Readings:
2 Kings 25
Wisdom 16
John 9

2 Kings 25

It comes to pass. The judgement of God for the collective sins of the people of Judah, for abandoning their end of the covenant with God, for sacrificing to Baal, for burning their children to Moloch, for playing the harlot with the gods of the Canaanites, and all the other evils they had done since David ruled over them. It wasn’t just the kings that did wrong, it was the people too. And now it was time to pay the piper.

Nebuchadnezzar lays siege to the city that lasts for two years, and when the king tries to run, he’s caught with his army in the plains of Jericho and his sons are killed before his eyes, which are then gouged out and he’s led blind and bound to Babylon a prisoner. This scene is also an allegory for those of us that chose sin over God, we’re blinded and bound by sin, with no hope of release by our own power, it’s only through the grace of God that we can be freed from this bondage.

After the king is captured the war is pretty much over, so the Babylonians break down the walls of the city, burn down the temple and destroy the palaces. They carry away all the instruments from the temple and break up its large bronze pieces to carry back the valuable metal. They also take everyone not deported in the first exile of Judah, except for what amounts to a skeleton crew to keep the land from going completely back to nature.

John 9

This story has a progression to it, that goes from mild belief to worship. It starts out with him saying “the man called Jesus” and then when pressed by the Pharisees he calls Jesus a prophet, and finally after being dressed down and cast out for not agreeing with the Pharisees, he meets him in the street and calls him “Lord”.

Jesus heals the man on the sabbath and the Pharisees are hung up on the fact that a man breaking the sabbath couldn’t possibly have good intentions, and so must not be from God, but what better intentions could someone have than to heal a child of God from a debilitating ailment? He is literally restoring the sight of the blind and they’re concerned that he doesn’t have a permit. They act like there isn’t a man standing in front of them that is seeing for the first time ever, that is an amazing thing, but they are not amazed. It’s really remarkable how much they held to the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law, and this is why they were constantly a target for criticism and condemnation from our Lord.

Tomorrow’s Readings:
Wisdom 17-19
John 10