The Lord
swears that this generation will not enter the Land but their children will
indeed possess the Land. The men who
brought the report that caused the people to fear and rebel against the Lord
die by plague. The people lacked faith,
even after the signs in Egypt, the Red Sea, the provision and protection of the
Lord in the wilderness, the revelation at Sinai, and the other signs they were
given. Are they really that different
from us? The problem with grumbling or
murmuring is that they should have directed their words to the Lord rather than
talking “behind His back” to one another.
We are called to trust no matter what the situation looks like to our
eyes, we cannot properly judge things, we think we know “good” but our judgment
is lacking, it is fallen and it is incomplete because we only see what is
before us, He sees those things we speak of in the creed as either invisible or
unseen. We must rely on Him if we are to
make right judgments.
How do we interpret
the times? Jesus says we lack true
judgment, that we can know the weather based on the signs but these cannot know
the times because they don’t understand the signs He has given them. They believe that Messiah will usher in an
era of peace but in fact He has come to bring division and indeed He did and
does cause division in families. From
the beginning of His ministry there was a division of opinion about Him, some
thought He was Messiah while others accused Him of being a demonic
presence. There will always be division
over Jesus until the end of times when every knee will bow and every tongue
confess that He is Lord. Until that time
we are told to expect opposition and misunderstanding about Him and therefore
about those who confess Him as Savior and Lord.
No one claims He was a bad man but our confession of Him is as God and
man, the only Name given under heaven by which we might be saved and all who do
not put their trust in Him will not have eternal life in and with Him. That confession causes division.
The Gospel
that Paul has preached has caused division and it seems that some in the church
who were of the Pharisees’ party still weren’t getting the message. They believed that salvation was Jesus plus
circumcision plus the law of Moses.
Paul’s preaching was Christ alone, faith alone, grace alone. There was nothing added to Jesus’ work, He
had already fulfilled the Law on our behalf if we have faith in Him. His righteousness is credited to us by God’s
grace and made operative in our lives by faith.
That transaction is sealed by the giving of the Holy Spirit to lead us
into all truth and to righteous living.
The promise made through Jeremiah of writing the Law on the hearts of
His people was complete, so if we have circumcised hearts why do we need any
other type of circumcision? Right
judgment requires the Holy Spirit.
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