12 September 2010
Psalm 24, 29; Job 38:1,18-41; Rev. 18:1-8; Matt. 5:21-26

This passage of God’s response is remarkable in many ways, speaking of storehouses of the snow and hail, the place where light is distributed, and the places of darkness and light. The natural order of the world is truly amazing to consider in its variety, immensity and magnificence. I believe that most of the time JB Phillips was right, our God is too small and, like Job, we esteem ourselves too highly. We need to get a bigger picture of the universe God created by speaking it into being and then remember where we fit in that context before we pray to Him. The fact that we are at the center of that creation, in God’s image, charged with the stewardship of creation, should cause us to see what we have made of His perfect creation and to begin with praise for creation and then move to humility for what we have done. It should, however, cause us to love Him more for the reality that He desires relationship enough to come and die for us.

People not things. Just as we were told not to kill another human being because they are the image bearers of God, so here Jesus extends that commandment beyond murder to include hatred. One of the first things we learn when we try to understand forgiveness in a forensic way is that we must begin the process by re-humanizing the person who has wronged us. We have come to identify them not as a person like us, but someone who is the sin they committed against us. We set ourselves up as God in that we are not sinners like them, we have been wronged and are innocent victims. Jesus’ teaching here is based on that principle, that we have to stop dehumanizing others, we have to love our brothers in spite of their imperfections and our own. If He, being perfect, could love us, can we not love one another for His sake?

The judgment of God is on sin and here we see that sin is thought of as the glory of Babylon because it is no longer thought wrong. Do we live in a world that no longer knows right from wrong and glorifies that which should be our shame? Unfortunately, we do. We no longer measure good and evil by any standard that considers God’s perspective. We have diminished the Lord with relativism and have denied His authority over us, even His very existence. Should we as believers doubt that God’s judgment will be on sin and on those who deny Him and His will for His creation? What is our response to the world, however, to simply condemn it or to grieve over it, pray over it and work in love as Christ loved us to change it?

Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name;
worship the Lord in holy splendour.