It
has been a long time since anyone mentioned the Nephilim, those giants of
old. The spies clearly exaggerate the
dangers that the people represent, once the conquest of the land is begun these
Nephilim never appear again. Not only that,
but the spies know how they appear in the eyes of these giants. Because of Moses’ prayer, in keeping with the
Lord’s own self-revelation on Sinai, the people are forgiven their unbelief but
sin has a price. From the start that has
been the pattern, forgiveness but there is a penalty. Here it is that they have reached the edge of
the land and now are forced to turn back to the Red Sea, where He delivered
them from Pharaoh. They go back towards
Egypt but while this generation lives they will live within certain fixed
boundaries, the place of remembering the goodness of the Lord and His power to
deliver them on one side and the Land of Promise that was their unfaithfulness
and failure to trust Him on the other.
Who
does Jesus say allowed divorce because of hardness of heart? Moses.
He appeals not to Moses but to Genesis 2, to God’s attitude towards
marriage. God’s intention and plan have
never changed with respect to marriage, even if the church’s attitude has. Jesus does allow for divorce on the basis of
adultery, or sexual immorality, but He does not accept the idea of “for cause”
proposed here. Moses accommodated the
reality of a sinful world but God’s standards haven’t changed simply because of
the reality of sin, righteousness doesn’t change because people’s standards
change. The boundaries are fixed from
the beginning, not as we go along.
Process theology says that God changes as time moves on and mores
change, this passage clearly contradicts that idea.
Are
the Jews righteous simply by virtue of being Jews? Paul goes to the prophets to refute that
suggestion. The Lord has spoken that no
one is righteous and that no one seeks Him.
No one, Paul says, is justified by the law, it serves the opposite
purpose, it reveals sin not righteousness of mankind. Seeking Him matters because it is in seeking
Him that we find real, true righteousness.
Jesus revealed true righteousness and we crucified Him in the belief
that He was a blasphemer, an unrighteous man.
We proved what we think of the God, as He said in that first passage, we
detest Him. Without the Holy Spirit, we
indeed do detest our creator but with the Holy Spirit we are brought under
conviction and we can indeed love both Him and His righteousness. We can then come into agreement with the
Psalmist, “Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my
lot secure. The boundary lines have
fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.”
No comments:
Post a Comment