The Lord sees the predicament of His people. They are in danger of utter ruin and of being
no more because of His wrath and indignation and judgment. There is none to guide her and she is a
pathetic sight with none to help her out of the net. The announcement is made that the day of
judgment is gone and now is the time of her redemption in Him. His judgment will now fall on those who have
been instruments of that judgment will now fall into judgment themselves. They have done nothing to aid His people and
have, like Pharaoh before them, made the situation worse by adding their own
cruelty to their plight. This will not
be tolerated, they remain His people, even when under His judgment and His
lovingkindness knows no bounds or end.
No matter what our situation, He cares for us as His children and we
know what Job knew, that our redeemer lives and in the end He will stand on the
earth and we will be avenged and redeemed.
We do not, however, know always who His people are for what they are
isn’t always what they will be, therefore we should love all men and never be
guilty of adding to anyone’s misery but rather be instruments of His mercy for
all.
In yesterday’s reading Jesus was among the Jews who doubted
what they saw and heard because of what they thought they knew and what was
more important, His origins and the fact that He had not studied under any
rabbi. Here, in both these scenes from
His life, Jesus is among Gentiles, the Syro-Phoenician woman and the man in the
Decapolis. In these places the people
don’t care about the same things. They
don’t care if Jesus seems to be from Nazareth and they don’t care whether Has
the appropriate academic pedigree, they have need and have faith that He can
meet those needs. They may have faith
only that Jesus is a wonder worker but they come in faith nonetheless. Faith is the presupposition necessary to know
truth regarding Jesus, truth is now possible to receive.
In Paul’s time, sons were under the guidance and
guardianship of men other than their fathers, pedagogues, teachers who taught
them everything about how to live and who either taught their lessons or
accompanied them to different teachers.
There was no freedom for such a child, they were always under
observation and tutelage. It was the job
of the pedagogue to train the child to be like the man he was intended to be
and therefore the child had no mind of its own allowed to run free. Paul says that the Gentiles were under such
tutelage, they were taught the elementary principles of the world, not the
higher spiritual things of the God of all creation. Now, in the fullness of time, they have received
sonship via adoption in Jesus and are heirs with Him. They have renewed minds, minds being
transformed by the power of truth and the Holy Spirit. It makes no sense to submit to the particular
slavery of the law from which even the Jews have been delivered in Jesus. If they do, Paul says, his labor has been in
vain. His labor was to bring them to
freedom and redemption, not another form of slavery.
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