24 March 2010
Psalm 119:145-176; Exod. 7:8-24; 2 Cor. 2:14-3:6; Mark 10:1-16

The first sign is for Pharaoh and his court magicians can reproduce the sign although the snake that was Aaron’s staff devoured the others. The second sign is the Lord’s power of the water of life that made Egypt such a fertile spot. The Nile meant everything to the Egyptians and here God revealed His power over what was indeed the lifeblood of Egypt. The river became like death to them in this sign of the water turning to blood. What had been their abundance became death. It seems quite strange that the magicians duplicated this sign. Why would they not have attempted to reverse the sign?

The Pharisees start to play their games, testing Jesus to see if His teaching agreed with their own. Jesus’ appeal is the Moses which would be Deuteronomy 24, a passage the rabbis themselves disagreed over. There were liberal rabbis who allowed divorce over nearly anything and rabbis who more strictly taught that adultery was the only grounds permissible. Jesus doesn’t actually interpret the law at all in the Pharisees hearing, only pointing out that it wasn’t God’s plan for divorce to happen. He points back to the original creation and that this was to be a lifelong commitment and it was only after sin entered the world that divorce became an issue with Moses. We often appeal to that which comes after sin to determine God’s will and the reality is that we really must go back to origins to make that call.

Paul writes of his credentials being in Christ and not in himself. Such statements show how radically Paul’s worldview and understanding of God were altered in his encounter on the road to Damascus. When he met Jesus on that road he was bearing letters from the temple that allowed him to persecute the church wherever he found it. Here, he says he needs no such letters. He is on a mission now to build up the church not destroy it and His letter to do that is written in their hearts, they are his letter. Formerly his credentials were his own righteousness and now he claims no competence of his own, his competence is from God. Paul was a man who not only wrote of the transformation of life from the renewing of the mind, he knew it first hand. Where formerly his heart, like Pharaoh’s and those to whom Jesus spoke, had been hardened, now the law was written on his heart and he understood all things anew.

Let my cry come before you, O LORD;
give me understanding according to your word!
Let my plea come before you;
deliver me according to your word.
My lips will pour forth praise,
for you teach me your statutes.
My tongue will sing of your word,
for all your commandments are right.