November 4th

Leviticus 14:1-57, Mark 13:1-31, Psalm 30:8-12

I constantly frustrate Claire with my odd sense of priorities. When big things are going to happen I need things to be tidy. I often even tidy my study when it has nothing to do with the thing that is happening, like a holiday for example. The reason? I want things to be just right. When I go away I want things in order, to be “just so”! The whole of Leviticus and Mark today is about it being “just so”.

In Leviticus we have a continuation of the cleanliness and how to make it clean. There was so much tied up in making things clean, so many regulations that we might ask why. But so much of this happened before the people came to God and to ensure that they came to God in a clean state. Meeting God is a huge deal for us as much as it was for them and they wanted it to be “just so”. They wanted things to be right and in order. You know those Sundays when you come to church and there is so much going on in your life that you don’t really pay attention to any of the service. The Israelites set up ways of trying to dump as much baggage as possible so that when they came before God they didn’t have anything like uncleanliness in the way.

Take a look at Andy on the Soul Survivor blog as he talks about Mark. Dotted through this passage are lots of little bits about how the disciples are to react. Jesus is not just telling them how bad it is going to be at the end of the age, he is telling them what they need to do to try and sort themselves out before God. v9 “You must be on your guard” and v10 about preaching the Gospel to the nations. It is about getting things in order in the midst of apocalyptic events.

The Psalmist (as they often do) starts of talking about how bad it might be but then says that the Lord “turned wailing into dancing” and removed the sackcloth. Sometimes our time before God can feel distant because our minds on not in it.  When we dump the baggage, when we listen to what Jesus is telling us to do, then the relationship with God can take off to new planes. So come to God now with the heart that the Israelites had, being in the presence of God is a big thing.