Peter Misselbrook's Blog
Jul 29 2019 - Micah 7 – Israel's misery, hope and prayer

Micah 7 begins with a lament over the state of those whom the Lord had called to be his own, called to be a light to the Gentiles. They have abandoned the Lord and have become corrupt. It seems as if "not one upright person remains. Everyone lies in wait to shed blood " (v.2, see also, vv.5-6). Judges are taking bribes and rulers demanding gifts as the price of their favour.

Micah describes his search for an upright person as being like a poor person who goes to glean in a vineyard only to find that all the fruit is gone (v.1). All he encounters are briers and thorns. The day of God's judgment is rapidly approaching (v.4).

Micah calls on watchmen to sound the alarm (v.4), and warn of the coming judgment. But, despite the gathering storms Micah declares:

But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD,
    I wait for God my Saviour; my God will hear me. (v.7)

Micah is not content to abandon his people to God's judgment but prays for them in the confidence that God will hear him and in the hope that God might yet intervene to save his people.

Verses 8-10 perhaps reflect the time when Sennacherib's commander-in-chief came to Jerusalem with his threatening message. He addressed the people of Jerusalem telling them that they could hardly expect their God to save them. The gods of other nations had not saved them from the power of Assyria. If Jerusalem failed to submit to the demands of the King of Syria they would be besieged until they were without food and water. Micah speaks for Jerusalem as he declares:

Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise.
Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light. (v.8)

Micah is confident that beyond this dark period of enduring God's judgment, the Lord himself will plead the cause of his people and bring them out into the light. The enemies of God's people who have mocked them saying, "Where is the Lord your God?" will witness the saving work of the living God and will "be covered in shame" (v.10). God will again act to save his people as he did when he brought them out of Egypt (v.15). Then the people of Assyria and Egypt will come to Jerusalem to share in the blessings God pours out on all those who seek him (v.12, cf. Micah 4:1-4).

Micah's confidence rests in the promises of God (v.20), and the character of God (vv.18-19):

Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression
    of the remnant of his inheritance?
You do not stay angry for ever but delight to show mercy.
You will again have compassion on us;
    you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

We have discovered the compassion, salvation and forgiveness of our God in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who bore the wrath of God in our place and now upholds our cause in the courts of heaven. He is the one who has brought us out of darkness into the light. He is the one who is redeeming for himself a people from every nation and ethnic group and making them one people, one flock, under his care as the Great Shepherd of the sheep.

Father God, we stand amazed that you were so determined to pardon and save us that you sent your beloved Son into the world to be our Saviour. Help us by your Spirit to extend the boundaries of your kingdom by declaring to others the praises of him who called us out of darkness into the wonderful light of your presence and blessing.

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Jul 29 2020 - Mark 9:1-29 – This is my Son ... Listen to him

Jesus took with him his inner circle of disciples, Peter, James and John, and together they climbed a high mountain. There, Jesus was transformed before them, his clothes becoming dazzling white. The astonished disciples then saw Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus before a voice from heaven proclaimed, "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!" (Mark 9:7). And suddenly they are left alone with Jesus.

This incident follows rapidly upon Peter's confession that Jesus is the Messiah. Now it is God himself who owns Jesus as his Son (a messianic title). We would love to have been able to overhear the conversation between Jesus and Moses and Elijah, but we are not granted that privilege. What is made clear is that Jesus has not come as a supplement to the Law and the prophets (represented by Moses and Elijah), he has come to fulfil them. The command of God that the disciples should listen to Jesus makes him the single focus of the whole drama of Scripture (cf. Hebrews 1:1-3). He is the one in whom the story of redemption finds its end and its new beginning. From now on, the hallmark of the people of God will be that they hear the voice of the Son of God and follow him.

As Jesus came down the mountain with the three disciples, he told them to say nothing of what they had seen and heard "until the Son of Man has risen from the dead" (9:9). This saying perplexed them; they could not understand what Jesus was speaking about; only later will it become clear. But from our vantage point in the story it is clear that the transfiguration is an anticipation of that greater and permanent transformation that will take place with Jesus' resurrection. The resurrection is the supreme affirmation by the Father that Jesus is his Son, the Messiah, the one in whom all Scripture finds its fulfilment (see Romans 1:2-4).

Before ascending the mountain, Jesus told his disciples, "Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power" (9:1). This saying also must have puzzled the disciples. This, along with the saying concerning Jesus’ resurrection, act as "book-ends" for the account of the transfiguration. We need to read them together and to interpret each in terms of the other. Jesus' resurrection from the dead, anticipated in that mountain appearance, will be the means by which the kingdom of God will come with power.

We are in the favoured position of living after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. We are those who are seeing the kingdom come in power. Maybe it does not always seem that way and doubtless we would long to see more, but all around the world people are being drawn into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lives are being changed and cultures are being transformed.

Nor are we to be dumb witnesses of these things. We who have come to share in the resurrection life of Christ, who have tasted of the power of the age to come, are to be those through whom the kingdom comes in power for the healing of a broken world. And maybe one of the key reasons that we see so little of the transforming power of the kingdom at work around us is our own lack of prayer (9:28-29).

Lord Jesus, you taught us to pray that your kingdom may come and that the will of your Father might be done on earth as it is in heaven. Help me to listen to your voice and to follow you in a life of prayer and of service. May I see something of your resurrection power at work in me and through me this day. And just as the power belongs entirely to you, so may you have all the glory, now and for ever.

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Peter Misselbrook