Peter Misselbrook's Blog

Oct 14 2019 - Isaiah 47 – The fall of Babylon

God used the Babylonians as an instrument of judgment upon his faithless kingdom of Judah. They were unaware that the living God was directing their hand; they had been driven only by the desire for their own wealth and power, and had violently crushed those who stood in their way. God says:

I was angry with my people and desecrated my inheritance;
I gave them into your hand, and you showed them no mercy.
Even on the aged you laid a very heavy yoke. (v.6)

They had boasted that their power would last for ever – like the boast of the Nazi regime who boasted that theirs was a Reich that would last a thousand years. But they had failed to consider that the power by which they had subdued other nations might as easily be used to subdue them (v. 7).

In this chapter God declares that just as he gave Judah into the hand of Babylon, so now he will bring others to destroy their kingdom. Their glory will be reduced to dust (v. 1). Their pride will be turned to shame (v.3). Their proud boast in days past, "I am, and there is none besides me" (v. 8, repeated in v. 10), is blasphemous, for it can only rightly be made by the living God. Babylon boasts, "I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children", but both of these disasters will overtake her in one day. The great city of Babylon and its people will both be destroyed. No amount of their magic spells or appeals to their idol-gods will be able to protect them from disaster.

Babylon is later used in the Book of Revelation as a picture for human empire which seeks to depose God and declare itself to be the power that determines the destiny of humankind. Such power typically seeks to suppress and even destroy those who worship the living God – they are seen as threats to its own claim to power. In the days of the New Testament, the Roman Empire was such a power and Rome is referred to as "Babylon" (1 Peter 5:13; Revelation 14:8; 16:19; 17:1,5, and especially chapter 18).

The words of judgment upon Babylon both in this chapter and in the Book of Revelation do not apply only to ancient and long gone empires, they are warnings also to contemporary regimes, of whatever political flavour, which seek to impose their power over others by oppression, intimidation and injustice. They are warnings particularly for those regimes that oppress God's people and seek to stamp out the Christian faith. God is in control of all human history and will not allow such regimes to exalt themselves for long. In the end, as God has declared, the kingdom of this world shall become the kingdom of our God and of the Lamb.

God's ultimate purpose is for a world marked by justice and peace; a world in which people will be the source of blessing to one another rather than exploiting one another. In Isaiah 47, God proclaims his judgment on Babylon in order to bring his people out of captivity and return them to the land he had promised to give them. In the cross of the Lord Jesus, the living God permits his Son to suffer the injustice and violence of the powers of this world, particularly the power of Rome, and through his resurrection he breaks those powers. The closing chapters of Revelation picture a day when all human oppression and injustice will be swept away and when the whole of creation will be brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

Father God, we thank you that, through the death and resurrection of your Son, you have set us free from the oppressive regime of sin and death. Lord Jesus, we long for the day of your return when oppression will cease and the deep hurts of our world shall at last be healed. Give us the wisdom to live now as those who belong to a better kingdom. By your Spirit, teach us how to withstand the subtle pressure to conform to the patterns of this world and how to bear gracious witness to the transforming and healing power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to bring healing to our world rather than to increase its hurts.

Oct 14 2020 - Hebrews 9:1-10 – A better sacrifice

For all the splendour of the Temple with its golden furnishings, fine curtains and elaborate rituals, it was of limited use. The sacrifices offered were only "for the sins the people had committed in ignorance" (Hebrews 9:7). It does not take more than a moment or two of honest reflection to discover that we "are not stray sheep, or wandering prodigals merely; we are rebels taken with weapons in our hands" (P. T. Forsyth). In the words of the Prayer Book we have to confess that "We have sinned against you [Almighty God, our heavenly Father], and against our fellow men, in thought and word and deed, in the evil we have done and in the good we have not done, through ignorance, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault." For the deeply troubled conscience the rituals of the Temple could offer no relief; they "were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper" (9:9); they were not able to set the worshipers free.

Thank God for Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Not all the blood of beasts
On Jewish altars slain
Could give the guilty conscience peace
Or wash away the stain.

But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
Takes all our sins away;
A sacrifice of nobler name
And richer blood than they.

My faith would lay its hand
Upon his head divine
While as a penitent I stand,
And there confess my sin.

So I look back to see
The weight he chose to bear
When hanging on the cross for me –
Because my guilt was there.

Believing, we rejoice
To know our sins forgiven;
We bless the Lamb with cheerful voice
And join the praise of heaven.

There is a fullness and finality about the sacrifice of Christ; he is able to give the guilty conscience peace and wash away the stain.

Jesus has inaugurated a “new order” (9:10), a new age, a time when things are put right. We need to learn how to live in this new age: to live as those who have been set free from guilt and fear; to live as those who have been freed to live the life of the age to come. We are to live a life not weighed down and overshadowed with the burden of what we have been, but a life lived gratefully towards the glory of what we shall be – the glorious freedom of the children of God (Romans 8:21). This is the life in all its fullness that Jesus gives to those who come to him.

And this is a corporate life – a life that we are called to live together as the fellowship of his people. We are to recognise that our brothers and sisters have also been forgiven and cleansed from all that is past. We no longer regard them simply from a human point of view; we recognise one another as new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:16-17). We do not keep a record of the faults of others (1 Corinthians 13:5; 1 Peter 4:8); we do not harbour accusations and resentments. Rather, we continually encourage one another to press on in following the Lord Jesus and becoming more like him. The sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus cleanses us from all our sins; the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus empowers us to live transformed lives. 

Father God, thank you that you have forgiven all our sins for Christ’s sake and have owned us as your redeemed children. Help us by your Spirit to live the new life to which you have called us in Christ – a life that is dead to sin and alive to righteousness. Help us to encourage one another to live this life and to live it to the full.

Peter Misselbrook