Thursday • 08/01/2024 •

Thursday of Proper 12

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 71; Judges 4:4-23; Acts 1:15-26; Matthew 27:55-66
This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 8 (“The Song of Moses,” Exodus 15, BCP, p. 85); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 19 (“The Song of the Redeemed,” Revelation 15:3-4, BCP, p. 94)

Taken together, today’s readings illustrate God’s unyielding intention to accomplish his purposes despite all opposition, and through the most surprising of means.

Notes from Judges. Judges highlights the heroism of two women who act, undeterred by timid leadership within Israel or by military oppression from outside Israel. 

Once again, doing “what was evil in the sight of the Lord” has led to Israel’s subjugation, this time under the despotic rule of King Jabin of Canaan. And once again, Israel “cried out to the Lord for help” (Judges 4:1-3). This time help comes from a remarkable woman, Deborah. She is a prophetess who receives revelation from Yahweh, a judge who arbitrates disputes, and an unexpected leader who calls Israel to arms. 

Israel’s general, Barak, pushes back against Deborah’s initial instructions (from the Lord!) for battle against the Canaanites. He refuses to go unless she does. Deborah understands Barak wants her to put her life on the line to prove the truth of her message from Yahweh. She agrees to lead the Israelite forces and informs him, somewhat derisively, that the glory of the coming victory will go to a woman, not to him. As Yahweh promised, the Israelites successfully rout the Canaanites, thanks to Deborah’s brilliant leadership and tactics. 

The Canaanites’ greatest strength is their iron chariots. Deborah lures them close enough to the banks of the River Kishon that the chariots provide no advantage in the fight. The Canaanites are pursued back to their base and all except their leader, Sisera, perish under the sword of the Israelites. Sisera has fled in a different direction, to the home of a family who is on friendly terms with Jabin, the king of Canaan. 

The surprise in the narrative is that the woman who ultimately steals Barak’s glory and seals this victory is not Deborah, but someone else. When Sisera arrives at her home, the woman Jael pretends to offer aid and comfort to him. When she has lulled him to sleep, she drives a tent peg through his head. After this resounding defeat and the death of Sisera, the Israelites were able to destroy the rule of Jabin, king of Canaan. 

Notes from Matthew. In our Matthew reading of the death and burial of Jesus, three women—each with her own story of Jesus’s ministration to her, and each with her own role in supporting his ministry—bear witness to Jesus’s death on Golgotha. Mary Magdalene had been delivered of seven demons (Luke 8:2). The other Mary is his mother (and also of his brothers James and Joseph). And there is the unnamed mother of the sons of Zebedee, recently rebuked for ambitiously pushing for the advancement of her sons (Matthew 20:20-28), but clearly unfazed in her devotion to Jesus. 

And there’s also Joseph of Arimathea, an (up until now, at least) secret disciple of Jesus who happened to belong to the very Sanhedrin that had turned Jesus over to the Romans (see also John 19:38). We are not told what Joseph may have said or done during those proceedings, only that he “had not consented to their purpose and deed, but he was looking for the kingdom of God” (Luke 23:51). Now Joseph offers what he can: a resting place for Jesus’s body. (We know Jesus won’t need it for very long.)

Opposing God’s cause before, during, and after the crucifixion are the chief priests and Pharisees who persuade Pilate to let them have a guard of soldiers to make sure that Jesus’s body stays in the tomb. Refusing to believe Jesus is actually God, they foolishly believe Jesus’s disciples will conspire to steal the body and deceive the people into thinking there has been a resurrection.

Notes from Acts. The book of Acts provides a most revealing perspective on the way God uses evil intentions, noting that Judas’s betrayal fulfilled Scripture, and that his suicide could not thwart God’s plan for a full number of twelve in “position of overseer” (Acts 1:20; see Psalm 109:7). Even before experiencing the life-giving and wisdom-conferring bestowal of the Holy Spirit, the apostles know to seek the Lord’s guidance, expecting that he will work his plan, and that it will be undeterred by any kind of human resistance. 

Whether it is the military might of King Jabin and Sisera, the impiety of the Sanhedrin, the cowardice of Pilate, or the treachery of Judas, a sovereign God resolutely works his unstoppable plan. In his own time and in his own way, the True and Living God puts down godlessness and frustrates foolishness. In his own time and in his own way, the Lord of heaven and earth manifests his power and goodness, and he brings his redemptive purposes to fruition. 

I pray that no matter what goes on around you, you hold on to this promise: “‘I know the plans that I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope’” (Jeremiah 29:11 NLT).  

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+