Peter Misselbrook's Blog

Dec 25 2019 - Nehemiah 9:19-38 – Judgment and mercy

You will remember that twelve spies were sent into Canaan to look at the land God had promised to give his people. All reported back that it was a wonderfully fertile land, a land that would prove a blessing to those who lived in it. But ten of the twelve said that it they could not possibly capture it since it was full of giant warriors and fortified cities. Joshua and Caleb alone told the people to go in and possess it since the Lord had promised the land to them. But the people would not listen and, as a result, were forced to wander in the wilderness for forty years.

But still God did not abandon them: "You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them" (v. 17). God did not abandon them to their fate in the desert but provided for them in remarkable ways: "For forty years you sustained them in the desert; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen" (v. 21).

According to his promise, the very promise they had previously refused to believe, God brought them at last into the Promised Land (vv. 22-25), giving them victory over the Canaanites and a land of extraordinary plenty: "They took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and were well-nourished; they revelled in your great goodness" (v. 25).

But once again they soon forgot the Lord and rebelled (vv. 26-28). During the days of the Judges they continually forgot God and suffered defeat and plunder at the hands of other nations. Then, in their distress, they called upon God and in his mercy he rescued them again and again – only for them again and again to forget him.

Time and again God warned his people through the prophets (vv. 29-30), calling upon them to return to the Lord their God, to listen to his word and live in accordance with his law. But they turned a deaf ear and refused to learn the lessons of their own history, and so he sent them into exile.

But even this was not the end: "But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God" (9:31). Now they are gathered again in Jerusalem. Their gracious and merciful God has not abandoned them. God is the God of the covenant and keeps his promises: "In all that has happened to us, you have been just; you have acted faithfully, while we did wrong" (v. 33).

It has been the faithfulness, compassion and love of the Lord their God that has brought them thus far, but the story is not yet finished:

But see, we are slaves today, slaves in the land you gave our forefathers so that they could eat its fruit and the other good things it produces. Because of our sins, its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have placed over us. They rule over our bodies and our cattle as they please. We are in great distress. (vv. 36-38)

In one sense, the exile is not yet over. But God's goodness and mercy in times past is now the ground for hope: a hope that finds its answer at last in the Lord Jesus, whose coming into the world we celebrate especially on this day. Jesus' coming is evidence of God's faithfulness to his covenant promises and of his determination to save once and for all a people and a world on which he has set his love. Jesus' coming, his death and resurrection and the outpouring of his life-giving Spirit bring to an end the endless cycles of rebellion and salvation. Jesus' cry of triumph from the cross, "It is finished", echoes now through the ages until it finds its final consummation at his return when all things shall be made new and when sin, rebellion, death and sadness shall be no more.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come, Let earth receive her King.

Dec 25 2020 - Revelation 16:1-21 – Blessed is he who stays awake

Here we have another chapter that it full of terrible pictures of judgment. They are pictures of judgment poured out upon the evil kingdom of the beast (Revelation 16:10). They are judgments that recall the plagues visited on Egypt which secured the liberation of God’s enslaved people. They are judgments which echo the threats against the Roman Empire from nations and armies to the East that were all too real when John wrote this extraordinary book (16:12).

These judgments are working up to a last battle at Armageddon when the powers of this world will face their final showdown with God Almighty (16:16,14)

God is righteous and just (see 16:5-7). If we are angered by a world marked by greed, oppression, injustice, pain and the lust for power, do we not think that God is angered far more? He sees all that it done in this world. He hears the cry of those who suffer from hunger and war. He hears the cry of the homeless, the refugee, the widow and the orphan. He hears the cries of those who watch their children die. God is not unmoved by these things. The day is coming when he will judge the world in righteousness and put all things to rights. God is coming and he calls us to stay clothed and awake as we look for and long for that day: “Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed” (16:15)

It is the early hours of Christmas morning and I am awake before the dawn. In the darkness and quiet of this night, my thoughts turn to the shepherds near Bethlehem on the night the Saviour was born. They were out in the countryside keeping an eye on their sheep. Perhaps they dozed with one ear attentive to the sounds of the night. Maybe they took it in turns to sleep while at least one kept awake, alert and watching. Whatever the case, they remained clothed and ready for action; alert to whatever the night might bring. It was to them that the news of the Saviour's birth was first announced by angels. The Saviour of the world had arrived "like a thief in the night" – unseen and unnoticed by many. Their whole concern had been for the welfare of their sheep yet they left their flock at the mercy of the night and hurried to Bethlehem that they might see the Lamb of God who had come to take away the sin of the world.

It was those who were alert in the watches of the night who were the first to witness the arrival of the Messiah. This verse in Revelation calls us also to remain always alert, clothed and ready for action; we do not know at what day or hour the Lord may appear. Peter, recalling how the Israelites were told to remain clothed and ready to move on that first Passover night, urges us to “gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13 New King James Version).

When the Lord to human eyes
shall bestride our narrow skies,
not the child of humble birth,
not the carpenter of earth,
not the man by all denied,
not the victim crucified,
but the God who died to save,
but the victor of the grave,
he it is to whom I fall,
Jesus Christ my all in all -
he it is to whom I fall,
Jesus Christ my all in all. (Timothy Dudley-Smith)

Lord, keep me watching, keep me waiting, keep me praying, keep me working for the coming of your kingdom when pain and injustice shall be no more.

Peter Misselbrook