THE FAITHFUL

 

While man in flesh displayed recurrent failure ‑
Failure of life even in such as Abel,
Failure in faith even in such as Abram,
Failure in honesty in such as Jacob ‑
Yet there were some whom God could view as faithful ‑
Enoch so faithful God took him by translation,
Noah so faithful that God desired to save him,
Abraham once restored, and his wife, Sarah ‑
While others yet could presage God's own Saviour:
The promised Isaac when God, in figure, raised him,
The sapient Joseph as leader of salvation
Administering grace among the nations.

And graves of some faithful saints of more recent times, including my father-in-law (DJH) and grandfather (CB), grandmother and aunt.

WHAT HE BECAME

                (John 1: 14)

In spite of a world where death is abroad

Where Satan's devices enthrall and enmesh,

To compass God's purpose, and bring us to God,

He came to redeem us: the Word became flesh.                                                

            (2 Corinthians 8: 9)

He dwelt among man, displaying God's grace,

Though in Him the earth and its forms are secure;

To come to be near to the lost human race

And bring us God's blessing the Lord became poor.                                        

            (Revelation 1: 17)

Betrayed and denied, despised by men, He,

The King of the ages, was shackled and led,

To bear crucifixion, and there on the tree

The One is First and the Last became dead.                                                        

(Hebrews 5: 9; Hebrews 7: 22)

Thus Jesus became to all who obey

The cause of salvation eternal in scope; 

And Jesus became the safe warranty

Of covenant blessing, assuring our hope.  

Near Home

In Glasgow

                                                             

HULDAH

Nelson's column, Edinburgh

 

Firth of Forth, looking north

After they found the writings of the law

Why did they seek Huldah the prophetess,

Who trenchantly expressed what she foresaw

In consequence of their unrighteousness?

She said Josiah's death would have occurred

Before apart from his heart's tenderness.

A woman close to God thus brought God's word.

JAEL

Sisera, finding flight expedient,
Reached Jael, and so fled the battle's clamour;
She gave him milk; he slept within the tent:
She took the tent-pin and the workman's hammer.

She smote his temple – for God had decreed
His death would not enhance a warrior's glamour.

Her hands were practiced for the time of need.

An evening's wander just north of Dundee

EBED-MELECH

Their hatred made the lords of Israel fling
The prophet Jeremiah in a pit,
In mud, till Ebed-melech moved the king
To let him draw the prophet out of it.

Since this was something that God loved to see
His word declared an honour that was fit

"For thou hast put thy confidence in me"!

 

NABOTH

Heaven records, but may not intervene:
As when king Ahab showed that he was bent
On gaining Naboth's vineyard, and the queen
Jezebel worked to further that intent.
 
Naboth, defiant to a tyrant's rage,
Said, as he scorned a tyrant's blandishment,
 
"I will not sell my fathers' heritage"

A view towards Edinburgh Castle from the south.

The square in Dalkeith Country Park in winter

 

BALAAM'S ASS

Three times the angel stood in Balaam's way;
Three times the ass saved from the ill to come;
And three times Balaam smote it.  She could say
She had not earned Balaam's opprobrium.
 
She wisely spoke sufficient words to teach
The prophet and was then, as wisely, dumb.

The silent time exceeds the time of speech.

ENOCH

How many realised as Enoch trod
A separate way through earth's fresh thorn and thistle
It was because his was a walk with God?
Did such a path of faith make sinners bristle?
 
God gave the word to answer men's complaints,
Resounding to us still from Jude's epistle:
 
The Lord will come with myriads of His saints!

Urijah, posted last week, is a reposting of half sonnets on scriptural heroes and heroines; I thought I'd gradually repost the others.

Winter sunset over the Firth of Forth.