Tuesday 20 December

Ezra 6:1-7:20

Now that is inventive, but ultimately silly.  I just don’t think Darius has thought through this execution method.  The main problem would be the ever-increasing number of renters.  Is Darius suggesting that you should pull a beam from the perpetrator’s house and then impale them on it, even if they were only a temporary tenant?  Surely that would cause no end of problems with the landlord’s insurance company?  Just think of all the paperwork involved!  And then you’d have to hire a band of local demolition workers to turn the house into rubble - and the health and safety checks on that would be nothing short of laborious.  No, I think the good old-fashioned hanging would have been a better option.  But whatever the method that Darius decreed, the amazing thing is that he decreed it at all.  We see here a clear example of Paul’s doctrine that he talks about in Romans 13 - that God uses human authority to bring his justice.  And in that, it is quite a nice example of it.  Because Darius is not altogether good.  Darius is not a representation of Jesus.  He even takes a while to work out what the right thing is that he is meant to be doing.  But ultimately God uses him to oppose the proud and bring grace to the humble.  God ultimately uses Darius to see his people encouraged and his temple rebuilt.  So we can respect the authorities over us.  But we can respect God even more; that he can oversee even the most unlikely of rulers and mould their actions to his purposes.

Revelation 12:1-13:1a

You know those houses of mirrors that you used to get at fairgrounds - where the walls are covered with mirrors that make you look short and fat or tall and thin or upside down or whatever?  And you know when you had been in them for a while your brain started to hurt a bit as you slightly lost track of what was real and what was mirror and you actually just wanted to get back outside?  That is how I feel now.  I feel like I’m in the deepest part of this house of mirrors and my brain is beginning to fizzle.  But I can take heart from the fact that (for once?) there is a pretty clear explanation embedded in this imagery.  The dragon is the Devil.  And his agenda is laid bare - he wants to lead the whole world astray, he accuses all believers and in furious anger he is waging war against those who obey god’s commandments.  This is unambiguous in the extreme. The devil, the Satan, is ferociously evil and hard set upon destruction.  He wants to kill us.  I think this is helpful when temptation comes round.  This knowledge helps us smell the poison in the attractive-looking drink.  Sin is Satan’s way of killing you.  We are so foolish to think it is the easy option or a quick bit of fun.  And self-doubt and self-hatred and a lack of confidence in who we are in God and uncertainty over our calling - we should fully expect these things to come.  And we should fully expect to see them flee when we kneel before the throne and ask the Lamb for his help.  Because the Accuser was not strong enough and his plans will ultimately fail.  The great woman (I think that is us) will be helped and the great woman will be given wings.  We don’t get the end of the story today, but the signs so far are good.

Psalm 145:8-13a

The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.  The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all that he has made.