Friday, November 18, 2022

 

Friday, November 18, 2022


Psalms 41; 44:1-9

Zechariah 12

Revelation 9:13-21


On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples.


If you have been fortunate enough to ever read one of those digests for boys, those old hardcover books published 60-70 years ago that would have had adventure stories, survival skills and tales of ancient heroes, you may have picked up a good trick when playing hide-and-seek: people don’t tend to look up. You probably already know this without having read exciting stories about downed airmen hiding in trees from enemy soldiers; I think it is a pretty universal experience to have walked into something (or someone) by accident because our eyes were down.


The human response to God’s holy justice, as we have read in the past few studies, has been to look down. Most notable would be the description of people hiding in caves, calling the mountains down on them. Today’s reading in Revelation gets pretty violent, yet the people at the end of the reading still refuse to repent, preferring instead to keep their focus downwards on murder, theft and fornication.


This is what it is like when God gets our attention. It is like we stumble into a big rock in our path. The New Testament frequently describes Jesus as both the cornerstone and the stumbling block. Today’s line, from Zechariah, links the two concepts. We trudge along, looking down at our feet, keeping our eyes on the dust and the things of the flesh. Then Jesus stands in our path and we stumble into His holiness.


Jesus isn’t causing us to stub our toe in order to punish us. He wants us to look up. To direct our attention on Him. If we had been looking up at Him, His light would have showed us the clear path to take. We would have been too consumed by the vision of His glorious beauty for anything earthly to distract us. His light shows us that His way is not into a rock to stumble over, but the cornerstone on top of which we build His kingdom. Any situation we are in that brings us down is made worse by our focusing on it. Look up, look at His face. Get your bearings. See the path clearly again. Refresh your spirit. He will help you step more carefully next time. Look up.



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