Eating with your enemies.

U nodigt mij aan tafel voor het oog van de vijand, u zalft mijn hoofd met olie, mijn beker vloeit over.

The author, David says, "You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings." (Psalm 23:5 NLT)

For years I read that to mean my enemies watched me get blessed by God. They stood at a distance or watched from hell, while I had a feast. 

I think I was very wrong all these years.

I think David means the enemy is at the table with me. 

Think about it. Jesus ate with his enemies all the time. Both the obvious enemies like the Pharisees and may the less obvious like Judas or even Peter (Peter at least spoke the words of Christ's enemy Satan when he tries to discourage the talk of dying and Jesus says get behind me Satan. Or less obviously, when Peter denies Jesus).

I think this shows us that we will become like Jesus. We will be able to graciously eat with those who seek our demise. We, with God's help, will welcome our enemies to the table. Maybe even it is the idea that God makes our enemies to share their table with us. 

Either way, I do not believe any longer that it is a description of a spoilt children sticking his tongue out at the enemy while tucking into a great feast laid on by God for his favourite child. 

Rather I must see this passage as describing Jesus. And if I am going to be included in this promise I must walk the way that Jesus walks.

So look forward to how God will bring your enemies to the table with you. 

I can think of no greater way for this to happen than for my enemies to become my brothers and to sit at the table with me. Could it be that they come to the table as an enemy and leave a brother?

So can we rejoice and look forward to God both feeding us and bringing peace to us.

Thankful

I laughed, I cried, I was blessed as I read about God's way of changing lives.

Please share in my joy and read this short life story of the 2nd Chapter of Acts.

http://www.2ndchapterofacts.com/History.html

The tables have turned.

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Jeremiah 50:4-5, 20, 31 NLT

“In those coming days,” says the Lord, “the people of Israel will return home together with the people of Judah. They will come weeping and seeking the Lord their God. They will ask the way to Jerusalem and will start back home again. They will bind themselves to the Lord with an eternal covenant that will never be forgotten.

In those days,” says the Lord, “no sin will be found in Israel or in Judah, for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.

[to Babylon]

“See, I am your enemy, you arrogant people,” says the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “Your day of reckoning has arrived— the day when I will punish you.

Jeremiah 50:34 NLT

But the one who redeems them is strong. His name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. He will defend them and give them rest again in Israel. But for the people of Babylon there will be no rest!

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Go? Stay? Flee? Settle? Return? If you have read Jeremiah with me then you might be asking yourself what is consistent with God. It seems like his instructions keep changing. And in one chapter it appears Babylon is God's servant doing his will, bringing judgment on the idolatrous and unfaithful people called by His name. Then at the end of the story God is judging Babylon for destroying Jerusalem even though it seems like God told them to do it and made them powerful enough to do it.

Here is what hasn't changed.

Don't serve idols!
Do listen to God. 
Don't be stubborn and set in what you think is right or what you want.
Do seek God and be willing to trust him instead of 'best practice.' If best practice and received wisdom lead you to trust something more than you trust God you are setting yourself up for judgment.
Get ready to change.
Be prepared to live without sin.

In one way or another everyone in the known world was going to be judged by God for thier sin, idolatry, and proud unwillingness to obey God.

God raised the nations up and God tears them down. God uses their warmongering ways to accomplish his judgment and then judges then for their warmongering ways.

But God promises a time when his people will not sin and will rest.

When Jesus came he offered this clean heart and rest to us as well.

Don't be hard hearted like the nations.
Serve God. Trust him. Obey his word. And live in anticipation of restoration, sinlessness, and the promised rest.

https://soundcloud.com/wkbode/consider-the-following-tables