Saturday, October 3, 2015

3 October 2015 - enduring joy


Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.

Our eyes are blessed because we see Jesus. Our ears are blessed because we hear about him and his gospel message. Prophets and kings, seers and sages, all longed to know him but were not given the privilege. As a consequence, they didn't really know the Father either since the Son didn't reveal him. Without Jesus to reveal God to them the people of Israel were only able to grasp part of the truth about him.

It was because you angered God
that you were handed over to your foes.

They couldn't really understand how this anger stemmed from his great love for them, even though the prophets told them so.

For he who has brought disaster upon you 
will, in saving you, bring you back enduring joy.

Enduring joy comes from having our names written in heaven. Even though the spirits are subject to us, even though we have the power to "tread upon serpents' and scorpions and the full force of the enemy" without being harmed these things are secondary to being able to spend eternity in the loving embrace of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This is what the childlike understand that the complicated and mature miss. The rest of us find ourselves in a business relationship with a God who often seems angry and inscrutable. He is the only way we can get resources so we find ourselves trying to finagle more and more out of him so that we can chip away at fixing our circumstances.

Yet this is not who he truly is. Children can recognize in Jesus the loving promise of the Father. They see the Father revealed in Jesus and realize that Israel is not destroyed out of malice nor given to captivity out of hate. He longs to bring back the exile. He is waiting to bring back the captive free.

See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!

And so let us become like children with eyes to see Jesus and ears to hear him. If we trust him he will do more than subject the demons to us and keep us free from Satan's power. He will ultimately bring us to enduring joy. Our eyes will see him, no longer under sign and symbol, but face to face.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known (cf. 1 Cor. 13:12)

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