2004-05-14
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
For the last few messages, I’ve been led to tackle a big issue-the transformation of human hearts that only God can accomplish through the Holy Spirit. Today is a continuation of that while bearing in mind that God has the huge task of civilizing mankind and leading them away from their sinfulness to do this. We’ve looked at some key points in mankind’s history, i.e. the original sin, the flood, the tower of Babel, the calling of Abraham out of Mesopotamia, the establishment of the Jewish people through his line with Isaac and Jacob, and the Abrahamic Covenant (promising them people, a land, and a King). The flow of these events, all under God’s sovereignty, are baby steps toward His ultimate goal stated by Christ in JN 6: 39-40, “And it is the will of Him Who sent Me that I should not lose any of all those He has given Me, but that I should raise them all to life on the last day. For what My Father wants is that all who see the Son and believe in Him should have eternal life. And I will raise them to life on the last day.” Please don’t ever get tired of reading that passage even though I cite it so often. The hope and perspective in it is precious to every one of us. It is the reason for us to have strong faith, to encourage it in others, and to share our faith with those who don’t have any yet.
We must fast-forward to the time of Moses and the events of Exodus for the next step God was to take. This story is very important to me as a Messianic Jew, because I am reminded once again of the love God showed in reaching down to His people even when they don’t deserve it. Back in GN 15: 13-14, a prophecy which was to come true was given to Abraham. “Your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land for four hundred years. But I will punish the nations that enslaves them, and when they leave that foreign land, they will take great wealth with them.” Hand in hand with this is PR 16: 9, “You make your plans, but God directs your actions.” The same can be said of PR 21: 1, “The Lord controls the mind of a king as easily as He directs the course of a stream.” The hindsight that history gives us tells us the “foreign land” referred to in the GN 15: 13 prophecy is Egypt, and that the Hebrews were slaves there for 430 years. EX 2: 23-25 reveals the heart of God, the kind of heart He wants mankind to have. “Years later the pharaoh of Egypt died, but the Israelites were still groaning under their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry went up to God, Who heard their groaning and remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He saw the slavery of the Israelites and was concerned for them.”
Our valiant God Who never forgets to keep His promises called Moses, son of Amram and Jocabed, out of his comfortable life with his wife, Zipporah, and their two sons in the Midian priest, Jethro’s, camp. Jethro was Zipporah’s father, and Moses had been living happily there after escaping across the desert from Egypt, the land of his birth and where he was raised by the pharaoh’s daughter. Few of us can miss the extraordinary nature of this call. Moses was called to Mt. Sinai where he was to encounter the burning bush and was to be told, “Take off your sandals. You are standing on sacred ground. I am the God of your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob… I Am Who I Am. Tell the people of Egypt that the One Who is called I Am sent you” [EX 3: 5-6, 14-15]. This was to begin a most amazing relationship between our Deity and an ordinary man to whom God gave an extraordinary heart.
Messianic Jews often use the term “a veil over his eyes,” when referring to traditional Jews. That relates directly to the veil that Moses had to place over his face in order not to frighten his fellow Hebrews after coming down the mountain following an encounter with God. The first time he descended the mountain and came back into the camp, his face glowed with reflected glory from God, and the frightened people simply didn’t understand what it meant [EX 34: 29-33]. Later, that same term was referred to in the great prophecy of RO 11: 25-the veil eventually be lifted from traditionally Jewish eyes once the exact number of Gentiles God has been called come to faith. These compelling details give us some insight in the enormity of the task God has before Him in transforming the hearts of mankind and thus bringing them to the place where they can return to Him for a life of eternal bliss.
Before it appears that I have strayed away from the subject at hand, let me assure you that the flow of these events prepared mankind for God’s next amazing step in this process of transforming human hearts-the giving of the Law and the making of the Covenant of the Law with the Jews. I find it quite fascinating that Moses didn’t simply stand up and say “yes Lord, here I am. Use me as You see fit,” in the beginning. It’s hard for any of us to leave what is comfortable and take up a mission that is going to take us who knows where. Moses used his speech impediment, lack of power to perform miracles, and lack of the right words to convince the pharaoh to let the Jews go as excuses in EX 4: 1-12. God’s response to this was to show him he would be equipped for the task by His empowerment, knowing all the time that Moses had the ability to trust and obey him. Nothing is ever easy for God even with the best of His human creation. But, like Moses, each of us can choose to obey God even when we don’t fully understand His commands.
PRAYER: O Lord, so many times I sit here and write, thinking that I understand Your agenda for me on a particular day. As the Holy Spirit takes over and directs, Your specific will for me may be very different than what I’ve planned. Such is the way You work often in our lives, which is a convincing argument for being willing to listen to Your direction and follow it. Our limited human perception can easily keep us from seeing the new perspective You want us to have, one which is Your perspective. You have never called us to a task that You haven’t also prepared for us and equipped us to do. Our task is to place our trust in You and to obey You as Abraham and Moses did. What a great disappointment it is to You when Your people refuse to do this and put mankind ahead of You in their thought and action. Moreover, it must break Your heart when mankind allows human intermediaries to come between You and the believer and/or when they worship anything or anyone other than You. We stand before Your altar today to confess our individual and corporate sin and to offer ourselves to You for lives of holiness. The events of Moses’ call to serve give us insight into how limited our human perspective is when compared to Yours. That is why Isaiah wrote in IS 55: 8-9, “’My thoughts,’ says the Lord, ‘are not like yours, and My ways are different from Yours. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are My ways and thoughts above yours.’” We dedicate ourselves to trusting, obeying, worshipping, adoring, praising, and thanking You eternally. In Christ’s holy name, we pray. Amen.
It should come as no surprise that the subject of next week’s message will be the Covenant of the Law, God’s next logical step in the process of civilizing sinful mankind and transforming their hearts. The Psalmist who was inspired by God to write PS 139 expressed the difficulty that mankind has, even after coming to faith, in totally trusting God. It’s not because God has ever done anything evil. Instead, it is because of limited human perspective. Oh how this points out our utter need for the Holy Spirit in our lives! We are empty, useless, and slaves to sin without Him. PS 139: 1-2, “Lord, You have examined me and You know me. You know everything I do; from far away You understand all my thoughts.” God’s sovereignty is revealed in the questions asked in PS 139: 6-7. “Your knowledge of me is too deep; it is beyond my understanding. Where could I go to escape from You? Where could I get away from Your presence?” This is followed by PS 139: 15-16, “When my bones were being knit, carefully put together in my mother’s womb, when I was growing there in secret, You knew that I was there-You saw me before I was born. The days allotted to me had all been recorded in Your book, before any of them ever began.” What follows is the Psalmist’s urgent plea for God to remove evil from our lives. How many of us who believe have asked for that!? This powerful Psalm ends with PS 139: 23-24, “Examine me, O God, and know my mind; test me, and discover my thoughts. Find out if there is any evil in me and guide me in the everlasting way.” This humble and obedient prayer should be on our hearts and lips every day. I know in my heart that if we approach God with this attitude, He will bless each of us abundantly as we recall David’s words in PS 37:11. “But all who humble themselves before the Lord shall be given every blessing, and shall have wonderful peace.” Remember, this is the same God Who sacrificed His Son for us. Surely, He deserves our humble faithfulness and consistent obedience.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn