We know that Abraham began to walk in faith by circumcising
the males of his household, including Ishmael and the servants but did he truly
believe that a child would be born to he and Sarah? He provides lavish hospitality to the three
men but does he know who they are? It isn’t
clear that he knows this is God, interesting that He appears in the form of
three men isn’t it? We are told that the
“way of women had ceased to be with Sarah.”
She no longer produces an egg which can be fertilized, she can’t get
pregnant. Her reaction to the announcement
is doubt and laughter as she hides just inside the tent and eavesdrops on the
conversation. Had Abraham told her of
the conversation we heard yesterday or did he keep it to himself rather than
either getting Sarah’s hopes up or risking her scorn for what she might perceive
as foolishness? The words of the men to
Sarah, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” are remarkably similar to those
spoken to Mary that I mentioned yesterday.
Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel is full of the wrong
questions. Philip tells Jesus that He
asked the wrong question concerning the food for the crowd. The question wasn’t where to get the food it
was how to buy it. Here the crowd asks
when Jesus came across the lake and the real question, as the disciples know,
is how he got across the lake. They seem
to have kept that detail to themselves, probably scarcely believing it had
actually happened. Where Jesus had
compassion on them the day before He now is skeptical about them. His words about not working for the food that
perishes is drawn from Isaiah 55, as is His promise. They have come for more food and were willing
to work and sacrifice to get it but they are materialists, not seeing that
yesterday’s miracle was actually a sign.
They wanted a king who would continually provide. Think back to the temptation that satan posed
first, that Jesus provide bread for Himself and He refused by quoting “Man does
not live by bread alone…” Here the
temptation is the same but based in His compassion for others. He loves them enough to say no and call them
higher.
These people to whom the letter is addressed formerly “joyfully
accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves
had a better possession and an abiding one.”
It seems that now they have doubted and decided that since Jesus hadn’t
returned it made some sense to return to the old system just in case they had
been wrong about Jesus. Is our
confidence in Jesus strong enough to endure and persevere in seeking to live
holy and righteous lives, to pursue our sanctification or do we have an
opposite problem from these? Can we
believe so much in Jesus’ sacrifice and its efficacy that we no longer pursue
righteousness in our lives? We are
called to pursue the promises of God that we might obtain them, not that we
have already attained them. Let us
believe but in our believing let us pursue the promises now, not waiting until
after the end of this life.
The soul that on Jesus
has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.
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