Stuff happens that doesn’t make sense, that is the way of the
world. Solomon must have been a betting
man and learned a few lessons thereby.
He learned that sometimes things don’t turn out the way you would
expect, natural ability differences don’t always determine outcomes. He has seen that there are things in the
world that don’t operate as you would expect and concluded that life isn’t the
way it should be. Sin changes things, it
means that the world isn’t as predictable as it should be. In the end, wisdom is preferable to folly but
it too has its limitations so therefore cannot be the “be all, end all” or
summum bonum of this life.
Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. How could the disciples have possibly
misunderstood this to mean bread? It is
not an easy saying to interpret it but it seems the least likely
interpretation, especially after the feeding that just occurred, would be that
it had something to do with literal bread.
So what is the leaven of these two groups? They had very little in common even though
they made up the leadership of the people.
The two groups had some significant theological differences and yet here
they find a common “enemy” in Jesus, demanding a sign to authenticate His
ministry, even after He has fed the multitudes after healing many of them. Their leaven is to always doubt, always
control through religion. Jesus used the
sign of Jonah, three days gone from life, as a perfect symbolism for them. They had their own agenda, just like Jonah,
and God couldn’t do enough to win him over.
They are acting like Jonah and their attitudes will carry over into the
people as well.
The Galatians are being led back to the law. Legalism is the
leaven of the Pharisees. Circumcision
isn’t an issue of health, it is a submission to the demands of the old covenant
and in submitting to this they have placed themselves outside of grace and gone
to works. The old covenant was based in
grace but religion had obscured that reality.
Grace was found in the sacrificial system which harkened back to Genesis
3 when an animal died rather than the two humans who had sinned. Forgiveness, the continuation of life, was
possible and relationship could be restored between God and sinners. Unfortunately, what they had done was to
believe that righteousness could be achieved and that those who transgressed
were without hope. Jesus showed that
righteousness was actually not something that could be achieved until true
righteousness was understood. His life,
His righteousness, revealed true righteousness and we know that we need more
grace than we ever realized but in the cross we see that all the grace we need
is available to us. That is true wisdom.
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