Psalm 122:1-9, Exodus 16:2-7, Galatians 4:21-31, Hebrews 12:22-24, John 6:1-14.
A). LET US GO TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD.
Psalm 122:1-9.
The “house of the LORD” encompasses this Psalm (Psalm 122:1; Psalm 122:9). Jerusalem, in turn, encompassed the house of the LORD (Psalm 122:2; Psalm 122:3; Psalm 122:7). Jerusalem thus became the place of pilgrimage and thanksgiving (Psalm 122:4).
“Jerusalem” also represents the place of right judgment (Psalm 122:5; Isaiah 2:4). At times in her history she failed miserably in this respect, and hence the exile became inevitable - but when Nehemiah became Governor the city walls were rebuilt (Nehemiah 2:15-18). However, when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem He again found cause to lament, and the cycle of history was repeated (Luke 19:42-44).
There is a play on the word “house” (Psalm 122:5), such as we see also in 2 Samuel 7:5; 2 Samuel 7:10-11. The “house of David” represents his dynasty, reaching all the way down to Jesus. The “thrones of judgment” are “the thrones of the house of David” - and reach down to Jesus’ climactic judgment at the end of time.
We “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6). We pray for the peace which flows from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:3) - ‘peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Romans 5:1). We pray for the salvation of Israel.
To the Jews, says Paul, were committed ‘the oracles of God’ (Romans 3:2). The Israelites, according to the Apostle, are those to whom pertains ‘the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as pertaining to the flesh Christ came’ (Romans 9:4-5). The Apostle to the Gentiles goes on to declare that Israel is still of some accountability in the purposes of God (cf. Romans 11:12; Romans 11:15; Romans 11:25-27).
Those who love Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6), and pray for her peace and prosperity (Psalm 122:7), shall themselves prosper (Psalm 122:6). This takes us back to the promise to Abraham: ‘I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curses thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed’ (Genesis 12:3). For the sake of our spiritual kinsfolk (both Jew and non-Jew) - and on behalf of our companions in the pilgrimage towards ‘the Jerusalem which is above’ (Galatians 4:26) - we invoke God’s blessing of peace upon Jerusalem (Psalm 122:8).
As we have indicated, Jerusalem’s good is tied up with “the house of the LORD” (Psalm 122:9) - ‘whose house are we’ (Hebrews 3:6). Let us never forget what we owe Israel, for (as Jesus said to the woman at the well), ‘salvation is of the Jews’ (John 4:22). ‘Boast not against the branches,’ adds the Apostle to the Gentiles: ‘be not high-minded, but fear’ (Romans 11:18; Romans 11:20).
B). QUAIL AND MANNA: TOKENS OF HIS PRESENCE.
Exodus 16:2-7a.
In this passage, we join the children of Israel just six weeks into their wilderness journey. The ten plagues, the first Passover, the deliverance out of Egypt, and the parting of the Red Sea all lay behind them. Yet now, here in the wilderness new fears and doubts arise, and the people of the LORD grumble at their spiritual leaders (EXODUS 16:2), and through them at their God (cf. Exodus 16:8b).
The DELIVERANCE of God, redemption, lies behind; but before long His people become full of DISCONTENTMENT - and mouthy with it.
How easy it is to set a rosy character on our past life, and to forget that then, there, we were in bondage (EXODUS 16:3). Yet the LORD is merciful. He has already heard the cries of His people in bondage (cf. Exodus 3:7). The same LORD knows our sorrows ahead of time.
Is it beyond belief that He has already prepared our path before us, complete with all the necessities of life (cf. Psalm 23:2-3)? So instead of directly punishing His people for their insolence, He sets a table before them, and furnishes it with good things (cf. Psalm 23:5).
He makes PROVISION for all the needs of all His people (EXODUS 16:4); but with the provision comes a TESTING. With the DAILY BREAD, He also gives us DAILY WORK. If God’s first gift to Adam was a garden, His second was a set of gardening tools (cf.. Genesis 2:15).
Within this system, He also gives the SABBATH (EXODUS 16:5; cf. Exodus 16:22-26).
The LORD’s provision of food: quail in the evening and manna in the morning, was a constant reminder that it is “the LORD hath brought you out from the land of Egypt” (EXODUS 16:6).
So, their complaints were groundless: these provisions were a recurring testimony to the LORD’s presence with His people (EXODUS 16:7a).
C). ISAAC AND ISHMAEL.
Galatians 4:21-31.
1. The History.
The history of Ishmael and Isaac is the history of the struggle between flesh and spirit, between the carnal seed and the spiritual seed, between the world's way and God's way.
In the first place, Abraham had faith. The LORD pointed him towards the stars, and told him “so shall your seed be.” Abraham believed in the LORD, and He counted it to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:5-6). In other words, Abraham began in faith, just as Paul had already been at pains to describe in Galatians 3:6-9.
Then faith failed, and Sarah and Abraham let the flesh take over. After all, they argued, Sarah was barren. According to the custom of the world around them, Sarah gave her handmaid to Abraham to bear seed in her name (Genesis 16:1-3).
Almost immediately Sarah regretted her rashness, and strife broke out within the family (Genesis 16:4-6). Hagar gave birth to a wild man (Genesis 16:11-12), and God's promise was put on hold for another thirteen years (Genesis 16:16; Genesis 17:1).
When we look only at the physical and stop operating in the Spirit then we are bringing trouble upon ourselves. Having begun in the Spirit, are we going to be as foolish as Abraham and Sarah then were, by trying to continue in the flesh (Galatians 3:3)?
After thirteen years, the LORD again appeared to Abraham. As if to say, enough is enough: your way has only brought strife, now let's try My way. Sarah was old and barren when I told you that you were going to have a son, and now she is ancient. Yet, just so you know this is the voice of God and not some dream of your own, it is by Sarah that you are going to have the promised seed (Genesis 17:15-16). Laugh if you like, but miracle births do happen!
Ishmael grew up to despise his half-brother (Genesis 21:9), and so began the historical and on-going contention between the sons of Hagar, and the seed of Sarah, between the Arabians and Israel.
Yet there is another way in which the promised seed of Abraham is fulfilled. It is fulfilled in one who was “despised and rejected of men” (Isaiah 53:3), in a physical descendant of Isaac called Jesus (Galatians 3:16). This same Jesus is the one whose birth is celebrated by many churches on 25th of December each year – yet He is often celebrated by the world in a most unseemly manner. Or He is not celebrated at all, but shunned and scorned.
Abraham's spiritual seed is continued in another despised race: in all who are found in Christ (Galatians 3:29).
2. The Allegory.
Strictly speaking, we should accept Scripture at face value before entering into the realm of allegory. The Jewish Rabbinical Schools, and no doubt the Judaisers in Galatia, were fond of allegories, as were the early church fathers. Yet it is a landscape full of potential pitfalls.
It is better for us to read Biblical history first and foremost as history, and prophecy as being applicable primarily to the situation to which it was addressed. It is more important to know “what saith the Scripture” than what the theologians, scholars, scholastics, doctors, professors and masters of divinity have to say about the Scripture. This does not, however, take away from Paul's inspiration when he likened Ishmael to law, bondage, and Judaism; and Isaac to promise, freedom and Christianity.
You want to be under the law, challenges Paul (Galatians 4:21). Well, listen to the law. “The law” stood for the whole of Old Testament Scripture.
The contrast between Ishmael and Isaac is seen first of all as a contrast between bondage and freedom (Galatians 4:22). When we are born into this world, we are born in bondage to the corruption of this world. When we are born again, it is into liberty and freedom (Romans 8:21).
Secondly, it is the contrast between flesh and promise (Galatians 4:23). In fulfilment of the promise, Jesus comes into this world to set us free. The Jews argued that they had been in bondage to no man – perhaps forgetting both their history and their current situation. Jesus demonstrated to them that a fleshly descent from Abraham was not sufficient (John 8:31-40).
Thirdly, it is the contrast between the old covenant and the new (Galatians 4:24). Hagar the Egyptian is likened to Mount Sinai in Arabia, where the law was given to Moses. This is apt, because the Arabians are known as the sons of Hagar.
In a master-stroke, Paul then has Sinai to stand for Jerusalem, and hence the Jews and all adherents of Judaism (Galatians 4:25). Together they are brought into bondage by the very law which God has given to lead them to Christ (Galatians 3:24).
By contrast, Christians are citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem (Galatians 4:26). Citizens, I say, not slaves. It is evident by the use of the mother analogy that Jerusalem is standing here in place of Sarah, the free woman. Why then should we wish to return into slavery to a law which has not redeemed us?
The quotation in Galatians 4:27 comes from Isaiah 54:1, which was primarily written with a prophetic view to the exiles in Babylon. Yet the prophecy immediately follows one of the most Christological passages in the whole Old Testament (Isaiah 53). There is a promise of a plenteous seed, but this is only fully fulfilled in the calling of the church of our Lord Jesus Christ.
John the Baptist had anticipated God raising up children for Abraham out of inanimate stones (Matthew 3:9). Thus Paul encouraged the believers in Galatia to think of themselves as the children of promise (Galatians 4:28), and to behave accordingly.
Jesus has forewarned us that the world will hate us because it has first hated Him, that we too will be persecuted (John 15:18-20). Likewise Paul in his allegory tells us, “as he that was born after the flesh (Ishmael) persecuted him that was born after the Spirit (Isaac), even so it is now” (Galatians 4:29).
So what are we to do? Are we to embrace the world's way, and the way of legalists who would replace our faith with a list of dos and don'ts? Indeed not, but with God's help we are to “cast out the bondwoman and her son” (Galatians 4:30). After all, this is what the Scripture says (Genesis 21:10; Genesis 21:12).
“So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free” (Galatians 4:31). Let us enter into the inheritance which God has laid up in store for us.
D). THE BLOOD OF SPRINKLING.
Hebrews 12:22-24.
The first mention of the sprinkling of blood is found in the institution of the Passover (Exodus 12:7). The writer to the Hebrews explains the significance of this: it is ‘lest he that destroyed the firstborn might touch them’ (cf. Hebrews 11:28). The sprinkling of blood was supposed to be repeated every Passover (cf. 2 Chronicles 35:11).
Later, as an affirmation of the covenant, Moses sprinkled blood on both the Book and the people, and both the tabernacle and even the vessels of the ministry (cf. Exodus 24:7-8; Hebrews 9:19-21). Blood was also sprinkled before the LORD in front of the veil of the sanctuary as part of the sin offering (cf. Leviticus 4:6). Blood was also sprinkled directly in front of the tabernacle of meeting at the time of purification of the water of separation (cf. Numbers 19:4).
However, the ultimate “blood of sprinkling” (HEBREWS 12:24) is the ‘sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ’ (cf. 1 Peter 1:2). We see here that this is a blood that “speaks”; and that it “speaks better things than that of Abel” (HEBREWS 12:24).
When Adam and Eve first ate of the forbidden fruit, they tried to cover their loss of the Glory by sewing fig leaves together to make themselves some kind of covering (cf. Genesis 3:7). However, this was not adequate: but God in His mercy and in His grace made them garments of skin and clothed them (cf. Genesis 3:21). This was the institution of the sacrificial system, and ever since then ‘without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins’ (cf. Hebrews 9:22).
This forms the background for the history of Cain and Abel. Cain was a farmer and brought of the produce of the land: but that on its own was not enough (cf. Genesis 4:3-5). Perhaps the difference between Cain and those who later made the bloodless ‘grain offering’ (cf. Leviticus 2:1-16) was that they were already covered by the blood.
Now Abel was counted righteous before the LORD (cf. Hebrews 11:4), but he was the innocent victim of the first ever murder (cf. Genesis 4:8). Abel’s blood cried out to the LORD from the ground (cf. Genesis 4:10). It, like the law - represented here as Mount Sinai (cf. Hebrews 12:18-21) - cried out for vengeance.
Mount Zion is described as “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (HEBREWS 12:22). This has been celebrated in Psalms and songs of long ago (cf. Psalm 48:1-2). Here are gathered not only the “angels” (HEBREWS 12:22), but also “the church of the first-born ones, registered in heaven” (HEBREWS 12:23).
The “first-born” include not only those who have gone before, but also all who believe (cf. Hebrews 11:40), and all who will ever yet obtain ‘like precious faith’ (cf. 2 Peter 1:1). This constitutes ‘a number which no man could number, out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation’ (cf. Revelation 7:9). Here also “ye are come” (HEBREWS 12:22).
Those who come are “just” (HEBREWS 12:23). We are made “perfect” (HEBREWS 12:23) through the “sprinkling” (HEBREWS 12:24) of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are ‘justified by faith’ (cf. Romans 5:1) - made righteous by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Romans 3:21-22).
Therefore, we are bold to approach the throne of God (cf. Hebrews 4:16). We come ‘looking unto Jesus’ (cf. Hebrews 12:2) and bearing in mind what He has done for us (cf. Hebrews 12:3). We come to “the Judge of all” (HEBREWS 12:23), knowing that ‘the Judge of all the earth’ shall do right (cf. Genesis 18:25).
We come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. We come to His blood sprinkled upon the altar (HEBREWS 12:24). Abel’s blood cried out for vengeance (cf. Genesis 4:10) - but Jesus’ blood goes on speaking gracious words of mercy (cf. 1 John 1:9; 1 John 2:1-2).
E). A TABLE SPREAD.
John 6:1-14.
“After these things” (John 6:1), Jesus and His disciples crossed the sea of Galilee.
“And a great multitude followed Him because they saw His miracles which He did to them which were diseased" (John 6:2).
Jesus and His disciples then withdrew from the throng, and sought some rest and relaxation in the Golan Heights (John 6:3).
It was now nearly a year since Jesus had cleansed the Temple in Jerusalem, and Passover was fast approaching (John 6:4). Just this one time in the year the grass is green (cf. Mark 6:39), and perhaps lambs skipped in the fields nearby.
Jesus looked up “and saw a great company” of people coming to Him. The Good Shepherd tended His own flock with the words to local boy Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” (John 6:5).
Sometimes Jesus makes us face up to the magnitude of our problems in order to demonstrate our total dependence upon Him. It is a comfort to know that He already knows what He is going to do (John 6:6)!
Poor Philip was overwhelmed, quickly calculating in his head that even eight months wages would only provide a small portion for each person (John 6:7).
Andrew now volunteered a boy with a packed lunch: “but what is that among so many?” (John 6:8-9). Our gifts and offerings seem so small, a drop in the ocean: but as Mother Theresa of Calcutta once said, each drop goes toward filling the ocean.
Everything was done ‘decently and in order’ (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:40). Jesus said, “Make the men sit down” (John 6:10).
“The men” is generic. The people - men, women and children – literally “reclined,” as the custom was. However, when it came to counting them, the second mention of “men” refers specifically to there being 5,000 adult males – (‘beside women and children’ adds Matthew 14:21).
Jesus takes our little, “gives thanks” (the same word as in the Communion, from which we have the word “Eucharist”), and transforms it into plenty (John 6:11). Jesus delegated the distribution to the disciples, and they gave to the people; both bread and fishes “as much as they would.”
Think of it: 5,000 men, plus who knows how many women and children, and each one was filled to the full (John 6:12). This was a repeat of the miracle of the manna in the wilderness: ‘he that gathered much had nothing left over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating’ (cf. Exodus 16:18).
And there was more gathered up in leftover fragments than there had been at the start. There were twelve baskets full, the same number as the tribes of Israel, symbolising God’s sufficient provision for all of His people (John 6:13).
This sign was so powerful that the Galileans said, “This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world” (John 6:14).
