Holiness is Hopeful

Exodus 19:1-26

We see in this passage a picture of the holiness of God.  The fearsome sight of a mountain covered in darkness and fire, trembling, while the sounds of trumpets blasting to unspeakable volumes became an image in the collective psyche of Israel for the rest of their generations.  Unfortunately, the idea of holiness often generates in us pictures of fear, or more problematically, irrelevance.  

Back in the 70’s, President Jimmy Carter would often carry his own bag on and off Air Force One. The idea, which I am sympathetic to, was that he was no better than any American, and since he put his pants on one leg at a time like other people, he should carry his own bag like other people.  This practice caused him to lose respect and get a lot of grief.  He was the president—let somebody else worry about the bag.

Carter wanted to be a man among the people, but by being one of the people among other things, he lost his distinctiveness that allowed him to lead the people.  

Holiness is hopeful, because it teaches us that God is different.  God is not pulled down by the brokenness of this world—he is the “Blessed” God—the happy God.  God is not enraged beyond control, but is “patient, not wanting anyone to perish.”  God is not confounded by the problems of this world, but is “the God, only wise” who is executing his plan to take what we “meant for harm to make it good.”

If God is not holy, then his love really isn’t helpful.  We have all seen the mother who loves her son but won’t let him go.  Her love actually crushes the man, because she cannot bear to see the boy face any problem or difficulty without her comfort.  Her love is not free, but bound to the comfort of her child.  She is not different enough to set her affection within a greater scheme for his life.  God’s holiness is hopeful for us because it means that He is different from us and can lead us and this world back to where it is supposed to be.  

Posted by Marc

A New Opportunity

Exodus 19:1-6

The difference between a slave and a freed person is more than external. We have said before that is one thing to take the person out of slavery and it is quite another to take the slavery out of the person. In the readings this week, God will begin giving his people a new vision for life, a vision of life lived outside of the shackles of man and bound like God is—to truth, goodness, hope and peace. They will meet God at Sinai, receive the Ten Commandments and begin getting a picture of what life in relationship to God should be all about.

Today, we read how God establishes the covenant. He begins by recounting his goodness to the people and showing them the promise before them. The promise for Israel is that they would be God’s treasured possession, a Kingdom of priests and a holy nation if they will obey his voice. That promise has been given to us in Christ. Though Israel, never lived up to the promise, Jesus did, for he fulfilled the big “if” of the passage. So all who are united to Christ are truly treasured by God, a royal priesthood and holy.

Knowing and experiencing these things to be true for ourselves is one the richest aspects of our relationship with God, and yet, probably the most elusive. I would suggest that there are two misguided paths that lead us away from enjoying this new identity that leads us into freedom.

1. When we read the “if” of this passage, we immediately apply it to ourselves and skip out on what Jesus has done. I am only a treasured possession to God when I fully obey. So, we base our assurance on our performance, and relegate the cross to symbolism (Gal 2:21)

2. When we read the “if’ of this passage, we recognize Jesus’ fulfillment of it, but stop there. It is wonderful to embrace the work of Christ on the cross, but it is easy to forget to that our connection to Christ isn’t just legal but it is lifestyle. Paul describes being united to Christ as something that draws him into a completely different life with a completely different agenda. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. The life I live in the body, I live by faith…” (Gal 2:20).

Posted by Marc

Battle!

Exodus 17:8-16

The battle for freedom is tangible. Each of us must take personal responsibility to fight the battle for freedom. The battle for freedom is Spiritual. It must be fought with Spiritual weapons. The battle for freedom is social. We cannot win the battle alone, but we must fight together to win.

As Moses is leading the people from the shores of the Red Sea, and they are getting their first experience of freedom, a new tyrant takes a cheap shot at the people of God. We learn in Deuateronomy 25 that Amalek came from behind and attacked the weak and the elderly of Israel, a dishonorable and twisted approach to battle. So Israel defended herself.

Joshua needed to go and fight. Surely, this was a real fight and if he didn’t fight the battle with real strategies, real weapons and real, gritty courage, they would have lost. We need to recognize that freedom, though it costs us nothing to receive, is work to maintain and grow in. We need real strategies to grow our faith, real disciplines to develop new patterns of thought and action, and real effort to achieve them.

Moses need to go and pray. We fight a real struggle against the flesh and real objective enemies to our faith, but the battle is not solely about our strategies and disciplines. Our strategies and disciplines are only ways to center ourselves within the moving work of the Spirit. When we have disciplined ourselves before God, the Holy Spirit can do its work. If our disciplines are only about making ourselves better in our own strength, then that is all we will develop—the fruit of our own strength. But if our work brings us into God’s presence where we can pray, the work of God happens in us.

Aaron and Hur needed to help. The battle for freedom isn’t a personal battle. We are not just seeking our personal freedom against lust, materialism, fear and people-pleasing. We are seeking to be a freed people who are no longer enamored by the charms of the flesh. So Joshua needs Moses and Moses needs Joshua. Both of them need Aaron and Hur. Together, they wage the war tangibly, spiritually and socially and God gets the credit.

Which part of the battle comes most easily/difficult for you? Tangible? Spiritual? Social?

posted by Marc

Exodus 17:1-7

This is the third chapter in a row where the Israelites have a complaint. The battle is clearly labeled by Moses “Why do you put the Lord to the test?”  God provides; Israel is having a hard time understanding and remembering that God is leading them and he will provide. This lack of trust in God’s promise or forgetfulness of God’s provision in the past will ultimately be what keeps Israel wandering in the desert for forty years.

Why do we put the Lord to the test? We have less excuses then the Israelites did. The Israelites could remember God’s faithfulness yesterday, his faithfulness the week before, his faithfulness to Joseph, and his faithfulness to Abraham. They had a few generations of stories to remember. Yet they forgot and grumbled against God and his leaders. 

We have God’s faithfulness yesterday, his faithfulness last week, his faithfulness last year, and over two thousand years of more examples of God’s faithfulness to those who followed after him. Wouldn't it be time well spent to remember God’s provision to others and to us in the past? This will help us examine how we approach trying situations. Do we put our trust in God’s provision and ask him for provision as a child would of a father? Or do we forget, grumble, or even return to Egypt, where we used to be enslaved, for our provision? Let's remember whose children we are!  Click on the title above and comment!

posted by, Danny

Manna: God is Our Provider

Exodus 16:1-36

Isn’t it amazing how God provides for us even when our motives are not fully in line? God is in the midst of reshaping Israel’s preconceptions. They do not understand anything other then slavery; hunger is natural so it does not surprise us that the Israelites wanted food. What is surprising is that the only way they can think to feed themselves is to go back to Egypt. They are hungry and the only way they know how to get food is to be enslaved and let their masters provide. God shows them a whole new way of provision. He is their provision! God is showing Israel that he can provide any benefits that slavery had and much more.

We fall into this same kind of trap again and again that the Israelites fell into.  We become enslaved to money and we cannot think of solutions to a problem we have that don’t require money.  We become enslaved to our image and the only way we can think of having self worth is to become enslaved to feeding that image again. There are a hundred ways of becoming enslaved and each one has an alluring security that will pull us back into slavery if we do not take the time to remember we have a God that freed us and continues to free us. Our God provides, no matter what the circumstances; and in him, not slavery, the benefits are found in fullness. 

Where are you choosing to find fullness today?  Click on the title above and comment!

posted by, Danny

Marah: Trusting Yahweh as healer

Exodus 15:22-27

Our God is the God of redemption. He frees us from sin into a new life. He heals our brokenness.  There are many times in life we come upon a Marah situation. It’s a situation in life that is filled with undrinkable water. 

This Marah situation may be our own hardened and bitter heart where no sweet water can be found. It may be someone close to us that always takes emotional energy from us and never gives in return. Let’s face it, there are many bitter, non-life giving, undrinkable situations in life. So we grumble. We complain. We try to make the best of it. We try to squeeze the water we need from a stone.  We forget that God is in the business of redeeming the old, the stale, the decaying, and making it new. 

God not only provides for his children, sometimes he does it through the very situation, the Marah, which is the focus of our frustration; he takes something as simple as a piece of wood and makes bitter water sweet. In the end there is no doubt it was God who changed the situation. Who else would use a piece of wood? Who else would take undrinkable bitter water and make it a source of refreshment for all of Israel? Do we remember our God in Marah situations or do we try to sweeten the water ourselves? Do we complain to God or do we request healing from God and give him glory for the change?

Let’s challenge each other to remember that Jesus is in the business of redeeming the old, the stale, the decaying. It is Jeuss who makes us new. He turns the bitter in us to sweet. Click on the title above and let us know if you are ready to let him turn a Marah in your life into something sweet.

posted by, Danny

Christ: Our Passover

Exodus 11:1-12:50

Freedom must be purchased.  The nation of Egypt paid for the rebellion of her ruler, “god” pharaoh.  The kind of deliverance Egypt would need would require the very presence of God among them.  If God was to be among them, their sins would need atonement.  So Yahweh gives Israel the opportunity to sacrifice a spotless lamb as atonement for their sin.

Egypt had no opportunity.  Pharaoh was holding back God’s very own son in Israel, so God requires Egypt’s first-born sons as judgment against their rebellion.  Israel, whose sin was just as great as Egypt’s placed a sign over their door that blood had been spilled for the sins of that particular house. 

The lamb is only a picture of the true son of God whose blood was shed for the forgiveness of sins.  Like the Israelites spread the blood of the lamb over their doors on the night before their departure from Egypt, our identity with Jesus’ atoning sacrifice becomes the turning point for our freedom.  Will we need to walk through our respective Red Sea’s and claim our place in the Promised Land?  Yes, but none of those journeys begin without blood to pay for our sins.  

Many of us are trying to break into the Promised Land through the back door because we feel a sense of guilt in our lives.  We claim that Jesus blood has paid for our sins, yet we act as if God is waiting for us to be good enough so that we are worthy of Jesus’ sacrifice.  As the song says, “If you tarry until you are better, you will never come at all…”  We can only get the the Promised Land through the front door:  Jesus,  the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Each of us must  recognize our sins, confess them, repent of them, believe in Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away our sins and walk into the Promised Land God has for us.

“…let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean…” Hebrews 11:22