Psalm 75, 76; Wisdom 19:1-8,18-22; Rom. 15:1-13; Luke 9:1-17
All of creation participated in the exodus. Solomon marvels at the ways in which the Lord used creation to accomplish His will in bringing His people out of Egypt. The Lord is able to transform the properties of creation in order to avoid disrupting the lives of any but the Egyptians who showed a profound lack of wisdom in chasing the people into the wilderness and to the Red Sea. They had failed to read the signs in the heavens for which they were so famous. They believed in the gods of and in the heavens and those gods were shown to be ineffectual gods compared to the God of the Hebrews and yet they failed to fear Him and gain the wisdom that was on offer. Had they gained wisdom from the plagues, the demonstration of God’s power, they would have allowed the Hebrews to go as Moses requested.
The disciples had seen the power of God flow through them to accomplish all that Jesus had commanded them to do but they still lacked faith in some things. They had faith enough to go out and at least exert the power and authority of God over demons and disease and they were able to report on the remarkable success of their mission but they weren’t quite sure about feeding a multitude with the little resources they had available to them. Jesus, however, had more than enough faith to believe it could be done. How it is accomplished no one seems to have ventured to guess except modern-day rationalists who pontificate that what actually happened was that the crowds had their own food and when they saw Jesus prepared to share what He and the disciples had they came forth and shared their provisions. That would not be worth recording in all the Gospels, only a miraculous provision would be worth telling by all the writers.
In this passage Paul first identifies the Lord as the God of endurance and encouragement and his prayer is that these properties of the living God will bring them together in harmony that they may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Paul’s day particularly there was a constant tension in the church between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians and it was important that they all come together in their witness to Jesus and what it meant to be a follower of Christ. Paul has just finished urging them to focus on primary things and stop arguing about secondary issues and now he brings them together in Christ Jesus. Finally he calls attention to God as the God of all hope and his prayer with regards to that attribute is that this hope will fill them with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit they may abound in hope. Belief in Jesus, the belief that He died in our place, took the punishment for our sins, and was raised to life on the third day which means we have been cleansed of sin and now are fit, through Jesus work and faith in His blood, to be raised to life with Him. That belief is the source of all our hope and our hope is in the One who made the covenant of life so we know that He is faithful and the promise is sure. He has overcome all things, even death, so we know He is sovereign over all things.
And thou most kind and gentle Death,
Waiting to hush our latest breath,
O praise Him! Alleluia!
Thou leadest home the child of God,
And Christ our Lord the way hath trod.
O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
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