The drought in the Land is so severe that even the animals
suffer. There is not enough for them to
eat, no water to drink. If there is
nothing for the animals, how great must the suffering of the people have
been. We live in an era when foreign aid
flows relatively freely so the international community will mitigate to some
extent the effects of drought but in Jeremiah's time no one would have come to
the aid of Israel. All it meant was that
they were ripe for conquest because they were weakened. The situation is grievous unto the prophet
and he and the people cry out and ask where is their God. The judgment of God is not complete because
the sin of the people was great.
The prophets frequently were given the message from the Lord
that the people had eyes but they didn't see and ears but they wouldn't
hear. Jesus experiences that very thing with
the Pharisees who come, immediately after He has miraculously fed 4000 people and
demand a sign. Did they not just either
see or hear about the feeding? Surprisingly,
the disciples prove themselves as dense as the rest when Jesus lectures about
the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
They begin to look about for bread, even after what they have just
seen. They don't understand what they
hear from Jesus. The leaven of doubt
raised always by the leaders infects the people, they can never come to a settled
conclusion about Him, no matter what He does among them.
Paul makes perhaps the most shocking and insulting
comparison possible. He compares present
day Jerusalem and the Jews to Hagar, the slave woman who bore Ishmael as
Abraham's son. There is no possibility
any Jewish person could have heard this comparison and not been deeply
offended. The Galatians need this
wake-up call, they need to see the folly of their ways in returning to the yoke
of the law, a yoke no one other than Jesus has ever kept. Jesus' sinless life, voluntary sacrifice of Himself,
and resurrection from the dead have redeemed us from the Law, purchased our
freedom. To take on the yoke of the Law
is slavery, a slavery not to righteousness as it defines, not righteousness,
but sin. We have been set free from the
penalty of the Law. We are to live not
in doubt but in faith, no matter our situation.
No comments:
Post a Comment