Psalm 57:1-6 David is still on the run; this time from Saul. He seeks shelter in the cave, which is a metaphor for the shelter that God grants him: “Grant me grace, God, grant me grace, for in You I have taken shelter.” (1) But more than shelter, David calls out to God for rescue, and because of his intimate trust, knows that God will come, “He will send from the heavens and rescue me.” (3)
Not just rescue, but something even greater, “God will send his steadfast kindness.” (4) God is more than a rescuer, he is steadfastly kind and loving. A tremendous contrast to those who seek to destroy him, “I lie down among lions that pant for human beings. Their fangs are spear and arrows, their tongue a sharpened sword.” Notice how David’s enemies are not just pursuing him with “spear and arrows,” but an even deadlier weapon: their words. Which is pretty much how people pursue their enemies these days, be it via print, TV, or social media. Words are truly the deadly weapons of our culture.
And David remains assured that his enemies will get theirs in the end: “A net they set for my steps, they pushed down my neck, they dug before me a pit— they themselves fell into it.” (6) Which is a pretty good summary of how so many people fall into their own verbal traps. There are plenty of cases in point, be it politicians’ emails or recorded phone calls of basketball franchise owners.
Leviticus 25:18-55 This chapter details the terms and conditions of property ownership, and is basically a manual about real estate, indentured servitude–and slavery.
It’s interesting that there’s a distinction between property located within a walled city and that out on the land. Houses in cities are residences and produce nothing, where rural land–especially in an agrarian society–produces a harvest and is economically more important.
But the issue that underlies all these rules and price-setting is the Jubilee Year. If this chapter describes the basics of an early capitalist society, perhaps we could call it “capitalism with a 50-year reset button,” when everything basically starts over again. It’s tempting to imagine how a true jubilee year as describe here would work in the 21st century. What would this reset look like? Would the capital accumulated by a few be redistributed to all? In an era where income inequality seems to be the topic d’jour I don’t think it’s a completely irrelevant question.
The final verse of this chapter casts a new light on the nature of God’s covenant with Israel. All slaves are “be released in the jubilee year, he and his children with him.” (54) yet, as the human slaves are released, all Israel is reminded, “For Mine are the Israelites as slaves, they are My slaves whom I brought out of the land of Egypt.”
But a covenant with God is a completely different kind of “slavery” than the human version. Although we have been given the gift of free will, we are still God’s creatures and because of the covenant we have with God through Jesus Christ, we are in fact God’s beloved slaves. Tough to get our minds, if not our hearts, around that idea.
Mark 8:14-21 I want to be sympathetic with the disciples here as Jesus exclaims, ““Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?” (17) They’re talking about physical bread and Jesus is talking about spiritual bread. Metaphors can easily confuse us. But then Jesus gives us the three basic rules for distinguishing between the physical and the spiritual: “Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear? And do you not remember?”(18) See. Hear. Remember.
It’s what Sherlock Holmes is all about. If we truly see, and truly hear and truly remember, we will understand far more about what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen in the world in which we live. Again and again, Jesus tells us to be alert. To see and to listen.
I for one, pretty much tend to drift through life clueless, ignoring (or choosing not to see or hear) that which is truly going on around me. Going through the motions, but not really seeing–and responding to what I see. Working in the kingdom is about idling our time away. It is about using the senses of the mind–and the senses of the heart–that God has given us. Only then will we truly understand, “Right here. Right now.”
Speak Your Mind