The Lord speaks of Israel as a bride or wife and asks about
the certificate of divorce or the sale to someone else by way of saying that if
he had done these things Israel could not be redeemed but it was because of her
sins that she was put away and therefore forgiveness is the redemption
price. Repentance is called for and
instead of the nation repenting, a servant, one lone voice, is the answer. That answer is the answer of the righteous
servant, the one who hears and obeys the voice of the Lord. The servant, however, pays a price for
righteousness, He is not rewarded by people for His standing with the Lord but
he receives this with aplomb and with faith in the Lord that no matter what men
may do, ultimately the Lord will avenge it all.
In the final couple of verses we hear, “Behold, all you who kindle a
fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches! Walk by the light of your
fire, and by the torches that you have kindled!” How often do we do the same rather than by
walking by the light of the Word?
Of the disciples we are told, they were utterly astounded
and their hearts were hardened. This
because they were terrified when they saw Jesus walking on the water and
thought He was a ghost. Mark tells us
that they did not understand about the loaves, it hadn’t occurred to them who
Jesus was in this sign. Walking on water still wouldn’t be expected next would
it? Who could imagine such a thing? Had it ever been done before? Their hearts weren’t prepared for such things
even though they had just seen something miraculous. Have you seen a miracle in your life? I have but unfortunately we don’t expect such
things even if we have seen them, our hearts become hardened against such
expectations. Sometimes familiarity
inures us against such things as well.
The people on the other shore, however, were expecting great things from
Jesus. Maybe we ought to pray and ask Him
to soften our hearts and we will see more of His work around us.
Paul’s argument is that the Law isn’t the basis of the
covenant. The covenant existed for over
four hundred years prior to the enactment of the Law at Sinai. The Law simply gave the people the knowledge
of the shape and boundaries God intended human society to have, the owner’s
manual from the manufacturer as it were.
All human society is ordered by some set of laws and these particular
laws were handed down by God, the only One in the universe who knows for
certain what is “Good.” We can speculate
and know some things by inference from experience but God knows in a very
different way, as only a creator can know.
The covenant was not based in the Law, however, it was based in faith
alone. The Law was given so that we
don’t have to burn torches and light our own fires, it was given as the source
of light that would suffice until the incarnation of Jesus and the giving of
the Spirit at Pentecost. We are called
to walk by the Spirit not as a replacement for the Law but so that we will know
the Law and how to interpret and embody it in the same way as the Law Giver.
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