Daily Thought for Monday 13th May 2026
“… you shall deal with them in full accord with the command that I have given to you.”
Deuteronomy 31:5b (NRSV)
Movement of God’s Spirit
Jock Stein
There is a Chinese saying, ‘Immerse yourself in what destroys.’ Accordingly, I take the words of destruction in this passage, about nations driven out of the promised land to make way for the people of God, and I feed these through the grinder of the cross, where God in the person of Christ is immersed in the sin of both the Israelites and the Canaanites. I then ask what new vision comes out of the resurrection which follows.
The answer for Israel is a single state where Jew, Christian, Muslim and atheist live and work together with equal status – as implied by Israel’s 1948 Declaration of Independence, which says that the new State would be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.
Of course, for that to actually happen will require a new Pentecost, a movement of God’s Spirit, a re-interpretation of Deuteronomy 31.3 something like this: “The Lord your God will go before you and do something you can no longer do. God will bring those whose actions abuse others to repentance. God will turn the hate and fear of Jews and Gentiles, Israelis and Arabs, insiders and outsiders into love and hope, with justice and wisdom and peace.” Let this be our prayer.
The answer for ourselves is to take the hard things of life today and lay them before the cross, where God immersed himself in all that destroys human life, and to see them in faith resurrected; to imagine life as it might be; and to acknowledge that this is only possible when God sends his Spirit to renew the Church, to renew the world, to renew my life.
Shall we pray?
Holy Spirit of God, lead us in your way, we pray. And in your leading may we follow. Amen.
Jock Stein is a retired minister, ordained in Kenya – a poet, piper, preacher and publisher who lives with his wife Margaret in Haddington, where they are members of Haddington Parish at St Mary’s Kirk.