18 June 2010
Psalm 88; Num. 13:1-3,21-30; Rom. 2:25-3:8; Matt. 18:21-35

Spies are sent out to the promised land. The report is of a land just as had been described to them for so long, a land rich and fertile and abundant, a land flowing with milk and honey. Yet… there are people there and they are scary big. The Lord had delivered them from the Egyptians with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm without them striking a single blow in their own defense. He had rolled back the waters of the sea and allowed them to pass through on dry ground and then rolled back the waters on Pharaoh’s army. He had provided food and water for them and their animals in the wilderness. He had appeared to them on Mt Sinai, and had done all manner of works in their sight and in their favor and now they come to the land He promised and suddenly they believe that it is their own power and might that will be necessary.

Peter immediately wants to know how often he has to forgive someone “in the church.” Contextually, this must mean that the person has confessed and repented as Jesus has talked about what to do if someone does not confess and repent. The parable He tells to illustrate makes clear how manifold indeed are our sins and wickedness against the Lord. We are compared with the one who owes a debt so great he could never repay it to the master and yet hold others in debt to us for paltry sums. We rarely get a glimpse of the vast amount of grace needed to save us.

Paul continues to speak of our responsibility for the revelation we have received. He says that circumcision is a matter of the law being written on our hearts not in some other organ, as only the heart can love the law and desire to keep it. There is a value to circumcision, however, Paul keeps the Jewish nation in its rightful place. The Jews have been given the trust for the oracles of God, the law, His righteous will for all people. To them and through them has been revealed more than creation alone will reveal, they have seen God and heard from Him. He has spoken to and through them in order that the world may know through their priesthood, just who this creator is and what He is like. In Jesus we have been given a greater responsibility and a greater priesthood, maybe we should get on our knees and repent of our failure to enter the land?

Oh, to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be;
Let that grace now like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to Thee:
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it;
Prone to leave the God I love.
Here’s my heart, oh, take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.