UNBLOCKING THE WELL OF THE LIVING WORD

DAY 2 MORNING   Read  Hebrews 11:23-38

EXODUS: JESUS, THE LAMB OF GOD THAT TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD

The story of Moses being rescued from the Nile, raised by his mother in Pharaoh’s Palace and being called by God to deliver his people is a story of salvation that foreshadows Jesus rescuing mankind from slavery to sin.

Moses’ defiant command to pharaoh “Let my people go so that they may worship Me in the wilderness” is God’s heart for mankind.  After Pharaoh resisted this command and 10 plagues were visited on Egypt, finally all the firstborn were killed in Egypt. When the Passover lamb was killed at 3pm in afternoon, the Israelites were saved from death, if blood was put on their doorposts, when the angel of death passed over the land. The festival of Passover and Israel’s deliverance through the Red Sea from Pharaoh’s army are rich symbols of the freedom from sin and death that Jesus provides through his death at Calvary. Although Moses grew up to be known as the son of the pharaoh’s daughter he chose to be ill-treated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time… “he regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt”[1], because he was looking ahead to his reward. He persevered because he saw Him who was invisible, so he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood. He knew they had better and lasting possessions. Moses met God at the top of Mount Sinai and the law was given and a blood covenant instituted. Moses wanted to please God, and to offer God acceptable worship.  

MISSIONARY MONKS: PACHOMIUS 292-348

Pachomius was not the first Coenobitic (or community-life) monk but he is associated with the rise of coenobitic monasticism. After his discharge from the Roman army, he was converted, trained under the direction of Palæmon, one of the strictest pupils of the Anthony[2]. Pachomius became an ascetic and began to organise settlements of monks in Egypt named koinonia. Each settlement had about 40 houses.[3] Pachomius wrote the first known monastic rule, to guide monks on how to live their daily lives. This rule was later developed by Basil and Benedict.[4]Describing the architecture of Pachomius,’ Harmless writes in Desert Christians, “High walls were the most distinctive feature of a Pachomian monastery. These served as the very visible boundary separating the monastery from the outside world.” There was a tendency within monasticism in the early years to restrict the contact of monks from the outside world, and a missionary emphasis did not feature in third and fourth century monasticism. However Pachomius had a broader vision of ‘ministering to the human race’ and to ‘unite it to God.’ [5] and ‘he links the demise of paganism with the rise of monasticism in general and Pachomius in particular.’[6]The monks in Egypt demonstrated a commitment to missions, and their balance of prayer work and ministry included serving as “evangelists to the countryside and winning people to Christianity.” Egyptian monks including Pachomius were very committed to hospitalityto those visiting Egypt who were not just Christian pilgrims. There were non-believers too and monks invited them to fellowship at their table inside the monasteries.

CLICK ON BOLD and you will be directed to Joshua Project website with more information for prayer. 

PRAY for “the Kurd, Kurmanji in Germany the 29^th largest unreached people group in Europe whose language is Kurdish, Northern   and whose primary religion isIslam. There are 224,000 and they are 0.2% Christian and  0.05% evangelical.” [7]  The Kurds  have suffered ill-treatment and so much violence  and had to migrate to the West. We pray that this people group, the Kurds which is one of the largest ethno-linguistic people group in the world without their own nation, would be received hospitably by the German church.

DAY 2 EVENING  Read Psalm 6-10 Re-read Psalm 9

PSALM 9:  JESUS CHRIST THE RIGHTEOUS JUDGE WHO VINDICATES THE OPPRESSED

Psalm 9: 7-10   The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. In the Introduction to the evening devotionals, I referred to N.T. Wright who says[8] that the psalms are songs and poems that help us not just to understand the ancient worldview but actually to inhabit and celebrate it. This is a worldview in which, contrary to modern assumptions, God’s time, space and matter intersect with ours. Paul in the New Testament says we are God’s workmanship (Ephesians 2:10), which is ‘poemia’ in the Greek. Just as “we are called to be living breathing singing poems,” and we come in all shapes and sizes, so do the poems in the bible. These poems help transform our imagination. As we pray or sing the psalms we can imagine what it might be like to live in God’s time, his space and his matter. N.T. Wright says that the whole worldview of the Psalms inculcates God’s worldview into ours, transforms our imagination and our worldview into a worldview which Christians believe happened uniquely in Jesus.

Psalm 9 is a beautiful symmetrical psalm, with a structure that biblical scholars call chiastic, [9]. As I read this symmetrical psalm, and try to “live in” or “inhabit” it, I am reminded of being given a kaleidoscope as a child, putting it to my eyes like a telescope, and seeing a wonderful symmetrical colourful picture and turning it and seeing a very different stunning symmetrical picture, and the turning it again. One second I am confronted with the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ is judge, (v 7-8) and the next second that he has a heart for the poor and the oppressed (v 9,10), then afterwards, that he avenges those that shed blood.

I am reminded of  how Jesus addresses the proud and then suddenly addresses the poor, in Matthew 11:20-30 (Message version) [10] ^“Next Jesus unleashed on the cities where he had worked the hardest but whose people had responded the least, shrugging their shoulders and going their own way.Doom to you, Chorazin! Doom, Bethsaida! If Tyre and Sidon had seen half of the powerful miracles you have seen, they would have been on their knees in a minute. At Judgment Day they’ll get off easy compared to you. And Capernaum! With all your peacock strutting, you are going to end up in the abyss. If the people of Sodom had had your chances, the city would still be around. At Judgment Day they’ll get off easy compared to you.’ Abruptly Jesus broke into prayer: ‘Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. You’ve concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people. Yes, Father, that’s the way you like to work. The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. But I’m not keeping it to myself; I’m ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen.’ ‘Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

It is only after this condemnation of the proud that Jesus switches and starts talking tenderly to the poor. Reading Psalm 9:7-10 through the lens of Jesus Christ the exegete, I see him as refuge for the poor and oppressed a stronghold in times of trouble. Like those poor who heard him preach in Matthew 11, we can see he is also the one who judges the world in righteousness and governs the people with justice, Psalm 9:8.

PRAYER Lord give me your eyes to see what you are doing. As I put my eyes to the kaleidoscope to see how you see things, help me not to line up with the strutting peacocks, but to take your yoke upon me, the yoke of the meek and the lowly and the humble in heart. Help me to learn your unforced rhythms of grace. Help me to inhabit this psalm with your perspective, Lord Jesus. You are a refuge for the oppressed a stronghold in times of trouble. As you write a poem in my life, help me to live my life in the light of the judgement seat of Christ. Show me how to live a life that demonstrates your heart for the poor and humble, and your heart for righteousness and justice in a world where wicked men seem to triumph Psalm 9:19.

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[1] Hebrews 11:26

[2] https://westminsterabbey.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Pachomius-Rule-english.pdf

[3] Smither, E.L. Missionary monks Cascade books, 2016, drawn from 19.

[4] Harmless, Monasticism, Oxford University Press, 2004, 494.

[5] Smither, E.L. Missionary monks Cascade books, 2016, drawn from 23 and Harmless, Monasticism, 141.

[6] Harmless, Monasticism, Oxford University Press, 2004, 288.

[7]  Data provided by Joshua Project https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/12877/GM

[8] Wright, N.T, Finding God in the psalms, SPCK, 2014 31, 35-36.

[9] Tidball, D. Signposts: A Devotional map of the psalms, IVP, 2019,9.

[10] Peterson, E. The Message, Matthew 11:20-30.