It really seems strange to me of late; each morning as I awake, I attempt movement back toward my routine devotional habits, assuming that my days with this blog thing are over. My intent of late was simply to combine all my writings into hard copy for publication, so that more exposure might occur. Yet, I continue to sense the need to write, even though few are reading the blog. Maybe this electronic journaling is to pick up where I left off from the paper and pen journaling I have done since 1987?
This morning was no different. Reading in John 10, Jesus answers the Jews, themselves holding stones intended for Him, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are gods’?” Wow, could it be? I then quickly turned to the reference in Psalm 82.
1 “God presides in the great assembly;
he gives judgment among the ‘gods’:
2 How long will you [a] defend the unjust
and show partiality to the wicked?
Selah
3 Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless;
maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
4 Rescue the weak and needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
5 They know nothing, they understand nothing.
They walk about in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 “I said, ‘You are “gods”;
you are all sons of the Most High.’
7 But you will die like mere men;
you will fall like every other ruler.
8 Rise up, O God, judge the earth,
for all the nations are your inheritance.”
Am I insane or have we missed something? Not only are we as humans “fearfully and wonderfully made,” but here He calls us gods.
“(G)gods” but gods who act, live and die “like mere men.” He is talking about choice. We were created as the sons of God and yet we live as lesser beings!
What would sons of God do: Defend the weak and the fatherless, maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed, the Psalmist has essentially projected the words of the Prophet Micah:
“He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8
Then the psalmist cries out a plea to God in verse 8: “Rise up, O God, judge the earth for all the nations are your inheritance.” Actually it is a prophesy of the possibilities of our day: This longing in the hearts of prophets is now made possible, the ground work securely laid, for Christ has come and His Body now exists on this earth, in Ecclesia, the called out ones. Rise up you sons of God!
“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
“What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.” Galatians 3:26-4:7 NIV.
Shall we live and die like mere men or step into the kingdom as the sons of God, whom we have now become in Christ?
“…for such as time as this?” Ester 4:14b