THE BIBLE – DISCOVERY YEAR 07 –  WITH LUKE’S GOSPEL 
COMMENT FOR LENT 2 – 04-03-O7 
Genesis 15: 1-12, 17-18 
Thinking back four thousand years of human history, we find Abraham, patriarch of three great faiths, in great anxiety.  He has led his small tribe west to the Canaan hill country, but he needs an heir he can trust in a dangerous world. He does his best spiritual thinking and prepares an elaborate sacrifice.  As the sun goes down he is deeply sleep  in “the terrifying darkness”.  Then from the God he trusts he receives a dream he trusts.  In the clear light of the next day the covenant is concluded. 
Psalm 27 
There are two distinct parts to this Psalm, vs.1-6 are a joyful testimony to the loving care of the Lord.  The writer will face new dangers with firm trust and confidence because his God is his stronghold, his Rock. Verses 7 to 14 are quite different.  This writer in vs.8-19 is worried because of what he has done – even his parents could abandon him.  But such is the confidence he finds in his God he knows he at last is safe. 
Philippians 3:17-4:1 
The pull of Jerusalem would be strong for early Christians of Jewish heritage.  In this letter Paul tells the congregation at Phillippi he understands that. But he lives out in his ministry the pull of the Cross.  This is inward and heartfelt, with all the invigorating power of the Resurrection. Therefore he sees Christians as citizens of heaven in the process of being remade in the image of Jesus. 
Luke 13: 31-35 
This dramatic episode is surely a backdrop to the pain and suffering in the lives of present day Israelis and Palestinians. Jesus dismisses Herod’s empty threat. He will not be diverted from his mission and makes a critical offering of the spiritual power of the creator God. The opportunity came and went with his death on the cross, like those of prophets earlier, and Jerusalem, still the embodiment of the Hebrew dream, is left to its own devices.
 

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