The people are encouraged to take courage and cry out to God
and that if they do He will hear them and act on their behalf. They are called to faith, even in the midst
of apostasy and difficulty due to their own sins. On what basis can the writer be certain that
the Lord will hear sinners? In 2
Chronicles 7 after the dedication of the temple, the Lord appeared to Solomon
in the night and promised that, “if my people who are called by my name humble
themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I
will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” This was an answer to Solomon’s prayer of
dedication of the temple that the Lord would do exactly this, that if, by
reason of their sin, find themselves exiles and then repent and turn from sin
to God and pray towards the temple, He would hear and forgive, no matter where
they were. Because the Lord has promised
we too can know that if we repent and pray He will hear, remember and act. He has already done so in Jesus.
Yesterday we read that Zechariah blessed the Lord, today we
are given the words with which he blessed the Lord and prophesied. He believes that the Lord has visited and
redeemed His people and yet what is the evidence of that visitation and redemption? He praises the Lord for setting His people
free and delivering them from their enemies, set them free to worship, obey and
serve Him, but has anything actually happened?
For Zechariah it has, he and Elizabeth have seen a miracle of
biology. They have conceived and brought
forth a child according to the promise of God and in this child Zechariah sees
the fulfillment of all the promises of God and yet we know that this child will
be killed by his enemies and the nation will continue to struggle under the
rule of Rome and the Messiah Himself will be crucified. We don’t know if Zechariah believed all this
would be accomplished in John’s life, but we do know that it will indeed be
accomplished in the end. Can we praise
as he did, as if the promise is already fulfilled?
There is a promise and there is a law. How do we reconcile a promise that seems to
be conditional upon obedience? Is it a
conditional promise or is there something else that we can’t immediately
see? Is the covenant everlasting or is it
conditioned on obedience? These are all
serious questions and the Jews had already decided that the covenant was
contingent in some ways and not so in others.
To enjoy fully the covenant promises and blessings of God required them
to be obedient to the law but the covenant itself was in place forever without
respect to the law, they would always be God’s people whether they enjoyed the
blessings or not. The “forever” portion
of the covenant awaited true righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus which secured
entry into the covenant for those who, like Abraham, believed, had faith. The law simply pointed to the need for grace
always. Grace is truly amazing.
Amazing grace! How
sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
’Twas grace that
taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears
relieved;
How precious did that
grace appear
The hour I first
believed!
Through many dangers,
toils and snares,
I have already come;
’Tis grace hath
brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me
home.
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