Let’s take another pause from Abraham, my Friend to think briefly about the new year…
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years: and let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made the two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. (Gen. 1:14–19 ASV)
This was my reading today. The creation of earth-time. The ‘lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth’. These verses set a time grid for the existence and the ordering of time on the earth. It is not one endless blank sheet but time divided into ‘seasons and for days and for years’.
What ‘season’ of life are you entering today as the nations measure the beginning of a new year’s circuit around the ‘greater light’? Our life too is not an endless blank sheet but one in which God orders our ‘seasons’. There will be special trials and joys in this new circuit but there will be special grace too. The media will try to fix your gaze on things ‘on the earth’ and on their chosen priorities. They matter, but don’t forget to look up for a reminder that your life is not random, but is being lived out on an earth that is under heaven’s rule.
The Romans associated the New Year with their god Janus, and hence we call this month January; he was the ‘god’ with two faces so he could look backwards and forwards. The Romans were nervous about transitions — or thresholds. They were dangerous places so they carried their brides across just for safety. Moving from the known to the unknown is unsettling for most people. Some view change with trepidation, some with eagerness.
There is a cryptic comment in the Psalms:
Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God. (Psa. 55:19b KJV)
New seasons, new days, new years; what will they bring? How will we cope? Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
For some reading these lines, the future has already been ‘predicted’. Diagnoses lead the way to prognoses. May I say, without disparagement (and I have a son who is a Professor of Medicine and a Consultant Physician) human beings have no right to use the word ‘prognosis’. It is a word used in Biblical Greek; it means ‘foreknowledge’ and as human beings, we do not have genuine foreknowledge. We can guess, we can calculate probabilities, but we cannot ‘foreknow’. Only an omniscient God can foreknow.
In his messages to the seven churches of the Revelation, Christ walks in the midst of seven separate lampstands and addresses each different church in their different settings and declares to each…’I know…’ God knows all our tomorrows, precisely.
Last Sunday someone chose the old Doddridge/Sankey hymn ‘Grace, ‘tis a charming sound’. (I’m part of a local church where these ancient gems sometimes rise out of the past and shine their lights on the 21st century.) It has a verse…
Grace taught my wand’ring feet
To tread the heavenly road,
And new supplies each hour I meet,
While pressing up to God.
I know it’s not a Bible verse but I am tempted to expound it. The singer expects ‘to meet new supplies of grace while pressing up to God.’ It sounds as if grace were just waiting for us to take the next step before my need and the grace of God meet. I know God’s grace will be on schedule; will I be? As the seasons of life change, keep your eyes open for the provision God has already planned for you. Press on saints of God, there is grace up ahead.
1 Peter repeats a keyword, ποικίλος (poikilos).
ποικίλης poikilēs. Adjective, many-coloured; diverse, various kinds
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations… (1 Pet 1:6 KJV)
As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. (1 Pet 4:10 KJV)
Poikilos trials, trials of every shape and size and colour. It’s a daunting prospect, but wait… poikilos grace too, grace of every shape and size and colour. There is grace, tailor-made, for our every trial. New supplies of grace I meet while pressing up to God. There was evening and there was morning… another day.
I have a dim recollection of reading a Spurgeon sermon in which he commented that we should erect altars at our borders. I interpret it to mean that at times of transition and change we should be particularly conscious of our vulnerability and should reach out to God.
Do the changing scenes of life make you apprehensive? Be anxious for nothing — adopt a zero tolerance on anxiety. It’s all in safe hands.
Let us, therefore, come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Heb 4:16 NKJV)
Or if you would prefer my own paraphrase…
Therefore… keep bringing yourselves boldly to the throne of grace so that you may take hold on mercy and discover timely grace that runs to the sound of your cry. (Heb 4:16 RB paraphrase!)
Whatever the season or the day or the year, there is always ‘timely’ grace. “Let, not your heart be troubled…”
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. (Col. 3:1–4 NKJV)
Here’s another Greek word ‘makarios’, usually translated ‘blessed’ really means ‘happy’. So, in that sense of the word…
‘Happy’ New Year to all Friends of Biblebase.
