Peter Misselbrook's Blog

Nov 23 2019 - Zechariah 5 – The flying scroll

If the vision given to Zechariah in yesterday's reading was complicated, the visions in today's reading are just plain weird – a massive flying scroll and a woman squashed into a basket with a lead cover. What's it all about? Let's look at each of these visions in turn.

The first vision, described in verses 1-3, is of a scroll thirty feet long and fifteen feet in diameter. It has words written on both sides of it, rather like the scroll Ezekiel saw when he was called to announce God's impending judgment on Jerusalem (Ezekiel 2:9-10). On the one side it said, "Every thief will be banished" and on the other, "everyone who swears falsely will be banished" (v.3). The scroll represents the law of God, the word of God – perhaps particularly the Ten Commandments.

This scroll is sent out by God to travel through the whole land. Nothing remains hidden from its investigation as it enters houses to seek out those who persistently transgress God's law. Those houses are demolished by the scroll.

This strange picture symbolises the power of God's word to do what God has sent it to do; in particular, in this instance, its power to discern sin and condemn the sinner. It is the same truth that is expressed, using a different picture, in Hebrews 4:12-13:

The word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

God is looking for a people who reflect his own holy character; a people who hate sin as he hates sin and who seek to avoid anything that would cause offence to him. And this is not primarily out of fear of punishment but out of love for God who has redeemed us and made us his own through the shed blood of his Son. We are a people who welcome the word of God and are glad of its power, for it has worked within us to give us life and fill us with joy and peace in believing.

The second vision is of a woman in a basket (vv. 5-11). The Hebrew word is that used for a measuring basket, used to measure grain. The picture is again of wickedness that has been discovered among God's people – perhaps here particularly related to dishonest trade, such as, "skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales" (Amos 8:6). Such practices were designed to increase the riches of the merchants while exploiting the poor. God finds such things abhorrent and wants them removed from among his people.

The basket is taken off to Babylon where a house is built for it – just as a house has been built for the Lord in Jerusalem. The basket is symbolic of the temptation to turn trade and the making of money into an idol. It is an idol that attracts the worship of the kingdoms of this world but which is to have no place among the people of God. (Compare the picture of the fall of "Babylon" in the Book of Revelation and the accompanying mourning of the merchants who gained their wealth through trade with that great city, see Revelation 18:9-19.)

God calls us to be a people whose loyalties are not divided between serving him who has given himself for us and the self-service of mammon. The Lord has made his home among us and calls us to love him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love others as he has loved us.

Father God, we recognise the uncompromising nature of your call upon our lives; you have given your all for us and call us to undivided devotion to you. We recognise that we cannot do this in our own strength. By your Spirit help us to be more like your Son and to live by every word that you have spoken. May our lives draw others to you rather than driving them away by the ugly things they see in our lives.  

Nov 23 2020 - John 15:1-27 – The vine and the branches

One of the trees in our garden was a variegated Asa or Maple. It had beautifully shaped leaves with a darker green at the centre and the palest of green border, accentuating the shape. However, this tree had a serious flaw; it had a tendency to revert to the less attractive but more vigorous Maple from which it was developed. Every year it put out a few shoots with non-variegated leaves. If left, these seem to grow more vigorously than all the others, spoiling the symmetry and beauty of the whole tree. Every year, as the leaves began to form, I had the task of cutting back the offending shoots before they developed into branches and spoilt the beauty of our tree. It was a never-ending task.

We also are a species that is deeply flawed. We were created to bring glory to God and bear fruit in his kingdom. Yet there are ugly branches that shoot up in our lives which bear none of the fruit that God is looking for yet seem to have such vigour that they threaten to dominate our whole being – shoots of anger, greed, pride, lust, self-centredness... They need constantly to be pruned back – cut out at source – if they are not to dominate our lives and spoil all that God made us to be.

Jesus speaks of such things in John 15. He speaks of the pruning work of the Father who cuts out those branches that bear no fruit and cuts back the fruitful branches that they may be even more fruitful. The only way of bearing fruit is for Jesus and his word to live in us – showing ourselves to be his disciples and bringing glory to the Father.

Jesus tells us that the way of fruitfulness is for us to remain in him. What does this mean? I believe that Jesus is calling us to live in conscious fellowship with him. We cannot live the Christian life without him; we need constantly to draw on his strength and his power. He lived a life pleasing to the Father; he has the power to live such a life while we do not without him – without him we can do nothing (15:4,5). In a sense, our lives are to be lived as a continuous prayer. This does not mean we are to develop an unworldly spirituality. On the contrary, through living in dependence upon Christ we are to live well and usefully in this world, bearing fruit for the Father. Think how Jesus lived in this world – a life that brought blessing to those around him. We are to live like that as he lives in us and his life animates us like sap in the vine.

Jesus says, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (15:15). Jesus calls us to intelligent discipleship. He has revealed the heart and purpose of God. God’s purpose is to redeem and transform all that he has made so that his will is done on earth as it is in heaven. He calls us to live the life of the kingdom now and to show the world the beauty of life as it was meant to be. He calls us to be like Christ and to live as witnesses to him (15:27).

Lord Jesus, help me to live close to you. Help me to cut out of my life anything that would drive you away from me. I know very well that without you I can do nothing but that I can do all that you call me to do as you live in me and fill me with your strength and resurrection life. Help me to live in communion with you moment-by-moment, day-by-day that I may bear much fruit and show that I am your disciple.

Peter Misselbrook