Moses speaks prophetically about the future of the
nation. He knows that they will forsake
their God and go after other gods. He knows
it because he knows human nature and because he has seen this people do that
very thing, even the people who stood at Sinai, saw the smoke and the fire,
heard the voice from heaven and begged off hearing the fullness of the revelation
for fear. What Moses also knows is that
this God is forgiving, He is a covenant making and keeping God, He is faithful
to the covenant He makes without respect to the faithfulness of the
partner. There will be punishment for
waywardness but the covenant cannot be annulled because He guaranteed it
alone. As He is everlasting, so is the
covenant everlasting. He can change the
terms of entrance into the covenant but the covenant stands on Him. They may be in exile but they are always His people
and all they have to do is repent and obey to restore relationship.
The parable of the Prodigal speaks to the forgiving nature
of God. The man was wealthy and had two
sons but neither, it seems, appreciated their father. One couldn’t wait to leave him and the other
remained but out of duty not love. The son
who asked for his inheritance essentially says to his father, I wish you were
dead now but you’re not, so let’s pretend you are and you give me what I will
receive when you die. When he came to
himself after squandering it all, he knew where he could go, his father treated
his servants well, it wouldn’t be so bad to go back and ask forgiveness and be
a servant there. Reconciliation begins
with confession and repentance but the future of the relationship is in the
hands of the one who was sinned against and the father doesn’t allow the son to
state his terms, accepts him back as son.
The elder son is jealous and yet the father reminds him of the truth,
all I have is yours. He has held nothing
back from this son, it is always available.
He has no love in his soul, only duty, the way the world works, not the
way God does.
If you’re going to be criticized isn’t it always best if you
know the person doing it is someone who loves you and hates to give
criticism? I can receive criticism from
those with whom I am in closest relationship far better than I can a boss or
someone peripheral to my world. I know
that the person giving it cares about me and wants to see me grow. Paul says that was the situation in which he
had written to confront the Corinthian church in a previous letter. If you look back to 1 Corinthians 5 I think
we can see the issue about which Paul has written such a scathing indictment of
the church, a man sleeping with his father’s wife. Here, it seems the man has repented and Paul’s
word is that they should comfort and restore him to fellowship. We are to love and forgive as we are loved
and forgiven. By acting in this way, we
show that we are not elder brothers, that we recognize the love God has shown
us by showing it to others.
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