Thursday, August 4, 2022

 

Thursday, August 4, 2022



Psalm 80


Hosea 9


Romans 8:9-17


Observance: John Baptist Vianney, parish priest of Ars, France



...the Spirit of God dwells in you...



Anyone who has had to be a part of a family discussion on inheritance knows how unpleasant it can get. For some reason, the death of a loved one becomes an opportunity for greed and spite to pop up out of seemingly no-where. This is a universal human experience that I am confident Paul would have known about. Despite this, he decides to use inheritance as a way to describe a mechanism of salvation.


Depending on which Bible you prefer to read, you will either see “children” or “sons” used in verses 16 and 17. I decided to look it up in the Greek; the original word is indeed children. The point of all this is an effort to emphasise this idea of inheritance: everything that the Father “owns” is given to us as “heirs”. The ancient Jewish inheritance law had everything passed on to the first-born, while the Roman version carefully shared out everything equally; therefore, the translator's discretion between “son” and “children”. The important bit to remember is that everything is given to the heir.


Our Psalm this morning has a curious verse. Praying to “the Shepherd of Israel”, the “Lord God of Hosts”, the Psalmist asks to “let your power rest on the man at your right hand: on that son of man whom you made so strong for yourself.” I will concede that the original author would have been talking about a human King. I would take it one step further and say that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in this text means this is also a prophecy about the Lord Jesus. Settle on this truth: the power of the Lord God of Hosts is working in us through the Spirit of that same God who is dwelling within us. This is why Paul is not concerned about “sufferings”; what are they to people like us? “The prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit is mad!” they said to Hosea. I will wear this like a badge of honour.


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