As in Egypt so long ago, there will be a distinction between
the Lord's people and those who are not.
One group will enjoy the blessing of God on and in their lives while the
others will suffer. As in Egypt as well,
it seems that this second group's hearts will be hardened and they will not
repent, will not receive the blessing of God in spite of the signs they will
see of prosperity and blessing in the lives of the Lord's people. It is not clear that the eating and drinking,
hungering and thirsting, are actually physical states, recall Isaiah 55 where
the people are admonished to "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the
waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!" The true blessings are for those who seek Him
and they are ours irrespective of our circumstances, it is possible to eat,
drink, rejoice and sing in spite of circumstances. Our blessings include life, forevermore.
Jesus sees that they want to take Him by force and make Him
king so He withdraws. There are those
who have suggested that this feeding was no more than having faith to offer up
the little bit of bread and fish and the rest then shared what they had among
themselves. If the result was that they
agreed He was the Prophet and that they wanted to make Him king, such an
explanation makes no sense. Why did the
disciples decided to leave that place and go back across the sea without
Him? At any rate, they did, and yet
Jesus appears in the midst of the storm, walking on the water. As they take Him into the boat, they reach
their landing. The people come seeking
Him but for what purpose? He says this
isn't because of the sign, a sign points beyond itself to something else. They have come for the same reason they
wanted to make Him king, so that He could perpetually gratify their
desires. Jesus flatly refuses, just as
He had refused to receive the kingdoms of the world from satan, just as He had
said that man doesn't live by bread alone.
The temptations didn't end that day in the wilderness.
To the church of Philadelphia there is no condemnation. They are told that they have but little power
but they will soon see those who torment them abashed. They have kept His word and not denied His
Name and therefore they will receive the promise we read in Isaiah, a new name
for themselves, "the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God,
the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new
name." They are the city of
brotherly love but that brotherly love is based in the first love, the love of
our elder brother Jesus. These others, the
ones who have looked down on them and persecuted them will learn that the Lord
has loved them, they will see the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah because
they have kept the word of patient endurance.
That is who we are called to be, how are we doing with that?
No comments:
Post a Comment