Prayer – The Noontimes

Wisdom 15:1-6: God’s Wrath

Wisdom 15:1-6: God’s Wrath

Friday, December 19, 2025

But you, our God, are good and true, slow to anger, and governing with all mercy.

It is easy to believe that God is full of wrath when we read the Old Testament; the New Testament tells us that this is not so. Yesterday’s Mass and MAGNIFICAT readings and prayers all tell us that we have much to be grateful for in God. They tell us that we have much to be happy about with God. They tell us that we have much to love through God.

God is our constant shepherd – even when we do not feel God’s presence, God is with us.

From the MAGNIFICAT Morning Prayer: The angel of God, who had been leading Israel’s camp, now moved and went around behind them. (Exodus 14:19)

The angel of the Lord . . . stood between the fleeing Israelites and their Egyptian pursuers during the exodus, and hid them from sight. God goes with us, guards us and guides us today with the same protective love.

The Lord will give you the bread you need and the water for which you thirst. No longer will your Teacher hide himself, but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher. While from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears: “This is the way; walk in it,” when you would turn to the right and to the left. (Isaiah 30:20-21)

Yesterday’s first reading was from Daniel 5 in which King Belshazzar asks advice of Daniel, the Jewish exile in whom the spirit of God rests. Daniel interprets “the writing on the wall” and brings God’s wisdom to those who would worship idols rather than the living God.

Yesterday’s Gospel from Luke 21:12-19: Jesus said to the crowd: “They will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name. It will lead to your giving testimony. Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to refute. You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives.

We may find all of this frightening – yet this is the work of Christ’s disciples.

We may find all of this exhausting – yet we draw strength from Christ.

We may find all of this overwhelming – yet we as disciples persist through Christ.

If we find all of this too confusing and too difficult, we will want to remember that Christ is God among us who comes to live as one of us – who brings us wisdom and strength.

If we find all of this too baffling and too crushing, we will want to remember that our perfection lies in our persistence – and that this is all that God asks of us.

If we find that all of this causes anger to rise within, we will want to remember that what we see as God’s wrath is God’s love.

And so we pray . . .

Dear God, From time to time our sight is blurred and our hearing dimmed and we must retreat for a time to take a journey inward, to ask your counsel, and to seek your wisdom. Bring us your comfort and strength. Set us on the right path. Teach us to put aside our anger and our ridiculous idols. Teach us to listen for you. Teach us to trust in you alone. Call us home to you. Amen.

A re-blog from November 24, 2011.

Image from: http://cldefelice.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html

If we come to this hectic holiday season with too much anger, we may want to take a journey inward to examine who we are and how we behave. To take a journey in which we examine our own use of anger go to the Journey of Transformation page on this blog.

Cameron, Peter John. “Prayer for the Morning.” MAGNIFICAT. 23.11 (2011): 317-318. Print.

December 19, 2025

Belshazzar, Daniel 5, Exodus 14:19, Isaiah 30:20-21, journey, Luke 21:12-19, wisdom

1 Maccabees 11: Alliance and War

1 Maccabees 11: Alliance and War

Thursday, December 18, 2025

200px-Jonathan-Maccabaeus[1] — *Jonathan Maccabeus*

Ptolemy VI, Demetrius, Alexander and Trypho – we watch these rulers exchange lies as easily as they shake hands. Nothing and no one stand for what they say they do; the world into which we step with this Noontime is one of deceit and triple-speak. It is a world that may seem familiar to us.

In this portion of the Maccabees story, Jonathan knows that his tiny kingdom is a simple pawn in the chessboard of the region yet he persists in his struggle to retain and hold secure the sacred city of Jerusalem and some districts of the former kingdom. He seems to achieve and hold his goal, at least for a while.

Alliance and war, promise and conflict, peace and confrontation – these larger battles are reflections of the personal battles we wage each day. The Euro-zone struggles, personal freedom is or is not guaranteed in Egypt, the debt crisis in the U.S. causes financial markets to totter; corruption in political and financial arenas is blamed for personal, national and global failure and depression. War persists in Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, and in more than 100 hot spots around the planet. News headlines today read much like this Maccabees accounting. What has changed?

We like to think that humanity makes progress and our inventions might give us the impression that we do. We communicate with one another across the globe in an instant; but do we hear one another any better? We cure diseases that previously devastated entire nations; but do we cure the disease of greed and alienation, and do we defend the use of science when making medical decisions? We have world-wide conferences that give the appearance of ecumenism and openness; but do we tend to the soul any better than we did two thousand years ago?

Amid the hurley burley of human activity there is only one place to go when headlines distress us or when family and friends become prickly or insensitive. The last verse of the chapter tells us where to go and what to do . . . Then Jonathan returned to Jerusalem. High Priest-Warrior who follows in the footsteps of his slain brother Judas, Jonathan makes it clear where his center lies . . . he returns to Jerusalem. Steadfast diplomat who manages to maneuver the tricks and fall backs of his opponents, Jonathan refuses shady deals and shaky terms to make clear where he focuses his energy . . . he returns to Jerusalem. Through alliance and war, despite political setback and personal failure, Jonathan Maccabeus shoots like an arrow straight and true. He homes toward the epicenter of his faith and hope . . . he returns to Jerusalem.

And so we pray . . .

Good and faithful God, abide with us as we worry our way through our days. Keep us true to you as we avoid the temptation to give in to a false and passing alliance that brings nothing but death. Teach us how to remain in touch with you when the clamor of the day and the fear of the night dull our senses and attacks our resolve. Speak to us loudly and clearly when the road signs that point toward you have been washed away by slick talk and deceitful hands. Pull us to you and hold us close when our inner turmoil and fear erode our confidence and hope. Keep us ever mindful of your care and love, and remind us that when the stricture of alliance clouds our vision or when the fog of war numbs our good judgment, we have only to cry out to you and ask that you return us to the safety of Jerusalem. For it is there that we find eternal rest and boundless peace in you. Amen.

A re-post from November 23, 2011.

Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Apphus

For more information on Jonathan Maccabeus you might try these sites:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/353845/Jonathan-Maccabeus

http://www.jewishhistory.org/the-hasmoneans/

December 18, 2025

Demetrius, Jerusalem, Jonathan Maccabeus, Ptolemy, Trypho

Job 10: The Shining in the Dusk

Job 10: The Shining in the Dusk

Monday, December 15, 2025

In the opening of this chapter, Job’s frustration is evident with the lack of answers from God for the fundamental question concerning his guilt or innocence. He is in the darkest yet brightest of places – he is in that luminal space between day and night, heaven and earth, joy and sorrow, well-being and pain. He stands at the moment of a new creation . . . In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw how good the light was. God then separated the dark from the darkness. (Genesis 1:1-4) Job yearns for God to separate him from the darkness that has descended upon him; Job wants to know if he is innocent or guilty. Job wants to know why he is suffering so deeply.

Job sees a darkness yawning before him and does not know why he stands on this threshold. “Discouraged, worn down by pain and by the assaults of friends and deity alike, [Job] closes his part of this cycle of speeches (v. 18) by returning to the theme of his beginning: ‘Why did you bring me out of the womb?’ In chap. 3 he thought it would be better to be dead, and in 7:16, 19 he proposed to be left alone. He ends with a figure of the darkness to which we will go, ‘deep shadow, all disordered, which shines like dusk’ (10:22). It is the mirror image of his beginning in 3:4: ‘That day, let there be darkness.’ But Job has come to a different point. Then being alive was too terrible; now he wants to be dead because his structure of assumption has fallen apart. Divine power is not correlated with divine justice, and, though he deserves the latter, he is subjected to the assaults of the former.” (Mays 375)

We watch Job struggle and we are fascinated because we see our own flailing against pain in this story. We see that he stands on the verge of complete exhaustion and decomposition. We hear that he looks for an end to his existence. Job demands answers of God as night threatens, and as he sinks into deep despair he runs the risk of missing the luminosity of this moment between worlds. As the shadowy dusk approaches we suddenly see the smallest glint of light in the gathering darkness and we sense something here. Job stands not on the edge of destruction but rather on the brink of an incredible new beginning. There is a shinning in the dusk that harbingers a new and indecipherable rebirth rather than a horrible and ignoble end.

Job’s suffering will end and he will experience God’s goodness in a way he had not imagined; but today we see him on a precipice of cataclysm, stunned by a belief that God’s power does not appear to be accompanied by mercy. Job will struggle with the misguided advice from his companions; he will persist in searching for answers to his questions. A new dawn will burst upon him instead of the nighttime he fears. We know that Job will come to find that the bottomless well of nothing over which he is poised to fall is in fact a bottomless well of safety, surety, and limitless love. This is the liminal space in which Job finds himself today. It is a space that we too may sometime occupy.

With God, even the night sky holds a starry luminosity that guides us back to the light of day. In God, all harm turns toward good, all disaster becomes rescue. Through God there is a shinning in the impending dusk because God separates the darkness from the light. And God sees that it is good.

So let us remember and pray . . .

When we stand on the brink of disaster, let us close our eyes, fold our arms across our lungs that gasp for air, and allow ourselves to sink into the shining darkness of God’s arms. And let us allow God to bring us out of the abyss into the eternal light of God’s love. Amen.

Also see the “Falling Down the Well” page on this blog.

Mays, James L., ed. HARPERCOLLINS BIBLE COMMENTARY. New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1988. 375. Print.

A re-post from November 20, 2011.

Images from: http://reflectivedust.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html and http://deadpoet88.wordpress.com/category/love/

December 15, 2025

dark versus light, Genesis 1:1-4, God’s justice and mercy, liminal space, trust God

Psalm 70: Finding Meaning

Psalm 70: Finding Meaning

Monday, December 8, 2025

O Lord, come quickly to help me . . . come quickly to help me, God.

Friday’s MAGNIFICAT Meditation of the Day, was written by Victor Frankl, a psychiatrist who survived Auschwitz. As I read this psalm I recall some of his words.

Being human always points, and is directed, to something or someone, other than oneself – be it meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself – by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love – the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself . . . (Cameron 151)

As I reflect on his words I wonder how those who physically survived a death camp can ever smile again. I wonder how they move past the fear that must haunt them. I wonder how they manage to move through days of freedom without falling into fits of dark despair. I wonder how they begin again.

In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as a meaning of sacrifice . . . In accepting this challenge to suffer bravely, life has a meaning up to the last moment, and it retains this meaning literally to the end . . . My comrades’ . . . question was, “Will we survive the camp? For, if not, all this suffering has no meaning.” The question that beset me was, “Has all this suffering, this dying around us, a meaning? For, if not, then ultimately there is no meaning to survival; for a life whose meaning depends upon such a happenstance – as whether one escapes or not – ultimately would not be worth living at all”. (Cameron 151)

We too often believe that life’s meaning is found in quick happiness and forget that true human meaning comes from paring ourselves down to a nothingness that brings us sharply up against the realization that only God is worth seeking. We too often act out of fear and forget that no deceit lasts forever, and that we only fool ourselves with our feeble deceptions for God knows and sees all in the end. We too often look for quick solutions and forget that only a forgiving heart and an abiding love bring true and eternal life.

O Lord, come quickly to help me . . . come quickly to help me, God.

And so we pray . . .

Good and glorious God, we struggle to find meaning in the highs and lows of our lives and so we gather up all that we have and all that we are . . . to offer it back to you. For you are our only place of refuge . . . you are our only source of meaning . . . you are the only salvation worth seeking. O Lord, come quickly to help us . . . come quickly to help us, God. Amen.

A re-post from November 13, 2011.

Images from: http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/frankl/frankl.html and http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/questionofgod/voices/frankl.html

Cameron, Peter John, ed. “Meditation of the Day.” MAGNIFICAT. 11.11 (2011): 151. Print.

December 8, 2025

Auschwitz, forgiveness, God is our refuge, human meaning, love, Victor Frankl

Isaiah 48: Exhortations to the Exiles

Isaiah 48: Exhortations to the Exiles

Monday, December 1, 2025

Written on January 23 and posted today as a Favorite . . .

God’s patience, mercy and persistence are clear to us in this chapter of Isaiah. It is unambiguous that our suffering brings spiritual growth and the refinement of our spiritual skills – I have refined you like silver, tested you in the furnace of affliction. It is also obvious in today’s reading that God knows his creatures well – Because I know that you are stubborn and that your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead bronze, I foretold [things of the past] to you . . . before they took place . . . that you might not say, “My idol did them, my statue, my molten image commanded them.”

God well understands how much we humans like to take credit for all that goes well, and how much we like to blame him for all that goes badly; yet God is always welcoming us home and here he asks: Now that you have heard, look at all this; must you not admit it? The conquering armies of Babylon have themselves been conquered; now is an opportunity to escape slavery and return to Jerusalem: Go forth from Babylon, flee from Chaldea! All those who have been patient and who have persisted in faith now reap the reward of returning from exile – if they can find the energy. And so this God who loves us dearly anticipates our fatigue and he exhorts the loved ones to rise up and return to God.

Yesterday we reflected on the fact that God constantly accompanies us – even when we do not feel God’s presence. Today we continue this thinking. God even abides with the exiles and urges them to come home. God remains with us even when we turn to our little pagan ways. God waits for us to remember that only God can restore what has been lost. God loves us this much.

From now on I announce new things to you, hidden events of which you knew not. How wonderful it would be if we might be open and eager for these new pronouncements. How startled we might be to acknowledge that what God promises he always delivers. And how joy-filled we would be if only we might believe the Good News we have heard – that our freedom has been gained for us, our sins have been absolved for us, and the way has been made straight for us.

Today’s MAGNIFICAT Morning Prayer offers perfect petitions as we move from exile to freedom to home, from stubbornness to repentance to restoration, and from disbelief to acknowledgement to joy. Let us allow ourselves to be encouraged by God’s eager exhortations to us, the children he loves so very much.

We seek to grow in holiness and turn away from sin. So we pray: Bring us to repentance.

When we have strayed from the path of righteousness: Bring us to repentance.

When we are enthralled by what is not of God: Bring us to repentance.

When we become blind to our sins: Bring us to repentance.

Lord our God, you are loving and merciful to all those who turn to you in humility. Draw us ever deeper in your embrace as we seek to please you through holy lives. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

A re-post from November 6, 2011.

Cameron, Peter John. “Prayer for the Morning.” MAGNIFICAT. 1.23 (2011). Print.

Image from: https://www.picturethisgallery.com/art/the-blacksmith-shop/

December 1, 2025

God encourages us, God is always with us, God is merciful, God is patient, God is persistent, God keeps his promises

Coping With the Philistines

Jeremiah 47: Coping With the Philistines

Friday, November 28, 2025

Written on January 24 and posted today as a Favorite . . .

*Bas-Relief of Philistine Prisoners, Medinet Habu Temple, Luxor, Egypt, Albumen Print, circa 1880*

Jeremiah’s title is Prophet of the Nations and in chapters 46 to 51 we read the Oracles to the Nations. In this portion of his prophecy, Jeremiah describes the coming judgment of Yahweh. “Why Philistia is included at all in the list of enemies is not clear . . . What is certain is that the attack ultimately comes from warrior YHWH . . . The poem provides no clear reason for the attack, but it ends with ‘the song of the sword’.” In a poignant personification of YHWH’s weapon, an unidentified speaker begs the sword to be still but recognizes that the sword is unable to countermand YHWH’s plans for it.” (Barton 523)

This commentary points out in the previous page that today we have an aversion to “the theological themes of vengeance, anger and retribution” (522); yet these images are meant to call Israel back to Yahweh, and to lay out a kind of case here in which God’s justice is seen for what it is, the natural playing out of the covenant conditions.

A few weeks ago we looked at Ezekiel’s song of the harvesting sword which held out a similar promise to the faithful: God’s justice is swift, God’s love is healing. Today the object of this “Justice Sword” is the Philistines, a tribe of people whose history is intertwined with that of the Hebrew tribes. More can be read about them at: http://www.bible-history.com/isbe/P/PHILISTINES/ Several weeks ago we read about the Philistines’ dilemma with the Ark of the Covenant which they had taken from the Jewish people (1 Samuel 6). They believed that once they had physical control of this “magic” box that they could manipulate God and have him wait on them. This, they found out, is not how God operates, and so they looked for a quick and clever way to return the Ark – the presence of God whom they did not understand.

Today we look at the prophecy Jeremiah pronounces for this Philistine people, and it is bleak. When we take in all that is predicted, we realize that there is only one way to interact with Philistines: We must call on God alone for guidance and protection, and as New Testament people we will want to intercede for the Philistines in our own lives. We will want to consider how the old covenant with Moses as mediator is fulfilled and superseded by the new covenant with Christ, the new mediator. And so we will want to ask Christ to redeem and heal the modern Philistines, and the many faithful that they injure. As we consider the implications of all of this for us today, let us pray . . .

Just and Merciful God, You know that we live side by side with those who do not revere you, and with those who believe they revere you when they do not. Help us to step away from our anxieties and fears when we come up against the Philistines in our lives. Teach us to take our large and small problems to you, and to trust in you alone to find the best solutions. Encourage us as we look for ways to be faithful to you. Help us to persevere as we place all hope in you alone. We ask this through Jesus Christ, the New Mediator of your eternal covenant with the faithful. Amen.

A re-post from November 3, 2011.

Image from: https://archaeology.org/issues/july-august-2022/features/levant-philistine-origins/

Barton, John, and John Muddiman. THE OXFORD BIBLE COMMENTARY. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001. 522-523. Print.

November 28, 2025

1 Samuel 6, anger, Ark of the Covenant, Ezekiel, harvesting sword, Justice Sword, retribution, vengeance, YHWH

Numbers 33: Stages on the Journey

Numbers 33: Stages on the Journey

Tuesday, November 25, 2025

Written on January 15 and posted today as a Favorite . . .

We have a clear map of this passage from slavery to freedom, from dependence to independence, from darkness to light, from sorrow to promise. We might take time to reflect today on our own journey of faith and the many stages we have traversed. There have been many crossings, fearsome turnings, alarming hazards, and disturbing encounters. But there have also been beautiful awakenings, sustaining way stations, welcoming bridges, and warm pillars of fire in the night. Each of us has a record of our crossing out of confinement into freedom – and it is likely true that each of us has been exhausted at various places along the way. At each of these obstacles we will have heard God’s voice or received God’s word in various ways. It is absolutely true that we all have received the Word itself, Christ. And we have received him without an intercessor. We have only to open ourselves to his presence.

God is our constant strength, Jesus is our constant shepherd, the Spirit is our constant love as we move from darkness to light, from sorrow to promise through the stages of our journey.

Isaiah 40:11: Like a shepherd [God] feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.

From one of today’s MAGNIFICAT Mini-Reflections: Jesus is both the Lamb of God and the Good Shepherd. He has walked the path of life before us and is one of us in his humanity. Let us put complete trust in him and confidently follow him wherever he leads us. Amen.

A re-post from October 31, 2011.

Image from: https://dantisamor.wordpress.com/2016/01/29/painting-the-flock-pre-raphaelite-livestock/

Cameron, Peter John. “Prayer for the Morning.” MAGNIFICAT. 15.1 (2011). Print.

Also see the Journeys of Transformation page on this blog.

November 25, 2025

being open to Christ’s presence, Christ as shepherd, intercessor, Isaiah 40:11

Psalm 26: Prayer of Innocence

Psalm 26: Prayer of Innocence

Monday, November 24, 2025

susana[1] — *Artemisia Gentilesche: Susana*

Yesterday I was speaking with a friend about how Psalm 73 always pops up when I am troubled about how to live in the world and not be of it. As Paul tells the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 10:3): For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. In Psalm 73, The Trial of the Just, the psalmist expresses what happens to our thinking when we come close to losing faith that God is goodness and mercy and justice. In today’s Noontime reading we find a kind of companion psalm, a prayer of innocence, a statement of faith and an affirmation of our covenant promise with God.

Just a few days ago we examined the first book of Esther in which the story of Mordecai begins to unfold. He is wrongly accused and knows that he must rely on God and no other for salvation. Like Job in his conversations with his three friends Bildad, Eliphaz and Elihu, he knows that only in a conversation with God will he find the answers he seeks. And like Susana in the Book of Daniel he also knows that always our help arrives in God’s time and way rather than our own.

When we find ourselves in a quagmire not of our making, we might pray this psalm . . . I have walked without blame. In the Lord I have trusted.

When we find ourselves in a nest of confusing lies and deceptions, we might pray this psalm . . . I do not sit with deceivers, nor with hypocrites do I mingle.

When we find ourselves embroiled in a plot we did not devise, we might pray this psalm . . . I hate the company of evildoers; with the wicked I do not sit.

And when we find ourselves rescued by God – as we always are – we might pray this psalm . . . My foot stands on level ground; in assemblies I will bless the Lord.

Once someone said to me that Psalm 26 cannot rightly be prayed by anyone except Christ since none of us is as perfect as the person who speaks here. I replied that God does not expect perfection in our actions, only persistence in our attempt to be loving and just; that Christ is a tender brother who models how we might live yet forgives all our faults; that the Holy Spirit abides in each of us urging us to keep ever close to God. When we listen to the words Christ speaks to us as God manifested among us, we know that forgiveness and openness to renewal are important in our development. We know that the perfection God asks is our persistence in following Christ through any and all obstacles in our lives. We know that the first step we must take toward God is a genuine repentance for any way we have offended God. We know that God is eager to forgive our transgressions. And we know that we are given infinite opportunities to amend and renew ourselves.

So today we take up this psalm to examine it and ourselves. Are there times when we are not completely innocent of wrongdoing? Yes, often. Are there times when we have been wrongly accused and maligned. Yes, and these times may be numerous. Does God always forgive, is God always present, and does God consistently welcome us home when we have given offense? Yes, and yes, and yes. Today, if we find ourselves wanting, we have the opportunity to turn back to our journey of persistence, for in this we find perfection. And also today, if we discover that we have been unjustly accused, we have the opportunity to petition God with all the other innocents who suffer at the hands of those who disdain patience and kindness and justice.

Too often the innocent messenger is blamed for the harsh but true and necessary message. We may have been the receiver of such a communication and behaved badly, and we may also have been the deliverer and suffered through no cause of our own. In either case, let us together begin our singing . . . My foot stands on level ground; in assemblies I will bless the Lord.

A re-post from October 30, 2011.

Visit The Race of the Just post at: https://thenoontimes.com/2018/11/21/the-race-of-the-just/

Image from: http://abbey-roads.blogspot.com/2011/04/susanna-falsely-accused.html

To read more about innocents who suffer follow the painting hyperlink on today’s post or visit: http://abbey-roads.blogspot.com/2011/04/susanna-falsely-accused.html

November 24, 2025

2 Corinthians 10:3, Esther and Mordecai, Job, Noontime October 19-2011, Psalm 73, Susana

Micah 1: False Idols

Micah 1: False Idols

Sunday, November 23, 2025

Commentary will fill in any questions we have about the cities and places named in today’s Noontime. Even without the detail of who is who and where is where and what is what, we know the message: Put aside all false idols and return to God.

It is likely that Micah’s prophesy saved a nation for a time. “Micah is remembered in Jeremiah 26:18 as having uttered words of doom against Zion and Jerusalem that prompted Hezekiah to repent.” (Mays, 660) And it is likely that Micah’s prophesy can save us as well. All of these names in the opening chapter might be removed and the names of our own cities and nations inserted. What would we do if we heard these pronouncements about our hometown, our favorite shopping locations, the places in which our loved ones reside?

Sennacherib sweeps into the Israelite homeland to take forty-some cities, including Jerusalem. He also takes many captives. This could have been avoided if the people had turned back to God instead of becoming addicted their unhealthy ways. Micah does not treat lightly God’s message he has been asked to deliver. He is unambiguous and exact. When we study scripture closely, we know that there is always a clear, appropriate and certain consequence for sins of omission and commission. About this there is no doubt. And so we pray . . .

Merciful and forgiving God, you send your prophets to us to warn us, to urge us, to exhort us to change. Yet we are convinced somehow that we can barter when the time comes, that we can out-maneuver you, that we can hide our secrets from you, that our false idols will keep us safe and warm and whole. Help us to see that you are wholeness and truth and so you know nothing but truth; and if we wish to live in you we must become accustomed to casting away all idols and dark secrets. Help us to understand that you are safety and mercy and so you know nothing but mercy; and if we wish to live in you we must become accustomed to casting away all thought of envy and revenge. Help us to believe that you are comfort and love and so you are nothing but love; and if we wish to live in you we must become accustomed to acting in love and compassion always. We ask this through Jesus Christ your son who witnesses is your presence among us, together with the Holy Spirit who is your comfort dwelling in us. Amen.

A re-post from October 29, 2011.

Image from: http://leftcoastvoices.wordpress.com/2011/07/12/3944/

Mays, James L., ed. HARPERCOLLINS BIBLE COMMENTARY. New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1988. 660. Print.

November 23, 2025

efusal to turn to God has definite consequence, God is truth and mercy and love, Jeremiah 26:18, Sennacherib

Category: Prayer

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