Tuesday 8 February

Exodus 1:1-3:22

The Lord has an unusual way of expressing his concern.  He is concerned about his people’s harsh treatment at the hands of the Egyptians so he sets up this sort of ancient style Christmas tree (the burning bush) on a mountain at least a week’s trek away.  Then, when a shepherd who was almost murdered by his own mother (never mind the papyrus basket, she did follow Pharoah’s command to ‘throw’ Moses in the Nile) stumbles upon this glowing shrub, the Lord asks him to take his shoes off.  Can you ever imagine such a plan of action being voted through the UN Security Council as a way of dealing with the problems in Zimbabwe??  It would be cast out as utterly ridiculous.

It is a beautiful thing to lark around in these Old Testament passages; soaking up and enjoying the bowels of the narratives rather than jumping straight to the redemptive conclusions.  It doesn’t half give you a feel for the extraordinary character of our God.  You get a sense of his extreme eccentricity, at least to the ear of a city-dwelling, 21st Century professional (do I still count as a professional?? maybe I never was).  An eccentricity that is entirely grounded in the conviction that the only result that should really be sought, the only end-game that will deliver the goods, is the one where the people of the earth are deeply wedded with an unbreakable love-bond to their true God; I AM who I AM.

Matthew 26:1-30

What did Judas think he was doing?  Why would he have accepted the paltry sum of 30 silver pieces (the price of a slave) for the betrayal of Jesus?  Maybe he was trying to create a crisis that would force Jesus into acting more quickly.  Maybe he just lost faith that Jesus was actually going to sort anything out and decided he’d make a quick buck before it was too late. Maybe it was fear, or greed, or jealousy.  I don’t know exactly why, but there is a completely fascinating hint dropped during the course of the dinner celebrations.  Jesus, knowing he is about to die, is reclining and celebrating, singing and eating as if he has very few cares in the world (we did say he was an eccentric).  He then casually drops in the betrayal thing and all the disciples except one say “Surely not I, Lord?”.  The other,  Judas, cannot bring himself to call Jesus his Lord, instead opting for the respectful but not completely submissive Rabbi.  Respecting Jesus is not enough.  In fact, it seems to be a very dangerous place to be.  Enjoying Jesus’ teachings and taking on some of his insights is not enough.  In fact, it seems to be a very dangerous place to be.  Jesus does not want to be our Rabbi.  Rabbi’s get let down, get betrayed and get murdered by their students.  No, Jesus’ call is for us to abandon ourselves wholly and completely to him, pouring our perfume on his feet and letting him set our agendas and our timetables.  Jesus’ call is for us to make him our Lord.  And this is only right - for he is the one who gave his own blood to purchase us by the forgiveness of our sins.

Psalm 19:1-6

This ties in really closely with Romans 1:19&20.  God has been shouting about himself to everyone on the earth.  All we need to do is listen.

Monday 7 February

Job 40:3-42:17

I don’t have a clue what this behemoth/leviathon thing is that the Lord was describing to Job.  It sounds a bit like my father-in-law but why on earth would God be speaking about him to a Hebrew man nearly 3000 years ago?  What I do know is that God uses this creature-thing as a worked example of his rule of the world.  God saw Job’s questioning as a direct challenge to his Lordship and He responded to it by asserting that his Lordship is both a fact and that it works.  He shows that he both created everything and that he sustains it, restraining even the most vicious forces in nature to ensure that, in the end, His justice prevails.  The book of Job’s answer to the problem of suffering is therefore utterly brilliant.  Far from ducking the issue, it reaches the dynamic and provocative conclusion; that the only way to understand suffering is to develop an deep appreciation of the Lordship of God.  Suffering and violence exist in this universe as part of the way of things (the Fall and the Curse are not referred to here but sit behind the drama as an essential, context-providing back-drop).  God both restrains them and can take sovereignty over them to achieve his desires.  While he would, no doubt, have preferred sin and suffering never to have existed, he can still bring good out of them as he uses them to draw people into a deeper experience of himself.  The book of Job issues a resounding call to all who would listen - seek God!  Press through the superficial and the temporary and really seek his presence.  Real faith, the faith that is will survive the furnace of suffering, is not one that is based on hear-say or echo but is grounded in a deep and undeniable beholding of the Lord of the earth.

Matthew 25:14-46

The blood drains from my face when I read the parable of the Sheep and the Goats.  It fills me with utter dread, partly for me, but mostly for the Christian church in the West at this time.  Here we have a totally unambiguous teaching of Jesus given right at the climax of the gospel and it seems like a lot of our brothers and sisters in Christ are bearing it very little regard at all.  This is absolutely not a finger-pointing piece of judgementalism but rather a heart-wrenching conviction that this piece of scripture does not seem to be lived out in today’s church.  I pray and long that our Vineyard church can, in absolute love, lay down such an authentic demonstration of sheepiness that saints from all denominations take note and are inspired to follow suit.  I pray and long that we would gamble our 5 or 3 or 1 talents on projects of compassion, willing to lose everything for the sake of those who have nothing.  I know we already do so much of this but can’t help feeling that we, and particularly I, could do so much more.  Everything is at stake here; the chips are all in.  Will we follow the corrupt temple-protectors who fixed their minds on their own survival or will we follow the example of Jesus, laying down our lives for the sake of those outside of our camp?  One way leads to death and one way leads to life and it is not the way round that rational minds would expect.

Psalm 18:43-50

OK so the cringing foreigners is a bit non-P.C. (the only cringing foreigners I’ve seen were those who heard my Dad’s French accent) but we do see here the clear belief that a descendent of David would rule on the throne of Israel for ever.  If we were running a “find Jesus in the Old Testament” treasure-hunt I think that would be another big clue.

Sunday 6 February

Job 38:1-40:2

If you have got any hecks I think you better start flipping them right now.  Before we even get onto looking at what the Lord was saying, isn’t it just completely gob-smacking, heart-thumping and saliva-sapping that He would even speak to Job at all?  That the matchless, infinitely powerful, infinitely wise and infinitely pure creator of all substance and matter, who has lived forever and will rule forever would address a man staging a serious grumpathon - well, it beggars belief.  What an incredible sign of God’s commitment to each and every individual being.  And what a display of his mercy that he would whittle down his universe-expanding presence to such an extent that a human mind could actually contemplate it and not seize up or explode.

And then we come to what he said.  It’s as if he pointed Job to a salt shaker, asked him to take out one tiny grain and to drop it into the pacific ocean.  That is about the comparison between the miniscule, monochrome man and the infinite, iridesent God who is fronting up to him.  But it is not only size that God is pointing to.  I think he is also pointing Job to the complexity and harmony of nature that God himself has instilled and which points to the immense goodness and power of God. That is the kicker - that God is great and he can be trusted, even in the bitterest of times.  He is the ultimate harmony-maker and, while there may be discord for a while, we should know that he is well able and fully intends to bring his peace, restoration and redemption to all those who seek him.

Matthew 24:32-25:13

I know scholars have shown that the “return of the Son of Man” was a common Jewish phrase that may have had symbolic more than literal meaning (similar to our phrase “all hell will break loose”) but I do think that a few bits in this passage (vs 36 - “date not known” - and vs 42 - “your Lord will come”) make it impossible to separate it from a description of the Second Coming.  So, while we are venturing into that territory, I’d like to suggest that any interpretation of this passage as a description of a rapture is just plain perverse.  Those who are being taken away are surely the ones who are under judgement, not those who are left. When a thief visits a house you want him to take nothing, not everything!  The thief/master acts as the agent of God’s judgment, dragging some away (presumably to imprisonment) and cutting others to pieces.  The more positive side of the same coin is then presented in the parable of the ten virgins with the bridegroom representing God’s agent of redemption, opening the door to the wise virgins.  All the images point to the same thing though - there will be a day of reckoning where the faithless and arrogant will be permanently cast away while the faithful and the God-seekers will be warmly welcomed into the great Wedding Banquet of God.

Psalm 18:37-42

What a heart-warming tale! And what weird editing from the “bible-in-a-year” publishers (the rest of the psalm is actually quite nice).  I think I might just mark this bit down as one of the hymns we are least likely to sing in church.

Saturday 5 February

Job 35:1-37:24

What a lot of baby stuff.  When you are talking to your kids I guess it might be appropriate to say that God causes the snow “Fall on the earth” and that the “breath of God produces ice”.  But, when people get around to doing science GCSE they will surely realise that such stuff is ridiculously immature.  At least, that is what I’ve been told by friend after friend who has heard that I hold to the concept of God being the creator of the universe.  They say that choosing to look purely at the facts quickly shows that science can explain it all and faith is therefore irrelevant.  I’m not an expert on these matters but I do know that facts never “prove” anything; they just support or cast doubt on pre-existing hypotheses.  I also know that the hypothesis of the bible, that there is a pre-existent creator God who engages deeply in the world to sustain and evolve it, is still the best possible explanation of all the facts that have been uncovered by scientific research.  The bible still provides the most complete and most arresting explanatory story (hypothesis) into which all facts can be placed.  No other story has a patch on it, nor has such power behind it.  Power that is available to adults and babies alike.

Matthew 24:1-31

I’m utterly convinced that for the vast majority of this passage Jesus is talking about the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple which we know happened approx AD70.  Although this passage is regularly used as if Jesus were talking about his second coming I just don’t believe that most of it is relevant to that event.  The first 2 verses could not be more unambiguous - this is about the destruction of the temple.  The next 20 to 30 verses then explain when that will happen.  The disciples, as faithful Jews, believe the end of the temple will be intrinsically linked to “the end of the age” and do not yet realise that the end of the age will come in stages - Jesus’ resurrection first, then his ascension and coronation in the heavenly realms, then the destruction of the temple to show the old covenant is well and truly dead and then, at some point in the future, the resurrection of all the saints, Jesus' return and the creation of the new earth.  Jesus’ disciples do not know that there will be a now and a not yet of the Kingdom - they just think it is not yet present but the whole schebang will be brought in at the time the temple is destroyed.  So we need to be very careful in using this passage to understand the final end of the age.  I think maybe Jesus is referring to it in verses 30-31 but the language is highly symbolic and hugely unlikely to have been the major thrust of what he was saying to his disciples.  After all, Jesus’ disciples had not even understood that he was going to die, let alone be raised again, let alone ascend after he has been raised, let alone return at some point from his ascended place in heaven to make everything new.  We’ll look at this subject loads more when we get into Paul’s letters so, for now, I suspect the primary thing to take from this passage is that Jesus fully knew that Jerusalem was going to be sacked at least 30 years before it was.  He also intrinsically linked this event to the transfer of 'ownership' of the presence of God from the keepers of the temple to his own disciples.  It was a hugely radical and explosive declaration that flung wide the gates of God’s glory and issued an invitation for every Tom Dick and Harry to come and explore.  It also gave his followers a clear framework for understanding the dangerously destructive events that were headed their way.

Proverbs 4:1-9

I wonder if Jesus based the parable of the pearl of great price upon verses 7-9.  They certainly have an identical message; this thing will cost you all you have, but you should pay it willingly as the prize is beyond your wildest dreams.

Friday 4 February

Job 33:1-34:37

Elihu is an interesting chap.  He seems so caught up in his inferior social status and yet so convinced of his understanding of life.  I have quite a lot of sympathy for him having been (or maybe still being) a similarly arrogant youth.  I admire him for being so conscious of being “taken from clay” and for his desire to see Job cleared.  In many ways he seems to get closer to being an effective comforter than any of his elder companions.  And yet, he does fall down in his primary objective of accurately speaking on behalf of God.  I guess the problem for Elihu, and indeed for all of us human beings, is that our minds are fundamentally incapable of comprehending God as God - his ways are always above our ways and his thoughts above our thoughts.  I constantly have to fight against my desire to domesticate God and nail down all truth into a few memorable phrases.  He is, after all, so beyond us in every single way.  No matter how much we know, we always find more. I hope I can always have an openness to be surprised by the awesome nature and works of God.

Matthew 23:1-39

What an awful place to be. It can’t have been easy to have been on the receiving end of these stinging rebukes of Jesus.  Jesus’ willingness to tear down the corrupted old covenant has been growing and growing throughout his ministry.  He is now wielding a mighty sledgehammer and pounding away at the legs of Jewish religious practice with his over-riding rebuke “you shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces.”  He is driven by a desire, nay a demand, for the people of God to continually offer the kingdom of God to those around them.  His patience has worn thin and he will no longer tolerate the self-regarding, self-indulgent and self-obsessed attitude of the teachers of Israel’s law.  He is coming to pronounce woes on that way of doing religion.  And, in a hugely evocative hint about what’s coming, he declares that one is coming in the name of the Lord to shake things up and unleash the blessings of the age to come.

Psalm 18:25-36

The thing I love about God is that he doesn’t just act as our fortress and deliverer but that he actually spends time investing in us and making us better able to cope with life in the future.  He arms us with strength and trains our hand for battle and even makes our feet like the feet of a deer (quite why I’d want cloven hooves I have no idea).  God is not a disabling, restrictive rule-enforcer but a glorious supporter and encourager, empowering us and releasing us to suck all the juice out of life and to scale a few walls in the process.

Thursday 3 February

Job 30:1-32:22

What I find so engaging about today’s passage is that it almost perfectly lays out what Job understood by holiness; and it’s quite a challenging list.  First of all are the avoidance of lust, adultery and the use of dishonest scales.  Then, sharing bread with the poor, helping rear the fatherless, guiding the widows and clothing the naked.  Ouch.  Even though I’ve heard it many times, I still find it so challenging to be reminded that holiness is inextricably linked to compassion towards others.  My natural desire is always to see compassion stuff as a bolt-on to bible reading, prayer and the avoidance of thought-sins but that is deeply mistaken.  And then Job unpacks what idolatry is; paying some homage to the sun or moon or saying to gold “you are my security” (that one stings a little, doesn’t it?).  Finally he returns to the treatment of others; not gloating over the problems of rivals and showing hospitality to friends and strangers alike.  I find this description of living under the covenant of God both highly convicting (note to self - more repentance needed) and highly inspiring; I would love to live this way.  And that is probably not surprising.  After all, holiness in ancient Israel was not thought of as restrictive or disempowering but as a beautiful and delightful way of reflecting the graciousness and purity of the living God.

Matthew 22:15-46

What a heart-pumping crescendo this is! There are so many rhythms and melodies clashing together in this momentous climax to Jesus’ living ministry that I have no hope of scoring even a fraction of it.  Jesus utterly outwits his challengers and undercuts the entire world-view of the Roman Empire.  He pronounces a clear judgement on the raging debate of his day (Sadducees vs Pharisees) and whittles down all the old testament revelation down into two simple points - “Love God and self” and “the Christ has always been the Lord”.  

I do not accept for one second the idea that Jesus established a church-state divide in his “render to Caesar” statement.  Instead, he turns a theoretical question back onto a demand for a decision on the part of his listeners (what he always, always seems to do).  If I may paraphrase Jesus, I believe his sentiment is that each of us must decide to whom our allegiences lie and then act accordingly. While life will no doubt include rendering certain parts of ourselves to forms of human authority, the biggest question that will ever be put to us is what we have chosen to do about God’s authority over us; have we rendered to him what he is due or have we held things back?

And, when people (such as Jehovah’s Witnesses) claim that Jesus never claims to be God they are just plain wrong.  Right here, right at the tumultuous climax of Matthew’s gospel Jesus clearly points to the fact that the Christ - the Messiah who would come to bring God’s wonderful new age into being - was the Lord of David.  Listeners would know that the Christ had not yet come to end Israel’s spiritual and physical exile and yet they were now being told that he was around at the time of David.  In Jewish thought I do not believe there could have been an alternative conclusion to this showing that the Christ was more than human; he must be either an angel or God himself.  But Jews would know that an angel could not have been called Lord by the great King David; this man after God’s own heart would only have reserved such reverent service for the one true God Yahweh.  So the people of God listening to Jesus are left with a conclusion so world-shaking that they could only stand, stare, gob-smacked and with a deafening sense of trepidation.  Could this man before them actually be the Christ?  And, if he is, does that mean this is in front of us the One, the Only Lord, Immortal, Unapproachable in holiness, Matchless in power, Master of Creation, the Fear of Jacob and the Guardian of his people Israel??

Psalms 18:16-24

In the day of my disaster, the Lord was my support.  What a huge thing this is. Not overstating things, not making false promises, not denying the difficulty of life but just saying that in the worst moments there is one who will be there ready to hold our mouths above the waterline and keep us from drowning in despair.

Wednesday 2 February

Job 25:1-29:25

By this point, a lot of the commentaries on Job seem to suggest that he is overstepping the mark and straying into sinful self-justification.  I don’t know about that.  I guess it is possible that he is speaking a little too highly of himself, but maybe he is just being honest about his past commitment to right living.  I feel that somewhere along the line we, in the church, have become convinced that a Christian way of living is to put oneself down and focus on sinfulness and weakness .  And yet, in Job, it is the miserable comforters who are the pessimistic ones - “how can a man be righteous before God”, “man is but a maggot” - and Job who is optimistic about the possibility of communion between Creator and creation.  Surely Job is on the right side of the argument here?  Surely our role as co-heirs with Christ is to seek out the good in creation and to affirm it, to believe in the potential in people and to call it out.  It’s so tiring being around pessimists who never get beyond difficulties and problems.  Job inspires me that it is possible to experience the most gut-wrenching tragedies and still be optimistic about life.  He reminds me of the young Jewish ‘man of many sorrows’ who centuries later would still, despite his sufferings, find ways of drawing the best out of people and leading them into the life everlasting.

Matthew 21:33-22:14

Uh-oh, now he’s really gone and done it.  Jesus has gone and incited a bit of religious hatred and he’s going to spend the rest of his life as a severely marked man.  These parables were told specifically to and against those in front of him at that particular time and we have to be slightly careful about assuming they apply broadly in every context.  Jesus is announcing that he is the Son coming to his Father’s vineyard and that, when the religious leaders kill him there will be no option left to the Father other than to bring a wretched end to the age of the temple (the Romans sacked Jerusalem’s temple within 30 years and it was never properly re-instated).  The Father will then lease out the vineyard (understand by that the covenant blessings and call of God) to other tenants; Gentiles, tax-collectors and the like.  To the Jews of Jesus’ day this would have spoken directly into the brewing revolutionary sentiment - to overthrow of the corrupt rulers of God’s people - but in an unbelievably unpatriotic and perverse way - it was the Romans, not the Jewish rulers who should have been on the receiving end of God’s angry judgement.  So what does this say to us today?  Well I think the realisation that we (the non-Jews of us) are only in this thing at all due to the Father’s re-leasing of the Vineyard is sufficient food for thought.  But I think the sneaky little bit about wedding clothes at the back-end of the parable of the Wedding Banquet is also something that speaks directly across the ages; this new thing the God is doing is not an abandonment of the requirement for righteousness but, rather, is the offering of this opportunity to a far broader spectrum of people.  God calls us to declare his invitation to all and sundry but, in doing so, never to mistake his welcome as a watering down of his requirements.

Psalm 18:7-15

The Psalmist seems to be fairly obsessed with God’s nostrils!  Which is strange as all they normally do is sniff and sneeze every now and again.  But, this nasally-centred imagery doesn’t half convey a sense of his awesome power and instill within me a heightened sense of reverence.  This Consuming Fire who thunders from heaven is every bit the God that we still worship as Father and friend.  The sense of privilege of being able to approach one so intrinsically unapproachable is greater than I am able to verbalise.