Peter Misselbrook's Blog

Aug 17 2019 - Jeremiah 19 – The shattered pot

Sometimes prophets were told to act out the message which the Lord had given them to take to his people. Perhaps the most dramatic example of this was when Hosea was told to take a woman to be his wife who would be unfaithful to him. God intended Hosea's domestic life to be a visible picture of his own relationship with, and love for, a faithless people. Jeremiah did not need to do anything quite so traumatic, but he also was called to dramatize his message by acting it out before the elders and priests of the people in Jerusalem.

In the previous chapter, Jeremiah 18, the Lord had told Jeremiah to go to the potter's house where he would be given a message for the people. Jeremiah went and watched the potter working at his wheel: "But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him" (18:4). Before he formed it into something else, the potter must have crushed it and moulded it afresh into a ball before centring it again on his wheel. Then the Lord told Jeremiah, "Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does? (18:6).

The Lord is preparing to crush his rebellious people. But beyond judgment there is the hope that God will take them again into his hands and will refashion them into something pleasing to him. This is the background to today's reading from Jeremiah 19.

Jeremiah was now told to buy a new clay jar from the potter and to summon the leaders of the people to meet him near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. Outside this gate seems to have been the place where old broken pottery was thrown. Unlike the clay in the potter's hand, the fired earthenware is no longer pliable and capable of being refashioned. This pot represents the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem who have hardened their hearts against Jeremiah's call for repentance and have even begun to plot against him.

Jeremiah declares that God is going to come in judgment against Judah and Jerusalem. He will judge them because of their detestable idolatry in burning incense to idol-gods and even burning "their children in the fire as offerings to Baal" (v.6). This valley which acted as a rubbish dump for the city would be filled with the bodies of those who would be slaughtered in the coming siege of the city. And in that siege, the people would even be forced to eat the bodies of their dead children!

Jeremiah then dashed the clay pot to the ground so that it shattered into pieces and was lost in the general mess of potsherds. Addressing the rulers of the city he declared, "This is what the Lord Almighty says: I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired" (v.11). He then re-entered the city, went into the temple and declared, "This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: 'Listen! I am going to bring on this city and all the villages around it every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-necked and would not listen to my words.'" (v.15).

We may not be eager to listen to passages of scripture which speak of God's judgments against his rebellious people, particularly when they are expressed in such violent terms. But this is a sign of our failure to understand the holiness of our God and the intensity of his anger against sin. It was also outside the city of Jerusalem that God's judgment fell on his own Son as Jesus died in our place. It was because he endured the fulness of God's wrath against sin that we are forgiven and need not fear the judgment to come; "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). For rebellious Judah also there was to be hope beyond judgment.

Father God we thank you that you are slow to anger and rich in mercy. Like a potter with the clay, you long to take what is spoilt and remould it into something beautiful and useful. Continue that remoulding work in our own lives as, by your Spirit, you make us more like your Son.

Aug 17 2020 - 2 Peter 1:1-21 – His divine power

Christianity is not just another religion, not just another set of beliefs and practices. The Christian message is about Christ and about the power of the living God. God raised Jesus from the dead. His resurrection was not the resuscitation of a corpse but the beginning of the transformation of all things. Jesus, risen from the dead, is no longer subject to the powers of sin and death. And that same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in those who believe in him. The gospel is about the power of God to save and transform.

In his second letter, Peter is again writing mainly to Gentiles – to non-Jews – yet he recognises that they have come to possess the same precious faith in Christ that characterised the apostles. They have come to share in the promises God has for all who trust in his Messiah. God's power in Christ, says Peter, "has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness" (2 Peter 1:3). God has called us not only by his own glory and goodness but also to share in his own glory and goodness; his promise and purpose is that we should share in the divine nature (1:4) – that we should be made like Christ and bear the image of God, the stamp of his presence in us, in all its fullness and glory. And this promise is not mere words, for it is accompanied by the working of his power to accomplish what he has promised.

Given that this is God's purpose for you – the end to which the Spirit of the risen Lord Jesus is at work in you – "make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1:5-8). The Spirit's work within us set's us working. His intent that we should be like Christ is to become our intent, and his great work is to become the focus and passion of our lives.

Christians are to be those who possess more than a profession of faith; their lives are to radiate the goodness of God. This is what it means to know him; to know him is to love him and to reflect his love in our attitude towards and relationships with others. And this is not an easy matter; it calls for self-control and for perseverance. It calls for our selfish tendencies to be brought under the control of the Spirit of God; it calls for us to go on pursuing the life that has appeared in Christ and never to give up following him. It calls for continual transformation by the Spirit of God so that our lives are marked by an unfashionable godliness.

Finish then thy new creation
Pure and spotless let us be;
Let us see thy great salvation,
Perfectly restored in thee,
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise!

Heavenly Father, continue the work you have begun in me; make me effective and productive in my knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ today. In your goodness, may the glory of Christ which Peter saw on the mount of transfiguration be seen also in my life even as I shall share in his glory when he appears.

Aug 17 2020 - Introduction to 2 Peter

Who wrote 2 Peter?

Many think that 2 Peter could not have been written by Peter the apostle, but Michael Green argues that differences in style between 1 and 2 Peter are due to the apostle using different secretaries (amanuenses) in the production of the letters.

Richard Bauckham, however, considers that the letter was written by someone who had assisted Peter during his final days at Rome and who felt that he was able to speak authoritatively on behalf of the dead apostle. It is, he argues, not a personal letter but expresses the pastoral concern of the church in Rome for churches elsewhere in the Empire. Bauckham considers that the letter was written between 80 and 90 AD, reflecting the crisis caused by the death of the apostles (3:4).

What was the purpose of the letter?

2 Peter seems to have been written to a similar audience to that of 1 Peter but at a later date. The chief problems facing the churches seem no longer to be the threat of persecution but rather of false teachers who opposed what the apostles had said about the return of Christ. These teachers, suggests Bauckham, were working hard to gain disciples (2:1-3a, 14, 18). Their teaching was marked by eschatological scepticism: they claimed that there would be no final judgment, no final divine intervention to eliminate evil and bring about a world of righteousness. They had a rationalistic view of the world – like many today who claim to have a "scientific" or materialist view of our world.

They claimed that the apostles had invented the idea of the Parousia (the hope of Christ's physical return in glory). Old Testament passages that seemed to point to such a decisive intervention by God arose from the prophets' misguided attempts to interpret dreams and visions (1:20-21a).

By their teaching these folk claimed to be freeing people from the fear of judgment (2:19a).  They argued that petty moral constraints could be ignored. Instead, they accommodated to pagan society, aiming "to disencumber Christianity of its rigorous moral demands which seemed to them an embarrassment in their cultural environment." In making 'freedom' their catchword they may have appealed to Paul's teaching on justification by faith and on Christian freedom – seeking to give weight and authenticity to their claims.

Relationship between 2 Peter and Jude

There is a clear relationship between 2 Peter and Jude. "Of the twenty-five verses in Jude no less than fifteen appear, in whole or in part, in 2 Peter." Having considered the arguments for 2 Peter's dependence upon Jude or Jude's on 2 Peter, Michael Green concludes that both letters draw upon a common source, perhaps a sermon pattern formulated to resist seducers of the church.

Peter Misselbrook