Can you imagine 180,000 warriors ready to fight gathered in
one place? Can you imagine a “man of
God” coming to that group of warriors and giving them a word that the Lord said
not to go and fight, that who they are fighting against if they do is actually
Him? Can you imagine that army and the commander in chief saying, “Okay” and
then going home? That is what we are
told here concerning Rehoboam and his army that was prepared to go against the
other tribes of Israel. It is a
surprising thing that Rehoboam listened and obeyed after what we read yesterday
concerning his attitude towards the people he governed. Jeroboam knows that he must set up another
place of worship, an alternative to Jerusalem, if he wants to keep this people
together but why in the world does he precisely repeat the sin of the golden
calves, even to the extent of saying the same words Aaron spoke when he lifted
up the idols? Did they not even remember
that folly and the Lord’s anger? They
separated themselves from the God who had not only delivered them from Egypt
but who had given them the Land and prospered them and it was incredibly simple
to get them to accept it.
The people are prepared to stone Jesus “for blasphemy,
because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
There are those in our day who say that we have misunderstood Jesus for
two thousand years, that he was simple
rabbi, perhaps the best that has ever been, but a rabbi nonetheless, who was
also, perhaps a healer, but nothing more than that and that, in fact, He never
claimed to be. The people here are very
clear that He has indeed made such a claim.
In response, Jesus quotes Psalm 82.6, “You are gods, sons of the Most
High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any
prince.” He does, however, make a claim to have been consecrated by the Father
and sent into the world, to be more than just like them. He points to His works as proof of that claim
and, after He has gone across the Jordan and they have had a chance to think
about it, they conclude perhaps this is true.
Sometimes we need a little distance to get to truth that is difficult at
the start.
Peter may have had a terrible moment on the night of Jesus’
arrest and trial but now, after the resurrection, ascension and outpouring of
the Holy Spirit, he is the man he believed himself to be, standing defiantly
before the council himself and telling them he will not obey them in the matter
of preaching in the Name of Jesus. The
council, for their part, can’t sort out what to do because of the sign of the
healing of the lame man. When the
apostles return to the community there is joy and prayer for boldness. They are confident and convinced of the truth
concerning Jesus and, in spite of the reality that they will be under constant
scrutiny and persecution they want to be bold.
Is the church today praying for boldness in witness or for deliverance
from persecution?
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