Peter Misselbrook's Blog
Jul 20 2020 - Mark 3:7-30 – Tamed thunder

This morning we have read of Jesus choosing the twelve who will form his inner circle. Jesus will devote his time to them, teaching them and sending them out to minister in his name. Two of these are James and John, sons of Zebedee. Jesus gives them the name "sons of thunder" – the thunder boys (Mark 3:17). We see something of the character that earned them this name when they wanted to call down fire from heaven on a Samaritan town that had failed to welcome Jesus when he was on his way to Jerusalem (Luke 9:50-55). They were fiery characters who were ready to respond with thunder (and lightning) towards those who opposed them.

Yet it is an entirely transformed character that we see later in John the apostle. John lived on into old age and when he was no longer able to speak at length, he would continue to exhort Christians with the words, "Little children, love one another." The whole of 1 John breathes this spirit:

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.  (1 John 4:9-12)

What accounts for this remarkable change in the character of John? His character had been transformed through being with Jesus. He had seen a different spirit in Jesus. Jesus had rebuked him when he had wanted to call down fire from heaven on the Samaritans. Jesus had not called for legions of angels to rescue him from his false accusers. Jesus had submitted to the agony of the cross crying out, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." John had seen the love of God in the person of the Lord whom he loved. And that same spirit/Spirit had reshaped his life. He had been transformed by Christ – by the love of God in Christ. And now he lives to proclaim to others what he has seen and heard and touched; to proclaim the love of God that changes everything and can alone offer hope and cleansing to a fractured world.

We see the same story in the transformation of Saul the Pharisee into Paul the apostle. Saul was an angry Pharisee on his way to Damascus planning the imprisonment, trial and perhaps even the deaths of Christians he could find in that city. He wanted them to suffer the same fate as Steven. But the risen Saviour encountered him on the road and his life was turned around. The notion of a crucified Messiah which had once seemed blasphemy to him now filled him with wonder: “The Son of God …loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). His passion was tamed and redirected into becoming a passion for Christ and for the Gospel; a passion to see the whole world acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord and rejoice in the wonder of God’s transforming love.

Discipleship is the call to continual transformation as we learn of Christ and are refashioned into his likeness by his Spirit.

Living God, subdue my thunder by your love and redirect my passion to serve the Risen Saviour who gave his life for me. And by your Spirit, enable me to bring something of your love and peace to those whose thunder still threatens to tear apart our troubled world.

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Jul 20 2019 - 2 Kings 19:1-19 – Hezekiah's prayer

Sennacherib, king of Assyria, was threatening to lay siege to Jerusalem and take its inhabitants into captivity as he had done to Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom, and its inhabitants. What could Hezekiah and the small kingdom of Judah do against such threats?

Hezekiah's first reaction is to tear his royal clothes, put on sackcloth and to go to the temple of the Lord – it is, "a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them" (v.3). Hezekiah knows that the Assyrian field commander has "ridiculed the living God." His hope is that the Lord will rebuke Assyria by coming to the aid of his people. Knowing he has no ability to withstand the threat, Hezekiah places all his hope in God.

Hezekiah sends a message to the prophet Isaiah telling him of the situation. This is the first time we read of Isaiah, but he had been a prophet now for about 30 years.  Isaiah sends word back to Hezekiah, "This is what the Lord says: do not be afraid of what you have heard – those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Listen! When he hears a certain report, I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword" (vv.6-7).

And that's just what happened. Sennacherib heard news that the king of Cush (upper Egypt), was coming out to fight against him and so he called his forces away from Jerusalem. But before he left, he sent a message to Hezekiah telling him not to think that his god has delivered him; Sennacherib will be back and Jerusalem will not be able to stand before him any more than other nations have been able to resist the power of Assyria: "Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver them – the gods of Gozan, Harran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar?" (v.12)

This message was delivered in writing so Hezekiah went into the temple and laid it out before the Lord. Then Hezekiah prayed to the Lord:

Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.  ‘It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God.

Hezekiah appeals to God as the living God, the creator of heaven and earth. He prays not just that God would come to rescue him and the inhabitants of Jerusalem but that he would show himself to be the living God, unlike the idol-gods that have failed to deliver the other nations. He wants all the world to know that the Lord is God and to turn to him.

The Lord our God has demonstrated that he is the living God who cares for us by sending his Son from heaven to be our Saviour. He has shown that he has power greater than all the kingdoms of this world by raising his Son from the dead after he had been crucified by what was then the most powerful of the kingdoms of this world. When we feel under threat and are filled with doubts and fears, we need to come before our God in prayer and lay them all out before him knowing that he cares for us and that he is our hope, our help and our salvation.

Living God, we often feel inadequate to face the threats of the world around us. Thank you that we can come to you in prayer, confident that you are the Almighty and living God who is able to do more than we ask or imagine. Thank you that the power which raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us to bring us through every trial safe at last to glory.

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Peter Misselbrook