An inauspicious beginning to the conquest of the Land. It all began with breaking faith with the
Lord. They should have learned a lesson
early in breaking faith but we never do.
When there is a one-to-one straightforward correspondence between breaking
faith, sin, and punishment for that sin the world is much simpler isn't
it? If we knew that there were to be
immediate consequences for sin it would be easier for us to correct and repent
but God treats us with more dignity than that.
He allows us to rebel against Him rather than coercing us via carrot and
stick methods to obey Him. Here, the Lord
begins the teaching of the people by revealing the value of obedience. They cannot continue in their sin if they are
to conquer the Land. The sin of a few
affected the entire nation. We don't
have the sense of community in the same way they did but when we read the
letters to the churches in the book of the Revelation we see that they are
addressing the sin of the community.
Jesus prayed for oneness among His followers and Paul taught the
theology of the body of Christ. How do
we need to recover that theological emphasis?
Passover is a night of watching or guarding as described in
the book of the Exodus. This night is
kept by both God and man. God watches
over Israel and Israel watches for God and what He will do next. Modern celebrations of the holiday include
leaving a chair empty for Elijah should he return in fulfillment of the
prophecy of Malachi 4 and someone is sent to the door to open it, look out and
see if Elijah is coming. Another rabbinic
teaching was and is that of wakefulness.
To fulfill the command to keep it as a night of watching requires
wakefulness. The Passover is ended when
someone falls fast asleep, that is when they cannot be wakened by speaking to
them. What are they waiting for? They are waiting as they did that first
Passover night in Egypt for deliverance from bondage, for freedom. Elijah is important because of Malachi's
prophecy, he will be the forerunner to Messiah.
Jesus says Elijah has already come in the form of John the Baptist. Now that the Passover has ended with the
sleeping of the disciples, the time has come for the fulfillment of the hopes
of the nation for deliverance. Time for the
Lamb of God, John's appellation for Jesus, to be slain.
Paul picks up on the idea of wakefulness and extends it to the
church. We are to wake from sleep for
redemption draws nigh. Paul, as Jesus
has done in His teaching, connects that wakefulness and watching with active
obedience to the command to love. Jesus
said that waiting was a time of obedience, doing the work given to us by the master. Paul says that work is loving our neighbors
and also pursuing righteousness, eschewing evil. The call to the church is to live as always
watching for the coming of Jesus, not just one night a year. We are to be a sign of the kingdom, not
simply looking for signs. The community
is meant to be a witness to the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, a
garden like Eden in the midst of the world.
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