NOTES for Sir 15:16-17

The main proclamation, sounding from the pages of the books of the New Testament is the good news about the Messiah, Who was born, and about the Kingdom, which, according to the word of the Savior "is at hand". And what is the sense of the proclamation of the books of the Old Testament? Did God have what to say to His people and to the other peoples of the earth before the coming of the Messiah sent by Him?

We find the answer to this question in various texts of the Old Testament, including those which are connected to the tradition of the writing of the wise men. And if to formulate it briefly, the meaning of pre-Christian proclamation is the good news of the freedom of man created by God, and of the Torah, which helps this free person to choose between good and evil, sin and righteousness, life and death.

In essence, it is the good news that man is really similar to God: he is also free as God, he himself can choose his own road, and God will not use His power to predetermine his choice or to disturb it. And if man chooses God and the life that God proposes to him, he will not remain in the world alone, rudderless: the Torah, commandment given by God will become for the one seeking the righteous way this spiritual compass that will help not to get lost on this chosen way.

And not only in pre-Christian time: it is not fortuitously if Paul compares the Torah to the pedagogue, "the schoolmaster", having in mind the meaning which this word had in the antiquity: the services of the one who accompanied children to school and who made sure that he does not turn off somewhere along the way. Before, the law given by God helped those who seek for the righteousness to walk on the way of righteousness, now it helps those who seek for the Kingdom to follow Christ. God is coherent in His projects, and in the way He realizes them. The rest depends on us.