Who names a child Ichabod?
Both Eli and his daughter-in-law mourn appropriately. They mourn the ark rather than the men,
Hophni and Phineas. The most important
thing that happened this day was the loss of the ark from Israel. The ark was the meeting place, the footstool
of God whose throne is in heaven. It was
the repository of the two tablets of the Law, the Ten Commandments, the part of
the Law in particular that set them apart from every other religious group on
earth. They alone heard these as a
nation, they were not passed on by one man to the nation, but God spoke on the
mountain that day to the entire nation.
After these were given, the people pleaded with Moses to receive the
rest on their behalf because they were afraid of God's holiness. To lose the ark is to lose the glory of God
among them. At least these two had their
priorities right this one day.
The disciples are shocked that only with difficulty will a
rich man enter the kingdom. The idea
that wealth is a blessing from God has always been a part of the culture, the
old covenant is redolent with imagery of prosperity that will accrue with
obedience to the covenant. We still have that idea and it is incredibly
difficult to shake it from our heads and hearts in spite of the reality of
Jesus' own life, the life of His disciples and Paul's life. It is incredibly difficult to keep the
willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of the Gospel at the same time
as we try and hang on to what we have in this world. The disciples question, "What about us
who have sacrificed everything…" makes me wonder if they hadn't made their
decision based on the thought of if we do, we will surely be blessed. They clearly had thrones in mind when they
thought about Messiah. It is difficult
to check your own motives but we must keep our lives prepared to sacrifice for
His kingdom, not our own.
I just heard someone say that they are blessed because they
have been able to make a lot of money.
Does that also imply that those who aren't wealthy are not blessed? How do we then count our blessings? All things on earth can be a test to us. Abraham's blessing, Isaac, became a test when
the Lord told him to take him and sacrifice him. Moses was tested in the wilderness many times
and in the end he failed once and was not allowed to enter the Land. Our "blessings" are always a
temptation to us to see where our loyalties lie. Which kingdom is more important to us, ours
or His? What would cause you to be double-minded?
No comments:
Post a Comment