Moses recounts the leaders and people's response to hearing
the Word of the Lord in the Commandments and it can be summed up in two words,
awe and fear. They cannot believe that
they have truly heard the Lord's voice speaking as no people on earth ever has
done before or since. It is the thing
that authenticates Judaism in a way that no other religion can claim. An entire nation heard at the same time the
voice of God speaking. It would be
impossible for a mass delusion or a conspiracy to encompass such a large
gathering. They not only heard the Lord
but they also saw the signs of cloud and fire on the mountain and everyone
there could testify. Fear, however,
prompted the nation to say that was enough, you go as our representative for
the rest of what God has to say, only tell Him we will do whatever He
says. Moses had an awesome
responsibility in that time, he alone knew what the Lord said concerning the
remainder of the Law and it was his job to faithfully get it right and transmit
it to the nation.
The first thing to answer is whether this is a parable or a
real story. There is nothing to indicate
it as a parable, it doesn't begin with any disclaimer at all, it is simply a
story Jesus tells. The rich man has all
he needs and cares nothing for his neighbor, Lazarus. In eternity, however, he wants Lazarus to do
for him that which he never did for Lazarus, bring him comfort in
affliction. It is not possible for one
to cross over to the other side. The rich
man makes a plea on behalf of his family, that they lack knowledge that would
save them from his torment, would God please send Lazarus to his father's
house, to his brothers, to tell them the truth.
This request is refused on the grounds that they have all the information
they need in the Word and if that isn't enough even a resurrection from the
dead won't convince them. Many have the
Word yet the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is a scandal to them, it is
unnatural, and they won't accept it.
Paul says we have a spirit of faith and we also walk by
faith. The spirit of faith, he says,
means that we speak as we believe and we know that as He raised Jesus from the
dead, so shall we also be raised from the dead.
We believe in Jesus and that belief means that we believe that He will
be eternally faithful to those who put their trust in Him. No matter what happens in this life, we have
assurance that eternity will bring a weight of glory to us, and so we look to
the seen rather than the unseen for our hope in this body. We walk by faith means what the prayer book
says, we proclaim Him not only with our lips, but in our lives. We live by that same faith, never losing
heart for eternity without consideration to earthly suffering or earthly
rewards. That is the mind of Christ and
Paul seems to have had it in a way that few do.
Do we dare?
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