Thursday 1 September

Micah 5:1-7:20

“Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”  What a horrible thought.  And it is meant to be repulsive, it is meant to provoke disgust; as if us killing our oldest child could somehow make us right in God’s sight.  And yet there is something spookily prophetic in it.  For on the one side Micah is entirely right in showing that it is our behaviour - and not our sacrifices - that counts.  But on the other there is still all this mess we have made, all this wrong that we have done.  We need some mechanism for treading our sins underfoot and hurling our iniquities into the depth of the sea.  And it is only by reading these aching longings of a deeply inspired prophet that I begin to see the beauty and mastery of what Jesus has done for me.  He has truly shown me compassion.  He has shown me very deep mercy.  He has done the horrible thing, God the Father did the repulsive thing so that I could know Him and I could be clean.  So I come to this mandate for justice and mercy and humility and I’m jumping up and down wanting to do it.  It doesn’t feel like an obligation but a sweet sweet permission to get to do something so wonderful with my life.  I should have been given over to ruin and yet I get to walk with God.

2 Corinthians 5:1-10

Before he wrote this letter Paul went through a savagely awful time, maybe even a bout of depression.  And so his words seem like the words of a man who has been eyeballing death.  He has really lingered in the darkness, he has really been haunted.  And yet he has come out on top.  He has been swallowed up by life, he has gained new confidence in the Spirit, he has learnt to live by faith.  It is like he has been thrown in the fire and has come out refined.  And what has this refining done for him?  It has shown him what really counts.  It has clarified the whole purpose of life down to one single goal.  The goal of pleasing Jesus.  Paul has seen that while death does bring the end to so many things, it does at the same time bring us closer to Jesus.  Death brings every single person to the throne of Jesus to speak with him about their life and to hear his opinion on it.  And so the only goal that makes sense in the view of death, the only goal that will yield maximum eternal benefit is the goal of pleasing him.  Trying to do things that bring pleasure to him.  And, the beauty of it all is that as we please him we also please ourselves.  For he will give us our due in this life and the next.

Proverbs 21:17-26

“A wise man attacks the city of the mighty and pulls down the stronghold in which they trust”.  Hmm.  I didn’t expect it to say that.  I’ll have to think on that a bit.