Remember at the time of the exile when the governor
appointed by the king of Babylon, the Jewish man, Gedaliah, was killed by some
of the remnant who then fled to Egypt?
Remember that Jeremiah promised they would never come back and were
under God's judgment for returning to the land of slavery? Well, Jeremiah had a word for the exiles in
Babylon which was comforting but demoralizing at the same time and now he has a
word for the ones who went to Egypt that has no comfort in it at all. Not only have they done this accursed thing,
they have continued their apostasy there, offering sacrifices to the Egyptian
gods. Their punishment is that there
will not be even a remnant of them who will return to Jerusalem. They will fall by famine and sword and die in
exile, except a few fugitives. Continued
disobedience to God will leave Him no choice but to cut us off.
After all Jesus had done and all He had taught among the
Jews they were still unable or unwilling to come to faith and believe. They had all the evidence they needed to come
to Him and yet would not believe. He
pronounces serious woe on them for their unbelief. Their hearts, like those who had gone back to
Egypt in our first lesson, were hardened against the Lord and His anointed no
matter how much they saw or heard. He is
clear that if such things had been done among pagan cities they would have
repented and come to faith, like Babylon had done in the time of Jonah. Likewise, it will be more tolerable for the
people of Sodom in the day of judgment than these for their rejection of
Him. The people of Sodom had seen less
evidence of God than these, there is no excuse for their failure to believe
given all they have witnessed.
When Paul speaks of fighting with beasts at Ephesus he
surely means the problems he had there with the silversmiths and others who
wanted to stone him rather than animals.
His argument is that there is no particular reason he would put himself
continually in harm's way if this life were all there is. Why risk his life when it is the only one he
will have? There is a converse to that
argument as well, why not risk this one if we have eternal life? We play it too safe most of the time. His final words concern their questions about
what sort of body they will have in the resurrection. Apparently some were arguing that they needed
to be careful for this one because it would have to last through eternity. We have some of that idea in the opposition
to cremation. Paul says this body must
die prior to receiving the body that is eternal, but it is
"sown." Are we sowing for
eternity or are we like the exiles in Egypt, doing what it takes to save our
skin in this life? True faith
understands the purpose of this life is to sow for the next and lay up
treasures there.
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