Monday • 7/15/2024 •

Monday of Proper 10

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 25; Joshua 2:1-14; Romans 11:1-12; Matthew 25:1-13

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 9 (“The First Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 12:2-6, BCP, p. 86); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 19 (“The Song of the Redeemed,” Revelation 15:3-4, BCP, p. 94)

What a rich juxtaposition in today’s Old Testament and epistle readings! 

Rahab, the pagan prostitute, recognizes that Yahweh, the Israelites’ God “is indeed God in heaven above and on earth below” (Joshua 2:11). She recognizes that he has brought the Israelites out of slavery and is fighting on their behalf to give them a new home. She places herself and her household under his protection. In doing so, she becomes a wonderful picture of sinners who are saved by grace. 

Paul the apostle marvels that the descendants of the rescue from Egypt and beneficiaries of the conquest of Jericho and Canaan fail to see the greater rescue from sin and the conquest of death and hell that that same God has now accomplished in his Son Jesus Christ. In doing so, they become a sobering picture of spiritually privileged people who, failing to appreciate the mercy already extended to them, ironically and unwittingly show their need for even greater mercy (looking ahead to Romans 11:28-32).

For her part, Rahab looks for kindness from the Lord’s hand. In today’s reading, she receives verbal assurance that if she does not give the spies away, “then we will deal kindly and faithfully with you when the Lord gives us the land” (Joshua 2:14). Her story ends not just with her being spared from Jericho’s destruction, but with a new home: “her family has lived in Israel ever since” (Joshua 6:25). But wait—there’s more! Matthew’s gospel places her in the genealogical line that produces King David (Matthew 1:5). Rahab’s is humbling, inspiring faith. 

For his part, Paul looks for the faithfulness of God. He puzzles through the question of whether God has rejected the people God himself chose for bringing salvation to the world. The first place Paul looks is to his own experience. As a member of the tribe of Benjamin, he himself is evidence that God has not rejected the people he foreknew (Romans 11:1). And if in the present it seems that only a remnant of Israelites “get” what God is doing—well, there’s a long history of God working with “a remnant, chosen by grace” (Romans 11:5). It was that way in Elijah’s day, when God had to remind his prophet, “I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal” (Romans 11:2-5, quoting 1 Kings 19:18). It was that way for Moses and Isaiah: “God gave [the people] a sluggish spirit, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day” (Romans 11:8, recalling Deuteronomy 29:4 and Isaiah 29:10). It was that way for King David, who cried out to the Lord, in protest of his many enemies: “Let their table become a snare and a trap…” (Romans 11:9-10, quoting Psalm 69:22-23). 

Paul is saying that if you look really hard you will see a couple of things in Israel’s situation. First, it’s clear that God’s gracious choice—which hearts to harden and which hearts not to harden—means it’s not about “works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace” (Romans 11:6). Our job is not to try to be good enough to merit anything—our job is simply to believe in who God is and what he has done and is doing. And when we do that, we cannot help but live lives in gratitude for this grace. 

Second, Paul observes that Israel’s “stumbling” over Christ (that language itself recalls Isaiah 8’s “rock of stumbling”) cannot mean an absolute “fall”: “So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means!” (Romans 11:11). Paul’s hope, as Jewish apostle to the Gentiles, is that his fellow Israelites will eventually be provoked to jealousy when they see their spiritual riches in the hands of someone else. He hopes his fellow Israelites will reclaim their place in the storyline. He hopes they will come to believe, as he has come to believe, that God is bringing salvation to the world through the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, Son of David and Son of God. As he will explain in the very next verses, that’s why he works so hard at his ministry among the Gentiles (Romans 11:13-14). Paul’s is extraordinary, inspiring hope. 

I pray that you and I have the grace today to be like the five bridesmaids of Matthew 25, who keep their lamps full of oil—full of a faith like Rahab’s and a dogged, determined hope like Paul’s—in eager expectation of the day when the Bridegroom will return for the great wedding banquet. On that day, faith will become sight, and hope will not disappoint. 

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+