Footstools

I have two stools that I think we registered for when we got married.  Those stools were used for about 18 months in my apartment in California.  They were under the kitchen wall opening in my first apartment.  In my second apartment they barely served any purpose.  Now as we prepare for a new house, the stools may have a new potential for service, rather than just being in storage.  There is a new joy in considering where they will go, and what their possible use might be.  Planning for a new house is like that, there is stuff you had that you couldn’t use because of where you were before.

One of my favorite parts of Scripture and sermon planning is rediscovering the stuff I forgot about.  I know it seems odd, but no matter how many times I read Scripture, I always find something that I forgot about or didn’t look at that closely in my previous readings.  This week it concerned footstools, and it reminded me of the stools and things I am pulling out of storage and putting into my new house. Something I had no purpose for in the past five years is now something that is going to come to good use.  I was so glad I kept them, and am thrilled to get to put them to good use again.  Stools are simple things, but they become very valuable when extra people come over, for daddy breakfast, or provide a place for good conversation while I am cooking in the kitchen.

This is one of those passages that at first you may pass over and later wonder what the connection was to footstools.  We know footstools offer us rest and relaxation, but what does it mean that our enemies will be like footstools?  This passage is clarifying a deep theological message--that Jesus came to defeat the devil, and therefore He will lift us up above our enemies.  He will win our greatest battles:  the greatest being sin, death, and the devil.  The comment about footstools is just a reminder that Jesus will lift us up through our greatest challenges in life.

We can say those words over and over to ourselves.  But the truth is when we are going through the tough moments in life we rarely think of them being like footstools that will lift us up.  Rather, when our enemies are in our face, we have much different thoughts.  But Peter was reminding the people that with the gift God has given, these enemies would be pulled out of the closets, and only used to lift us up.  This week we spend time talking about that and trusting that God will lift us up.