This concludes the Messiah and my daily meditations on its libretto. I have focused on the scriptural foundations of the work. You may listen to Sir Colin Davis comments on Handel's Messiah in this short interview.

My next set of meditations begins today, New Year's Day 2008, with a consideration of the Book of Tobit. Please access Didymus Dicta VII at http://didymus-bookoftobit.blogspot.com.

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Blessing, and honour, glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 5:12-14)

In the apocalypse of John this is a song that thousands and thousands of angels begin to sing until it is joined by every living creature.

The lamb opens the Book of Seven Seals from which the wrath of God is unleashed.

The Greek translated as wrath is orge. Depending on context it can mean anger, indignation, or any violent emotion. It is commonly associated with judicial punishment.

But rather than punishment we are assured of redemption.

Orge can also mean a great stretching. Through Jesus God has stretched out to save us and even to offer us power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.

You may listen to Worthy is the Lamb from the Messiah performed by the Academy of St. Martin's in the Fields.

Above is Adoration of the Lamb by Beringarius (circa 870)

If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is at the right hand of God, who maketh intercession for us. (Romans 8:31 and 33-34)

The process of justification has been a matter of considerable disagreement among Christians. That Christ came to justify is widely accepted.

The Greek word translated above as justifieth is dikaioo. It is a verb that can be either a judicial finding or an example of righteous behavior.

Did Christ declare us justified or does Jesus provide an example of how to become justified? Was the self-sacrifice of Jesus the final action or the pattern for ongoing action?

In either case it seems to me that those accused must accept the possibility of justification. Paul ends the eighth chapter with: "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

But scripture and personal experience demonstrates that we can separate ourselves from the love of God. However it is achieved, the individual must be open to and allow the process of justification.

You may listen to If God is with Us performed by the Academy of St. Martin's in the Fields.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1Corinthians 15:55-57)

Paul is thought to be - rather roughly - quoting Hosea 13:14. The Greek scripture of Paul's day, used by most Jews of the Diaspora, does not accurately reflect the Hebrew. But in this case the errors do not detract from Paul's meaning.

I have failed in God's purposes. I have wandered from the way that God intended. I have not kept faith with others or even with my own integrity. I have sinned. I deserve to be shamed and punished.

But instead I have been given victory - nike is the Greek - through the reign of Jesus the anointed. Despite my sin if I acknowledge that I belong to Jesus and submit to Jesus I can be victorious.

The error of translating the Hebrew to Greek is real. It complicates our understanding. But it does not remove the essential truth. The truth of both Hosea and Corinthians persist and is accessible to us.

In a similar fashion sin complicates our lives. Through grave errors we experience great pain. But this does not undo the truth of God's greater love and profound grace. The truth overcomes the error.

You may listen to O Death where is thy Victory performed by the Bach Collegium of Japan.

Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. (1Corinthians 15:54)

Paul is quoting from Isaiah 25:8: "He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth."

The prophecy of Isaiah culminates an extended time of trouble, destruction, pain and death. In Isaiah 24 we find, "The earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled... The earth is polluted by its inhabitants... Therefore a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left."

Yet from the midst of the destruction God brings restoration and more: "The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, And refined aged wine." (Isaiah 25:6)

You may listen to Then shall be brought to pass from the Messiah performed by the Academy of St. Martin's in the Field.

Above is the New Jerusalem from a 14th Century tapestry.

The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:52-53)

Paul is insistent that the dead will be raised. He insists it will be a physical raising.

But we will be changed from earthly to heavenly, perishable to imperishable, from weak to powerful, dishonorable to glorious, from natural to spiritual.

Death becomes -rather than an ending - a new beginning. Death is a way of healing.

In Paul death can be understood as a birthing, our earthly lives being a comparatively short period of preparation for a fulfilled life beyond death.

With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord. (Psalm 98: 6)

You may listen to Alastair Miles sing The Trumpet Shall Sound from the Messiah.

Behold, I tell you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)

Most of the third act of the Messiah is drawn from the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians where Paul outlines his case for the resurrection of the dead.

The human brain is a great defense mechanism. It seems to me our cognitive abilities evolved to enable our rather frail species to avoid death. Yet we each die.

In confronting the inevitability of death our individual and collective brains have crafted rituals and explanations that presume to overcome even this finality.

I am personally uncertain if we have evolved a profound insight or a comforting illusion. Paul offers a mystery - musterion is the Greek - a hidden purpose, a secret, a mystic vision.

We shall be changed. We will exchange one reality for another. We shall be transformed. We will become as another.

You may listen to Behold I Tell you a Mystery from the Messiah performed by the Academy of St. Martin's in the Fields.