In the first verse we are told that it was the third new
moon since they had left Egypt that they arrived at Sinai. It has been reckoned in Judaism that this was
fifty days and therefore they include the giving of the Law as part of the
feast of Weeks or Pentecost. They have
been through some difficulty, seen the Lord do some great things at the Red Sea
and other places regarding the provision of water, had manna provided for food,
and fought their first enemy army successfully.
Now, they come back to the place it all began for Moses, where the Lord
had given the sign that when he had brought the people out they would worship
here at this mountain. Sometimes we take
our identity for granted but Israel is offered an opportunity to have an
identity, "you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all
the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy
nation." They have never been a
nation before, they are an extended family.
There is a contingency, they have to obey His voice. If you did the search yesterday for the word
voice as it occurs prior to this time you learned something about its
importance. Their response is simple,
"All the Lord has spoken we will do."
Of course they will, just like us.
Apparently John the Baptist had a well-functioning sincerity
detector. He saw the religious leaders
coming to be baptized but he knew that they were doing so for show rather than
because they were responding to his message as the people were. Being baptized wasn't enough for John, they
were to bear fruit in keeping with repentance, there should be some evidence of
changed lives in those who came for baptism.
John saw that fruit bearing was an important thing in revealing who had
truly repented. What would fruit have
looked like in John's eyes? There was no
mission at that time so fruit couldn’t have been measured by numerical success
in conversions. The fruit would have
been truly changed people, no more pride, hypocrisy, envy, etc. John understood that keeping the Law the way
they did wasn't righteousness.
Paul seems to speak of two kinds of fruit-bearing of the
Gospel. One is its increase and advance
all over the world as well as the fruit it is bearing among the believers in
faith, hope and love. Those produce
fruit, the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control as he will enumerate in Galatians. Paul reminds them that as the Israelites were
delivered from Egypt, so too, "He has delivered us from the domain of
darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son." Our redemption is no less real than in the
exodus even if we have not physically been delivered from a foreign
domination. We share the status as
treasured possession, a kingdom of priests.
We have as much to be thankful for as they did.
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