Monday 20 June

2 Kings 17:5-8, 13-15, 18; Ps. 60; Matthew 7:1-5

Listening and judgement

Israel suffers the consequences for not listening to the prophets. Northern Israel is destroyed. Its people deported. Only the southern kingdom of Judah remains. Judah, too, will disappear if it is unfaithful to God. Jesus brings God’s judgement from the international level down to the personal level. He says to us, ‘Take the plank out of your own eye before you judge the splinter in your brother’s eye; for the judgement you make will be the judgement you shall receive.’ On the international or personal level, God’s judgement will come. It will be just, and devastating for the proud.