The Narrow Path

  Saturday, November 30, 2024 Psalm 72 Malachi 3:13-4:6 Revelation 13:11-18 Observance: Andrew, apostle and martyr Those Who Serve God (Malachi 3:18) Congratulations all round: we have reached the end of this study! We have now spent almost half a year travelling through the latter part of Israel’s history as recorded in the Old Testament. Beginning with the prophet Amos, we saw the brooding storm slowly build, until it broke over Jerusalem with the Babylonian destruction of the temple. We went into exile, where the prophets encouraged us to keep hope. That hope was vindicated with the return of the exiles, where we discovered all was not as we had hoped: a big job was before us. The work of rebuilding had to be done. Yet there were mockers and scoffers, enemies of God and his kingdom, and so we had to do our work with a sword in one hand, and a trowel in the other. And now, on the eve of Advent, we end with the final words from the Old Testament wi...

  Friday, November 29, 2024 Psalm 69:1-16 Malachi 2:17-3:12 Revelation 13:1-10 Observance: Ember Day Like A Refiner’s Fire (Malachi 3:2) As we get ever closer to Christmas, it is difficult to leave the house without having be-tinseled advertising shouting at us about our woefully under-filled Christmas gift list. The curmudgeon that I am, I cannot help but be a little grumpy on the inside, wanting to complain as loudly as possible that “it isn’t even Advent yet!” Yet for all the cheery cartoon gingerbread men and dancing children in Santa costumes, how can we read these words from Malachi and not feel like the birth of Christ is a little deeper than all that? We begin today’s readings with some words that we know speak explicitly about John the Baptist: Saints Matthew, Mark and Luke all refer to it in their gospels. He was the messenger, and his message was to prepare the way for Jesus, the Lord we are seeking, the God of justice. But who coul...

  Thursday, November 28, 2024 Psalm 71 Malachi 2:1-16 Revelation 12:6-18 Observance: Ember Day The Messenger Of The Lord Almighty (Malachi 2:7) Malachi now turns his hard, yet important words onto the priests. The priests have not been faithful; they have been teaching false things, leading the people astray by both their words and their deeds. And God is not pleased. When we ordain priests in our day and time (and it is important to remember that our modern priests are less like Old Testament priests and more like New Testament presbyters), we remind them of the same thing. The bishop exhorts them to remember how high a dignity, and to how weighty an office and charge they are called. They are to be messengers, watchmen, and stewards of the Lord; to teach, feed and provide for the Lord’s family; to seek for Christ’s sheep that are dispersed abroad, and for his children who are “in the midst of this naughty world, that they may be saved through Chri...

  Wednesday, November 27, 2024 Psalm 68:1-20 Malachi 1 Revelation 12:1-6 Observance: Ember Day Great Among The Nations (Malachi 1:11) The prophet Malachi is a brilliantly appropriate way to lead us down to Advent. His is the last book of the Old Testament, and he is the last prophet. He gets the last word before John the Baptist, and as we approach the Advent of Christ, we should pay attention to what he has to say. The first word of the last prophet is this: God loves us. “How does God love us”, we ask. And we need not wonder about the reply from God, because the apostle Paul has explained to us what this bit from Malachi means: God chose those whom he loves from before the creation of the world. (Romans 9:10-13) God’s love is not capricious; God does not wait to decide who to love; God does not change his mind on who he loves. God loves us, and that’s that; God’s love is the rock upon which we can build everything else, because we know it will nev...

  Tuesday, November 26, 2024 Psalms 65; 70 Zechariah 14:12-21 Revelation 11:15-19 Observance: Ember Day Holy To The Lord (Zechariah 14:20) The wild ride of the prophet Zechariah comes to its glorious conclusion, and it is wonderful reading it alongside Revelation. We have the new Jerusalem, with people being brought in from all around the world, and everything has become “HOLY TO THE LORD”. No longer is there a separation between holy and profane. (It might be worthwhile going back over our study of Leviticus to remind us of the importance of this separation.) There is no need for any separation; there is no longer anything profane to worry about. Everything is now holy; from the bells on the horses to the crockery in the kitchen. God is in the midst of his people. You may already be starting to get a sense of the fact that this separation is already starting to break down. We still have profanity in this world, but the number of things that f...

  Monday, November 25, 2024 Psalms 62; 63 Zechariah 14:1-11 Revelation 11:1-14 Observances: Ember Day, James Noble, pioneer Aboriginal deacon (d. 1941) Light In The Evening (Zechariah 14:7) Here we are, in the final week of our journey through The Sword And The Trowel. We have returned from exile and restored to the land. The temple and the city walls are rebuilt. God’s Law has been set as the standard for the law of living. Yet for all this good work, the promise of the prophets – that the great king is coming and his people will be set above the God-haters and scoffers – has not yet come to pass. As we conclude Zechariah and look through Malachi in this final week before Advent, the melody line will be like this. To our eyes, everything that can be done has been done. So why has Christ not yet returned in glory? Where is the great revival? In today’s section of Zechariah we get a good picture of how God works with his creation in this regard. ...

  Saturday, November 23, 2024 Psalms 54; 55:1-12 Zechariah 13 Revelation 10 Observances: Ember Week [ Prayers for the ministry of the Church are appropriate this Ember Week ]; Clement of Rome, bishop and martyr (d. c. 100) Striking The Shepherd, Scattering The Sheep (Zechariah 13:7) The explicit Jesus references have been coming thick and fast over the last few days, and today is no different. Today’s verse is explicitly quoted in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark as referencing Jesus’ arrest in the garden: the Shepherd was arrested, and the disciples scattered, ducking for cover. Something that may have popped up for you while reading through Zechariah the past few days is the fact that these prophecies are not linear. We began with the triumphant entry into Jerusalem; skipped to the resurrection (or Second Coming, depending on how you look at it); looked back to the Great Commission and the in-gathering of God’s people from around the world; then ...

  Friday, November 22, 2024 Psalm 51 Zechariah 12 Revelation 9:13-21 Spirit of Grace and Supplication (Zechariah 12:10) What wonderful imagery we have here in this oracle of the prophet! Prophesying to the returned exiles, happily returned to their homeland, yet struggling to return to God, Zechariah comes up with all these themes for them to reflect on. As we read through them, it is difficult not to move without bumping into Jesus. There is the immovable rock against which all the nations are gathered; the stone of stumbling, the rock of offence, the one upon whom the peoples fall and are injured: the Lord Jesus Christ. The blind leading the blind, because the Lord is with his people; the Lord Jesus Christ. The flaming torch of the Holy Spirit, sent down at Pentecost; the Spirit promised by the Lord Jesus Christ. The one whom they have pierced; the Lord Jesus Christ. Mourning as for an only child, a firstborn son: the Lord Jesus Christ. This pas...

  Thursday, November 21, 2024 Psalm 50 Zechariah 11:4-17 Revelation 9:1-12 The Handsome Price (Zechariah 11:13) If you read this passage from Zechariah and felt like a spiritual wave swept through you as you did, then I would like to confirm for you: yes, this is an explicit prophecy of the betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ. St Matthew, in his gospel, says that the betrayal was a fulfilment of the prophet Jeremiah: it is alluded to in more detail there (and over several chapters), but here in Zechariah it is more plain and in fewer words. Christ is the Good Shepherd; and if you do your morning prayers out of the old prayer book like me, then you might be singing Psalm 100: “Be ye sure that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” Zechariah’s prophecy concerns this imagery of sheep in the pasture; of good shepherds and of worthless. And there is a special condemnation for the ...

  Wednesday, November 20, 2024 Psalm 48 Zechariah 10:6-11:3 Revelation 8 In Distant Lands (Zechariah 10:9) Going through all these Old Testament prophets as closely as we have been runs the risk of us falling into a couple of traps. One of these is that, since so much of God’s eternal message is wrapped up in local imagery, us Christians out in the boonies might not see how it applies to us. Another is that we start thinking that, since the concepts are so high and mysterious, then it must apply to some time far away, and have little to no relevance to us. Yet we must remember that God’s thoughts are so far removed from ours (Isaiah 55:8-9) that he has, in his generosity to us, “dumbed down” his message so that we can have a chance of understanding just what exactly he is getting at. As much as we might think otherwise, we humans don’t do so well with dry facts; we do much better with narrative and story. This story God is telling us has some wonderf...

  Sunday, November 17, 2024 Mark 13:10 And First… At the turn of the 21 st century, a great many exciting things happened. One of the most exciting was one that affected Brisbane pubs: the short-lived era of the cheap pub steak. If you were able to scrape together five dollars, you could go to one of any number of pubs and get a relatively decent steak. There was one pub in particular that had not only the cheap decent steak, but was also just a really nice old building. One day, that building’s owner changed hands, and the new owner apparently wasn’t too interested on owning a pub. Soon afterwards, the pub was closed, having been irreparably destroyed by a mysterious fire the night before. The shock and tragedy has long since passed, but the ruined building still stands there, a stark reminder that if you want to knock down every stone and build something new, there is a process that has to be followed. The entire created universe is more exciting than a pub ...

  Tuesday, November 19, 2024 Psalm 48 Zechariah 9:11-10:5 Revelation 7:9-17 Observance: Elizabeth of Hungary, princess and philanthropist (d. 1231) Like Jewels In A Crown (Zechariah 9:16) Today’s prophetic word from Zechariah does a really good job of showing us how we fit into this universe in an enchanted way. Yes, one does have to acknowledge that Zechariah is alluding to what happened during the inter-testamental period, when Alexander the Great came along and conquered Israel, and the Maccabees later led a successful revolt against them. But the prophet is doing what prophets do: talking about future history in a way that tells us what the grand pattern of God’s story is. The grand pattern of God’s story is one of redemption; of evil tyrants getting their comeuppance, and a great king coming to free his people. While the Maccabees might have successfully removed the Greeks from power, it wasn’t long until the Romans came and took over. After tha...

  Monday, November 18, 2024 Psalms 41; 44:1-9 Zechariah 9:1-10 Revelation 6:12-7:8 The Return Of The King (Zechariah 9:9) Now that we have covered the history of the return of the exiles from the memoirs of Ezra and Nehemiah, we return to the prophets who were preaching at the time. Zechariah was, as we hopefully remember, one of the two loudest prophets during the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Haggai was the old man of wisdom and patience, while Zechariah was the young man of zeal and energy. We have picked up where we left off – Zechariah had a wild night of vision, of flying scrolls, horses, angels and so forth. Now he is being given some, shall we say, more traditional prophetic words to speak. To quickly cover some Bible-reading basics, if you are getting confused about Revelation and the horses and scrolls in there, it might be worth going back to the start of Zechariah. God’s word is uniform across the whole Bible, and if we read about the same thing in di...

  Saturday, November 16, 2024 Psalm 38 Susannah 34-64 Revelation 6:1-11 How Long, Sovereign Lord? (Revelation 6:10) A great result of reading through our scriptures with an eye to Christ’s victory that happens not just in the future but here and now is that it excites us. And so we should! Future history isn’t a downward spiral into the big crash; it is an ever-upwards rise from glory to glory, and God has placed each of us into a pre-determined, specifically intended section of this ascent. But this isn’t to say we are without problems. Jesus promised his followers that, should we leave everything for the sake of the gospel, we would receive a hundred-fold of what we left behind – with persecutions. The last remnants of Satan’s rebellion still remain to folded up, and he really doesn’t want what is coming to him. Yet in spite of the best efforts of the opponents of the gospel, our Lord is sovereign. The martyrs cry out for justice, and they cry out t...

  Friday, November 15, 2024 Psalm 37:1-17 Susannah 1-33 Revelation 5 They Will Reign On The Earth (Revelation 5:10) One of our intentions with the theme “The Sword And The Trowel” is to encourage ourselves in our kingdom work. There have always been opponents of Christ and his gospel, and if we allow ourselves to fall into their claims, then we risk losing heart and the courage of our convictions. Yet, just as the printing press drove the Reformation to take root and flourish, the internet has given us plenty of examples and resources to take on the opponents of the gospel in our day. Every Christian with an internet connection should be, at the very least, an amateur student of most schools of apologetics (apologetics being the art of explaining Christianity). And, if we can get a handle on defending the faith, then the door is opened to easier evangelism, which is the end goal of apologetics. There is no better resource, however, than the Bible. Whe...

  Thursday, November 14, 2024 Psalm 34 Jonah 4 Revelation 4 A God Who Relents (Jonah 4:2) The Bible is such a wonderfully inviting book. It speaks in such a way that, as a reader, one cannot help but be pulled into the story, such that in every page one finds oneself looking to see where they are. Jonah is no different – do you find yourself feeling a little bit like Jonah? When God calls you to do something you would rather not, doesn’t the book suddenly become about you? What about when you find yourself at the bottom of the depths, with seaweed wrapped around your head, aren’t you now the one crying out to God for release? What about in this final chapter – are you walking around, telling everyone you meet about the God in heaven calling us back to his ways? Warning everyone about the big pit they are marching into, trying to rescue as many as possible? Since we are reading this with our sword in one hand and our trowel in the other, it would seem...

  Wednesday, November 13, 2024 Psalm 35:1-17 Jonah 3 Revelation 3:14-22 By Decree Of The King (Jonah 3:7) If you ever want to spend a bit of time discussing abstract theory without actually getting anywhere, political science is not a bad topic to do it with. You can pick one of two sides; that to get political change one has to focus on the grassroots, or, one should look for change from the top. If you wanted to have this conversation but have it actually be productive then you could baptise it. That is, take something that is overwhelmingly secular and pagan, and resurrect it as Christian. Since we are running with this theme of the sword and the trowel, of what we should be doing to participate in the building of the kingdom of heaven in our time, then let’s look at Jonah’s example in building the kingdom in Nineveh. Jonah didn’t choose to bring about change with the anarchists at the grassroots. Nor did he go with the monarchist route of preachi...

  Tuesday, November 12, 2024 Psalm 31 Jonah 2 Revelation 3:7-13 Observance: Charles Simeon, evangelist (d. 1836) I Remembered You (Jonah 2:7) This section of Jonah sounds very much like a “greatest hits” from the book of Psalms. Depending on the Bible you are reading from, you may have glanced at the cross-references and noticed that this prayer of Jonah is filled with quotes and allusions from the Psalms. It is difficult to read the Bible and not get a sense of how much the Psalms permeate every other book. The Psalms are, to put it as concisely as possible, prayers designed to be sung, which is another way of saying they demonstrate how we are to communicate with God. In Jonah’s prayer, we note several themes: firstly, Jonah is bluntly honest about his situation. If you were to read this passage without any modernist biases, you get the impression that he actually died down in the ocean; or if not totally dead, then very close to it. He is no...