Monday, August 8, 2022

 

Monday, August 8, 2022


Psalm 89:1-18


Hosea 12


Romans 9:1-13


Commemoration: Dominic, priest and friar (d. 1221)


But as for you, return to your God, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.


In earlier studies, we have seen how God uses real-life events to communicate spiritual truths. (This is quite often the pattern of the Old Testament: everything in history has meaning.) This morning, Paul is doing the work of interpretation for us.


He has found a pattern in Israel's history when it comes to the children of the Patriarchs. Abraham had two sons, of only one inherited the promise of a nation. Rebecca too, giving birth to two boys, found one receiving the promise and the other losing his. Paul's point is that this shows something of how God likes to operate: that “even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad”, God chose specifically who was to receive the promise of land. This pattern, Paul explains, extends to our salvation in the here and now: the promise of Christ, understood and received only by faith, that faith itself being a free gift from God, is given out by God to the people God chooses.


This is an important corrective balance to our earlier lesson on predestination. There is no pride in having been chosen by God. Just as the Exodus from Egypt was entirely by God's effort and the people followed along for the ride (even in spite of their grumbling), so too is our salvation. This is not to say we then “let go and let God” - we have been saved for the purpose of a loving relationship of activity. “But as for you, return to your God, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.” These words are in Hosea, but they are also the same words of Jesus when he was asked which commandment was the greatest. And it is not only a commandment; it is the meaning of life.



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