We have a little inside joke in our home. Back in college some girl told me I have beautiful feet. I must have believed her at the time, because it stuck with me. And now my whole family jokes about it. Every opportunity I get, I will passively comment about my feet being used to model for flip flops, or that my feet have the optimal toe arrangement where the big toe is the longest on down to the pinky toe. The second toe shouldn’t be longer than the big toe, that doesn’t make for beautiful feet. Okay, enough about my feet…
This morning I came across this verse in Nahum 1:15, “Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace!” This prophecy concerns the fall of Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire, the people that God used to punish Israel and defeat them in 721BC. Through Nahum, Israel was told that God would punish Nineveh as well and that Israel would rejoice in their punishment. The feet that bring good news were the feet that would eventually come announcing Nineveh’s fall.
Many of you probably recognize this prophecy that is later used in Romans 10:13-15, “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’”
So I guess, it turns out, I really do have beautiful feet! And you too, can have beautiful feet! We are called to proclaim the good news to the people around us. It’s why we end our service with “We are the church, now let’s go be the church. Grace, we are sent.” If you see yourself as ‘sent’ to proclaim the gospel in your neighborhood, or at your work, or at your school, or to your family, then you have beautiful feet! (even if they are truly repulsive LOL)
- Pastor Kyle