Are we still feeling as privileged about all this stuff as we used to be?  Do we mirror David’s slap-dash approach?  Are we being diligent in our observance of what he is calling us to do?  But the passage also gives us a huge bit of encouragement - any family who does manage to have the Ark of God with them will be blessed in every way.  The presence of God in a household will bring huge and rich peace and life and hope.

Romans 15:14-33

Paul said he had the ‘duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit’.  What a fruitcake.  What a ludicrously grandiose claim. Paul’s talking about changing the lives of millions of people and doing something so significant that even God himself is affected by it.  Surely he is suffering from a slightly over-indulged ego?  Surely he is yet another small man with a Messiah-complex?  Well, the early apostles didn’t think so.  They saw Paul’s claim as being in tune with the common understanding of the early church - that followers of Jesus were ‘priests’.  That followers of Jesus were not just to be worshippers of God but also rescuers of men.  That followers of Jesus had all been given a God-ordained status as administrators of God’s blessings to those who did not yet know Him.  As full of braggadocio as it sounds, the early believers were fully convinced of the immense potential of every single human being.  I think we need to reclaim this idea.  I think it needs to smash up much of the insecurity and uncertainty that surrounds Christians today.  It could revolutionise our approach to life.  OK, Priest is now a slightly jaded term - perhaps ‘chaplain’ would be more helpful - but the idea remains as potent as ever.  We have been called, trained up and equipped by God to go and meet all the people we normally come across in our day and to bring grace and hope to them in Jesus.  And we have been empowered to be effective in this.  Jesus will accomplish things through us and he will bring people into glorious, freeing and joyful obedience to God.  Paul’s ambition was to perform this role as dynamically as he possibly could.  I want that to become my ambition too.

Psalm 90:1-10

“Lord, you have been our dwelling-place throughout all generations.”  Hmm.  I’m not sure I’d say I actually dwell in God.  I need to spend more time in prayer....