21 March 2010
Psalm 118; Exod. 3:16-4:12; Rom. 12:1-21; John 8:46-59

Moses rightfully fears the reaction of the people. The last words he had heard from them before he fled Egypt were “Who made you ruler and judge over us?” The Lord here instructs Moses to gather the leaders and the people, clearly setting Moses up as leader and he needs to be able to answer the question this time around. (It is a question that will constantly arise in the wilderness in various forms.) In order to prove himself to have truly been visited by God he is given three signs, the last being a precursor of the first plague on Egypt. What they are to request of Pharaoh is very provocative, to go three days out to worship the Lord their God. The request is offensive as it says flatly that Pharaoh may be a god to the Egyptians but not to the Hebrews. Three days journey is typically the reign of a god and so to go that far is to say that they are beyond Pharaoh’s kingdom and influence and under the reign and protection of their own God. Under the particular circumstances of Egyptian fear of what the Israelites might do if they joined with the enemies of Pharaoh, he would be exceedingly unlikely to allow them to leave his control.

The words of Jesus here are incredibly offensive. They believe themselves to be the people of God because they are the inheritors of the promise, they have Moses which means they have the Words of God, the law. Jesus is telling them that they don’t have the relationship they need, that they don’t “know” God. This has been the aim of God from the beginning, to have covenant relationship. The law is only the mediator and sustainer of the covenant relationship, not the relationship itself. Through the prophets God continually expresses His desire to be known by His people and the way He will accomplish that is to write His laws on their hearts, give them new hearts, or circumcise their hearts. Compliance with the legal demands of the law is meant to define the terms of the relationship but it is relationship that is at the heart of the matter. Do we know God or do we simply know about Him?

As Paul has finished his theological treatise in the first eleven chapters of the letter to the church in Rome, he turns to how to live out their faith, beginning with transformation and these verses tell us something of what that transformation looks like. It means offering our lives to God as living sacrifices, loving one another not simply in words but also in deed by immersing ourselves in the lives of others, sharing with them in all things. In the final few verses Paul speaks of how to deal with those who mistreat us and in this he sounds a bit like he is preaching the Sermon on the Mount, calling for blessing those who persecute them, not returning evil for evil and allowing God to have vengeance, utter trust in Him not ourselves. In all this he is telling them and us how to be an alternative community. It is quite a challenge to live into this vision.

You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
you are my God; I will extol you.
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever!