The Lord says that when the people ask why His judgment has
fallen on them Jeremiah is tell them that it is because they have a long
history of sin. Their fathers have
sinned by forsaking Him and following after other gods and they have also
sinned by forsaking and disobeying His Law.
They are not, however, being punished for the sins of the fathers, but
for their own, which He says are worse than their fathers' sins. There will, however, come a day when He
restores them to the Land. In that day
there will no longer only be the memory that the Lord brought them out of
Egypt, but that He also brought them back from the land of their exile. First, they will experience misery and
judgment for their sins, of which they are not repenting or even recognizing as
sin. His covenant is everlasting, He has
not rejected them utterly.
The Prophet was the one promised by Moses in Deuteronomy who
would be like him. Moses was used by God
to miraculously provide food for the multitude who came out of Egypt, so when
Jesus does the same here they are ready to proclaim Him both Prophet and
King. In the wilderness, they first were
happy for the food but the Lord knew that this wouldn't last and much of the
grumbling in the wilderness was about their boredom with food, longing for the
delicacies they remembered in Egypt. Jesus
knew the same about this people whom He has fed this day, their faith isn't
lasting, and goes away by Himself. The temptation
satan first presented to Him, feeding Himself after the forty day fast, now is
a temptation to do the same for the people.
They are on the way to faith, but their faith can't be in miracles or
full bellies.
Paul says that we are free from the Law because Jesus has
come and we are now bound not to the Law but to Him. Is he also arguing that the Law produced
sin? No, when we are prohibited something
the sin nature in us seems to automatically desire the thing that is
prohibited. The Law doesn't produce sin,
that is a thing within us. Obedience
isn't a natural thing for us, desire is and we have to deal with the issue of
desire. Jesus showed us the way to say
no to desire but He isn't only our moral example, He also lives in us by the
power of the Spirit. We are not only
fleshly beings we are spiritual beings and we are called to live by the Spirit,
not by the lower nature of fleshly gratification of desire. So, what is the function of the Law in the
life of a Christian? It is to reveal
God's will so that we might be able to test the spirits and know whether the
voice we hear is from God or not.
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