Balaam’s
first oracle is a statement that the Lord is blessing Israel and the proof of
that blessing is her numbers. Wherever
he looks and from whatever vantage point he takes, all he can see are people,
her people are like dust they are so numerous.
Sounds a bit like what God promised Abraham in Genesis 15 doesn’t
it? The odd point he makes is that they
do not count themselves among the nations.
They do not yet have a land so they are not a nation in the sense that
nations are recognized. Nonetheless,
they are God’s people and they are blessed and protected by Him. Balak has been warned.
The Pharisees
have the same problem as Balak, the Lord has spoken through this one the crowds
recognize as a prophet, and the word He has spoken is a word against them. This parable is certainly the plainest to all
who hear it, there is no surprising ending to this, no private interpretation
for the disciples. The crowd immediately
knows the fate of the tenants who have dealt so with the representatives of the
owner of the vineyard and finally his son.
The prophetic word will soon be fulfilled in their sight and even those
in the crowd will be complicit in the Son’s death. Will they remember this prophetic word as
Jesus hangs on the cross? Will they
realize that they took part in the sin, they who shout, “Crucify Him!”
There is a
war that is being waged within us. We
know intuitively that the Law is good and right and yet in our flesh we go
against that Law and do what we do not want to do. We affirm the goodness of the Law in our
hearts and minds and yet something within us desires to violate the law. We are like Eve, taking the measure of things
by the desire they produce within us and acting at the level below the Spirit
of God, acting on the level of desire like a beast rather than one created in
the image of God. The Fall is complete,
there is no health in us until we are regenerate and then we have the power to
choose restored to us in the indwelling of the Spirit. Who will save me from this body of
death? Indeed, “Thanks
be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
By the power of the Spirit we have received grace to perceive Him by
faith, believe He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and to walk in His
Ways. Let us commit ourselves this day
to living by that Spirit, crucifying the desires of the flesh, blessing what He
blesses and cursing what He curses.
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