The people of Israel were slaves in Egypt but were bought
without price. We are never told quite how
they had become slaves. Egypt and its
rulers were powerful enough to do as they pleased and the descendants of Jacob
and Joseph were merely sojourners in that land, not citizens. They were, therefore, at the mercy of those
who were Egyptians. That is one way in
which Israel's law, given at Sinai, differed, there was one law for both
resident and alien, equal protection under the law as we would say it
nowadays. The Lord promises that they
would be redeemed without money as well.
We know that redemption was purchased through the blood of Christ, not
with money. In that transaction, we know
Him by Name, Jesus, the Lord saves. We
have seen Him in the face of Jesus, He is the God who is indeed with us
always. We are to be the glory of the
Lord, His tabernacle here on earth.
John tells us of a private work Jesus did, only the
disciples, Mary and the servants knew of this sign. It seems an incredibly insignificant thing,
almost frivolous, with which to begin the manifestation of Jesus' glory but
John says the result was that they believed in Him. The servants knew the truth better than
anyone, they knew what was in the jars to begin with, the water for ceremonial
washing. They filled the jars. What did anyone think Jesus needed the water
for? How did He accomplish this
sign? Remember the plague in Egypt that
the water pots were all filled with blood?
The word of the day here was certainly abundance, the jars would have held
20-30 gallons each. There would be no
further anxiety about running out. In
this sign, the disciples saw the glory of Jesus manifest and believed in
Him. But what did they believe?
The church at Ephesus was a good, solid church. They were righteous people, they could not
bear with those who were evil. They were
a church with solid doctrine, they knew the Bible and they knew theology, they
sniffed out heresy, they tested those who wanted to be called apostles and were
not, they knew false teaching. They had
the same attitude as God towards the sin of the Nicolatians, whatever that may
have been. (It is said that they were
antinomians, those who were against the law and that their sin was that they
gave license to the flesh because it didn't matter, so sex was the problem.) The problem is that they had lost the love
that first impelled them to the Lord and they were no longer doing the works
they did at the first. They had become
Pharisees. The laws of thermodynamics
speaks of entropy, that over time order breaks down in a system, a similar law
seems to apply in Christianity, there is a tendency towards Pharisaism, pride
in our religiosity as we move away from love of the Lord towards knowledge of
the Lord. Here, Jesus says that He will
remove their lampstand if they don't return to a love relationship by
repentance of their pride. Awe and
wonder and gratitude should always mark our lives. If we reduce it all to our knowledge, we lose
all that.
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