What would it look like for you to enlarge the place of your
tent and spread abroad right and left?
The point is to make room for the blessings God is going to give the
people. Now that His judgment is passed,
the time for restoration has come and it is more than the proportion of one for
one. What they will receive is more than
they have lost and that is a principle that sounds very good indeed to those
who have lost something cherished or lost hope.
Does that always look like a monetary thing? In our day there are many who preach such
things but the great reward of God’s people has always been to have God Himself
in abundance. Children were the greatest
material blessing of all, the knowledge that this would all be carried on in
perpetuity. Yes, the people were going
to be back in the Land but that could never be simply as an economic blessing,
the Land was to mean more than economics, it was a symbol and sign of the
covenant relationship with Yahweh. Their
enjoyment of the Land was a sign of His favor and goodness towards them and a
reminder of their identity as a holy nation, a kingdom of priests. Living in the Land showed His covenant was
secure and that He was on the throne, it was a sign to them and the
nations. The promise here is of a
peaceful habitation and protection from their enemies.
After the feeding of the four thousand can you imagine the
Pharisees coming and asking for a sign?
Can’t you just see what Mark tells us, “He sighed deeply in his spirit
and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign?” Good grief, how many signs do they want? Jesus says they won’t receive a sign but they
do receive plenty of signs but a sign is only as good as your ability to read
and interpret the sign. When He speaks
to the disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees and they begin discussing
the lack of bread I don’t even want to imagine His exasperation. The leaven of the Pharisees is addition of
man-made laws and traditions to the commandments of God. They expected some particular sign of their
own knowledge that Messiah would do to prove Himself rather than believing
simply. Afterwards Jesus heals a blind
man by degrees. Like the disciples, the
man is coming to see gradually. We are
always like this, revelation comes constantly if we are open to seeing it. We are often, I fear, like the Pharisees,
waiting for our own sign to be done before we fully believe and commit our
lives to faith.
Paul makes a comparison he never would have considered if he
had not met Jesus on the road to Damascus.
He compares Jerusalem and Judaism to Hagar and Ishmael. They are, as they tell Jesus, children of
their father Abraham, but Paul says that since Christ came they are more like
children of the slave woman, Hagar, than of the free woman, Sarai, who was in
fact their mother. Now, the situation
must be interpreted allegorically and this would have been a startlingly
offensive comparison but Paul needs to get their attention. His break with Judaism and its worldview was
complete. His understanding of Jesus was
such that he could make such a comparison.
If I were to do the same it would be so offensive that people would walk
out on me but Paul, who was a Jew, can do so.
His goal is to return them to the Gospel of faith not works and the only
way to do so seems to be to shock them.
Sometimes it is the only way to get the message across.
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