The Narrow Path

  Saturday, August 31, 2024 Psalm 83 2 Chronicles 34:14-28 Romans 16:17-27 Observances: Aidan of Lindisfarne, bishop and missionary (d. 651); John Bunyan, preacher and spiritual writer (d. 1688) Hearing the Words of the Law (2 Chronicles 34:19) In reading situations like in today’s verse, it is good to remember that just because something happens in the Bible doesn’t mean we should do it too. Imagine if, every Sunday, the readers up the front of the church had to tear their clothes after reading each lesson! Although, there might be one or two people who you think should be tearing the clothes of their heart after reading their Bible… As pithy and cliché it might sound, we live in an unprecedented age. If you want to read the Bible, you just need to pull out your phone. You can find Bibles in cheap motels in the top drawer. Knock on any church and ask, and I’m certain someone will hand you theirs for free. There are some parts of the world w...

  Friday, August 30, 2024 Psalms 148; 149 2 Chronicles 33:21-34:13 Romans 16:1-16 Seeking The God Of His Father (2 Chronicles 34:3) It must have only just been the other week when we reflected on how God can move very quickly indeed. The people under King Hezekiah praised God for moving so quickly; it was quite unexpected, and so they just had to sing for joy! Today we have a more relatable account of God’s pace in the lives of human beings. Josiah became king when he was eight years old. When he turned sixteen, he began to seek after God – I think there are more than a few of us who can relate to discovering the existential crisis in the melodrama of our teenage-hood. Upon turning twenty, full of the vigour and zeal one expects of every young man, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of demon worship. Then in his mid-twenties, on the verge of self-realisation of his responsibility and godly potential, he began to repair the Temple. King Josiah s...

  Thursday, August 29, 2024 Psalm 145 The Prayer Of Manasseh Romans 15:22-33 Observance: Beheading of John the Baptist The God of Those Who Repent (The Prayer of Manasseh 13) This morning we have a passage from a book that is not inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Prayer of Manasseh is included in what the church calls the “apocrypha”, which is a set of written works that sit alongside the Bible. We read them for example of life and instruction of manners, but do not apply them to establish any doctrine, according to the sixth Article of Religion at the back of our prayer book. Nonetheless, we did just yesterday read about King Manasseh and his wild ride of a life journey. It must have been quite a change of character he went through: first he rebelled both against his father and God, replacing true worship with devil worship. Then he was captured by the Assyrians in a most undignified manner, in chains and with a hook through his nose. During this ...

  Wednesday, August 28, 2024 Psalms 143; 146 2 Chronicles 33:1-20 Romans 15:14-21 Observance: Augustine of Hippo, bishop and teacher (d. 430) The Lord Was Moved (2 Chronicles 33:13) In our passage from St Paul’s letter to the Romans, the apostle is making a small break in his preaching to tell his audience that he is not telling them anything they do not already know. This is perfectly understandable if we recognise that this letter is a sort of fundraising appeal for his missionary work: the apostle wants to get on and start planting the gospel in places where Christ is not known, and so he gives the church in Rome a run-down on what his theology is, so that they will feel comfortable in supporting him financially. The fact that we have this fundraising appeal as part of inspired scripture can teach us something important: God wants us to keep being reminded of certain eternal truths. Reading through the story of King Manasseh can feel a bit same...

  Tuesday, August 27, 2024 Psalm 140 2 Chronicles 32:24-33 Romans 15:1-13 Observance: Monica, mother of Augustine (d. 387) God-Given Riches (2 Chronicles 32:29) This latter part of King Hezekiah’s life is pretty well covered in the Bible. Here in 2 Chronicles we have the shortest account, but when we turn to 2 Kings 20 and Isaiah 38-39 we get much richer detail. Having the same event by different authors helps us round out our understanding of what took place; the four gospels are probably the best example of where this happens elsewhere. Not only do we get different little details that sate our curiosity, we can also compare what each author is trying to emphasise, making us more well-rounded Christians. Here in the Chronicles, the author is trying to emphasise the fact that when the nation followed the ways of the Lord, things went well. Lest we try and constrain God’s ways, a spanner is thrown in the works: Hezekiah becomes ill. Hang on a minute, ...

  Monday, August 26, 2024 Psalms 137; 138 2 Chronicles 32:9-23 Romans 14:13-23 The Work Of Men’s Hands (2 Chronicles 32:19) I have heard many different excuses from many different types of people as to why they would not bend the knee to King Jesus – why people don’t want to be Christian. More often than not, the reason they give officially is just a smokescreen, and if you dig a little deeper, then the true reason comes out in conversation. It can be frustrating when these people are our friends, and heartbreaking when they are our family. These Assyrians had all the reason in the world to puff themselves up and claim that they could take down the king of heaven. Every other god they had destroyed with ease; what was the difference between those other gods and the God of Israel? This is the big difference between all the other so-called gods, and the one true and living God: our God is above all other things. There is a dividing line. On one side of t...

  Saturday, August 24, 2024 Psalms 130; 131; 133 2 Chronicles 31:17-32:8 Romans 14:1-12 Observance: Bartholomew, apostle and martyr A Greater Power (2 Chronicles 32:7) The Assyrian army is a very scary thing. A whole mob of angry, bloodthirsty terrors, come from across the wilderness, with all the latest in warfare technology, a string of unbroken victories behind them – who wouldn’t be shaking in their sandals? When these sorts of things happen in the Bible, it is comforting to read words like those from King Hezekiah: don’t be afraid, God is far bigger and scarier than that lot over there, and he is on our side. This attitude, of turning to God when things get really bad, is a good reflex to have. But it doesn’t have to only come about when things get really bad. We can see the truth of all conflict in the world through this lens. This is because everything is spiritual. Politics, of different colours battling it out at the ballot box, is spi...

  Friday, August 23, 2024 Psalms 124; 125; 126 2 Chronicles 31:1-12a Romans 13 Smashing the Sacred Stones (2 Chronicles 31:1) When it comes to a national revival, of the kingdom of heaven bursting forth, of the work of the sword and the trowel, there would seem to be an ordering of events, an order clearly seen here in the account of King Hezekiah’s reign. The first step was to offer right worship. The Temple was repaired, the orders of priests and Levites resurrected, and the worship prescribed in the books of Moses restored. Faithful worship pleasing to God, obedient according to the scriptures, brought about a national revival. People from all over then came to join in that worship. God was worshipped in the way God wants to be worshipped, and the result was magnificent. From this place of unspeakable joy and blessing, the people then went out and smashed the stones and cut down the poles of demon worship. They went to God first, then out into the...

  Thursday, August 22, 2024 Psalm 118:1-18 2 Chronicles 30:13-27 Romans 12:9-21 The Lord Heard And Healed (2 Chronicles 30:20) We are a bit over one month into our theme of The Sword And The Trowel, and we’ve already had plenty to think about. And to then ponder the fact that our readings will continue this theme all the way to the start of the next Christian calendar, the start of December, makes me wonder about how much more we will learn. It can be daunting to think about just how much there is to know if we want to get this right. Add to this the fact that we want to gather up more people into this great project of building the kingdom of heaven on earth. Just as Jesus spread his arms on the cross to embrace all the flock, including those who are yet to be gathered in, we are to be looking outward, finding and bringing in all of God’s people. What happens, then, when there are people who have just joined us, like those who came from out of town t...

  Wednesday, August 21, 2024 Psalms 121; 122; 123 2 Chronicles 29:31-30:12 Romans 12:1-8 God Moving Quickly (2 Chronicles 29:36) I sometimes wonder if our conception of God has influenced how we understand God to move. If God is really, really big (or, as the Sunday School song goes, “so big, so strong and so mighty”) then does that mean we think God is a bit ponderous, taking time to warm up before he really hits top speed? As we humans flit about this fleeting life, zipping this way and that like dragonflies on a pond, the fact that God is working to his own timetable forces us to slow down and become patient. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however: none of us have all the information, and it is good to place our trust in the Lord to do what he seems best, when he seems best. The people of Hezekiah’s kingdom must have thought the same way as we do. Because at the end of this great revival at the Temple, the author specifically points out that ...

  Tuesday, August 20, 2024 Psalms 114; 115 2 Chronicles 29:15-30 Romans 11:25-36 Observance: Bernard of Clairvaux, abbot and teacher (d. 1153) Singing Praises With Gladness (2 Chronicles 29:30) Recently we reflected on the idea of politicians “staying in their lane” when it comes to the things of religion. The separation of church and state proved to be a bit more of a difficult nut to crack than we had originally thought. Yet there has to be some sort of relationship between the two; Jesus is Lord of everything, politics included. This speaks into our conundrum as we stand with our sword and our trowel, building the kingdom of heaven here on earth. What is our objective? What’s the end goal here? If we had a government that wanted to bring the entire country back to the Lord, what would our reaction be? We read in today’s account of King Hezekiah’s national reform that he did not act alone: both he and his officials ordered the Levites to pra...

  Monday, August 19, 2024 Psalms 110; 111 2 Chronicles 28:16-29:11 Romans 11:13-24 The Lord Has Chosen You (2 Chronicles 29:11) What a mess that King Hezekiah has inherited! His predecessor, Ahaz, had turned from the Lord, found failure, and doubled down on it. Not only does Hezekiah need to fix the physical Temple, he has to reform the entire religion! It sounds like it must have been a very big job. We read that Ahaz had put places on every street corner for demon worship; the rot had gone deep. Is not our own place and time eerily similar? Walk down any street you like and you will find altars to the gods of greed, money, vanity, and existential dread. To take our sword and our trowel to our own situation is not an enviable task. Yet this is the time and place in which God has placed us. It is not for us to complain about it; it is for us to rise to the occasion. Hezekiah chose some interesting words: “do not be negligent”. Usually we wo...

  Saturday, August 17, 2024 Psalm 106:1-24 2 Chronicles 28:1-15 Romans 11:1-12 Send Back The Prisoners (2 Chronicles 28:11) Let’s be unashamed about our intentions in doing the work of the sword and the trowel: we want God to bless us. Building the kingdom of heaven on earth is objectively good, with objectively good results. In the Bible, God promises us many times over that if we walk in his ways then we will receive blessings; of descendants, of prosperous and safe land to live on, and long and happy life. But what is the end purpose of these blessings we are chasing? Is it so that we can all zoom around in private jets, staying in expensive hotels with precious metals encrusted on our toilets? There is an important Biblical lesson we learn from school sports: to be gracious in victory. The cycle of Chronicles continues, and today we read about an evil king of Judah, Ahaz. He did lots of terrible things, and the worst of them is something we are n...

  Friday, August 16, 2024 Psalm 105:1-22 2 Chronicles 26:16-27-9 Romans 10:14-21 That Is For The Priests (2 Chronicles 26:18) A popular attitude in politics, usually used in derision towards the lowest level of governance, the local council, is that they are only responsible for “rubbish, roads and rates”. Some councillors have tried, in vain, to make the local council a body of governance more noble in their own eyes. But all that that results in is the follow-up call; to “stay in your lane”. King Uzziah has been told the same thing by the temple priests. It is not right for the civil ruler to enter the holy place and perform the work of religion, and so he breaks out in some sort of horrible skin condition as a result (if you remember our study through Leviticus, you might have an appreciation for how serious this is). We have tried to do the same thing in Australia: to separate politics and religion. But we haven’t done a terribly good job of it. ...

  Thursday, August 15, 2024 Psalm 104:1-25 2 Chronicles 26:1-15 Romans 10:5-13 Observance: Mary, Mother of Our Lord Seeking God For Success (2 Chronicles 26:5) Let’s set aside our sword for a moment and get a good grip on the trowel. Plant your feet firmly on the ground, relax your shoulders, and let’s dig deep down into some basic foundations. King Uzziah had some repair work to do, and not a small amount of digging. He had ascended the throne of a royal city that needed the defences rebuilt. And so he decided to listen to Zechariah. A small note here: King Uzziah’s grandfather Joash executed a certain godly man called Zechariah; as it was popular name for prophets, we might be getting a hint from the author about how we should be treating people who love God’s truth. Back to the trowel. King Uzziah not only rebuilt the city defences, he also went out and did a great amount of agricultural engineering, “for he loved the soil”. And in a time wh...

  Wednesday, August 14, 2024 Psalms 108; 109:20-30 Hosea 14 Romans 9:25-10:4 Observance: Twentieth century martyrs Stumbling In The Way (Hosea 14:9) Well done all of us for getting through another minor prophet! These little-read books tucked away at the end of the Old Testament are often skipped over; if we hear anything from them it is usually just a nice line or two on a fridge magnet or coffee mug. But to have made our way through all fourteen chapters of Hosea is something we should all feel happy about. How else could we have approached this final section without having paid attention to what has come before? There was: prostitution, both spiritual and physical, committed by both men and women; greed; cheating; lying; stealing; child sacrifice; and widespread destruction and war crimes. God, looking down on all this, didn’t beat about the bush when he told us his opinion about it. Yet, as with every message from God, there is always the ...

  Tuesday, August 13, 2024 Psalms 101; 102:1-11 Hosea 13 Romans 9:14-24 Observance: Jeremy Taylor, bishop and spiritual writer (d. 1667) Where, O Grave, Is Your Destruction? (Hosea 13:14) We’re now getting to the end of Hosea, and what a climactic build-up we are getting! Once again there is the horror of war, but now it is shrouded in the glory of the Mighty Creator; the wind is building up in the desert and crashing into the fortified cities, blown by the mighty breath of the Lord; kings have been raised and are being brought low, each time by the power of the one God who rules in heaven. We shouldn’t allow ourselves to be bogged down in the details. Hosea is sweeping up all his prophetic warnings into one big over-arching message: that God is supreme. Let go of the hand-rails of your human sensibilities; God is speaking now, and we ought to listen. God has made this world, called it good, rescued and saved a people for himself, and brought them ou...

  Monday, August 12, 2024 Psalms 99; 100 Hosea 11:12-12:14 Romans 9:1-13 Struggled and Overcame (Hosea 12:4) The people in Ephraim have looked at their prosperity and thought to themselves: God is happy with us because we are rich! And we, in our relative luxury in Australia, can run the risk of thinking the same thing. But there is a vast gulf between material wealth and spiritual health. The merchants of Ephraim may be very rich, but that has come about from their dishonest scales, which is a far cry from Moses’ prayer bidding God to “prosper the work of our hands” (Psalm 90). Through Hosea, God is reminding the people of their spiritual history, and one of those characters in particular is worth revisiting: Jacob. Jacob was not exactly the most righteous man in the Bible; he swindled his brother Esau in a pretty rotten way, and spent a fair amount of his early years being swindled himself. But Jacob had two things going for him: God loved him, and ...

  Saturday, August 10, 2024 Psalms 92, 93 Hosea 11:1-11 Romans 8:28-39 Observance: Laurence, deacon and martyr at Rome (d. 258) Ties Of Love (Hosea 11:4) Let’s have a quick moment of honesty: I am not very good at handiwork. And I am even worse at self-defence sport. So when we speak about a sword and a trowel, I don’t rely on any innate skill of my own. This great building-project of the kingdom of heaven is overwhelming, and it calls for all sorts of people, many of us who are not very good at it. If God were the type of God who, like a grumpy old man in the sky, looked down upon our feeble and amateur efforts and was upset, then none of us would have any hope. Fortunately for all of us, God is not like that at all. “I am God, and not a man – the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath.” God is our gentle Father, leading us by the hand. It is he who teaches us to walk, taking us by the arms. He is the one who heals us. God leads us with ...