Psalm 119:97-120; Jer. 8:18-9:6; Rom. 5:1-11; John 8:12-20
We like to get things over in a hurry, particularly when they are painful. It is human nature to believe that, yes, we have done some things wrong, sinned if we must use that language, but surely this will all be over soon. Here we see that the Lord’s punishment is not over soon, it lingers beyond expectations, the harvest is past, summer has ended and yet we are not saved. They have underestimated their sin and the Lord’s anger, the wound is severe because they still are not prepared to repent and the Lord continues His complaint. It sounds very much like the words we hear in Genesis 6 where every intention of man’s heart was only evil all the time. Our problem is that we tend to get inured to God’s word, we move a degree at a time into a worldly mindset and we lose sight of what it means to be Godly and it is difficult to move us back into line, not a quick healing.
If He isn’t speaking truth is there any question that Jesus statement is the most arrogant thing anyone has ever said? "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Such a statement certainly would cause most of us to take a step back from anyone who said it. There are very few good ways to react to such a claim, we might have the person institutionalized. Most of us wouldn’t change our opinion through the rest of the conversation either. We would want to know who was the Father who sent Jesus, was this a make-believe friend He was talking about. The other side of that is that Jesus has also done some things at this point that beg for an explanation as no one has ever done them. We have to come to terms with CS Lewis’ statement, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a boiled egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.”
Paul says it is all about Jesus. We have peace with God through Jesus. We have access by faith in Him to grace. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, we rejoice in suffering, we have received the Holy Spirit. Jesus died for us while we were yet sinners, not friends but enemies. We have been justified by His blood and saved from the wrath of God (see Jeremiah passasge). We are reconciled to God by Jesus and we are able not to react to Him in fear but to rejoice. He is the light of the world, just as He claimed to be!
Cure Thy children’s warring madness,
Bend our pride to Thy control.
Shame our wanton selfish gladness,
Rich in things and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal,
Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal.
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