Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: exodus

  • What do I do with this? – LORD

    What do I do with this? – LORD

    All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 2 Timothy 3:16 KJV

    Don’t we ever-so-briefly ask of our Bible verses and stories: “What do I do with this?” Of course we do. And if it is true of Jesus’ parables and illustrations of teaching God’s doctrine, reproof of His Disciples and correction of Pharisees, we certainly ask ourselves about righteousness – instruction on HOW to apply the LAW and the Ten Commandments. (Of course Christ Jesus also shed great light on the Law for us with perfect instruction recorded in the Gospels.)

    Once again let’s put the giving of the Law into the context of when and how God gave the Law to Moses.

    King TutFor a brief moment imagine in the 20th century that some brilliant archaeologist exploring the pyramids of ancient Egypt had made the discovery of a lifetime: instead of finding the royal sarcophagus of King Tut from just three centuries before King David of Israel, he unearthed an even older tomb of a Pharaoh God-King of the ancient Egypt which dominated their world like a later Rome. hieroglyphsAnd the hieroglyphs read: Pharaoh Moses!

    Even though the fantastic scenario above is pure fiction; in fact, Moses was born into a royal household, raised as a prince of Egypt and could have realistically become the new Pharaoh of Egypt upon the death of the Pharaoh familiar to us in the book of Exodus.

    Had Moses (at age forty) not chosen to identify himself with his Hebrew blood of the line of Egypt’s great savior Joseph, who ruled under an earlier Pharaoh, Moses could just as well have ruled the Egyptian Empire from which he was forced to flee.

    Once comfortable in the household of a King, Moses flees to Midian; he marries, works and has a family. Things are going pretty good again for a middle class Moses in Midian. [Exodus 2]

    Moses names their first son, Gershom, which means, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.” Moses has lived a good life for eighty years.

    If we think of our everyday life as a brief journey to a place of which we have only dreamed, then Moses had left the palace of dreams and settled for an ordinary life in a new place. (Even Abraham’s journey did not end in Eden.) Eighty years, a wife and kids, a job, a home… a good life for Moses – and then God finally shows up and says something like, “Go back to Egypt. You, Moses, are headed on an unexpected journey.” (Just like Abraham.)

    Moses burning bush “I AM the LORD your God. I have something in mind here for you and your descendants.” (Sound familiar?) [Exodus 3]

    I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

    3:6  וַיֹּאמֶר אָנֹכִי אֱלֹהֵי אָבִיךָ אֱלֹהֵי אַבְרָהָם אֱלֹהֵי יִצְחָק וֵאלֹהֵי יַעֲקֹב וַיַּסְתֵּר מֹשֶׁה פָּנָיו כִּי יָרֵא מֵהַבִּיט אֶל־הָאֱלֹהִֽים׃

    ‘elohiym ‘ab ‘elohiym  ‘Abraham ‘elohiym Yitschaq ‘elohiym Ya`aqob

    Before the fire of the LORD in the bush, where ‘elohiym instructs Moses that he is on holy ground, GOD comes to an eighty year old shepherd with instructions.

    How many times has the LORD asked you to do something after you were in the comfortable place?

    Or again, how many times have your own misguided plans brought you to your knees before the LORD asking, ‘Where did I go wrong? What do I do now… Lord? Where do I go with this? Show me the way… please… Lord?’

    And ALL is silent… No answer (even for eighty years). And again we cry out to the LORD.

    And the Lord is faithful in His answer. Yet we do not like it. It is not the ‘comfort’ we expected. In fact, it makes us even more uncomfortable and will require even more faith than we believe possible – faith to ‘believe God’ and have it counted as righteousness.

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    Exodus 3: 13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”

    14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

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    What next? (Isn’t that always the question from the comfortable place or the house of desperation?) What next, Lord?

    How can the LORD instruct you in His Law of Righteousness unless you are obedient to allow the LORD to lead you to next place of the LORD’s choosing?

    To be continued…

  • A Personal God – Jesus

    A Personal God – Jesus

    Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. – Isaiah 26:4 ESV

    … and he would have given you living water.” – John 4:10b

    “I and the Father are one.” – John 10:30

    Setting aside for a moment your personal preferences for worshiping God; whether ritualistic routine, overflowing emotion, singing, shouting, standing, sitting, hands held up, heads bowed low, knees on the floor or feet off the ground; on the scriptural presumption that Jesus and God are one, let us examine two things:

    The Person of Jesus and His personal mission for each of us.

    Before Christ became God in Person on this earth as the Son of Man, some worshiped God and some worshiped worship. Some worshiped the Law, some worshiped family and forefathers above the Living God. Though Moses stood in the Presence of the Living God, the people worshiped God only in the fear and emotion of the moment.

    Exodus 20:

    18 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off 19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” 21 The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

    22 And the Lord said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the people of Israel: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven.

    Followers feared Moses only when he reflected the glory of God, yet would not obey the commands given to Moses by the God they feared.

    The Prophets spoke God’s word and demonstrated the truth of God’s refining exhortations. Generation after generation, God’s worshipers assumed a posture of disobedience and self-righteousness; for by their witness they forgot the fear of God. By their witness they failed to please the LORD with the same love and compassion the LORD had shown them from generation to generation.

    The worshipers of God would not listen to Moses. The worshipers of God would not listen to the Prophets.

    Therefore, God intervened in time in the Person of Christ Jesus to redeem a sinful world from the futility of death and the inevitability of judgment.

    Jesus Christ lived in Perfect righteousness on the earth. NO man of any religion on the earth has lived in the righteousness of Christ. Men of every era have lived agendas of purpose for the earthly agendas of man; not the will of God for a Heavenly Kingdom.

    Jesus did not come into the world for worship of holy mothers or ancient fathers. Jesus did not come into the world to win a war by peaceful protest or by sword. Jesus did not come into the world to work miracles to impress or heal men who will die.

    The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…

    1 Timothy 1:15a

    Jesus became the sacrifice to God for the redemption of sin – sins you and I have committed in God’s Holy presence.

    The gospels testify to the glory of Christ Jesus, the Word of His instruction and the Life of His own witness.

    Our God is a Personal God and He IS present in the Person of Jesus Christ.

    By the perfect and sinless example of Jesus Christ we have assurance of forgiveness for our many sins and eternal life for our soul, which does long for the embrace of God through the love of His perfection.

    Fear the God Who IS. Give thanks to the One who has formed your flesh and summons your soul.

    Jesus Christ was witnessed by the Apostles, including Paul who was blinded by His presence. Jesus Christ was witnessed by disciples who believed (as well as those who refused to follow Him).

    The Apostles stood and sat and ate in the presence of the Person of Jesus from day to day and after the resurrection of His crucified body. They are witness to the Person of God in Him.

    And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” – Mark 4:41

    Acts 9 (excerpt) … and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. 4 And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. 8 Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing.

    God and Jesus pursue sinners personally – sinners like you and me.

    Jesus taught us how to live as a perfect son (which I am not) and how to approach God as a perfect father (which I am not). We are neither perfect son nor father, perfect daughter nor mother; yet because Christ Jesus has taken our sin from us, He presents us to God the Father as blameless to do the will of our Father and Lord, as He would have done ‘on earth, as it is in Heaven.’

    Our Personal God and Father has sent Himself in His only Son, Christ Jesus, to us; as example for a personal obedience to His will on earth in this day and until the day He has appointed for our finished work, the witness of His love, to complete His purpose for our mortal life.

    In Christ Jesus, our Lord, my soul stands before God and man as witness to hope eternal and witness to eternal life daily.

    In you, our Lord has placed an eternal voice and temporal call to a personal relationship of love to fulfill His purpose for your mortal life on this earth.

    God has something He has sent your soul here to do in the flesh. The Person of God has a mission just for you.

    Will you do it?

    Will you listen to God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord?

    To be continued, God willing

  • The Gospel of the Kingdom

    The Gospel of the Kingdom

    Matthew 9:35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.

    What is the gospel?

    More specifically, what is the gospel of the kingdom which Jesus proclaimed?

    To begin, look back to the centuries and millennia at the role of kings in general.

    Kings do not rule a republic. Kings do not rule a democracy. The power of a king is absolute and those who rule in the king’s domain (territory, dominion, lands) tell the king’s people (subjects) what to do and because they are subjects of the king the people must do what their king demands.

    The message is NOT one from a common subject to other subjects of the king. No, a proclamation is written and spoken by the authority of the king and ruler of his subjects. This is true of the Kingship of God, as well as that of a mortal king.

    The ‘proclamation, qara‘ is spoken to the subjects of the king with the expectation of obedience by the king’s subjects. Someone (in the Bible, sometimes an angel or a Prophet) has met with the king (or with God our Heavenly King), heard the message or news to be heralded or proclaimed and by authority of the king, he tells everyone.

    Most are familiar with the first announcements of the gospel of the Kingdom of God.

    Luke 2:10-11 KJV  And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

    The announcement by an angel from God is that the King has been born, a King of the Jews, as Jesus will come to be known as He becomes the sacrifice for our sins on a Cross.

    God is NOT like any other mortal king and God has proclaimed Himself through Scripture.

    Exodus 19:7 So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him.

    Moses is proclaiming the gospel of God. Moses has met with the King of Creation and proclaims the good news to the captives of Pharaoh.

    8 All the people answered together and said,

    “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”

    The Hebrew slaves of Pharaoh might as well have said, “We accept the LORD as our King in the place of Pharaoh our king.”

    And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.

    9 And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.”

    Again, God! our King and Leader and Ruler and Sovereign, and Creator of all things, judge of all souls!

    Christ Jesus IS God incarnate; that is: Jesus Christ is GOD in the flesh!  He has set the captives of this world free from sin and the ruler of this world.

    What had happened earlier, when God our Heavenly King challenged the king of Egypt (Pharaoh) with plagues and curses on the lands Pharaoh ruled, a land where the Hebrew people had been subjects of the lowest caste as slaves below every man and woman of Egypt?

    Why had God chosen to take His own subjects, chosen by His covenant through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph?

    (Here is God’s proclamation to Pharaoh, a mere mortal king of men, through Moses.)

    Exodus 9: ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews,

    “Let my people go, that they may serve me. 14 For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. 15 For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth.

    16 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.

    And from the days of Moses until this day the Name and Power of God is proclaimed in all the earth and the miracles the LORD did for His people of Israel in the desert at Sinai, as they were led from the slavery of Pharaoh to God’s promised land.

     Set Me Free – Castings Crows

    To be continued…