Okay, as I sit back after my readings and start in on this morning’s meal, it’s scrambled eggs. No one passage, no single thought, rises to the surface as THE thing to meditate on. Rather, it’s a mix of observations coming together from different readings. A question here, an answer there, and an effect in yet another place.

First, a question. Context? Jonathan and his father, King Saul, get into an argument over the dinner table. Subject? David. Jonathan seeks to defend him, while Saul is set on destroying him. Cue, the question . . .

Then Jonathan answered Saul his father, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?”

(1Samuel 20:32 ESV)

Why should He be put to death? Nothing deserving of death. Nothing deserving of anything but praise and honor. A servant of the king, a warrior under his command, David was nothing but noble and without fault. Hmm . . . sounds like “the greater David”, Jesus. And the question could be asked of Him as well. Why should He be put to death? What has He done?

Then, as I read in 2Corinthians, an answer.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich.

(2Corinthians 8:9 ESV)

He became poor . . . How’s that for an understatement?

How poor? Philippians 2 tells us. Divested of His visible deity and all His heavenly glory in order to come to earth in the flesh, “being born in the likeness of men”. Took off, as it were, His royal garments in order to put on the clothes of a servant. So humbling Himself He became “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Php. 2:6-8). How poor’s that? Pretty poor!

So, why should He be put to death? Why should He have been made so poor? So that you by His poverty might become rich. Hmm, again . . . tell me more about these riches.

Reading three. Behold, an effect.

Bless the LORD, O my soul,
       and forget not all His benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
       who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
       who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
       so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

(Psalm 103:2-5 ESV)

Talk about your benefits! Talk about being made rich. Sins forgiven. A diseased soul, infected by a deceitful heart (Jer. 17:9), made whole. The price paid in full by His self-embraced poverty to redeem me from bondage to sin and death.

But wait, there’s more! I’m crowned — yes, crowned! — with God’s own steadfast love and mercy. Filled to overflowing with His goodness.

Sounds like a “from rags to riches story” to me.

A question. An answer. An effect. Worth chewing on? I’m thinkin’ . . .

Bless the LORD, O my soul!

For His grace. For His glory.