“I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your
King.” I am not arguing for replacement
theology. When I read Romans 11 I see
that we are not a replacement for the nation, the covenant with the nation is
everlasting, I see that we are grafted into the nation but that isn’t the same
as modern political Israel. If, however,
we replace Israel in that sentence from Isaiah with the word “church” we come
face to face with the reality of our own situation. In this passage, the Lord announces He is
doing a new thing, restoring His people, shepherding them by providing water in
the desert and wilderness. The overriding
question we could ask here is “Why?” He
says that it is not because they have sacrificed or become righteous
people. They have not fallen deeply in
love with Him. They have “burdened me
with your sins…wearied me with your iniquities.” He is forgiving them not for their repentance
and righteousness, but for His own sake, because of His covenant love for the
nation He created. We take that love for
granted, don’t reciprocate any better than they did.
The woman’s testimony to Jesus was simple, “Come, see a man
who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” What had Jesus told her that she did? He had told her own sordid past, she had had
five husbands and she was now living with a man who wasn’t her husband. Samaritans had only the books of Moses but
they made it clear that she was a notorious (in the sense of the word
meaning “well known”) sinner. Jesus, as a Jewish man, not a Samaritan,
couldn’t have been expected to know such things. He was an outsider to the city. They may have known all about her past but
how could this stranger know? It’s
funny, isn’t it, that she simply describes Jesus as “a man” when she knows
multiple things about Him. He is Jewish
but she doesn’t mention that, they wouldn’t come to give Him a hearing if she
had told that. He has claimed to be the
prophet like Moses they are looking for but she doesn’t relay the claim, only
her own tentative opinion. He has promised her things as well but those don’t
come into play in her testimony. I
wonder what their initial reaction was on meeting this group of Jewish
men. There was such enmity between the
two, the Samaritans believed themselves to be the true Israel, that was
overcome in Jesus in just a couple of days.
They were truly the lost sheep of Israel and when, in Acts, the church
flees Jerusalem, a deacon, Philip, goes to these people and gives them the rest
of the story and reaps a great harvest.
The writer finds an enigmatic character from Genesis to whom
to tie Jesus. The king of Salem, both
priest and king, Melchizedek, is a man about whom we know nothing except that
Abraham recognized him as priest and to him gave tithes. Why would Abraham tithe to any king? The text in Genesis 14 tells us that
Melchizedek was a priest of God Most High serving in Salem which later became
Jerusalem. The scene is after the five
kings, including the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, fought the four kings and as
they fled, the five kings captured Lot.
Abraham took men born in his house to retrieve Lot and as they rested
from the successful mission, Melchizedek came out with bread and wine and
blessed Abraham in the name of God Most High and Abraham gave him a tenth of
everything. If Abraham recognized him in
this way, he was seen as superior and a genuine priest. Jesus, neither from a Levitical or priestly
line, was also a priest in this order, like this odd figure from Genesis, a
priesthood from God Himself. The other
priests came from Abraham’s line so the argument is that for Jews, they must
emulate their father, Abraham, and pay tribute to this older priesthood that is
then superior to their own. God has
always had a witness and a priest.
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