Genesis 31: When Jacob sees that Laban’s attitude toward him has changed, he decides to depart from Laban after being commanded to do so by the Lord. In verses 4-13, Jacob recounts to Leah and Rachel God’s protection and provision while suffering at the hands of Laban. He tells them that God has been present with him even though Laban changed his wages 10 times (v. 7); he speaks of the Lord preventing Laban from harming him (v. 7); he mentions the abundance of livestock provided by the Lord (v. 8-12). As Bruce Waltke points out, “behind the struggle between Jacob and Laban stands the Lord (Genesis: A Commentary, p. 435).”
God sovereignly preserves and provides for the Abrahamic seed, refusing to allow Jacob’s enemies to prevail. We even see God’s providential hand in this chapter as Rachel’s theft leads to the symbolic debasement of Laban’s gods. Waltke notes that “Rachel is purged of her pagan background as she sits menstruating on Laban’s gods” (Waltke, p. 423). In God’s providence, Rachel’s theft also leads to the humiliation of Laban and the pact of non-aggression.
One of the great lessons of this chapter is that the people of God are safe in the hands of divine providence. The enemies of the Abrahamic seed will not prevail. This is the same lesson we learn from today’s reading in Esther (chapter 7)- God is providentially working, “behind the scenes” of history, to deliver His people and conquer her enemies, a reality vividly communicated through the exposure of Haman’s plot and his subsequent execution.
And as Waltke observes, the deliverance of Jacob and his household in chapter 31 foreshadows the deliverance of God’s people from their bondage in Egypt: “The tribes’ exodus from the house of bondage…foreshadows their Exodus from Egypt…They go in response to God’s call (Gen. 31:3) to worship in the land of Canaan (31:17-21); they are pursued and overtaken by superior forces (31:22-23); and they are delivered by divine intervention (31:24)” (Waltke, p. 436). This pattern of exodus from bondage and the inheritance of the promised land is a pattern repeated throughout the Old Testament. It’s a pattern we saw in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
It’s a typological pattern which culminates in the anti-typical exodus of the new Israel of God through the person and work of Jesus Christ. In Christ, the church is safe in the hands of divine providence (Rom. 8:28). In Christ, the church perseveres toward the heavenly Canaan in response to God’s call (Rev. 3:12). In Christ, the church’s enemies will not prevail (Rom. 8:31-39). In Christ, the church experiences exodus from sin through the death-exodus of Jesus Christ on the cross (Luke 9:31).
Esther 7: The lesson of Esther 7 is similar to the lesson of Genesis 31: the people of God are safe in the hands of divine providence. In chapter 7, Esther tells the king about Haman’s plot. The king is enraged and orders his execution. Throughout this book, it may seem as though God is absent but He is nevertheless present, working “behind the scenes” of human history to deliver His people and conquer her enemies. God uses Haman’s cruelty against him, sovereignly using even his wickedness to bring about the deliverance of his people and the exaltation of his chosen seed in the persons of Esther and Mordecai. Up to this point in the story, we’ve been puzzled by Haman’s plot, wondering whether or not he would succeed in destroying God’s people. Now we know that God has been working all along, through the many dangers, toils, and snares, to glorify Himself in the salvation of his people. The same is true today. As John Flavel writes, “All the dark, intricate, puzzling providences at which we were sometimes so offended…we shall [one day] see to be to us, as the difficult passage through the wilderness was to Israel, ‘the right way to the city of habitation’” (Flavel, The Mystery of Providence).
Mark 2: The Pharisees are offended that Jesus’ disciples do not fast. Jesus defends his disciples by pointing out that “in his immediate presence the proper response is joy” (D.A. Carson, For the Love of God, p. 30). Carson continues: “The truth, Jesus says, is that with the dawning of the kingdom, the traditional structures of life and forms of piety would change. It would be inappropriate to graft the new onto the old, as if the old were the supporting structure” (p. 30).
In the presence of the Incarnate Christ, there is fulness of joy. While the disciples will mourn his absence and respond appropriately, His coming in the flesh nevertheless brings about a radical change, a change manifested in the joy of the wedding guests with the bridegroom.
The IVP New Bible Commentary points out that the kind of fasting practiced by the Jews of Jesus’ day was most likely a kind of formal and compulsory fasting which, though not sinful in itself, was inappropriate in light of the arrival of the kingdom in the person of the heavenly Bridegroom.
Jesus is not opposed to fasting, and tells of a time when his disciples will fast (v. 20). But the kind of fasting and piety which excludes the joy, life, and freedom which the New Covenant brings is, according to Jesus, incompatible with the kingdom realities which have dawned in His Incarnation.
Romans 2: In chapter 2, Paul moves from his indictment of the Gentiles (chapter 1) to an indictment of the self-righteous Jews who pass judgment upon the Gentiles and yet practice their sins (chapter 2). They presume upon God’s kindness, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead to repentance (2:4). Because of their self-righteous hypocrisy, they stand condemned and continue to store up for themselves wrath on the day of judgment (2:5). On this day of judgment, God will render to each person reward according to his works (2:6). Paul is not speaking here of some kind of hypothetical person and future judgment, no more than he speaks of a hypothetical heart-circumcsion and praise from God in 2:29. Paul has in view here actual believers who “by patience and well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality” (2:6). Likewise, Paul speaks of those who do evil and therefore can only expect tribulation and distress on the day of judgment (2:9).
The simple point is that the true believer, unlike the hypocritical false professor, is marked Spirit-wrought obedience which leads to eternal life and divine vindication-justification on the last day (2:13). Consequently, the Gentiles who do not have the law but do what the law requires are not, as is commonly thought, unbelieving Gentiles who know God’s law by virtue of natural revelation. The Gentiles of 2:12-16 are the same Gentiles of 2:25-29- those who are inwardly circumcised by the Spirit, not by the letter (2:29). Throughout chapter 2, Paul sets up a contrast between the disobedient false professor and the obedient believer, a contrast which enables him to argue for the universality of human sin. He does this by highlighting Gentile obedience against the dark backdrop of Jewish disobedience.
In a word, chapter 2 provides us with an antithesis between two kinds of people: ethnic Jews who boast in God, outwardly keep the law, but live in disobedience, and spiritual Jews who obey the law with a circumcised heart- a heart indelibly stamped by the law of God. Within the larger context of the epistle, and accomplished through this contrast between the unbelieving Jew and the believing Gentile, Paul is able to argue for the universality of human sin. As Paul tells us in 3:9, his argument in these two chapters boils down to this simple truth: “…all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.”
The Pastor's Pen 