Larry Devich
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
January 16, 2007 - Tuesday in the Second Week after Epiphany
“‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes.’” (Amos 9:11-15)
No one wants to die. And no one wants to hear about the death of his nation. That’s why Amos was so unpopular. He was a southerner from Tekoa, outside of Bethlehem, called by God to preach to the north at the peak of its prosperity. His message was death and resurrection. The north would be destroyed by the Assyrian army and laid waste in judgment against its idolatries. And out of this death, YHWH would again raise up a faithful people. He would restore David’s fallen tent, replant the ravaged vineyards, rebuild the ruined cities. “I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says YHWH your God.
We resist this way of death and resurrection and prefer the way of rehabilitation. Instead of repentance and daily dying to sin and lust, we would rather negotiate our way with God, flatter Him with our pious religions, heap on our prayers and praise in the hopes that He would spare us suffering and grief.
We downplay the deadliness of our sinful condition. We aren’t simply weak in sin, we’re dead in it. To rehabilitate the sinner is as pointless as putting a coat of paint on a condemned house. The paint will not help the house stand up, nor can the pious shellacking of good works help us to stand up before the judgment of God. Death and resurrection is the only way.
That way has been paved for us by the Son of God in the flesh. Jesus went the way of death and resurrection, from His Baptism in the Jordan to His death on Calvary, embracing our sin and death for us. He went into the exile of the grave, and from the grave, like Israel returning, He restored life and immortality by His rising from the dead.
“The wages of sin is death.” You cannot escape it. You can only embrace it, trusting that the “gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.” Though your sins bring you down into exile, nevertheless God will raise you up and restore you. Then you will know for yourself the harvest of the resurrection, where reaper and plowman work side by side, where planter and treader work together, where out of death will come a harvest of righteousness to all who trust the saving death of Jesus.
God’s promises are certain and sure – as certain as Jesus is risen from the dead, as sure as your Baptism in His name. ¶ 1/16/2007 05:06:00 AM 0 Comments
No one wants to die. And no one wants to hear about the death of his nation. That’s why Amos was so unpopular. He was a southerner from Tekoa, outside of Bethlehem, called by God to preach to the north at the peak of its prosperity. His message was death and resurrection. The north would be destroyed by the Assyrian army and laid waste in judgment against its idolatries. And out of this death, YHWH would again raise up a faithful people. He would restore David’s fallen tent, replant the ravaged vineyards, rebuild the ruined cities. “I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says YHWH your God.
We resist this way of death and resurrection and prefer the way of rehabilitation. Instead of repentance and daily dying to sin and lust, we would rather negotiate our way with God, flatter Him with our pious religions, heap on our prayers and praise in the hopes that He would spare us suffering and grief.
We downplay the deadliness of our sinful condition. We aren’t simply weak in sin, we’re dead in it. To rehabilitate the sinner is as pointless as putting a coat of paint on a condemned house. The paint will not help the house stand up, nor can the pious shellacking of good works help us to stand up before the judgment of God. Death and resurrection is the only way.
That way has been paved for us by the Son of God in the flesh. Jesus went the way of death and resurrection, from His Baptism in the Jordan to His death on Calvary, embracing our sin and death for us. He went into the exile of the grave, and from the grave, like Israel returning, He restored life and immortality by His rising from the dead.
“The wages of sin is death.” You cannot escape it. You can only embrace it, trusting that the “gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.” Though your sins bring you down into exile, nevertheless God will raise you up and restore you. Then you will know for yourself the harvest of the resurrection, where reaper and plowman work side by side, where planter and treader work together, where out of death will come a harvest of righteousness to all who trust the saving death of Jesus.
God’s promises are certain and sure – as certain as Jesus is risen from the dead, as sure as your Baptism in His name. ¶ 1/16/2007 05:06:00 AM 0 Comments
