Comparing the Kingdom to a mustard seed and to leaven, Jesus draws attention to some of its features that at first glance can appear paradoxical, although, if one thinks about it, the matter concerns an antinomy characteristic of spiritual life in general. Indeed...
Comparing the Kingdom to a mustard seed and to leaven, Jesus draws attention to some of its features that at first glance can appear paradoxical, although, if one thinks about it, the matter concerns an antinomy characteristic of spiritual life in general. Indeed, if the Kingdom, at some stage of its formation, can be completely unnoticed, like a mustard seed or leaven in dough, if it fits within the human heart, then the matter would seem to concern a purely subjective reality, an inner spiritual state of a person. On the other hand, at the end of the path the Kingdom turns out not to be subjective at all; on the contrary, it is hard to imagine anything more manifest and objective, anything that so fully determines not only the eternal destiny of individual people, but the fate of all God's creation as a whole. So what is the Kingdom: an inner experience, or an objective reality revealing itself more and more in the world?
Judging by Jesus' words, it is both at once. And if one thinks about what the Kingdom is, it turns out that it cannot be otherwise. Indeed, when speaking of the Kingdom, both Jesus Himself and all the apostles have in mind above all relationships: the relationships of Christians with one another, their relationships with Jesus, and finally the relationship of Jesus Himself with the Father. But relationships are born, to use biblical language, in the depths of the human heart; they are manifestations of that spiritual "I" which determines the whole quality of a person's life, his intentions, his system of values and priorities. That is why the path into the Kingdom begins in the heart of the seeker - as, indeed, does the path of righteousness. But when relationships between a person and God are established and strengthened, they acquire their own dynamic, their own spiritual space, existing as objectively as God and the person who seeks Him. And when the matter concerns Christ and the Kingdom, He Himself enters into this dynamic, He who brought the Kingdom into the world and is ready to open the way there to every seeker.
That is why the Kingdom is born first of all in the heart: a person's relationship with Christ is established in the same way as any other relationship - from the same spiritual depth. And if sprouts of new life, the life of the Kingdom, can appear somewhere in the untransformed world, it is precisely there, in the depth of the human heart. There is no other place for the Kingdom in a fallen world. And then these sprouts, having broken through, will reach toward what is kindred to them. And the Kingdom will be revealed in the world in all its transforming fullness.
32 Here is,
and worshipping it, Exo 32:5-6.
and the sentence of his wrath against them, Exo 32:9-10.
and the prevalency of that intercession, Exo 32:14.
in detestation of which he broke the tables, Exo 32:19.
and burnt the golden calf, Exo 32:20.
and a reprieve granted thereupon, reserving them for a further reckoning, Exo 32:33-35.
32:15 On both their sides - Some on one table and some on the other, so that they were folded together like a book, to be deposited in the ark.
32:16 The writing of God - Very probably the first writing in the world.
32:19 He saw the calf, and the dancing, and his anger waxed hot - It is no breach of the law of meekness to shew our displeasure at wickedness.Those are angry and sin not, that are angry at sin only. Moses shewed himself angry, both by breaking the tables, and burning the calf, that he might by these expressions of a strong passion awaken the people to a sense of the greatness of their sin. He broke the tables before their eyes, as it is Deu 9:17, that the sight of it might fill them with confusion when they saw what blessings they had lost. The greatest sign of God's displeasure against any people is his taking his law from them.
32:20 He burnt the calf - Melted it down, and then filed it to dust; and that the powder to which it was reduced might he taken notice of throughout the camp, he strawed it upon the water which they all drank of. That it might appear that an idol is nothing in the world, he reduced this to atoms, that it might be as near nothing as could be.
32:21 What did this people unto thee - He takes it for granted that it must needs be something more than ordinary that prevailed with Aaron to do such a thing? Did they overcome thee by importunity, and hadst thou so little resolution as to yield to popular clamour! Did they threaten to stone thee, and couldest not thou have opposed God's threatenings to theirs?
32:23 They said, make us Gods - It is natural to us to endeavour thus to transfer our guilt. He likewise extenuates his own share in the sin, as if he had only bid them break off their gold, intending but to make a hasty essay for the present, and childishly insinuates that when he cast the gold into the fire, it came out either by accident, or by the magic art of some of the mixt multitude (as the Jewish writers dream) in this shape. This was all Aaron had to say for himself, and he had better have said nothing, for his defence did but aggravate his offence; and yet as sin did abound, grace did much more abound.