Judges 9:1-57 - Abimelek

Abimelek had an eye for the main chance, and sought to be the only ruler after Gideon's death. Abimelek sought to rule like kings of other nations. He was ruthless and even murdered all but one of his brothers. 

Jotham escaped and then told the nation in parabolic style what they had done. Then he confronted the nation with its sin. All peoples have a habit of choosing bad leaders. Most notoriously in the 1930's the Germans chose Hitler, but even in democracies we have a habit of choosing those who make the nicest sounding promises. When things go wrong it is not just the leaders who are responsible, we all have a degree of responsibility. Jotham then fled the country for his own safety.

Abimelek's reign did not have peace for long. A regime founded on intrigue and treachery will fall victim to intrigue and treachery, and Abimelek was killed

Judges 8:1-35 - Further events in Gideon's life

Before we look at this chapter, let's consider what has just happened and apply it to our own lives. For several years the nation had been under oppression from the Midianites. This had happened because of the nation's sin. Nothing seemed to be happening to change the situation. Gideon himself was, as far as he was concerned, a nobody. His father worshipped idols along with the rest of the nation. Then things suddenly changed. Similarly, there can be (almost certainly are!) situations in our life where there seems to be little or no progress. Things can change very quickly. Just because it seems that God is doing nothing, does not mean that He has forgotten about you or some situation.

The Ephraimites had apparently been left out of the battle, and took offence at this. Given that the original thirty two thousand were whittled down to just three hundred, they wouldn't have had a great part to play anyway. However, Gideon answered them with kind words. There is a proverb that says a gentle word turns away wrath. We do well to heed these words.

Then we see quite a different reaction. The officials of Sukkoth failed to be helpful and took a rather arrogant attitude. So Gideon vowed to take over the lands. The same thing happened with Penie. He was successful in doing so.

So Gideon did indeed become a might warrior. However, there was then a downfall in his character. The Israelites wanted him to rule over them. At first Gideon responds well, declaring that it is the Lord who should rule over them, but then he asks for gifts of gold. He then made an ephod out of the gold, and the nation prostituted themselves before it, ie they worshipped it. Money very easily becomes a snare.

The nation failed to learn anything. As soon as Gideon was dead they went back to worshipping Baals, and showed no respect to Gideon's family either.

Judges 7:1-25 - Victory

We now come to the famous incident where the Lord reduces the size of Gideon's army from over thirty thousand down to three hundred. The men were not feeling overly confident at the outset, yet the Lord reduced the size of the army drastically. Victory does not depend upon numbers, but upon the Lord. Moreover, the people needed to realise that it was the Lord who gave them victory. We have a terrible habit of claiming we have achieved things purely by our own efforts.

The first lot to go were any who were full of fear, and this accounted for about a two-thirds of the army. This was still too many, so they were further whittled down to 300. This time the criterion was how they drank the water.If they lapped it up with their hands they were in. This indicated that they were always ready for action. So now the army was chosen.

During the night God took Gideon down to the enemy camp. He knew that fear probably still resided in Gideon, and He took account of this. He showed Gideon that the Midianites were even more scared of Israel. The enemy knew that defeat was inevitable. In the same way the devil knows that in Christ we can defeat him every time.

So Gideon was encouraged and was ready to lead the men in battle. To be good leaders we need to be convinced of the victory ourselves, only then can we effectively lead others. And victory was theirs.

Judges 6:25-40 - Baals, poles and fleeces

Now Gideon gets his first task to do. The eventual mission, to set Israel free from the Midianites, is massive, but God builds up to this step-by-step. God may give you a big vision, but there will be many steps along the way. We need to learn from this in two ways. First, we should not be overawed by the vision. Even if it seems impossible, God will lead us gradually towards it. Secondly, we should not get impatient. There may be preparation steps that seem to have nothing to do with the final goal. Whatever God gives us to do we should do it faithfully.

There were idols in Gideon's family, and Gideon had to tear these down. In its place he had to build a proper alter and offer a right sacrifice upon it. When we come to know the Lord there will almost certainly be things we need to put right in our families.

Gideon did this, but did so at night, because he was afraid of his family. See how like you and me Gideon is. He has the same fears and timidity that we have, but God still used him.

Despite his efforts, Gideon was still identified as the one who had pulled down the idols. The townspeople wanted to punish Gideon, but Gideon's father, Joash, defended him. We may fear what our families might think of us, but sometimes we may be pleasantly surprised.

Gideon is now called to the real battle. In the process he still looks for further assurance, putting out his fleece. We should be careful how we interpret this incident. We should not take it as a pattern that we should always follow. Gideon did this because of his doubts. At the same time, we should know that the Lord is fully aware of how weak we are and is amazingly tolerant of our failings.

Judges 6:15-24 - Miracle offering

God had just told Gideon to go and save Israel. Gideon could not see how this was possible, he was from the weakest clan, and his, at least in his eyes, was the weakest family. God sees the possibilities in us that we do not see ourselves. And note that God told him to go in the strength that he had, He was not asking Gideon to do the impossible. The difference was that God would be with him. This is what we need most of all, we need to be with the Lord, and we need the Lord to be with us. When this is so anything is possible.

Gideon needed more convincing, so he goes away to get a goat to use as an offering. The Lord then set fire to the offering in a miraculous manner, and Gideon knew something special was happening.

Gideon thought he was going to die for he had seen the Lord, but the Angel of the Lord tells him to be at peace. Gideon then made an alter to the Lord in that place.

See how patient the Lord is. He is prepared to put up with Gideon's doubts and insecurities, and we will see more of this later. 

Judges 6:1-14 - Gideon

We now come to one of the best known characters from Judges, Gideon. After the peace gained under Deborah the people did evil again and were subjected to the Midianites for seven years. The oppression was so great that the people made hideouts for themselves in the mountains. They could never harvest much of a crop for the surrounding nations attacked and plundered them. The livestock too were ruined. Things became so severe that the people cried out to God.

The Lord sent them a prophet who told them the truth. The people needed to come to terms with their sin. They were responsible for the position they were in. 

Then the Lord sent an angel to Gideon. So the Lord did two things. He sent a prophet to bring them to terms with their sin, and raised up a man to rescue them. The angel appeared to Gideon and announced "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior". This was news to Gideon! He did not see himself as a mighty warrior, and was not too convinced that the Lord was with him.

Gideon objected, taking "you" as referring to the whole nation. In this case there seemed to be precious little evidence of the Lord being with them. However, what the Lord meant was that He was with Gideon, and He was sending Gideon. He told Gideon to go in the strength that he had. This was not much, but we have to use the strength that we do have, then the Lord will do the rest.

Judges 5 - Dare to be different

Songs were often written to commemorate great events in the Lord's dealing with Israel. 

Things happen when God's people, both the leaders and the people as a whole, willingly offer themselves to the Lord's service.

When this happens the rest of the world needs to take notice, for things are going to change. The Lord works through men and women who are willing to obey and trust Him. Every action of the Lord in the Bible, save from creation itself, happened when one or more people were willing to offer themselves to the Lord.

In this part of Scripture it was Deborah's willingness that was the catalyst for the Lord's action. Before that time the land was oppressed, no one was willing or able to take up arms to defend the nation. Things changed when one person was willing to be different.

Judges 4 - Deborah

This is one of the few times where there is a woman leader. Deborah was a prophet and was leading Israel. The people went to her for wisdom in settling disputes. Israel at the time was under oppression from Sisera. 

Deborah summoned Barak and told him to attack Sisera, but he said he would only go if she went with him. Deborah said she would do this, but the glory would then go to a woman. 

There is much debate in certain parts of the church about the role that women can and cannot have in leadership. One the most important things is that men take up the responsibility that God gives to us. Problems arise when men fail to take up their responsibilities. 

The battle plan was put into operation and Sisera was defeated. Later Jael, the wife of Heber, killed Sisera by driving a tent peg through his temple. This is one if the stories that I remember well from junior school. I doubt they tell children such stories now!

The Lord defeated Israel's enemies again.

Judges 3 - Rescued

The Lord wanted the Israelites to know how to fight, to know what it is like to do something in the Lord's strength. It is the same for us today. God wants you to know the reality of His presence and His power. When problems are left we can be frustrated and discouraged, in fact the Lord may be using these to teach us about Himself. The test is whether or not we will obey the Lord. 

The outcome here, however, was not good. The Israelites intermarried with the Canaanites, and worshiped their gods.

We then get some examples of how the cycle of disobedience-defeat-rescue worked. The first judge was Othniel. He was related to Caleb and the spirit of the Lord came upon him. This is just one example of how the Holy Spirit is seen as active in the Old Testament.

This gave them peace for a time, but it did not last. So the Moabites were given authority over Israel. This time Ehud is the one who rescues them. The methods used seem somewhat underhand! The land now had peace for eighty years, then another judge came who defeated the Philistines. 

Judges 2 - A cycle of defeat

Now the judgement comes. The people had not followed the Lord's plans properly, in particular they had not broken down the altars to false gods in the land. Every nation is full of false idols, every culture, including our own, is full of false idols. They may not be called "gods", but anything that claims our trust is an idol, anything that claims our allegiance that rightly belongs to God is an idol, and we must get rid of all idols in our lives. The angel of the Lord announced this to all the people, and the people wept, and offered sacrifices.

From verse 6 onwards we resume the narrative the end of Joshua. The first chapter was explaining the reasons for the judgement at the start of chapter 2. Things really started to go wrong when the generation rose up that had not witnessed the things that Joshua's generation, and the immediately succeeding one, had seen. We need to note that the root of the fault lay with the generation immediately after Joshua. The key lesson to learn from this is that we must see through to fulfilment all that God calls us to do, we must not be satisfied with any half measures. That is the way to prepare the ground for the next generation.

However, this had not happened, and the generation turned to idols, so the Lord gave them over to their enemies, and defeat came upon them.

Verse 16-19 describe the pattern which followed, with judges being raised up to save the nation, but the people refusing to learn from them. So defeat quickly caught up with them again. So the blessing of the Lord was removed from the people. Note, however, that He did not stop loving them. Instead the other nations were used to test the nation. Our actions do not affect how much God loves us, but they do affect the way in which that love can be shown to us.

Judges 1 - A good start

Time to return to the history books in the Old Testament. Judges covers the period from Joshua to the time of the kings. It records a cycle of the people deserting God, getting into trouble, and then God raising up a "judge" to rescue them, only for the cycle to be repeated.

The author is not stated, though tradition says it was Samuel there is no Biblical confirmation of this. The frequent phrase "in those days Israel had no king" indicates it was written in the time of the kings.

It is a rather depressing book in some ways. Through Joshua many of the promises to Israel were fulfilled, but Israel all too readily adopted the ways of the Canaanites, worshipping false gods and living immoral and unjust lives.

Things seem to start off well with the nation asking, after Joshua's death, who should go up to fight the Canaanites. Judah enlisted the help of the Simeonites as well, and they enjoyed a convincing victory. Then they took the city of Jerusalem. Further victories over the Canaanites followed, and Israel seemed to be following the command of God to conquer the whole land. However, there were parts of the land where the Canaanites were not completely driven out (v27), though they were subjected to forced labour. The Amorites also resisted on some parts.

This pattern of good, but incomplete, progress is repeated in the Bible. In Kings and Chronicles we read of idols being rooted out of the land, but the "high places" were allowed to remain. In our own lives we have a habit of not getting rid of sin completely. We are prepared to settle for partial victories. In the end this leads to trouble.

Psalm 108 - Trusting and Praising God

When we are steadfast in our trust of the Lord it is so much easier to praise Him. Indeed, in such situations praise emanates freely from our souls, from the heart of our being. This is because trusting God is the state we are meant to be in, it is what we were created foe, it is the way we were designed to function.

David declares the praises of God to the nations. And God's glory reaches over everything. It reaches throughout the universe, and so does His love.

David calls on God to help Israel, then announces that God has declared from His temple. Apparently from the end of this Psalm David was encountering a time when victory did not seem to be theirs, yet he remained full of faith and believed that victory would come in the end. One word from God is more powerful than all the circumstances in the world.

Psalm 107:17-43 - Rescued (2)

The next batch of rescued people are another group who got into trouble through their own fault. This time through foolishness and rebelliousness. When we disobey God we become fools. We are foolish in the first place, and our actions make us even more so. Yet when we cry to God He still hears us. Again the message us, however you got into your current mess, however much it was your fault, there is always hope. It is always worth calling upon the Lord. God sent His word and healed them. As an aside, when the Bible talks about being healed it is sometimes referring to being healed of our sin (as here and in Isaiah 53:5). They are to respond to God's mercy by singing songs of thanksgiving and joy.

The final group were going about their business. They were trained at their task and generally knew what they were doing. Even so, events overwhelmed them. In their case it was the sea, but none of us can ever be in complete control. Indeed it is a curse when we seek to be in total control, for we are chasing after something that we cannot have or achieve. Peace comes by trusting in God and taking responsibility only so far as we are asked to by God. They called  out to God in their distress and He rescued them, stilling the storm. This of course reminds us of the time when Jesus calmed the storm.

God makes a habit of doing the impossible. He makes a habit of rescuing people from difficult situations. The Psalm closes with a call to heed these lessons. We need to recognise the limits of our abilities and ponder the loving deeds of the Lord.

Psalm 107:4-16 - Rescued

The Psalmist then lists several cases of people redeemed by the Lord. 

First there were those wandering in the desert wastelands, with nowhere to go. This is probably not a reference to Israel's wanderings in the desert, as the context seems different.They could not seem to find a way out, and their strength was gone. So they called on the Lord and He rescued them. Note that He led them by a straight way. Before God came to them they were utterly lost and confused, they could see no way out. When God did come to them a straight way became apparent. When the Lord comes into our lives seemingly intractable problems and situations can suddenly become clear with a solution. Such people are to give thank to the Lord for his wonderful deeds on behalf of man. This is a refrain of this Psalm. God does wonderful deeds on our behalf. God satisfies the hungry and thirsty.

Next there are those who sat in dark dungeons. They were there because they had rebelled against the Lord. Sometimes (often?) our troubles are a direct result of rebellion against God, of refusing to follow His ways. See the pattern here. They rebelled against God. God punished them. Then they called out to God. This is the pattern of the gospel. Repent and believe is the basic message that John the Baptist, Jesus, and Peter all preached. We need to acknowledge our sin, seek forgiveness and turn back to God, then we will be saved. So even if we are in deep trouble because of our own sin, we should abandon our pride and turn to God. Then God will break the chains that bind us, He will set us free. He breaks down gates of bronze and breaks chains of iron. We can be in situations that seem to have such a strong hold over our lives, but the Lord can break every strong hold, if only we will turn to Him.

Psalm 107:1-3 - What's Your Story?

We are always to give thanks to the Lord. This is a response to what He has done and for who He is. He is good and His love endures forever. There are times when we think that God does not love us, and in the Psalms (as elsewhere in the Bible) there are many instances of this. The reason for this often that we have a very shallow view of what love is. God knows what is really good for us, what our deepest needs really are. Moreover, He sees the impact of our lives on others, so He has a much wider perspective than we have. We will still go through times when we find it difficult to see how God loves us, but in those times we should pursue God, knowing that He does love us, and in the end we will understand what He is doing.

Then we are to tell others. We are to tell our story. Being saved is not just a matter of four spiritual laws, or any other formulaic confession. There is nothing wrong with these, and as long as we don't make idols out of them they can be very helpful. But if we look at people Jesus encountered as reported in the gospels, none of them gave a "classic confession". They were all different. Jesus has encountered you, and you have encountered Him, in a unique way. So we are to tell our story, for our story will have something special about Jesus to reveal to others. These stories will be stories of how Jesus rescued us from being lost.

Psalm 106:24-48 - Doubt

"Then they despised the land". God brought them to the border of the promised land and the Israelites were supposed to go in, but they refused (Numbers 14). They did not believe that God would give them the land, they did not believe that He would enable them to overcome their enemies. When God brings us to the brink of fulfilment of His promise we need to believe Him. It will take faith to grasp hold of what God is giving to us. 

When we refuse to believe we grumble instead. To try and justify our failure to trust God we make excuses about how difficult things are. We are very adept at doing this! So God made them wander in the wilderness.

Still they did not learn, instead they worshipped false gods and were only saved by the zeal of Phinehas. The best way to maintain our faith is to keep living by faith, to take steps of faith, steps of risk. It is a bit like riding a bicycle. If we stop, we fall off. When we stop living by faith we start relying on ourselves or natural means of support, and quickly end up in trouble. 

The people continued to grumble and rebel all the way through the desert. And when they did eventually enter the land they still did not obey God. This even involved child sacrifice. The consequences of turning away from God are horrific. We may think we do not do such things today, but what about the thousands upon thousands of abortions that take place each year?

There was a cycle of discipline and then rescue by God, but the people never learnt. He sent them into captivity and caused their captors to be merciful to them. Still they did not listen.

The Psalmists finishes by calling on the Lord to have mercy once again. In Christ there is hope, for through the gift of the Holy Spirit a work of change takes place within us. We start to become all that we should always have been.

Psalm 106:6-23 - Not trusting God

We now get a record of Israel's sins. It starts with the Psalmist acknowledging that they have sinned just as their ancestors did. He is shortly to recount many of things that their ancestors did, but this is not so that he can prove they are better than they ancestors, but so that they can learn from them.

They did not give thought to the miracles that God did. When God does something we should meditate upon it and ask what it means, what it shows about God. The supreme example of this is the death and resurrection of Christ. They did not remember God's kindness, and they rebelled at the Red Sea. How did they rebel? By not trusting God, not believing He would continue to rescue them. They thought that it was mere luck that they had got out of Egypt, and so when things started looking bad they thought there was no hope for them. They did not realise that it was all part of a plan by God. God had deliberately set them free from Egypt, He had a goal to lead them to, and would be faithful to His promise. So it is with us. Jesus called us for a purpose. 

Despite all this, God still rescued them at the Red Sea, totally wiping out their enemies. However, they soon forgot this. So when they were in the desert as soon as difficulties arose they stopped trusting God. They grumbled their way through the desert. They rebelled against Moses and Aaron, even making an idol. Why do we do this? They proclaimed that the golden calf had set them free from Egypt. This was patent nonsense, but it oh so human to seek to trust anything but God. The only thing that saved the Israelites was that Moses interceded on their behalf to God.

Psalm 106:1-5 - May I enjoy His prosperity

The Psalm starts off with praise, but then goes on to recount many of Israel's sins (which is why it is quite a long Psalm!). The starting point for dealing with every situation is praise for the Lord. God is the creator of all things, He is the source of all things, He is the One who keeps everything going, He is the fundamental fact, the basic axiom (excuse the mathematical language, but I am a mathematician). He is the beginning and the end, and everything inbetween as well. In all circumstances we need to look to God.

The Psalmist reminds himself that God is good and His love endures forever. That means it endures in all situations, despite all that we do. No one can fully proclaim His greatness. John says in his gospel that there is not enough space to recount all the things that Jesus did.. No one can fully declare His praise. No matter how great we think God is, He is much greater still. In our lives we have not yet encountered the fullness of God, we have not yet seen the full extent of His greatness, there is more to come.

The one thing you can be certain of in your life is that there is still more of God's goodness to experience.  And this is good news for God's people. May we enjoy the prosperity of God's chosen ones, may we know the joy of the Lord in increasing measure, may we know His inheritance. This is no cheap prosperity, but a prosperity of life, a prosperity of living a life that brings life to many others.

Psalm 105:16-45 - Saved

Next Joseph is cited as an example. He is a clear case of how God's plans work out, but not in any way that we could expect or predict. Everything seemed to be working against him, and the dreams he had proclaimed years before were worthless. Yet, in time, they came true. He ended up being in virtual charge of Egypt.

Israel came to settle in the land and they multiplied greatly. As a result the Egyptians started to oppress them. There are two key patterns here. One is that God's people multiply. The second is that there is opposition to God's people. The opposition may be severe, but in the end it will come to nothing.

In Israel's case God sent Moses and many plagues were inflicted upon the land. So in the end Egypt was glad to get rid of the Israelites. God also protected and guided them as they left Egypt.

Note that the purpose was that they should keep His commands. It is the same with us. We have been saved so that we can do the Lord's will.

Psalm 105:5-15 - Remember

We are to remember who God is and what He has done. We are to remember His wonders and miracles. These are not just the things He did long ago, such as the rescue from Egypt, and the miracles Jesus did, but the things He has done in our lives. When God does some thing He reveals something about Himself. 

Notice also the emphasis on the judgments God pronounces. When God makes a judgment He reveals something about Himself. And His judgments are in all the earth. They do not apply to just one sector of society, but to all men. We are His servants, we are the descendants of Abraham and children of Jacob. We are not the products of random chance, but are chosen by God. You were made on purpose and for a purpose.

So we are to praise God and to remember Him. In turn, God remembers His covenant with us. Here the Psalmist talks about the covenant made with Abraham. This covenant still stands, with the promise of all nations being blessed.

Next we are told how God's plan works out, and it does not follow a nice simple plan. They were few in number, they wandered about from nation to nation. Often God's plans seem impossible, and there seems no way that they are going to work out. But even in the midst of the wanderings, when it was impossible to tell exactly what God was doing, He was still protecting them.

There are two things that we need to appreciate about God's plan for our lives: (i) we do not realise the full extent and wonder of His plan for our lives; (ii) we certainly do not know or understand exactly how He is going to work that plan out.

Psalm 105:1-4 - Seek the Lord always

This Psalm starts with three very clear instructions. First we are to praise Him, then we are to call on His name, finally we are to make His name known to the world. Praising God, recognising who He is the starting point. Then when we are in need we will call upon His name, for we will know that He is the one who can help us. Then when we receive this help, when we experience His goodness we will tell others about Him.

We are to sing to the Lord and tell of all His deeds. We are to delight in His name, and our hearts are to rejoice in Him. Whatever our circumstances and situation we must delight in the Lord. We need to instruct our souls to seek joy in the Lord. Then we will find the salvation that we seek.

We are to look to Him and to His strength. Our strength often runs our, often proves inadequate, but the strength of the Lord will never fail us. We live life not in our own strength alone. In every circumstance the equation is "the world v me and God". So nothing can defeat us, nothing can overwhelm us. The problem is that so often we miss out the God part of the equation. So the answer is to seek His face always. In any and every circumstance we are to seek the face of the Lord, then we can truly know what is going on.

Psalm 104:10-35 - Praise the Creator

The world is created in a wonderful way to make it capable of sustaining all sorts of life. The examples the Psalmist gives here may seem fairly obvious to us, but the more scientific research we do, the more amazing the world seems. 

Verse 15 refers to wine that "gladdens the heart". Now this is clearly referring to alcoholic wine, and an absolute ban on alcohol is not justified anywhere in the Bible. This is not to say that there are not situations where it is certainly wise to abstain from alcohol, or to have pragmatic ban. Eg if drink is a major problem for an individual then it is wise for that person to abstain totally, and for those around him or her possibly to do likewise to help that person. Or if alcohol is a major problem in a community then again abstention may be wise. So pragmatic bans on alcohol may be OK, but dogmatic ones are not.

The Lord's wonder extends to the heavens as well, the way the sun, moon and stars all work together. Again, the more we understand of how the universe works, the more amazing and awe inspiring it is. All this should cause us to praise the One who created it, and who sustains it. 

The Psalmists response to all this is to worship the Lord. This should be our response too. 

Psalm 104:1-9 - Our Creator

Another Psalm that starts with praise, he must have been on a roll here! The last one started with the Psalmist praising God for His goodness towards him, here he praises God for who He is. There is such a rich variety of ways in which the Psalms talk about God and the Psalmist's relationship with God. 

The Lord is great and is clothed with splendour and majesty. The focus is then in God's attributes as creator of the universe. Creation is absolutely central to our understanding of the world and theology. "In the beginning God ..." Without God there would be nothing. If you think too hard about how we can exist you will give yourself a headache! You may even drive yourself mad. The truth is that we were all created by the Lord, that is why our relationship with and attitude towards Him is so important. 

Verse 5 is a warning to wrongly literal interpretations of the Bible. For a time it was thought that the earth was fixed, and everything orbited around it. We now know that this is not true, and it does not cause anyone any theological problems! Moreover, the succeeding verses show that he talking about the land. Anyway, the Psalmist is talking about how God created the earth. It is the fact that He created the earth that is central, not the precise processes used, or the manner in which He did this. 

Psalm 103:13-22 - Praise the Lord

This is one of the instances in the Old Testament where God likens Himself to a Father, and Jesus was continually telling the people that God was like a Father. The Lord has compassion upon those who fear Him. There is a condition here. This is not to say that we earn His compassion, but that unless we fear Him we cannot know this compassion. This does not mean God does not love everyone, but love is a two way relationship, and the way that love develops, and the way that it shows itself and can be demonstrated is dependent upon both parties.

So why does God have compassion? It is because He knows how we are formed, He knows that we are mere mortals. Our life is short and delicate. However, the love of the Lord is everlasting. He is with those who fear Him. Again we see the conditions, we need to fear Him, and keep His commands. It is a relationship. Someone might object why should we have to obey Him for this relationship to work? This really is a stupid question. Consider who God is, the creator of all that is seen and unseen, the one on whom all creation is dependent every minute of the day for its very existence. Then consider who you are, someone who had no say whatsoever about being born.

The Lord has authority over everything, seen and unseen. So everything, angels, all of creation, and most of all my soul, should praise the Lord.

Psalm 103:6-12 - The mercy of God

The first few verses focused on the personal benefits of knowing God and what He does for us, now we get the wider goodness of God.

He works righteousness and brings justice for the oppressed. On the cross, through Christ, God worked righteousness for all who believe. He also has a deep concern for the oppressed and the poor. The whole of human society is corrupted by sin, and this shows itself in all sorts of terrible ways. God is concerned for the oppressed, and works to bring justice for them. 

The Psalmist then turns to Moses. Why does he do this? It is because Israel was oppressed in slavery in Egypt, cruelly mistreated. God worked to bring freedom for the nation. In the Law Israel is often reminded that she herself was once an alien in a foreign land, was once under slavery, so she must have concern for the aliens and the oppressed. In rescuing Israel God was not just showing His favour or Israel. He was demonstrating His character and heart to them, so they should then have shown this same heart to others. In the same way, God has not just saved you or me so that we can have a nice time, but so that salvation can then continue to spread out from us to others. 

We then get a great statement of the love and mercy of God. He is slow to anger, He does not always accuse, He does not treat us as our sins deserve. His love for us is beyond measure, and He has removed our sins far from us. All this was achieved through the death and resurrection of Christ.

Psalm 103:1-5 - Love and Compassion

Unlike the last Psalm (and many others), this one gets straight into the worship! He commands his soul to praise the Lord. Our inmost being is to praise God. We were created to praise the Lord. And a good part of the reason we do this is for all the good things God does for. Sometimes people talk about praising God for who He is, not for what He does for us. This sounds very pious, but is actually unbiblical nonsense. The Bible is full of commands and instances of people praising God for what He has done for us. In fact God reveals who He is often by what He does for us.

We then get some of the benefits. First He forgives our sins. We saw in Romans how absolutely crucial and foundational this is. He heals our diseases. There is also a link between our forgiveness and healing. Now we are wrong if we try to draw an absolute law between all sickness and sin, but there is undoubtedly a link.

He redeems our life from the pit, and instead gives us love and compassion. He gives us good things and renews out strength. This applies now, as well as after Christ's return. We should look to know and enjoy God's love and compassion today. Sometimes circumstances make this difficult, but whatever the situation we should be looking for where God's love and compassion are, we should expect things to be different.

Psalm 102 - Greatness of God

Back to Psalms for a few days, and yet another one where the Psalmist starts by calling out of his distress. It is a common characteristic that most cries to God are a result of our being in distress or some sort or other.

From verses 3-5 it seems that he was suffering from sort of severe illness. For all his suffering he received little sympathy, and many taunted him. He even thinks that God is judging him in some way (verse 10).

So what does he do? He turns his focus first to the greatness of God (v12). Our first reaction should be to take the attention off ourselves and look to God.

He sees the ruins of Jerusalem as sign that God's mercy and compassion cannot be far away. He knows that one day God will rescue and restore Israel.

Even if it is not his generation that sees this, he still wants it written down so that some future generation will know that God is faithful.

In the midst of all his troubles he still focuses on the greatness of God.

Romans 16:17-27 - Final Words

Every church and every age has people who cause division. Now Paul is not saying we should accept any and every view no matter how wacky it is, but if we look at reality we see that most divisions in churches are caused by human sin, by personal ambition, by people of a divisive nature. Theological differences are often just used as an excuse. Paul then says warns against those who put obstacles in our way, and defines this as people who teach things contrary to the apostolic teaching. 

As Paul says, such people are serving their own appetites, their own egos and pride. We are to keep away from such people. They use smooth talk and flattery and so deceive the mins of naive people. We are to be experts in doing and knowing what is good, but innocent about evil, ie having nothing to do with it.

Verse 20 is a reference to Gen 3:15. Our victory over Satan is assured.

Paul then sends some final greetings from his fellow travellers.

Paul's final words give the glory to God and proclaim the power of the gospel.

Romans 16:1-16 - Greetings

Paul is sometimes wrongly accused of being a misogynist (hating women). Such accusations only demonstrate the myopia of those who make them. Apart from his words in Galatians (Gal 3:28), a look at his life as recorded in Acts and the personal remarks such as we find here at the end of Romans give the lie to these silly assessments of Paul. 

He starts off in his personal greetings by commending a female deacon, and there are several more women mentioned in the list of greetings.

Some of the names mentioned we do know of, such as Priscilla and Aquila, but most of them are not mentioned elsewhere. This list shows the importance of other people in Paul's ministry, and his appreciation of them. Jesus said that anyone who gives a prophet a cup of water will receive a prophet's reward. There will be people who are at the forefront of Christian ministry, ie are publicly well known, but behind these people are countless others who provide invaluable and essential support. And it makes no difference if we our own role is prominent or hidden. If we are prominent then do not shrink from the position God has put you in. Remember also that you are absolutely reliant on the support of many others, remember also that it is the secret things that we do that often determine our true effectiveness. The prayers in secret, the little acts of kindness to "ordinary" people. If we are working behind the scenes, never resent that position. Let us serve faithfully, for we are serving the Lord and He sees all that we do.

Romans 15:23-33 - Helping the church in Jerusalem

Paul had preached the gospel in many of the lands, between Israel and Rome, and so now planned to go to Rome. This shows that Paul was not the only missionary, for clearly others had founded the church in Rome. Paul was now looking further afield and intended to go to Spain, and would visit Rome on the way. Of course, this never actually came to pass, though Paul did go to Rome, albeit as a prisoner. 

In the meantime Paul was going to Jerusalem. This was to take the offering to help the Jerusalem church, and this visit would end up in his arrest.

Paul mentions the financial help given to the Jerusalem church by Christians from Macedonia and Achaia. Paul here is emphasising the link between the Jerusalem church and the rest of Christianity. He gave the theological grounds for this in chapters 9-11, now we have the practical outworking of this. Spiritual and material blessings go together. Now money is a fraught matter, and there are too many examples of "Christians" exploiting others for money. Ie using the gospel as a means of making money. We are absolutely right to be wary of this, but even so the spiritual and material go together. Notice here that the money collected for the Jerusalem church was to help them out of poverty. In the Bible giving is predominantly either for the work of the church (or temple in the Old Testament) or for helping the poor. Today we need to give a lot more than we do, but this giving should be for the direct advancement of the work of the gospel or for helping the poor, not for making individuals rich.

Paul knew the dangers he would face in Jerusalem, and asks the Roman Christians to help him by praying for his mission.