Wednesday 14 December 2011

Background

This is a passage about pride and anger; God's anger and humanpride. It is difficult to hear. People know why things are goingwrong for them - they sense a message from God as the sycamores arecut down and as the buildings collapse. But instead of respondingto the lesson that God is teaching them, they simply replace thesycamores with cedars and the bricks with dressed stone.Unsurprisingly God's anger is not "turned away". The lesson isn'tbeing learnt. We may well understand their response; thedifficulties their disobedience has got them into are unbearable.The simplest thing appears to be to try and plaster over theproblem. The deeper lesson is that by hearing the word God has sentupon Judah that falls upon Israel (verse 8), they will do far morethan reduce the symptoms of their dis-ease. God's anger is notgratuitous but intends all the wonderful things that are heard inthe verses before. Paying attention, even todifficult lessons, is thus a challenge to both our capacity totrust God's goodness, and to follow God's pathway for us.

To Ponder

Where can love and anger go together?

What difference does love make to that anger?

A challenge:
Am you papering over the cracks of problems that you need tosolve?