In yesterday's lesson the Lord gave Moses some
"help". Today, in the next
chapter from Numbers, we see God commanding Moses to send out spies, one chief
from each tribe. The Lord didn't give
detailed instructions for exactly why He wanted the spies to go but Moses
certainly did. It seems he sent spies
exactly as if he were trying to decide whether the land was worth the risk of
taking. He sent them to make a report of
the value of the land and the potential cost of invading it. They were to see if the land were any good
and also to make a fairly detailed report of the enemies, the people who were
already there. The report he receives
confirms exactly what the Lord had promised, it is a good land, flowing with
milk and honey. Then comes the problem,
"however", the people are numerous, the cities are fortified and we
saw even descendants of Anak, giants of old.
Why, after all they have seen the Lord do to get them here, do they
suddenly fear and believe that taking the Land He promised will depend on
them? We do it all the time. Caleb knows better.
Peter's question regarding forgiving his brother follows
immediately upon Jesus' words on how to deal with sin among brothers. He knows that the purpose of confrontation is
restoration of relationship and that will require forgiveness. He proposes a sizeable number, there are few
people in my life I have forgiven as many as seven times and maintained any
semblance of real relationship. (This forgiveness,
by the way, supposes that confronting the sin head on has happened and
repentance has followed, as prescribed in the preceding verses.) Jesus says we
have to be willing to forgive as many times as necessary and tells the parable
of the unforgiving servant to make His point.
The upshot of the parable in this context is that we tend to
underestimate the amount of grace we need and because we don’t fully appreciate
grace we tend to be unwilling to extend it to others. We forget too easily, just like the people
did when the report of the spies came back.
Paul's argument regarding the Gentiles concludes with the
idea that a Gentile who keeps the law without having the law, from the heart,
is better than an unfaithful Jewish person who is in the covenant by virtue of
circumcision and having the Law. Better to
do God's will because you believe it to be right than to know what is right and
not keep it. Moving on to the Jews, he
quickly says that even though the foregoing is true, it is in every way better
to be Jewish and have been entrusted with the oracles of God. You don't have to depend on the vagaries of
conscience to know the will of God, it is knowable objectively. Better than that, you are in covenant with a
God whose faithfulness to His covenant is not dependent on the faithfulness of
the people. The wrath of God in judgment
on His people's sin, however, reveals God 's righteousness. Violation of that righteousness by those who
were meant to reveal it must be judged if we are to know righteousness. Though it isn't yet in view, God's judgment
against His people's failure to trust Him and enter the Land is righteousness
for the world to see.
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