How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!

 

Wednesday, May 24, 2023


Psalms 130; 131; 133

Deuteronomy 3:18-4:8

John 16:25-17:5


Observances: Week of Prayer for Christian Unity; John (d. 1791) and Charles (d. 1788) Wesley, evangelists


How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!


Yesterday we reflected on how conflict is unnatural. Today, we get the opposite of conflict: familial unity. But it is not a perfect opposite, because while conflict is unnatural, familial unity is not natural: it is supernatural.


Read down to the end of Psalm 133. For kindred to live in unity is so beautifully transcendent and divine for the author that they compare it to two things: the sacred oil that anoints priests, and the dew found on the holy mountain.


When God rested on the mountain, He came as a storm, as lightning and thunder and clouds. The dew that is left over from that kind of storm is unique, blessed: there is nothing else like it, because there is no other storm like the coming of the Lord.


The other comparison, the anointing oil, is also curious. We understand a sacrament to be both the sign, and the thing the sign is pointing to. So the oil is both the sign that Aaron has become a priest as well as the physical manifestation of his ordination. Why is this a suitable comparison for the unity of a family?


Because when people live in unity as a family, “there the LORD ordained His blessing”. And what is the Lord’s blessing? “Life forevermore”. God’s way is to bring forth life, and life in abundance. “Go forth and multiply” is the instruction from God to us, over and again, in every place and to every people. God has made a family; join in the project of growing His family. Preach the gospel, find God’s children wherever they may be found. And when we do find each other, remember how very good and pleasant and full of supernatural grace it is for us to live together in unity: with one another, and with our God.

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