Jeremiah sends a letter to the exiles in Babylon saying,
settle in, don't live in tents, you're going to be in Babylon a while. In fact, most of you aren't coming back. You will be there nearly twice as long as
your ancestors were in the wilderness. They
are to seek the welfare of Babylon, a bitter pill to swallow, but as it
prospers, so will they. How difficult to
seek the welfare of this hated place, the capital of the nation that had
destroyed the city of God, taken them into captivity and held them we honestly
cannot imagine. There is no analog in
our lives for such a thing. Jeremiah gives
the exiles absolutely no hope of return in their lifetime. There is a promise, however, a promise of
hope and future. The promise is the same
as in 1 Kings 8 and 2 Chronicles 7, if they turn He will hear and they can be
reconciled. What an amazing covenantal
God!
Martha's faith is quite strong, she believes Jesus to be
Messiah, the one coming into the world, and she believes that if Jesus had come
her brother wouldn't have died. He,
however, asks if she believes that He is resurrection and life, and that it is
true that if you believe in Him you will live, even though you die. That is an enormous step of faith that she
surely didn't understand. That wasn't
what anyone actually thought about the Messiah, that belief in Him would be the
key to eternal life. Jesus is asking for
something no one was prepared to give.
Martha, however, confesses extraordinary belief in Him, He is more than
healer, He is the Christ.
Paul sees the situation with the Jews, their rejection of
Jesus and the harvest of Gentiles coming into the covenant community in much
the same way Jeremiah saw his words to the exiles. This is terrible but the Lord has a plan, it
is all, somehow, working for good. We
think of a new covenant introduced in the Gospels but Paul says it isn't new as
in "de novo", it is new in that the way to enter the covenant has
changed, it isn't through birth or circumcision, it is through Jesus. It is the same covenant and we, the Gentiles,
are grafted into the original stock. God
has not rejected the Jews and Paul clearly expects there will be a time when
the nation turns to Jesus and he sees his ministry as part of that
process. All they have to do is turn to
Him, just like always.
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