Moses sounds a bit skeptical of the people doesn’t he? He begins by reminding them once again of all
they have seen, from the exodus to now, in these forty years. He then says that they have seen but the Lord
has not yet given them hearts to understand what they have seen and heard. They remain contentious and fractious over
all things, they have failed to truly appreciate all this. The hardships have been the thing that they
have focused on, not the signs and wonders.
What will their memories of this time be, hardship and their overcoming
them or the little amazing things like their clothing and sandals not wearing
out. Sometimes we need someone to remind
us of the little things. Can you see
this man, after forty years in the wilderness leading these people, now facing
this great multitude of natural born covenant members and those who have
attached themselves to them along the way, and sharing his heart and hopes with
them? It would have been an incredibly emotional thing. As he looks at them, you hear his hopes in
that last line, “It is not with you alone that I am making this sworn covenant,
but with whoever is standing here with us today before the Lord our God, and with whoever is not here with us today.” He sees as Abraham did, the permanence of
the covenant down the generations yet to come, and he knows, they will come.
The rich young ruler is like the tax collector in some ways,
he believes himself to be a good commandment keeper. All that Jesus mentions, not stealing, not
committing adultery, no murder, not bearing false witness, honoring mother and
father, he says he has done. The difference
between the rich young ruler and the tax collector lies in knowing he has “done”
what it takes to inherit the kingdom, he isn’t confident in what he has
done. Jesus says, good job, but there is
one thing you lack, give everything to the poor and come follow me. He is challenged at the level of another
commandment, idolatry, and, perhaps, covetousness, and here he fails the
test. It wasn’t that he had too much to
walk away from, it was that he was too attached to it to walk away. Peter, of course, couldn’t let the moment
pass without a prideful statement, we’ve done exactly what you said this man
lacked, what’s in it for us? Jesus’
response points, like Moses’ beyond what can be seen, to the age to come. Did they yet have hearts to understand what
they had seen and heard? Not yet.
Again, Paul uses the little psychological move of urging the
Corinthians to give willingly but at the same time, competitively, to prove to
the Macedonians they are just as “good” as Paul has said they are. The writer of Hebrews said, “let us consider
how to stir up one another to love and good works” and that is Paul’s motive
here, to stir up the church in Corinth to love and good works, to be an example
to others. He is teaching a principle
here that can be manipulated and is, of course, manipulated today, that if we
give we will also receive. There is no
principle that giving is the guarantee that God will monetarily bless us but
there is a truth that if we fail to give we will not receive God’s best. He says we will be enriched “in every way to
be generous in every way.” Their
generosity will redound to the glory of God because it will be received by
those in need with thanksgiving to God.
We can’t allow ourselves to fall into the trap of measuring God’s “enrichment”
of our lives to money, if we do, we miss things like clothing and sandals that
don’t wear out after forty years in the wilderness. Where are we guilty of focusing our attention
in such a way that we miss great signs of God’s goodness and generosity towards
us? When you look at your lack, you
often miss what God is doing.
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