The Narrow Path

  Tuesday, October 1, 2024 Psalm 74 Joel 3:9-21 Colossians 1:9-20 Prepare For War! (Joel 3:9) One of the many benefits of regular Bible reading is that we learn to avoid the trap of the mondegreen. A mondegreen is when you mis-hear or mis-remember a line from, say, a song or a poem. One example comes from today’s reading: “Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears.” (Joel 3:10) Doesn’t that sound a little off? Isn’t it the other way around? If so, you may be remembering Isaiah 2:4, which reads: “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” Pulling this part of Joel together with that part of Isaiah makes one realise that, between the two, we are getting a fuller picture of how God relates to humanity. In Joel, there are people turning their tools into weapons, and coming into the valley of God’s judgement. Isaiah, meanwhile, turns the camera towards those who are turning their weapons into tools, a

  Monday, September 30, 2024 Psalm 72 Joel 2:25-3:8 Colossians 1:1-8 Observance: Jerome, priest and biblical scholar (d. 420) On All People (Joel 2:28) If you’ve ever paid attention in church on Pentecost, then I’m sure you recognise this passage from Joel. St Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, preached a sermon to the people of Jerusalem and quoted this passage as proof that Jesus was the Messiah. I wonder, however, if you’ve ever heard a Pentecost sermon that spoke about locusts? Because, having read it now in context, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit onto the church is what happens after the locusts have been removed. Look at the timeline: the locusts fill the earth and consume everything; then God will drive them away “into a parched and barren land”; then the grass will again grow green and the trees return to bearing fruit; then God “will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten… You will have plenty to eat, until you are full”; and t

  Saturday, September 28, 2024 Psalm 71 Joel 2:12-24 Ephesians 6:10-24 Who Knows? (Joel 2:14) Oftentimes when considering the blessings of God, we can get caught up on all the immaterial, spiritual blessings. This is good, of course. But we must also remember that God’s purpose in Jesus’ death and resurrection was to bring about a new earth as well as a new heavens. There are to be material blessings, as well as spiritual. Joel is calling the nation to repentance, to rend their hearts and not their clothes. To come to God in their hearts – spiritually – so that God may send down the material blessings of bountiful crops and, more broadly, a healthy environment. He pleads with them, just try it, and asks the question: “Who knows? God may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing.” Are we in any question about this? Joel was writing these words before Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth, but we are reading them after. Is it a question, or is it a state

  Friday, September 27, 2024 Psalm 68:1-20 Joel 1:15-2:11 Ephesians 6:1-9 Observance: Vincent de Paul, priest and worker with the poor (d. 1660) Panting For The Lord (Joel 1:20) These locusts are a bit of a bother! Joel seems to feel it appropriate to compare the plague of locusts with “the day of the Lord”, an Old Testament catchphrase for what we now call the second coming of Christ – an overstatement, or a double meaning for the discerning reader? Everything is affected by the plague of locusts, even the poor wild animals. If the locusts are a warning for the people to amend their ways, why do the wild animals have to suffer, too? Here we have an implication of what it means to be a human made in the image of God. God likes to delegate; God likes to create, and to share that creation with created beings. When he made human beings way back in the beginning, he told us that we would be responsible for the material universe as his representatives.

  Thursday, September 26, 2024 Psalms 65; 70 Joel 1:1-14 Ephesians 5:21-33 Observance: Lancelot Andrewes, bishop of Winchester (d. 1626) Call A Sacred Assembly (Joel 1:14) Another day, another minor prophet, this time the prophet Joel. His is a curious case amongst the prophets; there is nothing really to tie him down to any specific part of history, as he doesn’t mention any kings. Nor is he mentioned in any of the historical narratives (the name itself was popular, but none of those other Joels is this Joel). What sticks out the most, particularly with regards our own efforts at learning what lessons we have for today, is that his main imagery is not imagery: he is talking about literal locusts. He certainly does a good job of making the locusts sound like a metaphor for an invading army, but his metaphor is the other way around: the invading army is, in this case, literal locusts. All this makes us approach a certain type of spiritual discernment we f

  Wednesday, September 25, 2024 Psalms 62; 63 Nahum 3:8-19 Ephesians 5:6-20 Observance: Sergius of Moscow, abbot and teacher (d. 1392) Guards Like Locusts (Nahum 3:17) Usually when we get to the end of a book by a prophet, we get a “happy ending” clause, something to remind the reader of God’s re-creation promised at the end of the age. As Christians, we have the New Testament to teach us that this re-creation is the second coming of the Lord Jesus, heralding the new heavens and the new earth, the time and place of no sickness, no war, and no tears. Yet Nahum feels it appropriate to finish his work with rejoicing at the end of evil, rather than the beginning of perfect peace. This perhaps gives us some biblical permission to feel relief at the end of evil. The general sense one gets, as a student of the Bible, is that we should not concern ourselves with what will happen to the wicked, but rather to focus on the goodness of God. This is a good sense to h

  Tuesday, September 24, 2024 Psalms 56; 57 Nahum 2:10-3:7 Ephesians 4:29-5:5 Left With No Prey (Nahum 2:13) If yesterday there was a sense of smug satisfaction at the comeuppance of the Ninevites, I think today’s further denunciation wipes it out completely. Here we get some of the strongest words of any prophet. The imagery in particular of the woman’s naked shame is deeply unsettling, and we should feel uncomfortable. Take this uncomfortable feeling and sit with it. Because the darkness of which this world is capable is very dark indeed. One of the messages we should take from the prophet Nahum is that we need to be absolutely vigilant in keeping ourselves free from any hint of darkness. Consider how today’s words from St Paul reinforce this: amongst us there must not even be a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. We must give no quarter to evil in our lives. Not a littl

  Monday, September 23, 2024 Psalms 54; 55:1-12 Nahum 1:15-2:9 Ephesians 4:17-28 Plundering The Endless Supply (Nahum 2:9) The German language is wonderful in that it seems to have a word for everything. Not only do they have a word for “good times drinking good beer with good friends”, they also have another word specifically for “good times drinking good beer with good friends before midday”. Reading today’s passage from Nahum, where the baddies of Assyria finally get their comeuppance for all their wickedness, makes one feel almost guilty for feeling good about it. And I’m sure there’s a word in German for that feeling. Yet one cannot read this passage in light of the gospel and not hear echoes of the Lord Jesus. In the gospels of St Matthew (12:22-37) and St Mark (3:20-30) we read about Jesus exorcising a demon. As a result, his enemies accuse him of being in league with the devil. Jesus replies by pointing out that “a house divided against itself cannot sta

  Saturday, September 21, 2024 Psalm 50 Nahum 1:1-14 Ephesians 4:1-16 Observance: Matthew, apostle, evangelist and martyr Prepare Your Grave (Nahum 1:14) Before we kick off our next minor prophet, it is important to have some context. We have moved back in time from Habakkuk, to a time just after Jonah and his adventures with the whale. Jonah had preached repentance to Nineveh, the capital of the evil Assyrian empire, and they had responded positively. But it was only temporary, and they returned to their evil ways – and how evil were these ways! Enter Nahum. The Assyrians have already conquered the northern kingdom, and the people of the southern kingdom of Judah are trembling in their boots at the prospect of their own demise. To be conquered by the Assyrians was no liberation; they were known for their viciousness, and their kings boasted of their cruelty. Against such hate, Nahum has some choice words for them. God has promised that the Assyria

  Friday, September 20, 2024 Psalm 48 Habakkuk 3:8-19 Ephesians 3:14-21 Observance: John Coleridge Patteson, first bishop of Melanesia, martyr (d. 1871) Yet… (Habakkuk 3:19) When Christians are behaving all Christianly, there are a range of different reactions people have. The reaction we hope for is that people see us walking around all forgiven-like and want to know why, and give us the chance to speak to them about Jesus. Another reaction is not so good, but still happens more often than we would like, which is that it increases the size of the chip on people’s shoulders. We can also have on grow on our own shoulders if we are not prayerfully prepared for adversity. And this prayer of Habakkuk is excellent prayerful preparation. If anyone had anything to complain about, it would be the prophet Habakkuk. After all his efforts to warn, plead and prophecy to the people, their hearts remained hardened, and God released the Babylonians. He knew better than

  Thursday, September 19, 2024 Psalm 45 Habakkuk 2:18-3:7 Ephesians 3:1-13 Renewing Awesome Deeds (Habakkuk 3:2) What a wonderful clash of concepts we have in this first reading. Moving from the end of the section of “woes” of chapter two, into this prayer of chapter three, there is a hinge verse: “the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.” Which one is it? Are we to be silent before the Lord? Or are we to join in this prayer of Habakkuk, which is anything other than silence? That final part of the woes of chapter two covers the futility of worshipping man-made gods, and this is the hint that leads us to our answer. Creating a god of our own, and then demanding that god speak, is more than a little silly. Idols come in many forms, but they all boil down to the same desire: the desire to rule on our own. I don’t need to remind you (nor remind myself!) that if we were to look at what we were like even just five minutes ago, then we

  Wednesday, September 18, 2024 Psalms 62; 63 Habakkuk 2:6-17 Ephesians 2:11-22 Observance: John Ramsden Wollaston, priest and missionary of Western Australia (d. 1856) Filled With Knowledge And Glory (Habakkuk 2:14) I realise we are still a fair way off, but I want to spend a moment thinking about Christmas. Christmas truly is the most wonderful time of the year, so the crooners croon, and in my defence, today’s reading from Habakkuk is a direct reference to Christmas. It is, I promise! He is quoting Isaiah: chapter 11, verse 9. We read it every Christmas Eve during our Nine Lessons and Carols, and the whole passage begins like this: “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord – and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.” (Is 11:1-2)

  Tuesday, September 17, 2024 Psalm 40 Habakkuk 1:12-2:5 Ephesians 2:1-10 Observance: Hildegaard of Bingen, abbess and spiritual writer (d. 1179) Righteous Living By Faith (Habakkuk 2:4) Yesterday we were complaining to God that evil was being allowed to run rampant. God replied by saying that he would send the Babylonian army to put down that evil. But that wasn’t a good answer for us, and so we went back to God with a new complaint: why is God using evil ways to get rid of evil? The Babylonians aren’t getting off lightly. They are “as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied.” God has allowed them to scoop up victory after battlefield victory in the net of their armies, to the point where they now worship their own military might – hardly a virtuous tool for God to use for his righteous judgement. Yet in the midst of all this, God still holds out the hand of friendship: the righteous will live by his faith. One of the lines most ofte

  Monday, September 16, 2024 Psalm 38 Habakkuk 1:1-11 Ephesians 1:1-14 Observance: Ninian of Galloway, bishop and missionary (d. c. 432) Something You Wouldn’t Believe (Habakkuk 1:5) Here in the little book by Habakkuk we have a wonderful interaction between the prophet and the Lord. Poor old Habakkuk is crying out a prayer that I am sure all of us have prayed at least once in our lives: why, O God, have you let things get so bad? It isn’t an exaggeration to say that yes, things have gotten pretty bad. Habakkuk’s list of complaints are nicely universal, and we can make the same complaints today: “Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralysed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.” This is a fair complaint to make to God in prayer. God is perfectly good, yet for some reason he is allowing evil to exist in his good creation. God isn’t si

  Saturday, September 14, 2024 Psalm 34 Isaiah 34 3 John Observance: Holy Cross Gathered Together By The Spirit (Isaiah 34:16) I must admit that when looking for an encouragement to kick off the weekend, I struggle with a passage like Isaiah 34. “The dead bodies will send up a stench; the mountains will be soaked by their blood.” (v. 3) After yesterday’s light skimming over the destruction of Jerusalem at the end of Chronicles, I thought we had gotten off easy. But the prophet always has to come along and ruin everyone’s fun! Yet, upon a further re-reading, it seems like this is actually the perfect reading to kick off the weekend with encouragement from heaven. Consider how we can read the poetic imagery of Isaiah and recognise that God is not speaking about a wholesale slaughter of humanity (which would conflict with the promise God made to Noah), but a wholesale re-creation of existence from a spiritual perspective. Nations, mountains, stars, wi

  Friday, September 13, 2024 Psalm 35:1-17 2 Chronicles 36:15-23 2 John Observance: Cyprian of Carthage, bishop and martyr (d. 258) Enjoying its Sabbath Rests (2 Chronicles 36:21) The destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians was no picnic for the locals. We read in various other places, including the Psalms and the Prophets, that it was an occasion of horrific violence and tragedy. Yet here in the conclusion of the Chronicles, it seems like the author and his readers have heard enough of the horrible stuff. And so we get an ending that actually feels loaded with hope, rather than ending with heartbreak. (We also get a hint of where we are going with the title of this series, “The Sword and the Trowel”, with the mention of Cyrus and his return of the exiles – but that is for later.) One thing that does seem to stick out in this passage is the comment about the land enjoying its Sabbath rest. Remembering that a Sabbath rest is a spiritual rest as much as

  Thursday, September 12, 2024 Psalm 31 2 Chronicles 36:1-14 1 John 5:13-21 Humbled Before the Word of the Lord (2 Chronicles 36:12) We return back to the history of the Chronicles after spending some time with more of the Minor Prophets, just in time to see everything unravel completely. National policy as regards international relations sees Jerusalem’s kings drift between Egypt and Babylon, the two major powers of the region, to their own downfall. We get here a reference to another prophet, Jeremiah, and it makes one realise: this isn’t about politics. It’s about spirituality. When we look to the task of the sword and the trowel, of what our job as kingdom-builders involves, we cannot escape politics. Our own politics might seem different to the politics of ancient Jerusalem on the surface, but at its foundation it is still all the same. There is nothing new under the sun. The consistency lies in what the role of God’s word plays, and to whom. In tod

  Wednesday, September 11, 2024 Psalms 28; 29 Obadiah 15-21 1 John 5:1-12 Observance: Mother Esther CHN, founder of the Community of the Holy Name, Melbourne (d. 1931) The Lord’s Kingdom (Obadiah 21) If the first half of Obadiah reads like the tension of a fantasy novel, the second half reads like the “happily ever after”. The goblins, having had their fun drinking and carousing on the holy hill, will be driven out, never to be seen again. Places of beauty, profaned by wickedness, will be restored to their former glory – indeed, to a surpassing glory. People of God will stream into these places, filling them with the love of God, an eternal peace, never to be stained by the influence of evil ever again. It will be as if evil had never been. It’s a wonderful story, don’t you think? Yet it will not come easily. The big battle that turned the tide was nothing less than the betrayal, torture and execution of the Lord Jesus. It turned the moon blood red and b

  Tuesday, September 10, 2024 Psalm 25 Obadiah 1-14 1 John 4:13-21 Living In The Rocks (Obadiah 3) When was the last time you read the book of the prophet Obadiah? Considering it is the shortest of all the Old Testament books, it is a wonder we don’t read it more often. And how marvellously vivid is the imagery! One can just picture it: the Edomites, living up in the mountains, keeping themselves aloof from the world around them, hoarding their treasure deep in the rock. When the world around them is burning – and in particular, their kin in Jerusalem, ravaged by the Babylonians – they remain up in their mountain strongholds, counting their coins, ignoring the cries below. It almost makes you wonder if they also were a short, stocky people, with thick beards and axes; the connection to the dwarfs of fantasy is uncanny. But we read about dwarfs (and goblins and dragons and elves) so that we know what to do when we come across them in real life. Because as

  Monday, September 9, 2024 Psalm 22:1-22 Zephaniah 3:11-20 1 John 4:1-12 Removing The Proud (Zephaniah 3:11) We begin afresh the work of the sword and the trowel, of building the kingdom of heaven on earth. The new week has begun, hopefully restored after a holy rest. It is probably a good idea to remind ourselves of the attitude we are to have as we set our hands again to the task before us. Today, Zephaniah is concluding his prophecy where all of history will conclude: the blessings of God upon his people. If we remember our method of reading biblical prophecy, we can see that all this has happened, is yet to happen, and is happening now (in different ways, of course, as God gradually reveals his ultimate plan through the course of time). It is comforting to read this final section of the book and know that this is where we are all headed: a place with no shame and no pride, no lies and no fear. When Christ returns and brings all things to its end, we w