Daily Manna · Day 333 · November 29
God Not Ashamed
“Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”
A name left off a guest list, not out of malice, and everyone who notices understands exactly why.
So be careful what this verse is claiming, because it is stranger than the comfort people take from it. It does not say God approves of the people he is naming himself after. Read the chapter it ends: the list includes a man who lied about his wife twice, a strongman who lost everything to a woman and a haircut, a judge who made a catastrophic vow, and a prostitute in Jericho. It does not say they were vindicated either. Verse thirteen is blunt: these all died in faith, not having received the promises. They died still waiting. And it does not say their situation improved; the writer says they confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, and adds that if they had wanted to go back, they had every opportunity.
What it does say is a title. God is not ashamed to be called their God, which is a direct echo of the voice from the bush: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He attaches his own name to a list of unfinished people, permanently, in public.
And then the evidence, which is the part I would not have thought to include. For he hath prepared for them a city. Nobody lays foundations for people he is embarrassed by. The proof offered is not a feeling about them. It is construction work.
So bring him the part of your history you edit out when you tell the story. That version, by name, this morning. Then go and be unashamed of someone else in a way that can be seen: eat with the friend whose situation has become awkward, where other people are watching.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 333 is Calves of the Stall (Malachi 4:2).