The house of the Lord is burned along with the great houses
and then the rest of the city is pulled down.
What was once a splendid and beautiful city with the temple of God at
its center, the glory of the Lord Himself having filled it and inhabited it is
now nothing more than rubble and memory.
For those who gazed upon this sight it must have been utterly
devastating. To know further that it was
partly your fault that the city was no more, due to unfaithfulness and
apostasy, would only serve to increase the grief they must have felt. The king of Babylon graciously appoints of
their own, Gedaliah, to rule over the remaining people of Israel and he
established himself in Mizpah, in Benjamin where he encouraged the people to
settle, trust and not fear the Chaldeans.
This however, lasted only two months until an adversary, either from
jealousy or from the belief that Gedaliah was a traitor, came and slew those
who were settling there. Knowing that
this would not stand with the king, Ishmael and the rest did what was expressly
forbidden in the Law, they returned to Egypt, bringing down the curse of the
Law upon themselves.
How in the world can we be greater than John the Baptist, the
final prophet who testified to Jesus first and who died a martyrs death for
truth? We have a fuller testimony of
Jesus than John had and we participate in the outpouring and infilling of the
Holy Spirit. Greater things are possible
through us because of those two things than John could ever know or was ever
called to do. Jesus affirms that no man
born to date was greater than John, he ranked with Moses and Elijah and all the
other heroes of the faith, but we are called to greater things. Are we living into that? The violent men like Herod and all the others
who have opposed the kingdom of God will not prevail, the kingdom will
persevere and accomplish all for which He intends it but if we are to see and
participate in the advance of the kingdom we are called out of passivity and
into activity to work with Him in that endeavor. Dare we say no?
Verse 29 will get your attention won't it? People were baptized for the dead? Mormons do that and we certainly don't
condone or practice it in Christianity. Paul
isn't condoning it either, he is simply asking why would anyone do that unless
there is belief in the resurrection of the dead. He never commends or recommends such a practice
in any of his letters and we can surely rule it out as anything he would stamp
with a seal of approval. His problem is
that apparently some of these folks in Corinth have apparently determined there
is no resurrection from the dead. If that
is the case what is the point of Jesus' death and resurrection? As Paul points out, if He benefits us in this
life only why bother with Him at all. This
life is a fleeting reality in the grand scheme of things, eat, drink and be merry
for tomorrow we die is actually a hopeless philosophy when you wake up with a
hangover tomorrow. This life matters but
only in so far as we use it for His glory and not our own. We are called to eternity, let us begin
proclaiming and establishing His kingdom with all we have and all we are.
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