Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Morning Psalm: 45 | Evening Psalms: 47, 48
Deuteronomy 9:4-12 | Genesis 37:12-24 | Hebrews 3:1-11 | John 2:13-22

I can’t remember what it was my two-year-old wanted. I had offered her everything that was safe or good for her. But she turned on her little heel and stalked off down the sidewalk. I know grandes dames who could have copied her style.

In today’s passages, there are a number of adults who, like my little daughter, are doing some major rejecting. In Genesis, Joseph’s sheep-herding brothers are plotting how to kill their annoying brother. In Deuteronomy, Moses is retelling how the Israelites worshipped a golden calf-god while the Lord who brought them out of Egypt was writing out the Ten Commandments (The first commandment:“You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex 20:3)). In the passage from John, Jesus is purifying Temple worship by driving out cheating money changers.

The Hebrews passage is from Psalm 95, the Venite! “Come let us sing unto the Lord.” But as the musical setting of the Psalm tapers off in our heads, we read the verses we don’t sing, how the “fathers” in the desert saw God’s good works for 40 years, yet consistently went astray. For their rejection, they were not allowed into God’s rest.

When God has emptied His great treasures (creation, families, provision for needs, instructions for living, and above all, access to Himself in Christ) there is nothing else He can offer us. If we reject His provision for us, if the best is not good enough for us, if we stalk off down the sidewalk, what more can God do? He will continue to work out His plan: Joseph ultimately saved his brothers from famine, Aaronic worship of God replaced the golden calf (for some Israelites at least) and a later generation of Jacob’s family entered the land of milk and honey. But if we put ourselves among those who have chosen not to participate in God’s plan of blessing, what irreparable loss!

My two-year-old, strutting down the sidewalk, looked up, saw the empty street ahead, and turned around. I held out my arms to her and kissed her when she came.

Lord Jesus, I turn and come to Your everlasting arms;
there is nobody else for me.

Rosa Lee Richards (MAR 2006, STM 2010, DMin student)
Adjunct Faculty, Hebrew
Trinity School for Ministry
Ambridge, PA