The Narrow Path

  Monday, August 1, 2022 Psalm 74 Hosea 6:4-7:7 Romans 7:1-12 Lesser Festival: Holy men and women of the Old Testament But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit. Isn't it curious how a marriage between a man and a woman comes up yet again to be used as analogy for our relationship with God? There is something deeply spiritual that is revealed in this concept. In Hosea, God is using it to describe how much He loves us, by setting up a terrible marriage and communicating Himself as the husband continually rescuing his wayward wife out of danger and bringing her safely back home. Paul now takes marriage between a man and woman and uses it to describe how completely we are attached either to sin or Jesus. In the reading from Hosea, the nation of Samaria is told that their attachment to sin is like a wood-fired oven that burns so hotly it does...

  Saturday, July 30, 2022 Psalm 72 Hosea 5:5-6:3 Romans 6:12-23 Lesser Festival: William Wilberforce (d. 1833) For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law but under grace. Yesterday, we opened the can of worms of “free will”. Today, Paul turns around and scolds us for our hubris using the analogy of slavery. Before we go any further, we should remember that this section of Romans is talking about a Christian concept called “sanctification”. Sanctification is a two-dollar word used to describe our walk with God. This walk is, ideally, away from sin and into righteousness. The problem Paul wants us to figure out is how to reconcile the high doctrinal teaching that we experience a “new birth” - where our old self is dead and nailed to the tree - with the real life fact that we continue to sin after baptism. The key to figuring this out is understanding where we sit as humans in relation to the spiritual nature of God and Go...

  Friday, July 29, 2022 Psalm 69:1-16 Hosea 4:10-5:4 Romans 6:1-11 Feast Day: Mary and Martha of Bethany So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. What is “free will”? It is a concept that the church has considered as either a rank heresy or a fundamental premise for the order of salvation. Some consider the issue a biblical paradox: for example, we read about the Israelites being trapped in a “spirit of whoredom”, yet also being held responsible for their actions. What are we to make of this? The Reformed position holds that our will is not so much “free” as it is always inclined to follow what we most desire. A popular example revolves around two men in a dark alley late at night. The first man asks the second for his wallet. The second man refuses. Then, the first man pulls out a very sharp, scary-looking knife. The second man changes his mind and hands over the wallet. Is the second man exercising his “free will”...

  Thursday, July 28, 2022 Psalm 71 Hosea 4:1-9 Romans 5:12-21 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man's trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. When Daniel Craig was announced as the new actor to play James Bond, it was interesting to see what unique interpretation he would make on the classic character. What stood out was Bond's new understanding of his “00 license”: the “license to kill”. In the past, it was considered a sort of freedom for the agent; should his life be in danger, he was legally permitted to do whatever it took to get home safely. The new understanding saw it as a great responsibility: much of the new Bond's mental anguish surrounds his wrestling with deciding how and when to make use of his 00 license. A quick decision made for the sake of convenience could mean untold consequences, which Bond now had ...

  Wednesday, July 27, 2022 Psalm 68:1-20 Hosea 2:14 – 3:5 Romans 5:1 – 11 On that day, says the LORD, you will call me, “My husband,” and no longer will you call me, “My Baal.” Before we jump into trying to figure out what God wants us to do with these readings before us, let's try and figure what God wants us to understand first. These two passages are all about Him first. Carrying on from yesterday's reflection, let's start with empathising with this husband in the book of Hosea. His wife is cheating on him. The one person in all the world that he loved the most, the mother of his children, is running around with other men. He should be pretty upset! But look at what he does in today's reading: he goes back to her to try and woo her back. Somehow, she's gotten herself into a slave auction, so he has to pay the cost of a slave, then he gives her gifts on top of her freedom. God is then very direct in telling us that this is what it is like ...

  Tuesday, July 26, 2022 Psalms 65; 70 Hosea 2:1-13 Romans 4:13-25 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God... Today's section of Hosea has made many trendy modern types uncomfortable. Graphic imagery of a man casting out his unfaithful wife does not blend well with today's culture wars. But since we are faithful students of God's word, let's try and figure out together what God is saying to us. Let's think for a moment about what state of mind the husband in this situation must be in. (This is imagery; God teaching us invisible spiritual truths using examples we would understand.) Marriage is meant to be a covenant of trust: two people making a promise to stay exclusive and faithful. If one of those people runs off and misbehaves with other people outside the marriage, that trust is broken. There is no more relationship. This brokenness makes the faithful person in the couple very upset. This trust is what Paul means wh...

  Monday, July 25, 2022 Psalm 62; 63 Hosea 1 Romans 4:1-12 He only is my rock and my salvation: my strong tower, so that I shall not be moved. The prophecies of Hosea are rich with vivid imagery. Look at these names: firstly, “Hosea” means “salvation”. So too do the names Joshua and Jesus. Then Hosea has three children: “God scatters”, “Not pitied”, and “Not my people”. This is because the children are part of the marriage between Hosea and Gomer, which is an image God is showing to the nation. It is to our profit that God has used real-life events to communicate spiritual imagery and divine truths. We find it very easy to understand our relationship with God as being a faithful wife to a loving husband. We can reconcile this message with what Paul has to teach us today in Romans. He makes the very important observation that Abraham was given God's righteousness as a result of his faith before, not after, his circumcision. Again, this is God using real-life events...