The men turned and went towards Sodom but Abraham still
stood before the LORD. What does that
mean? The three men were representatives
of the Lord but they were not the Lord.
Only the one who stayed behind was the Lord, a “Christophany”, a
pre-incarnational appearance of Jesus. Abraham
was such an important person that the Lord revealed to Him the plans He had for
Sodom. Abraham pleads for Sodom and
finally bargains the Lord down to sparing the city if there are ten righteous
men found there. That is the basis for
the establishment of a synagogue in a place, ten Jewish men, otherwise the city
might be destroyed. What, however, did
righteous mean to Abraham in this era preceding the law?
Again we see a man brought to Jesus by a group of people and
His response is to take the person apart from everyone else to heal him. Recently we had the case of a deaf/mute man
in a similar circumstance and Jesus took away by himself for the healing and he
spit that time as well but that was to indicate the healing of the man’s
speech. This one is strange because the
first time Jesus acts it only effectuates a partial healing. After the healing is complete, Jesus
instructs the man to not even enter the village. Can we assume there is some great evil there
as there is nowhere else in the Gospels where Jesus gives such a command? As the disciples pass through Caesarea
Philippi Jesus asks what they hear other people saying about Him and then what
they believe about Him so far. Why would
anyone believe that He was the reincarnation of either Elijah or John the
Baptist? Peter gets it right, “You are
the Christ.” What he didn’t know was
that he only understood a portion of what that meant.
Paul sees a war within us, a war between the Spirit of God
and the desires of the flesh. We are
born with a desire for self-gratification and yet the commandment of God is to
love others as we love ourselves. If we
work out the implications of that tension, it means that we are to seek the
best for others. If, literally, everyone
did that, we would all have gratification without seeking it for
ourselves. Christian community is meant
to be that kind of selfless love and that was expressed in the early days of
the church where everyone had everything in common. The problem at Sodom is that there was none
of this kind of love, it was all complete self-interest. What we see in Jesus is true righteousness,
loving others truly and completely, pouring out Himself, laying aside His own
interests for others. We need to be and
have the kind of community where such love is practiced. Let us seek the fruits of the Spirit in our
lives by living according to the Spirit.
The earth is the
LORD's and the fullness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein
the world and those who dwell therein
for he has founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
and established it upon the rivers.
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