In the first seven verses of the reading you have God
telling Moses exactly what will happen in the next ten chapters in outline
form. We don't know how long it took to
go from Moses at the mountain to the people at the mountain to receive the
commandments but the Lord was giving Moses all the information he needed to go
forward. As he went and saw that the
Lord's word was being confirmed he surely grew in trust and confidence. At this point, however, Moses has only doubts
to bring, the largest being, they won't believe me. To overcome this objection Moses is given
some signs that look more like magic tricks to perform to authenticate both him
and his experience. Moses continues to
object, that he isn’t eloquent. After
all he has already heard and seen, Moses fears to step into the call. He remembers his last encounter with his
people and it didn't go well. The signs
didn't even convince him.
How many signs must Jesus do before the people, particularly
the leaders, believe. Moses did some
simple tricks that caused the people to believe he was sent by God. Jesus has done miraculous signs and these
people's hearts are so hardened that they can't imagine he is to be the
Messiah. Here, they make the ludicrous
statement that he is a Samaritan and has a demon. How could it be that Jesus is a Samaritan
when the one thing they consistently believe they know is where He comes
from? It has to be that they heard about
his time in Samaria in John 6. They
can't imagine Messiah hanging out with "those people." His statement that anyone who keeps His word
will never see death it somehow proof that He has a demon because everyone
dies. Their question, "Are you
greater than Abraham?" is like the Samaritan woman's question, "Are
you greater than our father Jacob?"
She would believe because of His words concerning her domestic
situation. They won't believe no matter
how many signs they are given.
Paul is clear that we need to be transformed by the renewing
of the mind. We aren't blank slates on
which nothing has been written. We think
we know how the world works and we will hold onto those beliefs because they
have helped us navigate thus far. Jesus
is a complete game-changer. He does
miracles and signs, shows us that death isn't or needn't be final, and talks of
eternal life as something we can have.
He gives us of the Spirit of God to live by and a set of teachings that
tell us that we have believed a lie concerning the value of things. He points beyond the things of earth to the
things eternal, we have actually been living in Plato's cave all along, seeing
shadows instead of true forms. We need
transformation always to see rightly.
Lord, open my eyes today to see truth in You and to reject anything I
have believed that is counter to that truth.
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