Bible class today was good. The story was when Jesus fed the 5000. Pastor emphasized that the disciples looked at their resources instead of asking Jesus what needed to be done. It's easy as humans to limit ourselves by what resources we have, instead of relying on God to supply what we need to do his will. Scott pointed out - and he's always siding with the poor disciples because hindsight is 20/20 - that they came to Jesus with their best plan (to send the people home) and ran into "man proposes, God disposes."
Scott also brought up, and I hadn't considered this either, that Israel was expecting a military and political savior instead of a spiritual savior because that was always how God had saved Israel before - by raising up a military general. But God had different plans this time - He was fulfilling the covenant with Jesus. Like how the Old Testament led up to the New. In that light, it's easy to see how the people were confused, even though Jesus had told them and John had told them.
And in Romans - Paul was trying to explain to a Jewish church how, since Jesus fulfilled the covenant, we're all part of the spiritual Israel, not the political or genetic Israel. We're spiritual Jews; not genetic Jews.
Good stuff. I was also reflecting on how many of my personal prayers had been answered this year. God is so good!
Great thoughts Laura. I think sometimes it's great to have someone else's perspective on situations in scripture...they can help to bring enlightenment to us. Thanks for sharing what you learned today.
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