Thursday 13 October

Jeremiah 27:1-29:23

Showtime.  The battle of the heavyweights - Hananiah the glorious showman, the smasher of yokes and the loyal servant to the promises of Abraham, and Jeremiah - the wailing moany-guts who constantly speaks against his land, his people and even his own birth.  They circle each other and land tit-for-tat blows until the wailing one wanders off on his way.  But then wait a minute - ding ding, round two - and this time it’s all Jeremiah, landing blow after blow, insulting both Israel and then its champion.  And then, 60 days later Hananiah is dead.  Killed by the Lord for unqualified rebellion.  But the interesting thing for any onlooker must have been that Jeremiah looked like the rebellious one.  Jeremiah was the one who was insulting the covenant of Abraham and Jeremiah was the one who constantly spoke against Moses.  It must have been a serious shock that it was Hananiah, and not he, who was killed.  So what do we get from this today?  Simply that we need to live on today’s bread and not keep regurgitating yesterdays manna.  God desires daily relationship and constant responsiveness, not rigid observance of historic rules.  We never compromise on the bible but just reading the bible is not enough, we need to use it as our springboard into relationship with Jesus, and the menu for our meal of God.  Just doing what some other bloke told us to do is the way of Hananiah.  Remaining constantly attentive to the dynamic and contrary words of God is the way of Jeremiah, it is the way of life.  

2 Thessalonians 1:1-12

So here is the doctrine of heaven and hell.  But the wording leads us (or me at least) a little distance from the traditional concepts.  On the one side is everlasting destruction and a shutting out from the presence of the Lord.  There is a lot of debate over whether the destruction is everlasting in its duration (ie people are constantly being destroyed for ever - the traditional idea of hell) or everlasting in its effect (ie it happens in a few moments but can never be overturned - the idea of annihilationism).  I personally prefer the latter but don’t really care that much - either way it ain’t good (If you are bothered, Packer has written an interesting article on it http://www.the-highway.com/annihilationism_Packer.html).  What does get my juices flowing is the flip side of the coin - the achingly beautiful image of what is in store for us who are in Christ.  He will come to be glorified among us.  He has plenty of glory already in heaven from the Father and the Spirit but he chooses to let us share in that, in the most captivating and soul-soothing worship time that we will ever, ever know.  And we will be allowed to just marvel at him in a way that will super-exceed any pleasure we have ever derived from epic views or beautiful works of art.  And that will just be the start.  Who knows what pleasure-filled stratosphere we will go into from there.  And I say we because you are going to be part of it along with me.  I know you are, because you have believed the testimony of God’s word.

Psalm 119:25-32

“I run in the paths of your commands for you have set my heart free”.  I love that image of rampant, energetic, exhilarating obedience.