Exodus 23:20-33; Promises, Warnings, and The Angel of His Presence

http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20120205_exodus23_20-33.mp3

02/05 Exodus 23:20-33 The Angel of His Presence

We come now to the conclusion of God’s instructions given to his people at Sinai. He has communicated to them his expectations for what life lived in community with God should look like. He is a God who loves justice and righteousness, kindness and compassion. He alone is to be feared and worshiped and obeyed, and his presence is to be enjoyed. Here, at the conclusion of his commandments, he pours out good promises to his people, and he gives them clear warnings. This is a passage of promises and warnings. I want to look first today at his great and precious promises and heed carefully his dire warnings, and then I want to turn our attention to the primary promise, the ‘who’ of the promise, the angel of his presence.

God has rescued a people out of slavery to be in relationship with him, to be his very own. He has led them and fed them and rescued them from all danger. He has put up with their grumbling and complaining. He has revealed himself to them, and has communicated with them his character and nature. He has given them clear instructions for life within the community of God’s people. Now he is making them promises. He is going to lead them through the wilderness and bring them into a land he has promised to give them. He is promising victory to them. He is promising to fight their battles. He is even revealing to them some of how he is going to give them victory, and why he is going to do it that way. He promises to care for their needs. He promises to bless them abundantly.

But these promises are conditional. He will do these things “if”. And so there is warning. Let’s look at the promises, and then let’s look at the warnings.

Exodus 23:20 “Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. 21 Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him. 22 “But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. 23 “When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, 24 you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. 25 You shall serve the LORD your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you. 26 None shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. 27 I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. 28 And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. 29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. 30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. 31 And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates, for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. 32 You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. 33 They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

God’s Good Promises

God promises to send his angel before us. The promise of his presence with us is the greatest promise, so we will save it ’till the end. He says he will

guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared

God’s protection is promised on the paths of life. Where ever you go, I will be guarding you. And I have a goal in mind. I will bring you to that place. I will make sure you get there. Your way will not be unopposed. You will have enemies. But I will be an adversary to your adversaries and and enemy to your enemies. I will bring you to face your enemies, but I will blot them out. I will bless your food supply; I will keep you healthy and make you fruitful. I will make your days full and satisfying. I will send my terror and confusion on your enemies, and cause them to run away from you. And here’s how I will do it. I will do it little by little, because if I drove them out all at once, you would not be able to maintain the land. So I will keep them in the land to maintain it for you, and I will drive them out slowly over time, so that you can enjoy the land, so the land does not become overgrown with weeds and overrun with wild beasts. I will gradually give you the whole extent of the land that I promised as your possession. These are big and rich and generous and far-reaching promises. God keeps his promises. At the end of the book of Joshua, we are told:

Joshua 21:44 And the LORD gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the LORD had given all their enemies into their hands.

Then in chapter 23 Joshua says

Joshua 23:14 “And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed.

God has kept all his promises. Joshua continues with a challenge and a warning

Warnings for our Good

Joshua 23:15 But just as all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the LORD will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the LORD your God has given you, 16 if you transgress the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you.”

This would have struck home to the people of Joshua’s day. Their parents forfeited God’s promises and died in the wilderness because of their disobedience to God’s clear instructions. God makes good and gracious promises to his people, but he also warns us so that we don’t miss out on enjoying the blessings he provides. Let’s look at the warnings God gives his people here in Exodus 23. He tells them to pay careful attention; to obey his voice, he warns not to rebel against him, for he will not pardon their transgression. He warns not to bow down to or serve the false gods of the people who dwell in the land, or to imitate their cultures. He instructs his people to completely eradicate any trace of their false religions. He warns against making any agreement with the people or their gods. He clearly warns that the danger of allowing idolaters to remain in the land is that they will influence God’s people to sin against God. They will be a snare, a trap, luring them away from enjoying the reality of a relationship with the true God and enticing them to buy a counterfeit. God warns us because we need to be warned. We have an incessant tendency to become enamored with anything and everything besides God. The desires of the flesh, the deceitfulness of riches, the pride of life, the desire for other things constantly competes for our affection. This warning and command is not the restrictive command of a lover afraid of being left for someone else; this is the kind of warning that says ‘if you touch the stove, you will experience pain and injury’. God demands that we have no other gods, not because he is emotionally needy and craves our attention, but because he doesn’t want us to get burned. If genuine fulfillment and blessing comes only in relationship with him, then turning to other gods is turning away from the only source of real life. Our souls will only be satisfied in him, and he wants to spare us the pain of endlessly running after dead-end damning lies.

The author of Hebrews holds up the Exodus generation as a warning to us New Testament believers; a warning against turning our hearts away from the Lord.

Hebrews 3:7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works 10 for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

We need these warnings today because there is a danger for us today. We have a tendency to ‘go astray in our hearts’, and our hearts can easily become ‘hardened by the deceitfulness of sin’. The exodus generation, who were the recipients of so much of God’s revealed truth, and experienced so many of his physical blessings, were disobedient and did not enter in because of unbelief. The author goes on to exhort us:

Hebrews 4:1 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.

Physical vs. Spiritual

For them the battle was physical. Their enemies were external and physical; Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, Jebusites. The dangers they faced were tangible and physical; starvation, sickness, barrenness, miscarriage. Their borders were physical; from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, from the wilderness to the Euphrates. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood (Eph.6:12). The passions of the flesh wage war against our souls (1Pet.2:11). The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds (2Cor.10:4, cf.6:7). We are called to:

1 Timothy 1:18 … wage the good warfare, 19 holding faith and a good conscience.

1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

And we have greater promises of victory.

1 John 4:4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

1 John 5:4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world–our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

The Angel of His Presence

This brings us back to the beginning of the passage and the greatest promise of blessing that God gives. We need to ask the ‘who’ question. Who is the ‘angel’ that God sends to see that his promises are fulfilled? In verse 20 it is ‘an angel’ and in verse 23 it is ‘my angel’ and he is simply referred to in the other verses as ‘he’ or ‘him’. It will be helpful to know that the word ‘angel’ in the bible does not necessarily mean a guardian spirit or a superhuman winged creature. ‘Angel’ can simply be translated ‘messenger’. Let’s look at what this passage says about this messenger of God.

It says he was sent by God, that he goes before God’s people, that he serves as guardian on their journey, and delivers them to the place prepared by God for them. It tells us that he must be obeyed, that he has the authority to forgive or not forgive, that God’s own name is in him. We are told that to obey him is to do what God says, that he brings us to our enemies and God blots them out, that he blesses us and God fulfills our days.

This is not the first time that this messenger shows up in the bible. We have seen him before, when God called Moses.

Exodus 3:2 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. …4 When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

The messenger of the LORD appeared; and God called to him out of the bush. The Angel of the LORD is equated with God. He shows up again at the Red Sea crossing.

Exodus 13:21 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.

Exodus 14:19 Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them,

So the angel of God is identified with the LORD himself, and is associated with the cloud, but is distinguished from the cloud. I think it is this same figure that shows up to Joshua in fulfillment of God’s promises.

Joshua 5:13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 15 And the commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

Let’s look back at what Exodus 23 says about this messenger and see if we can make the connection with Jesus.

We are told that he is God’s angel or God’s messenger.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. …14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

We are told that he was sent by God

John 5:37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen,

1 John 4:14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

He goes before God’s people

John 14:2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

He is with us as guardian on the journey

John 17:12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

He leads us to the place prepared by God

John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

He must be obeyed

John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

He has authority to forgive

Mark 2:5 And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “My son, your sins are forgiven.” …7 “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

God’s name is in him – he possesses the character and nature of God

John 10:30 I and the Father are one.”

Hebrews 1:3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

To obey him is to obey God.

John 13:20 Truly, truly, I say to you,…whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

He overcomes our enemies.

Colossians 2:13 …having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

John 10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

John 16:33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

He satisfies our hungers and makes us fruitful

John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

We have such great and precious promises in Jesus. Let us heed God’s warnings and obey his only Son, Jesus

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

Exodus 19:1-8; God’s Initiative; Our Response

http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20110612_exodus19_1-8.mp3

06/12 Exodus 19:1-8 God’s Initiative; Our Response

We are at a pivotal point in the history of Israel. The Hebrew people were in a helpless situation as slaves in Egypt. They cried out. God heard their cry, he remembered his covenant with his people, he took notice, and he took action. He brought them out of Egypt and conquered their enemies while they stood by and watched. He led them through the wilderness and provided for their every need, in spite of their grumbling and complaining. Now they are encamped at the base of Horeb, the mountain of God, Mount Sinai. This itself is fulfillment of God’s promise. When Moses was wrestling before God with his call to bring them out of Egypt, God said:

Exodus 3:12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

This is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Moses. He has led the people out of Egypt. They have successfully made it back to the mountain where God initially interrupted Moses and called him into his service. You shall serve or worship God on this mountain. Let’s keep in mind, as we go forward, the purpose for which they have come – worship or service. God is about to enter into a covenant with his people, to introduce himself to his people, and to lay out for them what it means to be in a relationship with him. They had been in the service of Pharaoh. God had demanded of Pharaoh ‘Let my people go that they may serve (or worship) me.’ God had saved his people to bring them into relationship with himself. Now they are here.

Israel will be camped here for almost a year. This is the setting for the next 59 chapters. Mount Sinai is the setting of the remainder of Exodus, Leviticus, and the first ten chapters of Numbers. This is extremely important. Exodus chapter 19 is the introduction to this most extensive section. If we miss the significance of this passage, we will be in danger of misconstruing a substantial part of God’s Torah. Let’s look at the first 8 verses of this chapter together.

19:1 On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. 2 They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain, 3 while Moses went up to God. The LORD called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: 4 You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” 7 So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him. 8 All the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the LORD.

We are given the setting both by the time and the geography. This is the third new moon after the Exodus. This verse, by the way, is where the book gets its English name. The Greek version translates ‘had gone out of’ with the Greek word ‘exodos’ which means ‘the way out.’ The geographical note reminds us of Rephidim, also named Massah and Meribah because of their quarreling and grumbling, where God provided his people with water from the smitten Rock. Israel has come to the wilderness of Sinai, and they are camped before the mountain.

Moses went up to God and YHWH spoke to him. God gave Moses a message to communicate with his people. He addresses them as ‘the house of Jacob’ and ‘the people of Israel.’ Jacob, the deceitful, conniving heel-grabber, whom God renamed Israel, the one who prevails with God. God made covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – not because of any good in them, but in spite of who they were. God gives Moses a word for his people, the descendants of Jacob or Israel.

4 You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

God reminds his people of three things. He reminds them of things they have personally witnessed. This isn’t hand-me-down faith. Just over three months earlier, these same people were slaves in Egypt. They had no choice but to serve Pharaoh. Now they are at the foot of the mountain of God. They are here to worship or serve him. Three things God wants them to remember.

God’s Gracious Initiative

1. You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians. God wants his people to remember his ten mighty acts of catastrophic judgment on the Egyptians and their gods. He wants them to remember the Red Sea, where they were trapped between the Egyptian special forces and the water, where they cried out in unbelief and fear, where they were commanded to be quiet and watch and God would fight for them, where God protected them with his presence in the pillar of cloud/fire, where God opened up a way through the great deep, where God lured their enemies to follow, where God decisively crushed them once and for all. Remember what I did to the Egyptians. They mistreated my people. They refused to acknowledge me. They were hardened against me. They were filled with cruel pride and persistent defiance and repeatedly refused to believe my words or heed my warnings. God wants his people to remember his judgment unleashed on his enemies. Remember that you did nothing. Remember, you yourselves have seen what I alone did to the Egyptians.

2. Remember how I bore you on eagles’ wings. God wants his people to remember his tender care for his own people. Remember, again, you did nothing. I carried you. This is a picture of helpless inability dependent on the care of another. I swooped in when you had no hope and I brought you to safety.

3. Remember that I brought you to myself. God wants his people to remember that their being in his awesome presence is not of their own initiative. The Hebrew people did not get together and say ‘let’s make a pilgrimage to Mt. Sinai. They were brought. They were led. They were carried. Often reluctantly so, almost against their wills. ‘What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?’ (14:11). ‘It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians’ (14:12). ‘Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?’ (17:3). God patiently, graciously, persistently brought them to himself.

God commanded Moses to remind the people of these three things that they had personally experienced. I acted against your enemies; I carried you to safety; I brought you to myself. Remember where you came from. Look at where you are. Remember how you got here. It was not your own doing, it was the gift of God. It was completely by undeserved grace. Remember that this is the foundation of God’s relationship with his people. Their part was to be quiet and watch as God saved them. Now their part is to be reminded of how God saved them and respond in worship.

Our Grateful Response

This is what God outlines in the rest of his message through Moses to his people. Now, therefore. In response to what I have done for you, an appropriate response is expected of you. Obedience to my voice and keeping my covenant. Because I have demonstrated to you that I will do you good and not harm, that I know best, and am fully capable of doing everything necessary to care for you, you must listen listeningly to my voice. You must guard or watch or keep my covenant. With privilege comes responsibility. If, in response to my gracious action in saving you, you will obediently listen and respond to my promises, then you will hold three privileged places of responsibility before me.

First, you will be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine. Here, God’s ownership of everything is declared. YHWH is not some territorial deity whose jurisdiction is limited. He claims ownership of the whole earth and everyone on it. All the peoples of the earth belong to God, and he can do with them whatever he wants. He can execute judgment on the Egyptians, because they belong to him. But out of all the peoples of the earth who belong to God, these people are precious to him. They are treasured by him. If you will listen to me, you will be treasured by me. ‘You shall be my treasured possession among all peoples.’

Second, you will be a kingdom of priests to me. This language is found nowhere else all the Old Testament. The whole people, not just one tribe, will be priests to God. A priest is one who represents God to others, and brings others into the presence of God. Their privileged position as God’s treasured possession among all peoples is not a place for boasting. God declares to them that he chose them not because of any deserving characteristic in them (Deut.7:6-8), but simply because he loves them. Being his treasured possession among all peoples means bringing his truth to all peoples and bringing all peoples into relationship with the only true God. This privilege is also a responsibility. This is exactly what God promised to Abram when he called him to follow.

Genesis 12:2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God’s intent in choosing Abraham and his descendants out of all other nations is that they would serve all other nations for their good. They would serve as priests in bringing God’s word to the nations, and in bringing the nations into worship of the one true God. The whole nation was to be a kingdom of priests to God. A kingdom is made up of those over whom the King reigns. Refusing to obey the King places you outside of the kingdom. If you will obey, you will be priests to me among all peoples.

Third, you will be a holy nation. To be holy is to be distinct, set apart, different, designated for a specific function. As God’s priests, as his treasured possession, they are to be different from all other nations, precisely in the fact that they listen obediently and keep God’s gracious covenant with his people, and invite others to join them in that relationship with God.

A Conditional Promise?

When we understand what God is promising, we can better understand the conditional nature of the promise. This is not an if/then of reward for good behavior; ‘if you jump through all the proper hoops, then I will save you.’ No, God has already graciously saved them. The if/then is an if/then of the inherent nature of the position. In order to fulfill the role of God’s treasured possession, missionary intermediaries between God and the nations, yet uniquely distinct from the nations, you must be listening to God’s voice and remaining in proper relationship with him. You cannot be rebelling against God and treasured by him; you cannot be his ambassador and disregard what he says; you cannot invite outsiders into a relationship you do not have; you cannot be part of his kingdom and rejecting his authority; you cannot be set apart to him and while violating his commands.

3 while Moses went up to God. The LORD called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: 4 You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” 7 So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him. 8 All the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the LORD.

Moses faithfully takes God’s words to the people, all the people agree to God’s terms, and Moses faithfully conveys the answer of the people to the LORD. The people are entering into a covenant relationship with the LORD. The rest of the chapter recounts the most awesomely terrifying revelation of God to his people in the whole bible.

Our Goal as Followers of Jesus

The language of Exodus 19 is clearly in Peter’s mind when he writes to encourage the suffering believers in his first letter.

1 Peter 2:4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. … 7 So the honor is for you who believe, …. 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Peter is addressing those who believe in Jesus, those who come to Jesus as their Lord and King, those who, according to his first chapter, have been given new life by God. We are being built up to be a holy priesthood, to offer acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ. He calls us who believe in Jesus a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. We who believe in Jesus are privileged with a purpose. He calls us precious, but that comes with great responsibility. Not for pride in our position. We are chosen to serve. We are ambassadors for Christ. We are called to be holy, separate, distinct. We are his. We are to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands.

Peter describes our responsibility this way:

1Peter 2:9 …, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

By our words, with our attitudes, through our actions, flowing out of our transformed desires, we are to proclaim the excellencies of him who called us. All glory goes to him and him alone.

How do we do this?

First, we must acknowledge that God alone saves. God keeps his promises. God is the one who takes the initiative. God sent his only Son. Jesus has conquered sin and death and hell for us. Jesus has satisfied the just demands of a holy God in our place. He carries us on eagles’ wings. He reconciles us to God through his cross and brings us to himself. And God does all this not because we somehow deserve it, but while we were his enemies.

Then we can respondto him in humble, grateful obedience, not in order to get anything, but because he has already given us everything. We have been called to a great privilege. We are treasured by him. We are set apart. We are priests to the nations. So we must listen to his voice. We must submit to him as King. We must respond to his grace with glad-hearted obedience. In this way we proclaim the excellencies of him. 

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

Psalm 95; Worship and Warning

http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20110522-psalm95.mp3

05/22 Psalm 95 – Worship and Warning

Psalm, 95:1 Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”

This Psalm is a Psalm of worship and warning; it is a call to worship and caution against unbelief. It looks back to the God who created all things and is worthy of our worship, back to the God who saves us, and back to the Exodus account of the grumbling at Massah and Meribah and the consequences of unbelief, and it looks forward to the joy of entering into the presence of God. The book of Hebrews in the New Testament picks up this Psalm and warns and encourages us to take a sober look at our own hearts to be sure that we don’t miss out.

Corporate Worship

This is a corporate call to worship. It is an invitation to the group to sing, to make a joyful noise, to come into God’s presence, to offer thanksgiving and songs of praise to him together. There is such a thing as private worship. In your car or in your closet, you can get alone with God and speak to him, sing to him, give thanks and praise to him. That is good. Private worship is necessary. You can worship God as a family. Husbands, we need to lead our wives to know Jesus better. Fathers and mothers, we need to teach our children to follow the Lord. God must be the center of our homes. We should sing together and pray together and read the bible together as families in our homes. The responsibility for the Christian education of children falls primarily to families. Whatever the church does to instruct children is only intended to supplement what families do at home.

The Church

But this is a public call to worship. This is an invitation to join the assembly of believers in corporate worship. Private worship is critical. family worship is essential. But neglect of corporate worship is also forbidden in scripture.

Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

It is true that Jesus loves each of us individually, specifically. ‘The Son of God loved me and gave himself for me (Gal.2:20) It is also true that:

Ephesians 5:25 …Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

The church is the collective group of believers. Jesus said:

Matthew 16:18 … I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

The church Jesus builds is not a structure with walls and roof. What Jesus builds is a living organism made up of people.

1 Peter 2:5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

The bible does not talk about when you come to the church (building), but rather:

1 Corinthians 11:18 …when you come together as a church, …

The church is the group of believers meeting together to worship God. This Psalm is a call to public worship.

Worship

Psalm, 95:1 Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

As a group, we are invited to sing to the LORD. Singing is one primary expression of worship that we do as a group. We sing to YHWH, the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Singing is making a joyful noise. Worship is an expression of joy. We have much to be joyful about. We will get to some of that as we go through this Psalm. The Rock smitten for us, out of which life-giving water flows, is Christ Jesus. We are invited to make a joyful noise to Jesus, the rock of our salvation.

The Presence of God

We are invited into his presence. That is staggering if we stop to think about it – the presence of God himself, absolute holiness and righteousness. The most righteous men we know were undone and loathed themselves when confronted with the absolute holiness of the presence of the living God. At the end of time, the kings of the earth flee from the presence of the Lamb.

Revelation 6:15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”.

It is because sinners cannot stand in the presence of a holy God without justice being done to them. When we are around people that are worse sinners than we are, we can feel pretty good about ourselves. When we are in the presence of the holy, holy, holy God, that all goes away and we recognize how desperately far we fall short.

Psalm 90:7 For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. 8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.

The presence of God for a sinner is the most terrifying place imaginable. But the presence of God is also the most desirable thing. The pornography industry plays on our desire to look on perfect beauty, a beauty that will satisfy our deepest longings. We always come up empty wanting more because only God can satisfy the human soul. The human soul is hungry for God.

Psalm 16:11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Psalm 21:6 For you make him most blessed forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence.

That which only will satisfy is out of reach for us because to be in the presence of God means judgment for sinners. That is why we make a joyful noise to Jesus, the Rock of our salvation. We are in a hopeless situation, and Jesus, the perfect God-man comes to our rescue by bearing our sin and enduring the wrath of God in our place, washing us clean so that we can enjoy his perfect presence forever. That is something to make noise about! That calls for songs of loudest praise! We approach with deep thanksgiving for what Jesus has done for us.

More Grounds for Worship

This Psalm goes on to give us more grounds for praising him:

Psalm 95:3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

YHWH, the God of the Hebrews, is a great God. In a pluralistic polytheistic society where the Egyptians have their gods and the Canaanites have their gods and the Midianites have their gods, the God of Israel is not merely one God among many. He is great, he is greater in magnitude, he is greater in importance, he is greater in age – he comes before all other gods. He is the king or sovereign over all other so-called gods. They are under him and answer to him and serve him.

Psalm 95;4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

This God owns all things. The deepest mines in the earth are in his hand. He owns the highest peaks. The sea was a terrifying unknown when this was written, dangerous uncontrollable unpredictable chaos, and he owns it because he made it. His hands formed the land. Everything belongs to him. Everything, including us:

6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

We are called to corporate worship because we are owned by our Creator. It is what we are made for. He has creative rights over us. He is our Maker. We worship, we bow down, we kneel and pay homage to him. He is our God. This, too, is an amazing statement. Not only is he Creator God, but we have a relationship with him. He is our God. We are his people. He is our shepherd. He cares for us. We are the sheep of his hand. This is personal, intimate, tender.

Now comes the warning:

Psalm 95:7 …Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”

There is a danger to be avoided. Today! Today! Today! Right now, right here, pay attention! This is urgent. This demands an immediate response from us. Do not procrastinate. Do not put this off. The voice of the Shepherd is calling. Will you listen? Will you heed? Will you obey? There is a tendency, a historical tendency to harden our hearts against the voice of the Lord. There is a tendency to harden against the call to worship.

Massah and Meribah

We are pointed back to the history of the Exodus as a warning. Remember Meribah? The word means strife, contention, complaining, quarreling. The people grumbled against their leader. They quarreled. They had a need that wasn’t getting met in their time and in their way and so they complained. It was a legitimate need. But there was an undercurrent of discontent primarily directed at the leadership, and God took it personally. Massah means testing. God said ‘you are testing me.’ All complaining, all grumbling is ultimately directed at God. If God is in control of all things and orchestrates all circumstances, and he promises to work them for our good, then when we are discontented with our situation, it is an arrogant affront to his wisdom and goodness. We are demonstrating a lack of faith, a lack of trust in him as our sovereign provider. This is why the New Testament has so much to say about grumbling and complaining.

1 Corinthians 10:9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

Philippians 2:14 Do all things without grumbling or questioning, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life…

James 5:9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.

Words come from the Heart

God takes our words so seriously because they indicate our heart condition. Jesus said:

Matthew 15:18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.

God is not interested in mere external conformity to his standards. He wants our hearts. He wants to capture our wills. He wants to consume our thoughts. He wants to be the center of our affections. In the Psalm his accusation is “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” God uses very strong language against this; ‘I loathed them,’ ‘I swore in my wrath.’ Grumbling, complaining, quarreling is evidence of a deeper sin. These sheep had gone astray in their hearts. They had abandoned God. They had hardened their hearts toward the voice of their Shepherd. James, who has a lot to say about what comes out of our mouths, also makes the connection between heart and tongue:

James 1:26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.

Paul addresses the heart issue positively:

Colossians 3:12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

We were created to worship. We are invited to come into the presence of God united in praise to his great name. But we have an awful tendency to become callous toward God and contentious with each other. Today, we must be on our guard. Today we must guard our hearts from going astray. Today, we must choose to worship. 

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

Exodus 17:8-16; Fight the Good Fight – Battle with Amalek

http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20110508_exodus17_8-16.mp3

05/08 Exodus 17:8-16 Fight the Good Fight

Intro:

God has redeemed his people. He has delivered them from bondage. He is daily providing for their needs. He continually proves himself gracious even in the face of grumbling ungrateful demanding impatient rebellious people. So far, he has left Egypt in ruins, brought his people safely through the middle of the Red Sea, destroyed the Egyptian army, made bitter water sweet, rained bread from heaven for daily needs, and brought water from a rock to refresh his people. Now, his people are faced with the first battle they must fight.

17:8 Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. 9 So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” 10 So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11 Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12 But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 13 And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword. 14 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” 15 And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The LORD is my banner, 16 saying, “A hand upon the throne of the LORD! The LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”

(Prayer)

Let’s start with some background information so we get a big-picture understanding of this passage in its historical setting, and then we’ll look at what we can learn from it that will encourage us in our battle.

Who were the Amalekites?

According to Genesis 36, Amalek was the grandson of Esau. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (or Israel); Esau was Jacob’s older twin brother. Jacob bought the birthright and stole the blessing from his older brother. In the stolen blessing, Isaac made Jacob lord over his brother. When Esau demanded some blessing from his father, Isaac said this:

Genesis 27:40 By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you grow restless you shall break his yoke from your neck.”

The blessing God gave to Abraham was to come through Jacob and his twelve sons, who became the twelve tribes of Israel. Esau’s descendants, also known as Edom or Edomites, were a problem for Israel throughout their history. The descendants of Amalek, grandson of Esau, were the first to attack Israel in the wilderness after they left Egypt.

What did Amalek do that was so bad?

God pronounces a severe curse on these people. He says he will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven, and he instructs that this be passed on to Joshua and recorded in a book. This passage closes with the words “The LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.” What did they do that would deserve this kind of severity? This passage simply states that they instigated the battle with Israel at Rephidim. If we look at the instructions Moses left for future generations in Deuteronomy, we get some more details:

Deuteronomy 25:17 “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, 18 how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. 19 Therefore when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.

So Amalek did not fear God. When they attacked, they went after the weak and the sick, the defenseless, the elderly and the young. They attacked from behind. They fought dirty and kicked them while they were down. They didn’t play fair. God wanted generations to come to remember the sin of Amalek and its consequences. The LORD himself will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

In the generation when Saul was king over Israel, the prophet Samuel charged Saul with this:

1Samuel 15:2 Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. 3 Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”’

Saul disobeyed, and as a result of his disobedience to the LORD’s command, he was rejected as king over Israel. He spared Agag, king of the Amalekites.

What happened to the Amalekites?

We see Israel up through Saul and David battling the Amalekites. At the end of 1 Samuel, we see them pulling a similar stunt. When everyone has left their cities undefended because they are off to war, the Amalekites swoop in and make off with the women and children and goods. David returns home to find his city on fire and his wives gone. He pursues them and reclaims what is his and not a man escaped, except 400 young men who fled on camels. (1Sam.30:17).
We don’t hear much from the Amalekites until we get to the book of Esther, at the time of the Babylonian captivity, around 480 BC. The enemy of the Jews is Haman the Agagite, descendant of the royal line of Amalekites through king Agag.

The Battle

Let’s examine this first battle that the Israelites engage in after their Exodus from slavery in Egypt. There are some very intriguing firsts in this battle. Joshua shows up in the biblical narrative first here. There is no introduction, he just shows up in the narrative as the one Moses entrusts to be in charge of the military. Hur also shows up for the first time here, accompanying Moses at the top of the hill. The instructions he gives are interesting. Joshua is to choose men capable of fighting- remember, these are former slaves with no military training. They have been attacked, and Moses says ‘tomorrow’. ‘Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand. Several times during the plague narrative, a great act of God is said to be coming ‘tomorrow’. This would be a hint. The staff of God. The staff that brought water from the rock. The staff that God used to bring devastation to Egypt was once again going to be lifted up. Moses stretched out the staff and the Red Sea opened up. He stretched it out again, and God crushed their enemies. Tomorrow the staff of God will be lifted up. Something big is about to happen.

But there is a very significant difference between this battle and the defeat of the Egyptian army just three chapters earlier. Here the Israelites fight. Back in Chapter 14:

Exodus 14:13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

In the battle at the Red Sea, only the LORD was fighting. The people were explicitly instructed not to do anything. They were to stand still and observe the salvation that God would work for them. Then they were slaves, and God was fighting the battle for their freedom against their old slave master. Now they are free, their slave master is dead, and they have a new battle to fight. And this time they are expected to fight.

If the Israelites thought that they would have no more conflict now that they were free of Egypt, they were sorely mistaken.

But it is still clearly the LORD who fights the battle. The staff on the hill makes that abundantly clear. The Israelites are no match for the Amalekites. The only time they enjoy any success is when Moses raises his hands with the staff toward heaven. The focal point of the story is not what is happening on the field of battle. The focus of the story is what is happening on the hill. And even on the hill, the picture we have is a picture of weakness. Moses can’t even hold his own hands up by himself. He has to sit on a rock and have assistance from two helpers. As Proverbs tells us:

Proverbs 21:31 The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the LORD.

The victory belongs to the LORD. We have our part to play, but the decisive element is not our strength or skill or determination. The LORD is fighting this battle.

The difference between the battles is that in the first, God is fighting for his people. In this battle, God is fighting in and through his people. In the first, he is securing their freedom, and he does not need their assistance, in fact he will not allow them to do anything. He fights exclusively by himself. In this battle, having already been set free, they are required to fight, but not in their own strength. The Psalmist calls God his strength:

Psalm 59:17 O my Strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love.

Over and over and over again in the scriptures, God is praised by his people for being their strength. God even says in Jeremiah 17:5

Jeremiah 17:5 Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD.

It is such a serious issue that God pronounces a curse on those who are self-dependent.

Do you see how this relates to our battle? God has fought for us and won the victory all by himself. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship…

Jesus decisively won the victory on the cross without any help from us. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1Peter 2:24). Anything we offer in the way of help or payment for that battle is nothing but insult and brings us under the curse. But if we think that now that we are free, the Christian life will be trouble free, we have a harsh reality to face. We are in a fight. Paul charges us to “Fight the good fight of the faith” (1 Timothy 6:12). We have a cruel enemy. He doesn’t play fair.

Paul describes our battle as a serious call to arms in Ephesians 6.

Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.

You be strong. But not in your own strength. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. You prepare for battle. You will have to stand against the schemes of the devil. You are in way over your head. You are up against rulers, authorities, cosmic powers over this present darkness, spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. There is no way you can win this battle. The enemy is much stronger than you. But you be strong in God’s strength. You have to put on the armor – but it is God’s armor. You wrestle, you withstand, you stand firm. You will be victorious in this battle because it is not your strength but God’s strength in you.

This is consistently the way the New Testament describes the Christian’s warfare.

1Timothy 1:12 I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service,

2Timothy 4:17 But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.

1Peter 4:11 …whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies––in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

1Corinthians 15:10 … I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Colossians 1:29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

Do you hear that? Through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear – but the Lord stood by me and strengthened me. Serve in the strength that God supplies so that God gets all the glory. I worked hard – but it was not I; it was God’s grace working. I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. I am weak. I can’t even hold up my own hands. But this is why there is strength even in weakness; especially in weakness. If I feel confident in my abilities, if I think I can handle this battle, I will fail miserably, because “pride goes before destruction” (Proverbs 16:18). An acute awareness of my own weakness and inability forces me to depend on him who is strength. This is why Jesus says to Paul:

2Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

When I am weak, then I am strong, because in my weakness, the power of Christ is able to rest on me.

Charles Spurgeon said this:

Now that we are alive from the dead we must wrestle with principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness if we are to overcome. “Go fight,” is the command. Do not many Christians act as if the sin would be driven out of them through their sleeping soundly? Let them be sure that a slumbering spirit is the best friend that sin, can find. If your lusts are to be destroyed, they must be cut up root and branch by sheer force of personal exertion through divine grace, they are not to be blown away by languid wishes and sleepy desires. God will not relieve us of our sins as sometimes persons have diseased limbs removed while under the influence of chloroform: we shall see our sins die while our minds are thoroughly active against them, and resolutely bent upon their destruction. “Go, fight with Amalek.” Greatly to be deplored is the way in which some Christians say, “Ah, well! it is my besetting sin,” or “It is my natural temperament,” or “It is my constitution.” Shame on you, Christian. What if it be so! Do you mean to say to your Father’s face that you have so great a love for the sin which he hates, that you will harbour it and invent hiding-places for it? Why, when a sin does so easily beset you, you must muster your whole force and cry to Heaven for strength that the dangerous foe may be overcome, for one sin harboured in the soul will ruin you; one sin really loved and indulged will become damnatory evidence against you, and prove that you really do not love the Savior, for if you did you would hate every false way. We must fight if we would overcome our sins. (C.H.Spurgeon, sermon #712, Sept.23, 1866)

Christ our Intercessor

Here is something very encouraging. The intercession of Moses was decisive in the battle. All Moses had to do was keep the staff of God lifted high. But Moses’ hands grew weary. Whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. Friends, we have one greater than Moses who is seated on high.

Hebrews 7:22 This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. …24 …he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Romans 8:34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died––more than that, who was raised––who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Jesus never gets weary. He never lets his hands down. He doesn’t need help in his ministry of intercession. Jesus, moment by moment day and night is ever vigilant to supply us with the strength from on high.

Jude 24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

YHWH Nissi or Jehovah Nissi (yon hwhy) – the LORD is my banner

Exodus 17:15 And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The LORD is my banner, 16 saying, “A hand upon the throne of the LORD! The LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”

Moses memorializes this event with an altar. He names it ‘YHWH Nissi – YHWH is my banner, my battle standard, my signal pole, my rallying point. Jesus claimed to be our battle standard:

John 12:32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

Exodus 16:19-36; Our Daily Bread – Not By Bread Alone

http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20110410_exodus16_19-36.mp3

04/10 Exodus 16:19-36 Not By Bread Alone; Our Daily Bread

Intro:

God is testing his people. His stated purpose throughout the book is that they would know that he is the LORD. They are to know that he is God over all gods, with authority over the whole earth, authority over water and wind and over all creatures on the earth, authority over the hearts of men, authority over weather, even over light and darkness. They are to know that he holds power over life and death, that he is a just judge and a protector of all who find refuge in him. That he is a God who hears and answers prayer. That he is the passover Lamb substituted for us, our ever-present guide, the one who stands in our defense, the one who fights our battles and conquers our enemies, the one who can heal bitter hearts and satisfy our deepest hunger.

God has displayed his power over the Egyptians and he is leading his people through the wilderness, teaching them about himself, showing them what it means to have a relationship with him. He took them to a place where the waters were bitter and showed them that he is their healer, then he brought them to a desert oasis, with plentiful water and shade. Now they are running out of food, and they are grumbling. God graciously responds to their grumbling, not with condemnation, but with abundant provision and further revelation of who he is.

16:10 …they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. 11 And the LORD said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.”’

13 In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. 14 And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake–like thing, fine as frost on the ground. 15 When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat. 16 This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.”’ 17 And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less. 18 But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat.

God satisfied the hunger of his people. He supernaturally provided for their needs. God creates something entirely new for them that will be their daily provision throughout their time in the wilderness. God, the Creator, brings something out of nothing to provide for their needs. He gives them clear instruction and he expects his people to listen to his voice.

Obedience

God was teaching his people to trust him, to listen to him, to obey. When they get to Sinai, he will give them detailed instructions for how a sinful people are to relate to a holy God. For now, his abundant provision with simple instructions. He had said in verse 4:

4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.

Pick up what you need for the day, and eat all of it that day. A day’s portion every day. Daily bread. This is my instruction. This is a test.

19 And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over till the morning.”

Isn’t that clear enough?

20 But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. 21 Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.

Manna was God’s gift to his people. God said he would rain bread from heaven for you. Moses describes it as the bread that the LORD has given you to eat. In Psalm 78 it is described as ‘the grain of heaven’ and ‘the bread of angels’. It was an undeserved grace in response to grumbling. The people said ‘what is it?’ which in Hebrew sounds like ‘manna’, and the name stuck. It was also a simple test. Don’t leave it over till the morning, but they did not listen, and some left part of it till the morning. God gives instruction and we say ‘Why? What will happen if I do what you tell me not to do? We almost ran out of food in the desert. Natural reasoning tells me that I should be wise and prepare for tomorrow. God says ‘eat what I give you today and trust me for tomorrow’. It is interesting that it doesn’t say that some people gathered much more than other people and kept the excess overnight. It says ‘whoever gathered much had nothing left over’. So the ones who kept some over must have rationed their daily portion. They chose to go hungry today so that they could have security for tomorrow. In effect, they were saying ‘we don’t know where our next meal is coming from, so we’d better be cautious and store up’. But instead of providing security, manna disobediently stored up became a dangerous source of sickness and disease. What seemed to be wise from man’s perspective, was disobedient to God’s direct command and proved to be destructive. How slow we are to learn that God’s ways are always best! We may not understand why, but obedience to God is the way of wisdom. Disobedience has consequences. Trusting God can be scary. Walking by faith in God’s word is not always comfortable. But God’s way is always best.

Daily Bread

Jesus alluded to God’s daily provision of basic needs when he taught his disciples to pray.

Matthew 6:9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Give us this day our daily bread. Often we view prayer simply as a shopping list of unrelated needs that we are to ask God for. I think there is more to this prayer than that. We are invited to approach our Father in the heavens, requesting that your name, your kingdom, and your will be honored and come to pass, as in heaven so on earth. Then we ask that the bread of our daily need be given to us this very day. Our daily sustenance is further defined, not as physical food, but as release from our legal obligations and rescue from temptation. What we desperately need every day is rescue from temptation and release from debt. Jesus frames this request for God’s forgiveness and rescue in the language of God’s daily provision for the needs of his people in the wilderness. Our deepest need is for God’s daily deliverance and God’s daily forgiveness. The bread of our daily need, give us this very day; that is, release us from our legal debts… that is, do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil. This is our daily bread.

When talking with the Jews about the manna in the wilderness, Jesus said:

John 6:33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” … 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. … 48 I am the bread of life. … 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Jesus claims to be God’s provision for man’s deepest hunger. Give us this day our daily bread. Today, give us Jesus! Release from the debt we owe to God and rescue from temptation come only in Jesus. Jesus, the bread of our daily need. Jesus, the broken bread that gives life to hungry sinners. Let Jesus sustain us today! This day, give us Jesus!

Treasure in Heaven

Jesus continues in Matthew 6:

Matthew 6:19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The Israelites were laying up treasure on earth and it bred worms and stank. They were not looking to God in heaven to provide for their daily need. They were not laying up the treasure of an increasing trust in God and a deepening relationship with him. Even in the face of God’s supernatural provision for them, they were trying to find a natural way to bank security for themselves against tomorrow. It didn’t work. It never does. Jesus continues by challenging their worry over daily necessities:

Matthew 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Life is more than subsisting. Jesus came to offer life abundantly. Your body and your soul are meant for so much more than an obsession with food and clothes. Jesus tells us that we are of greater worth than birds and grass, and God feeds and clothes them. He challenges our lack of faith.

Matthew 6:31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Seek God. Spend your energy going after God. If you’re going to be anxious about anything, be anxious to know God better. Learn to depend on God. Learn to trust. Pursue Jesus, the bread that gives eternal life. Pursue Jesus, who clothes you with his perfect righteousness.

Solemn Rest; a Holy Sabbath to the LORD

We’ve been looking at the manna as a pointer to Jesus as the one who satisfies our real needs. Jesus invites us to see it this way. But Manna was a real substance, God’s miraculous means of feeding his people in the desert. But even in the way God provided then, he was pointing to these greater realities. God said in verse 5:

5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”

Then we see how this happened in verse 22:

22 On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, 23 he said to them, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.”’ 24 So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. 25 Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field. 26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.”

God did not provide manna seven days a week. He provided double the amount Friday morning, and none Saturday morning. This too came with clear instructions. This is what the LORD has commanded: Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. This too would teach his people trust. God will provide for your needs. Follow his instructions. The purpose of the double portion on Friday was to provide for rest on Saturday. But it was not just rest from labor, rest from collecting food, rest from the pressure of gathering the needs of the day. It was rest to the LORD. It was more than rest from something. It was to be rest for someone.

We can look all the way back to Genesis when God created the heavens and the earth for the meaning of this rest.

Genesis 1:31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

God finished his work of creation and he rested. Not because he was exhausted from all the hard work – it says ‘God said… and it was so’. God did not need a day off to recuperate from all the talking. God completed his creative work and stepped back as it were to enjoy what he had made. He said ‘look, it is very good’. God made the seventh day happy – he blessed it. He sanctified it. He set it apart as holy or sacred. Here in Exodus, the first mention of the word ‘sabbath’ in the bible, we see that the Sabbath rest is to the LORD. God is good. He is our provider. God established that we take one day out of seven to break the routine and enjoy him. Focus on him. Give him the attention he deserves. Seek him. Honor him. Worship. A day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. The verb form of this word Sabbath that appears in Genesis also appears earlier in Exodus:

Exodus 5:5 And Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens!”

Rest from slavery to Pharaoh. God’s demand of Pharaoh was ‘let my people go that they may hold a feast to me (5:1); that they may serve me, or worship me in the wilderness’ (7:16; 8:1, 20; 9:1, 13; 10:3). Here we see this happening. The people were released from hard service to Pharaoh to glad service to the true King of kings. They were transferred to their rightful master. They were to hold a feast to the LORD, to celebrate, to honor their God, spend time with him, to enjoy him. Here God supernaturally provides for this to happen. Double portion on Friday so that Saturday can be all about God.

27 On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. 28 And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? 29 See! The LORD has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day. 31 Now the house of Israel called its name manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

Again, disobedience to God’s clear commands. We can identify with this on a human level. ‘Last time we kept any manna overnight it was all nasty in the morning. We’re not doing that again! Manna doesn’t keep well. Better eat it all today.’ Again, it seems that this was not a case that the people were lazy and didn’t gather double. It seems the double quantity was a curious thing. The leaders had to ask Moses about it. Apparently, they gathered, and when they measured it and prepared it, it was a double portion. So the ones who went out to gather on the Sabbath had probably gorged themselves on two days worth of food all at once, assuming it would spoil overnight and go to waste. They did not listen to God’s word. Have you ever eaten way too much one day? Your stomach stretches, and the next morning you feel ravenously hungry. So they go out to find more food and there is none, just as God had said. What was meant to be a day of rest and feasting and enjoying became for these disobedient Israelites, a day of fasting.

Not By Bread Alone

God was teaching his people to be dependent on him, to trust him. Jesus picks up on this in his temptation.

Matthew 4:4 But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”’

Jesus is quoting Moses in Deuteronomy 8:3, where Moses is recounting God’s provision of Manna in the wilderness.

Deuteronomy 8:3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

The manna was training in dependence on God. Don’t trust your human wisdom. Don’t trust your instincts. Trust God. Believe what he says. Do things his way and he will bless you. Walk in obedience. Draw your sustenance from every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Manna was sweet. It tasted like wafers made with honey, which was a great luxury in that culture. In the Psalms, God’s word is compared with honey.

Psalm 19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9 the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. 11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

Psalm 119:103 How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

A Testimony to Future Generations

God’s provision for his people was to be remembered.

16:32 Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.”’ 33 And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the LORD to be kept throughout your generations.” 34 As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept. 35 The people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan. 36 (An omer is the tenth part of an ephah.)

A jar of Manna was to be placed before the LORD. This became one of the contents of the box that held the contract between God and his people. (This manna shows up again in Hebrews 9:4 and Revelation 2:17). It was to be a constant reminder of the gracious faithfulness of our loving God who provides for our physical and spiritual needs. God who of himself provides for our deepest needs, needs for deliverance, needs for release from our debts. God so loved undeserving sinners that he gave us his only Son Jesus.

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

Exodus 16:1-18; Hunger Satisfied

http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20110403_exodus16_1-18.mp3

04/03 Exodus 16:1-18 Hunger Satisfied

Intro

We’ve been walking with Israel as God led his reluctant people out of Egypt. He told his people to stop fearing anyone but God, to be still and to watch as God saved them, because salvation belongs to the Lord. God humbled Egypt and crushed their pride at the bottom of the Red Sea. His people saw his great power, they feared the Lord, they believed in him, and they sang his praises. And then they grumbled. They were three days into the wilderness and when they found water it was bitter. But God revealed himself as their healer, their physician, and he made the bitter become sweet. Then he led them to Elim, an oasis in the desert, with twelve springs of water and seventy palms. God is abundantly able to provide for his people. Now, we catch up with them one month after the first passover and their exodus from Egypt.

Grumbling

16:1 They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. 2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

When the Egyptian army pursued and trapped them by the Red Sea, the people complained that Moses led them out to die in the wilderness because of a grave shortage in Egypt. They complained that it would have been better to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. Then, on the other side of the sea, they complained because they had no water. The people grumbled against Moses and said ‘what shall we drink’.

This time it is lack of food. Now they are hungry. As Paul said ‘their god is their belly …with minds set on earthly things’ (Phil.3:19). And grumbling stomachs distort history. They wish that the LORD had killed them in Egypt rather than bringing them out in the desert to starve. In this complaint, they acknowledge the hand of the LORD against their enemies. God revealed his power against the Egyptians, ultimately killing their firstborn and drowning their army in the sea. Now they are saying ‘We wish God would have killed us along with them’. They reminisce about the good old days back in Egypt ‘when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full’ Forgotten are their bitter lives of hard service, ruthlessly made to labor as slaves. Forgotten are their groanings and cries for rescue from slavery. Now that they are hungry and don’t know where their next meal is coming from, they only remember the wonderful meals they had as slaves. They would prefer to die as slaves with full bellies than to serve God and live in dependence on him.

We who look on as readers of the narrative want to shout out ‘you fools! Don’t you remember God’s ten mighty acts of judgment against the cruel Egyptians and the hard hearted Pharaoh? Don’t you remember how God saved you from the Egyptians at the sea? God has taken you this far; he surely will not leave you to die for lack of food. Remember how God made bitter water sweet? Remember God’s past provision and trust him! Stop grumbling and believe in him. Stop complaining and humbly make your requests to him.’ From our perspective it is so clear.

But then we could think about the trials and inconveniences we face and wonder if the great cloud of witnesses surrounding us (Heb.12:1) want to shout out some of the same things to us.

God’s Gracious Response

How do you think God would respond to this kind of gross unbelief in his people, this lack of faith in his promises, this wish for death and longing for a return to slavery and the pleasures of Egypt? I’m thinking hundred pound hailstones would be in order, but that’s not what God does.

4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”

Not a word of rebuke! No anger. No judgment. No condemnation. God meets their grumbling with his already planned provision. This is unmerited grace! The Israelites are not getting what they deserve. In response to thankless grumbling God showers them with his good provision. He literally pours out bread from heaven. He promises a daily portion of bread in the desert. This will be a test of the hearts of his people. Will they walk in his Torah, in his law, in his instruction or not? Will they listen to his voice? God is providing abundantly for physical and spiritual needs. Seven days worth of provision given in six days, double the amount given on the sixth day so that they can rest and worship and be refreshed on the seventh day, so that they can feed not only their physical needs but their souls in communion with God. The purpose is relationship with the living God.

6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your grumbling against the LORD. For what are we, that you grumble against us?” 8 And Moses said, “When the LORD gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the LORD has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him––what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the LORD.” 9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the LORD, for he has heard your grumbling.”’ 10 And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. 11 And the LORD said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.”’

The Knowledge of the LORD

Knowledge of the LORD is the goal. God acts for the good of unbelieving thankless rebellious sinners so that they will know who he is. God will reveal to them his hand of salvation. ‘You shall know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt’. He will reveal his fearful awesomeness, ‘you shall see the glory of the LORD’. God reveals himself as provider ‘when he gives you meat to eat and bread to the full’. You will recognize that your grumbling is against the LORD. In a God-centered universe, when we grumble, we grumble against God. Moses and Aaron are quick to point this out. What are we? This is not about us! Your grumbling is against the LORD. This is all about the LORD. ‘You shall know that I am the LORD your God.’ God gives abundant gifts to undeserving sinners to show off his nature and character. He is ‘the God of all grace’ (1Pet.5:10). He is patient, he is faithful, he is compassionate, he is slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness.

Abundant Provision

13 In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. 14 And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake–like thing, fine as frost on the ground. 15 When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat. 16 This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.”’ 17 And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less. 18 But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat.

God provided meat for them to eat that very night, so that they would not even have to go to bed hungry and wait for the morning. Amazing grace! That next morning the people saw a curious new thing in the wilderness. They had to ask ‘What is it?’ Moses points to it as ‘the bread that the LORD has given you to eat’. God supernaturally provided for his people. An omer was approximately half a gallon. Everyone was responsible to get out and do their share. If you don’t work, you don’t eat. All they had to do was gather each morning what they needed for the day. God made sure each had enough and there was equality. In spite of their grumbling, God provided for the needs of his people. We can wonder what this might have looked like had God’s people simply trusted God’s promises and humbly prayed for God’s provision. But we don’t have to wonder.

Jesus’ Perfect Obedience in the Wilderness

We can compare and contrast Israel’s grumbling unbelief when they faced hunger in the wilderness, and Jesus’ hunger in the wilderness, and his response to temptation with perfect obedience to his Father.

Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”’

Both Jesus and the Israelites were led by God into the wilderness. The Israelites were less than 30 days in the wilderness, and they had only recently run out of food. Jesus was forty days without food and he was hungry. The Israelites had the pillar of fire and cloud to guide them, they had Moses and Aaron to lead them, they had the whole community to encourage one another; Jesus was alone with the tempter. The Israelites had no power over their circumstances – they could only grumble. Jesus, the Son of God, had all power over his circumstances, and could easily have turned the very rocks into bread to satisfy his hunger. But he responded with the words of Moses from Deuteronomy 8:3, stating his total trust in and dependence on his Father. Bread is not what sustains anyone, God sustains life. Jesus, as the perfect man, demonstrated a God-centered perspective on hunger. This life is not all about me and my needs being met. Life is to be lived to the glory of God, in total surrender to God’s will, total trust in God to provide, dependently listening to God’s voice. God is the center. I exist to bring him praise. Jesus’ temptation concluded with a refusal to worship or serve anyone but God. Jesus showed us what simple trust and perfect obedience should look like.

Jesus the Bread from Heaven

Jesus takes us back to this manna in the desert as a pointer to himself. He had himself fed thousands in the wilderness, giving substantial evidence that he is the promised one; God come in the flesh. Many began to follow him simply to get a free lunch.

John 6:26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

Jesus attempted to get their eyes off their own temporary hunger and put their trust in him for eternal life. But they continued to insist on a mere momentary appeasement of their appetites when he was offering so much more.

John 6:30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”’ 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

They are so consumed by their own felt needs that they can’t hear what Jesus is saying to them. So Jesus says something that would shock them.

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.

Jesus claims to have come down from heaven to be the true bread that gives life. We see the theme of grumbling in the face of God’s abundant provision surface once again.

…41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” … 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

This shocked and offended his hearers. They were troubled at the implication that this new rabbi might be teaching his followers some form of cannibalism.

52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

Jesus points back to the manna that God rained down from heaven as provision for physical sustenance and claims that he is the greater fulfillment of that picture. Jesus is the one the Father sent from heaven to meet the spiritual need of humanity. With startling language Jesus turns our thoughts from our sensual appetites to the deepest need of our souls. We have dishonored and offended a holy God. We have failed to give him the honor that is his due. We have sinned and the wages of sin is death (Rom.6:23). Jesus, our sin-bearing substitute, bore our sins in his body on the tree (1Pet.2:24). He was made to be sin for our sake (2Cor.5:21). We must come to him, to see in him the satisfaction of our true need, to take him as our own, to embrace him as our sustenance, our only hope. ‘Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you’ (Mt.26:26; Lk.22:19). ‘Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’ (Mt.26:27-28). Just as an Israelite could have refused to gather God’s provision of life giving food in the wilderness, and willfully chosen to starve, so we can refuse to take God’s only provision that will sustain our souls for eternity. The question we must each answer is ‘Will we come to Jesus for eternal life? Will we trust in him and feed on him? Will we abide in him and draw our spiritual sustenance from him alone?’ We, like the Israelites, don’t deserve God’s grace to meet our need, but

Romans 5:6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. …8 while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 10 …while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son,…

God gives abundant grace to undeserving sinners to put on display the greatness of his character.

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

Disciple-Making Disciples; the Character and Conduct of a Disciple

http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20110206_character_of_disciples.mp3

02/06 What did Jesus teach – about the character and conduct of a disciple?

Summary:

We claim to be disciples of Jesus, followers of Jesus. As followers of Jesus, we are called to be disciple-making disciples of Jesus. So we spent some time looking at what a disciple believes. What we believe about God, about the Scriptures, about mankind, about sin and its consequences, and about the good news that Jesus preached. Jesus taught and we believe that the bible, Old and New Testaments, are God breathed authoritative truth that we must build our lives on. Jesus taught and we believe that there is only one God who has always existed in the three persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, that God is good, and that he created us in his very image and for his pleasure. But we disobeyed, we rebelled against him and we have earned his eternal punishment. We deserve his wrath, and there is nothing we can do to remedy our hopeless situation. But we believe that Jesus took on human nature to die in our place to pay for our sins and give us eternal life. This momentous event demands a response from us; namely repentance and belief in the good news. Repentance, we saw, is mind and heart transformation as we embrace the forgiveness that he brings. This is the truth Jesus taught and the truth we believe. If we claim to be disciples then we will believe and teach these things.

Introduction:

But Jesus taught us more than how to think. He taught more than what to believe. He taught us how to behave. He taught us what our lives should look like. He told us what to do. That’s what I want to look at this morning. As disciples of Jesus, as followers of Jesus, what should our conduct, our character look like? Making disciples is more than simply persuading people to subscribe to some facts. Jesus said:

Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Notice it says making disciples means ‘teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you’.

Jesus Demands Obedience

Jesus clearly calls us to a life of obedience. He says in Luke 6:46:

Luke 6:46 Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?

If you say I am your Master, Jesus says, then obedience would demonstrate the truth of your claim. Otherwise, you speak empty words. Jesus said “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples” (Jn.8:31); “If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, … the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.” (Jn.12:47-48); “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn.14:15); “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.” (Jn.14:21); “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word,” (Jn.14:23); “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words” (Jn.14:24); “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love” (Jn.15:10); “You are my friends if you do what I command you. (Jn.15:14).

Jesus goes on to say in Luke 6:

Luke 6:46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? 47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

Jesus demands our obedience as evidence of our love for him. Anything else is mere lip-service. Following Jesus is hearing his words and doing them. It is the path of wisdom and provides a solid foundation that will weather the storms of life. Genuine disciple-making is about transforming life and character and desires so that we live the way Jesus lived and prioritize the way Jesus prioritized and feel the way Jesus felt and do the things Jesus did.

Christ Formed in You

Genuine discipleship is about, as the New Testament writers put it, being “conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom.8:29); about being “transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom.12:2); that “we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom.6:4); “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh” (Rom.13:14); “thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1Cor.15:57); “you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (2Cor.3:3); “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2Cor.5:17); “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal.2:20); “you… have put on Christ.” (Gal.3:26); “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Gal.5:24); “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Eph.2:10); “for to me to live is Christ” (Phil.1:21); “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” (Phil.2:5); “this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col.1:27); “you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Col.3:3); “Christ, who is your life” (Col.3:4); “I am again in anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!” (Gal.4:19); “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1Cor.11:1).

Bearing Fruit

As disciples, we are to observe all that Jesus has commanded us. We are to be imitators of our Lord Jesus Christ. There must be an organic connection between the truth we believe and the life that grows out of it. Jesus talked much about a healthy root producing good fruit.

Luke 6:43 “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.

In the parable describing the different soil conditions, only one soil was considered ‘good’ and produced fruit. Jesus explained it this way:

Luke 8:15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

Jesus taught about a life of freedom being rooted in his word.

John 8:31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

A life of freedom grows out of the truth Jesus spoke. The freedom Jesus is talking about in this context is freedom from slavery to sin.

Genuine disciples bear fruit. True followers of Jesus live a transformed life characterized by radical obedience. How does this happen, and what does this look like? We’ll start with what this transformed life of radical obedience to Jesus Christ looks like, and then we’ll look at how this can happen to us.

What? The Life of Love

We’ll start with the broad commands and move down to the details. Jesus gave us what he believed to be the first and greatest commandment:

Luke 10:27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

First, love of God. Second, love of neighbor. The life of a disciple is a life of love. A definition will be helpful here. Love is a deep desire and pursuit of the highest good for the object of your affections. Sometimes it is helpful to distinguish biblical love from some common misconceptions. Biblical love is not that ooshy-gooshy feeling of twitterpation that you had in junior high when the object of your affections walked by. Love is not primarily a feeling or emotion. Love is primarily a verb – an action word. There is certainly a necessary emotional aspect to love. I don’t think simply working hard to do good to someone out of mere obligation and a disgruntled sense of duty can rightly be called love. That’s why I say love is a deep desire and pursuit of the highest good for the object of your affections. So, love of God means a deep desire to see him glorified and a life lived in active pursuit of his glory in all things. Love God with all heart and soul and mind and strength.

And the second is like it; you shall love your neighbor as yourself. We are never commanded to love ourselves. It is assumed that we all do that already. Paul says “For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it,” (Eph.5:29). We all always (rightly or wrongly) deeply desire and pursue our own best interest. Jesus tells us that naturally and that deeply to desire and pursue the highest good of others. In John chapters 13-15 he even raises the standard:

John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 15:12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. …17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Love God by Loving Neighbor

The standard is high. Jesus, in his lay-down-your-life-for-your-enemies love, set the standard for us. So we are to Love God with all heart and soul and strength and mind, and we are to love our neighbor, including our enemies, as ourselves. What does this look like? It is interesting that in Matthew (22:39) and Mark (12:31)’s accounts of the greatest commandment, Jesus says “the second is like it”. The second commandment is of the same nature as the first or corresponds to the first. As we look at more of Jesus’ teaching, we find that the two can become one. We can love God by loving our neighbor. Jesus said:

Matthew 25:34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

So, according to Jesus, we can love God by feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, welcoming strangers, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and prisoners. He says “as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me”.

The Beatitudes

When we combine the description Jesus gives of who is blessed in Matthew 5 and Luke 6, we find things like this: blessed are those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn or weep, the meek, those who hunger for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, those who are hated, excluded, reviled, spurned, and spoken evil of on account of Jesus.

In Luke’s Gospel, these blessings are followed up by several woes. Jesus pronounces woe on those who are rich, those who are full, those who laugh, those who are well spoken of. I wonder which category we fall in more comfortably.

He goes on to tell us that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We are to let our light so shine that people see our good works and give glory to our Father in heaven (Mt.5:16). Our righteousness is to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees; we are to do and teach God’s commandments. We are not to be angry or insult our brother, but to seek reconciliation. We are not to look with lust, but honor the marriage covenant. We are to be men of our word. We are to return good for evil, to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us, we are to forgive and not condemn. We are to give to those who ask, without looking for the praise of men. We are to pray and fast privately and lay up our treasures in heaven. We are not to be anxious about the future. We are to judge ourselves before we seek to correct others. We are invited to ask, to seek, to knock and we are taught how to pray.

This is the way of obedience. Doing these things, Jesus concludes, is like digging down deep and anchoring your life on an unshakeable foundation. When the storms come, you will not be shaken.

How? Come to Jesus

That all sounds well and good and might even get an ‘amen’. But I can’t even remember all that stuff, and the stuff I can remember, I’m not sure I want to live like that. It sounds risky and dangerous and hard. Remember, we said that being a disciple requires an inward transformation of mind and heart? This is a result of the good news. Jesus says we must come to him to have life.

John 5:40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

The life Jesus offers when we come to him is this transformed life of love. Listen to how Jesus invites us to come:

Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

So as we look at Jesus’ description of the life of selfless love, we should not view it as a long list of do’s and don’ts that we need to carefully follow. That would be to burden us with a heavy load. Jesus says that when we come to him, we find rest for our souls. Not turmoil, wondering if we have done enough and measure up, but rest. Rest, because we believe in the good news that Jesus came to bear all our sins and failings and shortcomings on the cross. Because of the cross, we stand on a firm foundation of forgiven sin. We are not endlessly climbing a ladder in hopes that we can earn God’s favor. God has freely given us his favor in Jesus. This is not a religion of measured performance, but a relationship that transforms our hearts. Following Jesus is easy and light, because it flows naturally, out of a transformed heart.

John 7:37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”’

Abide in Me

Jesus describes our continuing relationship with him in terms of abiding:

John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

The power for living the transformed life of selfless love flows from Jesus to us through our intimacy with him. When we stay connected to him, plugged in to him, his life flows through our veins. When we are abiding in Jesus we bear much fruit. We can do nothing apart from him. This is very practical. The evidence of a genuine disciple is the fruit of a transformed life. I must stay connected to Jesus if I hope to bear any fruit. How do I stay connected?

How to Abide

-Acknowledge total dependence on him. The branch dies when severed from the vine.

-Let Jesus’ words abide in you (v.7, 10). Knowing, memorizing, meditating and acting on the words of Jesus is a way to abide.

-Abide in Jesus’ love (v.9-10). How does the Father love Jesus? Meditate on that for an hour. ‘As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love’ Remain under the fountain.

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

Exodus 6:9-30; …we’ll be right back after these messages…

http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20101003_exodus06_9-30.mp3

10/3 Exodus 6:9-30 …we’ll be right back after these important messages…

Introduction:

So far everything has gone terribly wrong in the exodus. Moses is reluctant to go in the first place, and when he finally goes, things go from bad to worse. Pharaoh doesn’t budge and turns up the heat on the Israelite foremen. The Israelites feel that Moses must have flubbed up in his role as deliverer and so they call down God’s curse on him. Moses, more concerned about how he is doing in the popularity polls than with what God has said he would do, turns to God and hurls accusations his way. ‘Why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? I spoke to Pharaoh in your name, but you have not delivered your people at all.’ God patiently and mercifully responds with a fresh revelation of who he is. He sends Moses to the people with a fresh message of hope; a message of who God is and what God will do. I am YHWH. I will bring you out; I will deliver you; I will redeem you; I will take you to be my own and I will be yours; I will bring you into; I will give it to you. I am YHWH.

6:6 Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.”’

Moses Speaks to the People

So Moses, renewed with this fresh revelation, goes to the people and gives them the message. This should cheer their weary souls.

9 Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

Is there ever a time in your own life where you can’t see past the end of your own nose? You allow what is possible to be determined by your circumstances, and you can’t see anything but more problems. The difficulties loom so large that you can’t imagine that God cares or is involved at all. Remember, Jesus said:

Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

But things are clearly not going the way they should go, and God’s encouragements to you fall on deaf ears. That is what is happening here. According to outward appearances everything that could possibly go wrong has gone wrong. God has a word for you and is speaking into the situation, but your problems drown out his still small voice. God is about to show up like never before in history and demonstrate his absolute supremacy over every created thing, to show his unfailing passionate commitment and love toward his people and triumph over their enemies, and his people don’t even have ears to hear him. They don’t listen because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. This could be better translated ‘because of their impatience and harsh slavery’. Do you ever have a schedule and God doesn’t seem to be the least concerned with what you have written in your day planner? God had promised deliverance and instead things got worse. ‘You said you’d rescue me and I want you to do it right now!’

God’s Commission and Moses’ Complaint

10 So the LORD said to Moses, 11 “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.”

This seems contrary to all semblances of common sense. Moses spoke to the people – God’s people – the people who should be on his side – and they did not listen. So the Lord sends him off to the enemy who has no motivation to listen or care and has in the past been stubbornly resistant. God sends you off to do the easy thing, the thing that you could reasonably expect to be successful at, the thing that seems like there is great probability of success, and you fail miserably. You meet resistance and apathy where there should be hope and joy and excitement. You go away with your tail between your legs feeling like a pathetic excuse of a failure and God says ‘good, now that you’ve totally failed at the easy thing, I’m going to send you off to do the hard thing – the impossible thing. Now that our people won’t even listen to you, go tell our enemy the king of Egypt to let all his slaves go. This is Moses’ objection:

12 But Moses said to the LORD, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?”

Moses ties his objection back to the incident in chapter 4 at the lodging place on the way. God met him and threatened to kill him for his failure to keep the covenant of circumcision in his own family. How can you be God’s representative when you don’t even have your own family in order? Moses is reminding God of his own past moral failure. I’ve failed to keep your commandments. You can’t send a man who is a moral failure on mission for you. Maybe Moses is feeling guilt over his recent outburst toward God. He accused God of evil, of foolishness, and of failure to come through in the moment of greatest need. Now Moses asks ‘how can someone who said those things to you be fit to carry your message to the king?’ Moses, too, cannot see past the end of his own nose. He is so consumed with his own failures and rejection, that he cannot see the patient, forgiving, redeeming, loving, passionate covenant keeping character of the great God he is supposed to be representing.

13 But the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh king of Egypt: to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

God responds to the objections with a command. This is not a discussion. I am not looking for your advice on how to handle the exodus problem. There is a time for patient encouragement and gentle reminders. And there comes a time for command. God is God. I am in authority here and you will do this. I am giving you a charge. I demand obedience. Bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

The Genealogy

And now for a message from our sponsors. We interrupt this broadcast to bring you a genealogy. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, blah blah blah. Names, names, names. We have an interruption in the story of 12 verses of some 44 names. Our eyes glaze over and our brain disengages as we think ‘why is this here?’ and ‘I can’t pronounce these anyway’ and ‘who really cares who begat who?’ and ‘why would anyone ever name their son that!?’

So why is this here? Why should we care? Who are these guys? This genealogy is inserted carefully at this point in the narrative, not only to give a dramatic suspenseful pause just preceding the climax of the story, but also to give us some important details and answer some pressing questions.

God commanded Moses and Aaron to be the leaders who would bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. Who are these guys anyway? Who do they think they are taking it upon themselves to march into the presence of the king and speak on behalf of the people? We didn’t vote for them! We don’t like how things are going. We don’t like how they are handling the situation. We certainly don’t like the results they are getting. This genealogy gives us a historical anchor for the story. The exodus is not the result of some ancient creative writing class, a theological fiction that begins ‘once upon a time in a land far far away…’ It doesn’t end with ‘and they all lived happily ever after.’ This is a real historical narrative. The events described really happened. The names have not been changed to protect the innocent.

This genealogy connects the narrative all the way back to Israel, the patriarch we know better as Jacob, (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) from whom come the twelve tribes. This also connects the narrative forward all the way to Aaron’s grandson, who lived at the time of the book of Judges, and gives future generations a way to identify with the story.

It helps me to see this laid out visually, so I’ve attempted to diagram it in a way that we can see the connections and trace the paths of the genealogy. I’d invite you to try to follow along on the screen as I read from the text:

14 These are the heads of their fathers’ houses: the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi; these are the clans of Reuben. 15 The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman; these are the clans of Simeon. 16 These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, the years of the life of Levi being 137 years.

Up to this point in the genealogy it follows what we would expect of a typical list of the descendants of Israel. It starts with the firstborn Reuben, then Simeon, then Levi. But rather than going on with Judah and the rest of the 12, it breaks off here and the focus is all on the descendants of Levi with Aaron right in the middle of it.

17 The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei, by their clans. 18 The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, the years of the life of Kohath being 133 years. 19 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of the Levites according to their generations. 20 Amram took as his wife Jochebed his father’s sister, and she bore him Aaron and Moses, the years of the life of Amram being 137 years. 21 The sons of Izhar: Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri. 22 The sons of Uzziel: Mishael, Elzaphan, and Sithri. 23 Aaron took as his wife Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and the sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. 24 The sons of Korah: Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph; these are the clans of the Korahites. 25 Eleazar, Aaron’s son, took as his wife one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites by their clans.

A few things we can learn from this listing of names:

Aaron is shown to be in the priestly tribe of Levi, but not from the branch of the tree that produced the rebellion of Korah in the wilderness (Numbers 16). Phinehas his grandson had a prominent role in ending the cultic prostitution scandal at Baal-Peor in Numbers 25 and was rewarded with the “covenant of perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel” (Numbers 25:12-13). There are four women mentioned in the genealogy, the first highlighting the fact that the Israelite nation was not ethnically pure, by including Simeon’s Canaanite wife. The next three women center around Aaron, demonstrating that the focus of the genealogy is the legitimacy of Aaron as a leader. His mother, his wife and his daughter-in-law are named. Aaron’s father married his aunt, which at the time was prior to the giving of the law abolishing this practice. This makes Moses and Aaron’s parentage on both sides from the tribe of Levi. Aaron married a woman from the tribe of Judah, who if we trace her family connections, we find both her father and brother in the lineage of Jesus the Christ (Matthew 1:4)

The Conclusion:

The genealogy is concluded by this statement:

26 These are the Aaron and Moses to whom the LORD said: “Bring out the people of Israel from the land of Egypt by their hosts.” 27 It was they who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing out the people of Israel from Egypt, this Moses and this Aaron. 28 On the day when the LORD spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, 29 the LORD said to Moses, “I am the LORD; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you.” 30 But Moses said to the LORD, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips. How will Pharaoh listen to me?”

This is a restatement of the main concepts from verses 10-13, which provides a frame for the genealogy. This is the family background and historical anchor of the Aaron and Moses whom God called to lead his people out of Egypt. They were the human instruments. But the focus is again on the Lord. The Lord said to Moses ‘I am YHWH’; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you. We have this contrast between the Lord who is the true hero of the story, and Moses, who lacked confidence in his own character and doubted his ability to carry out God’s orders. Moses needed God’s constant reassurance and strength throughout the process. YHWH was the one who called him to do the impossible, and YHWH was the one who sustained him from beginning to end.

God says I am YHWH. I will bring you out, like a captive out of prison. I will deliver you out of the hands of your enemy. I will redeem you – as a close relative who fights for the honor of the family. I will take you to be my own with deep covenant commitment; you will be mine and I will be yours. I will bring you into a relationship with me. I will give to you exceeding, abundantly, beyond what you could ask or imagine. And I will sustain you from beginning to end.

1 Corinthians 1:4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, …8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

Numbers 23:19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

Philippians 1:6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Jude :24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

This is the message of the cross, where God showed up like never before in history bringing us out of captivity, delivering us out of the hand of the enemy, redeeming us with his own blood, taking us to be his own, bringing us to himself and giving us graciously what we do not deserve. At the cross, God demonstrated his absolute supremacy over every created thing, showing his unfailing passionate commitment and love toward his people and triumph over their enemies. God will sustain us guiltless to the end. He is faithful, he will do it. He will finish his work and bring us to completion and present us blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy through the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

Exodus 2:11-15; A Deliverer Rejected

http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20100516_exodus02_11-15.mp3

5/16 Exodus 2:11-15 A Deliverer Rejected

We’re in the second book of the bible, Exodus. In Exodus, we’ve seen God at work keeping his promises to his people. God promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he would bless them and make their name great and multiply them abundantly. Exodus begins by seeing the blessing of God in the multiplication of the people of Israel in Egypt. But the blessing of God often comes at a cost. God’s blessing on the people of Israel was perceived as an internal threat to the national security of Egypt. The Pharaoh took action to get this threat under control. He appointed taskmasters to oppress the people severely to break their spirits and reduce their population. But instead, “1:12 …the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they were spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.” So the Pharaoh took the head midwives into his confidence and commanded them to kill all the boys that were born to the Hebrews. But these two women, Shiphrah and Puah, feared God and disobeyed the Pharaoh.

1:20 So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.

So, rather than reducing the population as planned, the population continued to increase, with even these barren women now having children of their own.

1:22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.

God moves in mysterious ways. The response we see to this decree is that an unnamed Hebrew family from the tribe of Levi have a baby boy. The mother recognizes the creative goodness of God in this new life, and hides him for three months, then, in faith, she throws him into the Nile herself – in his own personal ark waterproofed with pitch, and sets her daughter to watch over him. The daughter of the wicked Pharaoh happened to come down to the Nile to bathe just at that place, and happened to see the ark, and she just happened to have pity on him and chose to disobey her father rather than drown this Hebrew boy in the river. She adopted him to be her own son, and hired his own mother to nurse him for her. So this evil Pharaoh is foiled in his plan by two God-fearing Hebrew midwives, a Hebrew mother and her young daughter, and his very own disobedient daughter. So this mother who walked by faith in God ends up being payed out of the evil Pharaoh’s treasury to nurse and train and care for her own condemned baby boy during the formative first years of his life. After three or four years of pouring herself and her faith and her history and her God into this boy, she brought him to the Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. Maybe we should all have that mindset when we train our children. We have but a short time before we must turn them over to the pagan world empire, so it is urgent that we do everything within our power to train them up in the way that they should go.

10 When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

I’m sure that when she entrusted him to the Pharaoh’s house, she entrusted him to God, and never ceased to pray for him. Now the narrative jumps ahead forty years.

2:11 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. 12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” 14 He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” 15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.

In this passage, we see Moses transition from favored position of prince in the royal courts of the greatest nation in his world to condemned criminal exile hiding in the wilderness. Twice in verse 11 Moses identifies himself with ‘his people’, the Hebrews. He went out to his people… he saw and Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. There is no question where Moses’ allegiance lies. Stephen fills in some background details for us in his sermon in Acts 7:

Acts 7:22 And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.

He was highly educated in the most advanced center of education in his day. He was mighty in words and deeds. He had a promising career ahead of him. Josephus was a Jewish historian that lived AD37-100. If what Josephus records is accurate, the princess who adopted him was Thermuthis, who had no children of her own and hoped that Moses might one day ascend to the throne. Josephus also records an story of Moses as an Egyptian military leader, leading a victorious attack on the Ethiopians. Whatever the true details of these unknown forty years, Moses could easily have embraced his life as Egyptian royalty and ignored his connection with the slave people. He could have turned a blind eye to the sufferings of his people and held on to his position of power and his life of ease. But a mother’s training leaves a lasting impression. Forty years later he takes action to identify himself with his people and alienate himself from the Egyptians who raised him. Understand, Moses personally had nothing to gain and everything to lose by this move. The writer of Hebrews attributes his actions to faith:

Hebrews 11:24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.

It was by faith he chose to identify himself with the people of God. He abandoned the wealth of Egypt as ‘fleeting pleasures of sin’. We can imagine what kind of sinful pleasure might have been available to him, but it could be as simple as what James tells us:

James 4:17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Moses knew what was right. He knew what the Egyptians did was wrong. For him to turn a blind eye to unjust suffering and continue to enjoy the benefits of Egypt would have been sin. So in faith, he acts. Faith is trust in the promises of God. God had made promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Maybe Moses studied the prophecies of his people and did the math and knew that the time of their slavery was coming to a close. So in dependence on God who is always faithful to keep his promises, he acts.

He went out, he looked, and he saw. The verb ‘he went out’ ( auy yatsa’) is the verb that is used throughout the Old Testament to describe how God brought out the Israelites from Egypt. Here Moses in his own exodus goes out from the Egyptians to his people. “He went out to his own people”.

The verb for ‘he looked’ and ‘he saw’ ( har ra’ah) is the same one that is used in 2:25 and 3:7, 9 of God looking on or seeing the affliction of his people. Just as God would look on his people with compassion and act, so now Moses was looking on the burdens of his people and acting out of compassion. He was not disinterestedly observing from a safe distance. He was investing himself in the situation of his people and doing so at great personal risk to himself.

In Acts 7, Stephen gives us a helpful summary of the Exodus history and even some insight into the thoughts of Moses in this event:

Acts 7:17 “But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, …

Genesis 15:13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

Acts 7:17 …the people increased and multiplied in Egypt 18 until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. 19 He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive. 20 At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God’s sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father’s house, 21 and when he was exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. 22 And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds. 23 “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. 26 And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ 27 But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

Moses understands that God has raised him up to bring salvation to his people. He is defending the oppressed and standing up for slaves who are being wronged that have no voice. Later in Exodus when God gives Moses his laws he says this:

Exodus 21:20 “When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. …23 …you shall pay life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

Moses is acting as avenger and bringing justice to a cruel and hopeless situation. I’m not saying that what Moses does here is without fault, or that it was the wisest action, but it was right for him to take action and defend the oppressed. (cf. Isaiah 59:14-16)

11 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. 12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

There is something in these verses that doesn’t come through very well in our English translations. The word describing what the Egyptian was doing to the Hebrew slave is the exact word that describes what Moses did to the brutal Egyptian taskmaster. Moses saw an Egyptian beating to death a slave, so he beat to death the Egyptian. He saw an Egyptian striking down a Hebrew, so he struck down the Egyptian. What was being done to the helpless slave, he, coming to his rescue, did to the taskmaster. God was giving salvation to the Israelites by his hand. This was indeed a huge act of faith, a David against Goliath move, as he was one man against a powerful nation. I’m not sure what Moses was expecting to be the next step. Maybe the Israelites would rally behind him as their leader and they would fight against the Egyptians. Maybe he expected that God would do a miracle as he stepped out in faith. I don’t think he was planning on what happened.

13 When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” 14 He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” 15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.

Again Moses uses the same word that was used in verses 11 and 12. Why are you striking down or beating to death your brother? To Moses it was not an ethnic thing. It was not the Israelites against the Egyptians. It was right against wrong. When an Israelite mistreated another Israelite, that was just as wrong as when an Egyptian mistreated an Israelite. Moses here acts as judge – one of the roles in which he will serve Israel in the wilderness – and he makes a determination of who was in the wrong and confronts him about it. Moses was seeking to make peace between his people. Moses knew that killing an Egyptian would not win him any points with the Egyptians. But he was not expecting the response that he got from his own people.

14 …“Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”…

Moses expected that his people would see what God was doing and embrace him as their deliverer. Stephen tells us:

Acts 7:25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand.

Instead of welcoming their deliverer, the Hebrews reject his rule over them. Their question is rhetorical – who made you a prince and a judge over us? But the answer is God. God was giving them salvation by his hand. But they did not understand. Moses came to do good to his people. Instead, they accuse him of intending them harm. Moses is afraid, probably very confused. As he expected, Pharaoh heard and was after his head. This is the second time Moses was under sentence of death from this Pharaoh. The first time he was protected by his parents, then adopted by the Pharaoh’s daughter. Now he runs, a condemned criminal exiled in a strange land. Born of the Hebrews, raised by the Egyptians, now rejected by both. He had nowhere to lay his head. He flees to the wilderness.

I’ve often heard it said that Moses missed his cue and jumped the gun. He was not supposed to do what he did and that’s why it turned out so bad. But throughout this passage, God is persistently keeping his promises, and from our perspective, things seem to be going from bad to worse. But God has his good purposes and is moving things according to his plan. Moses spent four years under the training of his mother, then 36 years under the training of Egypt, and God wanted him to spend the next 40 years of his life under his schooling in the desert. Moses needed to understand that to lead God’s people does not mean glory and praise, but often rejection and criticism and a wilderness experience. Moses needed to feel what it felt like to be an alien and stranger looking for a home. He needed to learn what it meant to lean not on his own strength and wisdom, but entirely on God who guides and gives strength. Moses needed to learn humility and dependence and patience and God taught him those things and more in the next forty years seemingly on the shelf. We can take heart when we end up in the wilderness, because God does have a purpose and he makes no mistakes.

But we can’t miss the connection with Jesus. Moses was another sign to point us to Jesus. Moses himself pointed to this:

Deuteronomy 18:15 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers––it is to him you shall listen–– …18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

Moses, like Jesus, was preserved from a maniacal tyrant who was afraid of any threat to his power and had all the baby boys executed. Moses tried to make peace among his brothers. Jesus, the Prince of Peace, came to bring peace. Moses came to his own people and was rejected as their leader. John’s gospel says of Jesus:

John 1:9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

This is exactly the point Stephen is making to the Jews in his farewell sermon. There is a historical pattern that Israel rejects the deliverers that God sends. Stephen continues:

Acts 7: … 35 “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’––this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. 37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ 38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. 39 Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.

Stephen began with Joseph, who was rejected by the patriarchs and sold, moves through Moses rejected by his people, and on to the prophets, where he makes application to those who are about to stone him:

Acts 7:51 “You stiff–necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”

The whole story of Moses is meant to point us to Jesus. Just like Moses’ rejection by his people was not a surprise to God, So the rejection of Jesus by the Jewish people and his reception by a people who were outside the covenant community was all part of God’s plan. It was foretold by the prophet Isaiah that Jesus would be:

Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

But we do not have to reject him. John goes on:

John 1:11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

We can receive him. We can believe. We can become children of God. We can be born of God.

 

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

1 Peter 1:14-16

http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20081019_1peter1_14-16.mp3

1/19 1 Peter 1:14-16 be holy; don’t act like you’re still stupid!

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith––more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire––may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

1:14 wv tekna upakohv mh suschmatizomenoi taiv proteron en th agnoia umwn epiyumiaiv 15 alla kata ton kalesanta umav agion kai autoi agioi en pash anastrofh genhyhte 16 dioti gegraptai [oti] agioi esesye oti egw agiov

We are looking today at the second command that Peter gives us in his letter. And here Peter gets to one of the main points of his letter. But he had to lay the foundation first so that it would be properly understood. So today, we will look at the demand for us to be holy, we will look at the importance of holiness in the life of every believer, we will ask what it means, we will see the high standard and foundation of holiness and the way to pursue it. Then we will see why this command comes second and not first in this letter.

The command is for holiness. We are to be holy. We desperately need to know what this means and understand how essential this command is. We tend to feel that holiness is a nice extra for a few highly advanced Christians. It is certainly not for all of us. We can all think of someone with a ‘holier than thou’ attitude, and we don’t feel we could (or would even want to) rise (or stoop) to their level of spirituality. What often comes to mind is a puritanical hyper-legalistic life that is defined by what you don’t do. (By the way, the puritans were deeply concerned about holiness, but they were not the legalistic prudes that they have been caricatured as; dictionary.com defines puritanical as ‘very strict in moral or religious matters, often excessively so; rigidly austere’ – I would encourage you to pick up their writings and discover a gold mine of spiritual depth and richness of Christian joy.) So we need to put holiness in the biblical perspective. What does the bible say about holiness, what does Jesus say about holiness? What’s so important about being holy?

Maybe we should start with a definition. Noah Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines holiness as follows:

‘The state of being holy; purity or integrity of moral character; freedom from sin; sanctity. Applied to the Supreme Being, holiness denotes perfect purity or integrity of moral character, one of his essential attributes.

1. Applied to human beings, holiness is purity of heart or dispositions; sanctified affections; piety; moral goodness, but not perfect.

2. Sacredness; the state of any thing hallowed, or consecrated to God or to his worship; applied to churches or temples.

3. That which is separated to the service of God.’

Holiness is purity of heart or dispositions; sanctified affections; being separated or set apart to the service of God. God told his people in:

Leviticus 11:44 For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. …45 For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”

Leviticus 19:2 … You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.

Leviticus 20:7 Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 20:26 You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.

But is holiness only an Old Testament demand on the people of Israel that doesn’t apply to us today? We are under grace, right? That’s why Jesus died -because we couldn’t live up to the standard. The answer is ‘yes, we are under grace’ and ‘yes, Jesus died because we couldn’t live up to God’s holy standard’ and the answer is ‘yes, God saved us by grace through the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus from sin so that we could live holy lives.’

2 Timothy 1:9 [God] who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,

It is by the gift of God’s grace and not by our works that we are saved, but we are saved from sin and for our holy calling. He goes on to say:

2 Timothy 2:21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

So we must cleanse ourselves from what is dishonorable – not in order to obtain God’s grace and favor, but because of God’s grace and favor already demonstrated in our holy calling. But how serious is this call to holiness? Here’s what the author of Hebrews tells us:

Hebrews 12:14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

If you do not pursue holiness in your life you will not see Jesus. That’s huge and heavy. Can that really be what this means? Paul elaborates:

Galatians 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6:9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

But praise God, he goes on:

11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Jesus came to seek and to save lost sinners. But did Jesus have anything to say about the necessity of our holiness?

Matthew 5:29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Jesus says you have to get passionate about your holiness and fight violently against the sin in your life or you will go to hell. It doesn’t get much clearer than that. The stakes are high. We are not talking about an optional extra in the Christian life. If you don’t pursue your holiness with a vengeance, you don’t see Jesus; you go to hell. Your holiness is not a suggestion or a recommendation; it is imperative.

How do we respond to sin in our lives? Do we tend to justify and defend it; even pride ourselves in being free in Jesus? Are we oblivious to the sin in our lives? Do we compare ourselves with others and begin to think that we’re really not so bad? If we do that, the bible says we are not wise. Are we grieved? Acutely and painfully aware of the deep roots of sin in our lives? Are we broken before God crying out ‘who will rescue me from this body of death?’ Do we long for holiness? Are we willing to aggressively attack the secret sins of our heart, dragging them out into the light and butchering them like the wicked traitors they are?Do

How do we go about this thing called holiness? Let’s go back to 1 Peter and see what he has to say about our holiness, and then we’ll put it in the context of the passage and see how it all fits together.

1:14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

We again have one imperative in the sentence; it is ‘be holy’. It is preceded by a participial phrase that describes what it’s not, and a phrase that describes the foundation for personal holiness. Then he follows the command with his textual basis – a quote out of Leviticus. Let’s work backward through the text and then put it all together.

The substantiation for the demand for holiness is the character of God. God said over and over in Leviticus ‘you be holy because I am holy’. And Peter tells us ‘you be holy like God is holy; God’s holiness is the pattern for your holiness’.

So let’s look for a minute at God’s holiness. In the bible we are given many descriptions of God’s character and nature:

Deuteronomy 4:24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Deuteronomy 4:31 For the LORD your God is a merciful God.

Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God

Deuteronomy 10:17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords…

Deuteronomy 33:27 The eternal God is your dwelling place,

2 Chronicles 30:9 … the LORD your God is gracious and merciful …

Job 36:5 “Behold, God is mighty…

Job 36:22 Behold, God is exalted in his power…

Psalms 7:11 God is a righteous judge,

Psalms 47:7 For God is the King of all the earth;

Psalms 68:19 … God is our salvation.

Isaiah 26:4 … the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.

John 3:33 … God is true.

John 4:24 God is spirit…

Romans 3:30 …God is one…

1 Corinthians 1:9 God is faithful…

1 John 1:5 … God is light…

1 John 4:8 …God is love.

But there is only one attribute of God that is tripled in scripture. In Isaiah 6 and in Revelation 4 the seraphs cry out ‘holy holy holy is the Lord’. They don’t cry out ‘love, love love’ or ‘merciful, merciful, merciful’. Jesus, when he taught said ‘truly truly I say to you’; doubled as a way of emphasizing the authority and accuracy of what he taught. But no other characteristic of God is tripled like his holiness is tripled. We even find ‘the Holy One’ used as a title for God about 50 times.

Isaiah 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

God’s holiness is made completely emphatic. He is holy to the third power. God is completely other, wholly set apart, totally distinct. He is the creator and we are created. He is infinite and we are finite. Our power is limited and his power is limitless. We had a beginning, he had no beginning. We are sinners, he is perfect in his moral integrity. He is in a class by himself. That is part of the definition – set apart from. But part of the definition of holiness is set apart for or set apart to. The vessels used in the temple in the Old Testament were holy – they were to be used for nothing else but the service of God. The clothes that the priests wore were not common clothes; they were to be worn for nothing else than approaching God in worship and prayer. The priests themselves were set apart to the service of God. They didn’t have other employment – their lives were completely dedicated or devoted to God. Is there anything that God is set apart for or completely dedicated and devoted to? I think the only answer that we can give is that God is completely devoted to himself. There is nothing higher for him to be devoted to. Devotion to any higher principle or purpose would be idolatry. Just as it is idolatry for us to set anything higher in our hearts than God, it would be idolatry for God to be devoted to anything outside of himself. God is passionate about his own glory. There is nothing higher or more beautiful or more worthy of praise than himself. We can join God in his holiness by being entirely devoted to God. this is the same thing as keeping the first and greatest commandment;

Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

So holiness is not so much a negative command of what you don’t do, but a positive affirmation of what is highest in your affections. Be holy – be passionate about who God is. Be consumed with delight in God. Let God meet all your needs and satisfy all your longings. You be passionate about God because God is passionate about God. Value God more than anything else in your life because God is more valuable than anything else. And we are instructed to demonstrate our passion for God in every area of our lives. As it says in

1 Corinthians 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

This of course has some negative implications. That’s why Peter describes holiness by what it’s not:

14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,

Being set apart for God could be described as not conforming to your former passions. You have a new passion; a new desire, a new lust. Your former lust was stupid. That’s what Peter says: ‘the passions of your former ignorance’. You had an appetite for things that could never satisfy. But you had an excuse then; you didn’t know any better. Now you know that when you immerse yourself in the pleasures the world has to offer you come up with a mouth full of sawdust. Be holy! Develop a hunger for God; develop a taste for what truly satisfies. Have a holy lust for intimacy with Jesus. You are different now – you have a new driving passion in your life. Your spiritual taste buds have been awakened by the truth. Don’t act like you’re still stupid. ‘Do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance’.

He tells us to be holy as obedient children; literally ‘as children of obedience’. Notice he doesn’t tell us to be holy in order to become children; the assumption is that we are already children of the Father. We are not commanded to become something we are not; we are commanded to be who we are. As children characterized by obedience, be like your father – be holy in all your conduct. Peter has established in verse 3 that God caused us to be born again – so we are his children by new birth; and in verse 4 that entitles us to the inheritance that is being kept for us. Back in verses 1 and 2 he tells us that we were chosen for obedience – obedience to Jesus Christ. We have a new nature – a nature of obedient children on account of our new birth. The phrase ‘as he who called you is holy’ points back to God as the origin of their new nature – God called you into a relationship with himself. God called you for obedience, so be who he called you to be – be holy!

Now that we understand the gravity of the demand – holiness is essential, not optional if you want to see Jesus; now that we understand what holiness means – that we are to find our delight in God and in all that he is for us in Jesus, that we are to live for the glory of God in every area of our lives, now let’s put this in the context of the passage and see where it fits in the argument. Peter has spent twelve verses telling us how God is at work in us securing our salvation, preparing our inheritance and preserving us so that we make it. His first command in verse 13 hangs on all this like a hinge and says ‘therefore – because of all this’ put your hope fully in God’s future grace. God is going to continue to pour out his grace in your life. You can put your full weight on his promise – it will be there. As John Newton sang ’Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home. The Lord has promis’d good to me, His word my hope secures; He will my shield and portion be, As long as life endures.’

You can bank on the fact that God’s grace will be there to sustain you tomorrow. In light of God’s work initiating your new birth; in light of God’s work preparing you for your inheritance, in light of the fact that your present trials are serving to prove your faith genuine; in light of the fact that your salvation is the focal point that angels and prophets and evangelist longed to see and the Holy Spirit brought about; in the confidence of God’s future grace you can be holy. God called you to be holy and is at work in you to make you holy. His Holy Spirit lives in you. He is bringing trials to purify your faith; he has adopted you as his child and he wants you to be like him, so be who you are. Don’t act like you’re still stupid. With all your effort and passion and will, strive to be holy. Work hard, passionately and violently pursue your personal holiness because you know that God’s grace will be sufficient to see you through.

Paul describes it this way:

Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.