February 19

Exodus 2; Luke 5

Daily Catechism

QUESTION 26: HOW DID CHRIST, BEING THE SON OF GOD, BECOME MAN?
Answer: Christ, the Son of God became man by taking to himself
a true body and a reasonable soul. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and was born of her, yet without sin.
Scripture: Hebrews 2:14; 4:14; 7:26; Matthew 26:38; Luke 2:52; John 1:14; 12:27; Luke 1:31, 35; 2:52; Colossians 2:9.

Comment: I am typing this on a Personal Computer. I have virtu- ally no idea how it works. That it works I am certain: I have typed hundreds of sermons on it. So it is with the “incarnation”--the “how” is (as the old theologians used to say) “ineffable”. We believe it because the Scriptures teach it and because it “works” to make sense out of God’s whole redemptive plan.

Exodus 2

Ready:
The last chapter set the stage and I saw that a new Pharaoh hundreds of years later didn’t so much remember Joseph and was more concerned with how large the Hebrew population was and felt a need to oppress and limit them through slavery and killing their male babies.

Seeing What’s There:
Moses is born and adopted by a daughter of Pharaoh and raised in the royal family until he kills and Egyptian and flees to Midian.

Theme:
God protects his chosen prophet and he sets into motion the answer to Israel’s cry according to his plan that he shared with Abraham hundreds of years ago.

Thinking About the Message:
    v1-10.  Due to the terrible edict by Pharaoh, Moses’ mother is compelled to lovingly place her child in the Nile rather than allow an Egyptian to dash him into the water to die undoubtedly.  In God’s providence and sovereign plan Moses is found by the Pharaoh’s daughter and she ends up paying Moses’ mother to nurse him until he is weaned when she then adopts him as her child to be raised in the royal family.  Interesting that the daughter of Pharaoh took such care for this child and that she risked herself to adopt him and who knows what she revealed to Pharaoh or what it is like to raise a kid in a palace atmosphere…must be lots of help.
    v11-15.  Moses took interest in the Hebrews at some point.  Maybe he was informed from his youth that he was one of them or maybe he learned this just before he documents his observing of their oppression.  He seems to be about 40 years old at this point according to Acts 7:30, Exodus 2:11 and Exodus 7:7.  Moses steps in to protect a Hebrew and he ends up killing an Egyptian and hiding the body.  After he feels found out Moses flees and avoids the anger of Pharaoh who then wanted to kill Moses.  Very interesting that God has arranged for Moses to grow up speaking Egyptian and to have a knowledge of their culture and the royal family.  Moses surely recognizes his sin and now he sits at a well at Midian (East of Egypt) probably not knowing what to do next.
    v16-22.  Here Moses meets the family of the priest of Midian when he protects the priest’s daughters from shepherds who tried to keep them from taking water from the well.  This is the kind of trouble I recall Abraham having in negotiating with the shepherds of the land over wells.  It seems that water was very limited and well were highly valued.  The priest honors Moses and takes him into the family to the point of giving him one of his daughters as a wife who bears him a child named Gershom.
    v23-25.  This is the crux of the chapter and the turning point for the nation of Israel.  God does not listen to the cry of idolators or to a cry that does not acknowledge his truth.  I take it hear that there are God-fearing Jews who walk in the faith of Abraham who cry out to God after all these years of oppression (Job 35:13, Psalm 145:17-20).  This is a cry for deliverance and it comes not from pride or reliance upon merit but upon a trust in what God has promised.  I take the comment that God remembered his covenant to mean that their cry to God was that he would remember the covenant!  Could there have been a remembrance of God’s statement to Abraham about the 400 years of affliction in a foreign land?  Where they watching the calendar?      This is prayer like the Psalmist who pleads with God to take action not with an argument based on the asker but an argument based on the attributes of God and his name.  They had not lost hope…that had not completely forgotten the covenant…fathers had apparently passed this circumcision and its meaning on over these years in Egypt.  Here Moses indicates that God did hear their cry and he intends to answer with might and in a way that will glorify his mighty name.  The chapter closes with “and God knew”.  I wonder if this is not a knowing that the time is fulfilled…that the sin of the Amorites is complete (Gen 15:16) …that the next act in his epic story is ready for action.  The time for God to act in accomplishing his promise has come.  The only aspect of religion that the Jews know at this point is circumcision and remembering the spoken Word of God.  There is no law, there is means of appeasing God other than obedience of faith.  Now God is going to provide more revelation of how he keeps his Word.

Meaning, Implications, and Significance
    Despite terrible circumstances and hundreds of years of oppression with entire generations knowing nothing but affliction under the Egyptians, there is a cry to God based upon his promise and nothing more.  I take the meaning here to be that this cry of dependance and brokenness and trust against all odds is what the faith of Abraham is all about.  It may have taken a long time to get this people to cry out in dependence upon him…but it happened.  The implication is that God looks for us not to ask for his favor because of our promises to behave or our demonstrations of obedience but to ask for his favor based upon his goodness and mercy and based upon the blood of Jesus.   The significance for me is that I should not seek to convince God to act by something in me but my my trust that he will do precisely what he has said he will do and by a complete reliance upon him to deliver me.

Valuing the Message:
I value this message because it can be easy to get off track and think that God is not watching or caring or something when in actuality he has a perfect timing and a perfect plan for how he will execute on his promises.  God does not want an empty cry from me that is based upon me and my demanding or my convincing him of my own goodness.  This message helps me to know how to cry out to him and that my grounds for a plea to be heard is God’s promises and his own words and his purposes being accomplished.

Reflecting to Feel the Impact of the Message:
I need to consider my heart when I am looking for God to act because of my striving instead of my surrender.

Questions to ask:
What is motivating me to cry out to God?
Is it a desire for gain of something other than him?  Is it a sense of deserving his action?  Is it a frustration that he is not meeting my expectations?  Or is it a desire to see him glorified by a demonstration of his faithful and mighty hand?

Responding to God & Reacting to His Lesson:
Tell God about your observations and your thoughts and your struggles with the chapter and determine how it will change or impact your thinking and your decisions.  Be sure to react in some way to the truth rather than remain silent.

Proclaiming the Truth to Others:
Decide who you can share what you have learned with and ask for God’s help in reaching out to love others.

Luke 5

Ready:
In the previous chapter Jesus declared himself the Messiah in Nazareth and escapes the murder attempt by the Jews.  He demonstrates his authority and teaches of his kingdom.

Seeing What’s There:
I see Jesus demonstrate his identity and call disciples.  I see him show the disciples how they will succeed and he adds to his following of people leaving behind kin and nets and boats to follow the Son of God.  Jesus heals uncleanness and deformity and restores wholeness of body and soul in the sight of all.

Theme:
Jesus demonstrates his power in the lives of his creation and he calls them into a life of transformation and mission.

Thinking About the Message:
    v1-11.  I this passage Jesus brings in an impossible catch and then keeps the sinking boats afloat and the breaking nets from failing.  Jesus promises a catch, instigates and guides their actions to trust the promise, delivers what is out of their control to fulfill the promise, despite their sin and weakness he sustains their effort to receive the blessing without being overwhelmed and sinking, and then commissions them to repeat this task without fear and with men as their catch rather than fish.  They are to serve God’s cause now.
    v12-16.  A couple observations in this passage is that Jesus did not tell the leper that his faith lacked when the leper said “if you will Lord, you can make me clean.”  This is akin to me doubting that I correctly interpret God’s will in a situation but confident that God is able to accomplish all his holy will and he can surely do anything.  So the leper did not doubt Jesus’ ability to put a mountain in the sea even though he did not know if Jesus would choose to heal him.  This is the same greek word used in “thy will be done…” and in Phil 2:13 where it is God at work in us “to will and to work for his good pleasure”.  Jesus shows us that he can make clean what was unclean and he wants to do it.  Jesus does not discount the law and therefore directs the man to be viewed by a priest to begin the official process of being declared clean.  So we see a model that he is in the instant that Christ wills it “clean”.  But then he goes through a process of ritual cleansing that Jesus directs him to submit to.  There is a parallel here to our being cleansed of our guilt and sin in the moment of justification where we are reckoned righteous by God, through faith, but then we still live a life of a transformation (2 Cor 3:18, Titus 2:11-15) unto a realization of this cleanness that will someday be perfected (Heb 10:14) in our bodily redemption (Phil 1:6, Rom 8:23).  Luke notes at the end of this paragraph that Jesus would withdraw to desolate places to pray.  Here again I see that Jesus had a pattern of getting alone with his Father and being devoted to prayer.
    v17-26.  Lots of great things in this story about the faith of those around us and the impact of community in the perseverance of the saints but probably the biggest takeaway is that Jesus reveals why he heals people.  He heals people to demonstrate that he has the authority of God to categorically change people from guilty to innocent, from dirty to clean, from sick to well, from lame to strong.  He expects this to be an indication that he can surely accomplish whatever he says he accomplishes in a person when he tells them that their sins are forgiven.  
    v27-32.  I note here that Jesus does not “hang out” with sinners with a sense of being influenced by them or “walking in the counsel of the wicked” as Psalm 1 warns against…rather he says that he has a message for them…”repent and believe” (Mark 1:15).  His mission is the same as the purpose of Apostleship (Rom 1:5) and the same as the eternal command of God (Rom 16:26)…obedience of faith.  The idea here is that all these “sinners” who are there with Jesus know that they are in need of help…these are not the careless sinners who are flaunting their sin and consider themselves good to go.  These are broken people looking for God to heal them…they just don’t happen to be blind or lame.  It can make sense to me therefore that Paul tells me in 1 Cor 5:11-13 that I am not to associate with or eat with a supposed Christian brother who is living in blatant unrepentant sin.  This is one I should rebuke and they should be purged from among the congregation if they remain stiff-necked.  A broken sinner is different than an arrogant, entitled sinner who claims to be clean.
    v33-39.  Two things here.  Awesome that Jesus identifies himself as the bridegroom of Israel (Is 61:10) so of course you don’t fast when he is here and of course you will fast when he leaves.  Fasting apparently is without purpose when the Son of God is in your presence…but is very purposeful when he is absent.  The wine and wineskins has been attributed to an old and new covenant and also to old an new ways of fasting as we understand the work of Christ as a looking back rather than a less defined looking forward of the OT saint’s fasting.  The last verse is curious and deserves more study.  Perhaps is related to Psalm 34:8 “taste and see that the Lord is good”.  I have thoughts here about how there is no new way of salvation and there is unity of the plan of redemption and to paint a very divergent old and new pattern in some ways is inaccurate but clearly Jesus represents a new covenant.  A new covenant, however that does not nullify the old (Gal 3:15-29), just as the law did not nullify the promise to Abraham and so there is a progression of covenants not a replacement or nullification.  The old has not actual power without the new…mercy is not just until the cross.  For these reasons I think more study of this wineskin concept and the closing sentence here is worthwhile…sometime.

Meaning, Implications, and Significance
    I take from this chapter that Jesus is looking to make me whole and looking to change me from the inside out and looking to so radically modify how I see the world and my purpose here that I would need an entirely new mindset and world view.  He came to completely change the world for each of his sheep.  The implication is that following him is not just the adding of Jesus to my old way of thinking and living and valuing and my old perspectives.  Following Jesus is a radical transformation of all that I know with a purpose in life that is centered on seeking him and loving others enough to share my highest joy with them.  The significance for me is that Jesus will rightfully demolish my old life until I put on new patterns and new views and I will either be pressed to dump the new wine or replace the wineskin.  I choose to replace the wineskin because I have tasted and know that the Lord is good!

Valuing the Message:
This message is valuable to me because I know that it represents categorical changes in my interactions with everything in my life.

Reflecting to Feel the Impact of the Message:
I need to reflect on how my love of and trust in Jesus does and should impact my hatred of my sin, my work, my finances, my friendships, my charity, my goals, my time, my attitudes, my fathering, my cherishing, the nurturing and sacrificial leading of my wife, and everything else.

Questions to ask:

1. Where am I trying to put new wine into an old wineskin instead of replacing it?  
2. Do I find myself desiring the old wineskin?  
1. If so, I need to ask God for desire (Psalm 119:36, 141:4) and a right view (Prov 2:5-6, Eph 3:14-19) and for the filling of his Spirit (Eph 5:18) to empower me better sight and hope (Rom 15:13, Psalm 34:8).

Responding to God & Reacting to His Lesson:
Tell God about your observations and your thoughts and your struggles with the chapter and determine how it will change or impact your thinking and your decisions.  Be sure to react in some way to the truth rather than remain silent.

Proclaiming the Truth to Others:
Decide who you can share what you have learned with and ask for God’s help in reaching out to love others.

Soli Deo Gloria!