Way back in Genesis we see parallels to this reading. God made a covenant with Abraham, renewed it
with Isaac in Genesis 26, making the same promises without condition, and then
renewed it again with Jacob in his dream, again using the same promises. Here, after Solomon dedicates the temple, the
Lord speaks to him and promises the same thing He promised Solomon’s father
David, to establish his throne forever.
Do you see the difference between these two things? In Genesis the covenant promises were very
one sided, the Lord simply promised to bless and multiply the fathers. Here, the covenant promises are conditional,
“if you will walk before me, as
David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing
according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my
rules, then I will establish your
royal throne over Israel…” Why is
that? Remember that from the beginning
at Sinai the Lord told the people that they were to be a royal priesthood and a
holy nation. There is a sacred
responsibility to make the Lord known to the world and failure to do that
reflects badly on Him, it makes Him out to be something other than who He truly
is and then makes those who bear His image lose sight of what that means as
well. The king had ultimate
responsibility to lead the people, even more than the priests, and so the king
had to walk in the ways of the Lord if the people were to do the same.
Peter thought himself to be a better man than he really
was. That is a relatively common error
isn’t it? We tend to overestimate the
bravery we would demonstrate in a crisis.
I am sure Solomon thought the day he dedicated the temple and the Lord
spoke to him that he would be faithful to the end. He saw and heard things that no one should
ever forget or doubt, the glory of the Lord filling the temple and the voice of
the Lord renewing the covenant with him. How could you ever stray from His side
if you had experienced such things? Peter
had seen Jesus heal the sick, give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf,
drive out so many demons they couldn’t be counted, feed multitudes, raise the
dead and been with Jesus, Moses and Elijah on the Mount of
Transfiguration. Somehow though, in this
moment, all he can say is, “I don’t know the man.” We are indeed far weaker than we know without
the Holy Spirit.
Did Peter have real faith on that day he betrayed
Jesus? James is clear about the
connection between faith and works, faith has to have some outward
manifestation or it is not properly faith.
Inward, private faith that has no impact on my life is something much
less than biblical faith. Faith impels
us to risk boldly when necessary, is ready to meet the needs of the moment,
issues forth in sacrificial love, calls us to radical lives of obedience. The disciples abandoned all to follow Jesus,
the early church gave sacrificially to meet the needs of one another, believers
lost their family ties for faith in Jesus as Messiah. We add something onto our lives that we call
faith which is simply mental assent to the Gospel. Have we understood the demands and are we
willing to place our lives fully in His hands for that belief?
No comments:
Post a Comment