February 23

Exodus 6; Luke 9

Daily Catechism

QUESTION 30: HOW DOES CHRIST PERFORM THE OFFICE OF A KING?
Answer: Christ performs the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.
Scripture: Psalm 110:1-2; Matthew 2:6; Luke 1:32-33; 1 Corinthians 15:25.

Exodus 6

Ready:
Yesterday I read Moses’ account of how the Jews listened to his message from God but then Pharaoh really worked to break their will and the people of God were put to the test to expose their weak motives and to show Moses the challenge before him.

Seeing What’s There:
I see God training Moses and appealing to his people with outstretched arms inviting them to trust him.  I see Moses in this inspired text narrating and by listing the genealogy of himself and Aaron I get that the simple fact that he and Aaron were standing before Pharaoh at all is the amazing work of God and perhaps afterward as now being recorded he thought to include this because it ought to have been a thought of his at the time.  The fact that God had delivered one promise of making a nation out of Jacob was evident and now he stands to move the nation into the next of God’s promises.  Yet Moses hesitates and still requires God’s prodding and continual assurance.

Theme:
God works in absence of faithfulness for the sake of his name (glory) and for the good of his people (joy).

Thinking About the Message:
    v1.  Here is God’s response to Moses’ challenging prayer as he seeks understanding of how everything became so messed up by following the Lord’s directions.  I see here that Moses did not know God’s thoughts or ways and so he did not know how to interpret what God was doing and it takes a trust that extends beyond what is seen and beyond the immediate impact of our surrender to God.  The Lord responds to Moses by telling him that he is preparing to do a mighty work whereby God will cause Pharaoh to do his bidding.  He tells Moses that Pharaoh will not only relent but that he will be quite motivated to see the people of Israel leave.  It will be such that Pharaoh will force them out.
    v2-9.  Here God has a curious conversation with Moses and tells him that by his personal name of Yahweh he had not made himself known to the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  The context is that he did make himself known in this way to Moses and through Moses to the people at large and God has tied this name to his promises and the covenant he established with Abraham and his offspring.  Interestingly, God did tell Abraham this name in Gen 15:7 and Abraham used this name of God in Gen 22:14 and there are accounts of many others referring to God by this name prior to this moment when God tells this to Moses.  So what does he mean?  God contrasts his name as El-Shaddai, translated Almighty God, with this personal name Yahweh when he says he did reveal himself the first way but not the next.  In his dealings with Moses God has attached the extension “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” to the term Yahweh and perhaps this is related to his meaning.  God showed himself almighty but maybe has not shown his personal commitment to the covenant people of God yet?  Maybe he means something along the lines of he has shown that he can deliver upon his promises but that now he will do it in complete absence of the faithfulness and trust of his own people.  Maybe covenant is covenant because it means keeping it when you are not naturally motivated to.  Maybe the significance of God’s covenant being unilateral in Gen 17 is here going to mean something since the people of God fail to trust him unlike Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did.  Now the nation will need God to do a work simply for the sake of his name (Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) this time.  So God then goes on with the message for Moses to deliver to the people in response to what has now transpired with Pharaoh requiring the brick production without providing the needed straw.  Through Moses, God declares to his people what he shall accomplish and it hits them flat.  They react like the Pharisees who were silent to Jesus’ question about whether it was right or wrong to help someone on the Sabbath.  The truth of God lands flat on this people because their eyes were on their circumstances and not on their God.  In verses 6-8 God tells them “I am”...“I will”…”I will”…”I will”…"I will”…”I will”…”I am”…”I will”…”I will”…”I am”.  But "they did not listen”... "because their broken spirit and harsh slavery”.  This is surely setting up to be God leaning on his covenant name here because the people are not giving his a reason to deliver them.
    v10-13.  The next verse begins with “so”.  This is great.  God basically takes note of Israel’s deafness and he moves straight into covenant mode and tells Moses that we are moving forward with the plan.  Moses is not to tell Pharaoh simply “Let the People of Israel go…” without reference to the whole “so we can make offering to God in the wilderness” thing.  God has now moved into the simple mode of keeping his covenant and not fulfilling the request of his people.  Moses again makes a plea to God due to his lack of trust in himself.  He could not convince the people of Israel who supposedly trust God and now how can he convince this King who does not know God or care a thing about this people?  Moses is again looking at himself and not at God Almighty.  Verse 13 is vague but God gives him and Aaron some charge concerning both dealing with Pharaoh as well as with Israel.  It could be that he tells them you will simply need to trust me and do what I say and you will need to lead this stiff-necked people step by step knowing that they will resist and they will be stubborn.  Maybe it was simply…"Listen- bring the people out!”
    v14-25.  I take this section as the narrator, Moses, adding for our record what maybe he should have considered in the moment this was happening.  Perhaps he places this here for the reader to see that indeed God was keeping covenant and had displayed his omnipotence and his faithfulness to his promises already by the simple existence of Moses and Aaron.  Maybe he was also calling attention to the one million person strong nation that God had built who all bore his mark of circumcision.
    v26-27.  Moses seems to conclude something from the genealogy in how he uses words like “These are the Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said…” and “It was they that spoke to Pharaoh…this Moses and Aaron”.  I take it to mean that God was sending a message to humanity that he accomplishes his will through his people and he keeps covenant with them.  Moses is perhaps noting that he was silly for being so uncertain and weak.
    v28-29.  Yet Moses recounts again here that he responded with uncertainty and perhaps this is simply a restatement by him as narrator to come back in follow-up to the genealogy that he felt should have better informed him and perhaps caused him to avoid such a response.

Meaning, Implications, and Significance
    There is a wrestling here between God and Moses within his heart and mind where he is needing to determine if he will trust himself, the people of God, or the God who makes and keeps covenant.  God is putting on display the fact that he is acting not from a position of responding to the faith of his people who are crying out but he now is evidencing that his action will be for the sake of his name.

Valuing the Message:
I value this message because I know that God will act not merely when I call upon him but he knows what is needed and when I fail to pray as I should he will yet intercede and bring me along (Rom 8:26-29).  God is not waiting to see my faithfulness but he has blessed me in spite of my faithlessness out of his faithfulness to his name.  Though I am faithless in the moment, he will ever be faithful to his name and he will therefore restore me unto faith for his own sake (Rom 3:3-4; 2 Tim 2:10-14, Heb 3:14, Is 43:25ff; Is 48:11).  The implication is that my salvation and my destiny is firmly in his hand and I can trust that he will indeed complete the work that was begun by him.  He will indeed bring me to the finish line as a prepared bride (1 Thess 5:23-24).  The significance for me is that I can rejoice even in my weaknesses (2 Cor 12:10) and I can walk without fear and I can repent freely without pressure of my salvation resting upon my own natural faithfulness but upon his alone that is given to me supernaturally by his Spirit (Rom 5:5; Eph 2:8-9; Rom 2:29; Deut 30:6) to maintain my faith in Christ (Rom 2:6-10; Deut 7:12).  If you look at the Deuteronomy verse there you will see a problem.  God’s covenant is conditional upon my keeping of his law!  Wait a minute!  It’s a beautiful thing to know that I have fulfilled the law of God in the body of Christ (Rom 8:3-4) who did what I could never hope to accomplish in my place!!!!!  The covenant was conditional upon the obedience of faith…conditioned upon God guaranteeing (commanding omnipotently) it himself somehow…which he did in Christ Jesus (Rom 1:5; Rom 16:26)!

Reflecting to Feel the Impact of the Message:
I need to consider my heart and my trust of God in the tough spots of life.  I can take great peace and freedom if I can comprehend that he acts not merely in response to my faithfulness, but primarily in the glorification of his name.  His name is the great backstop to Peter’s denial of Christ and my failures.  He has accomplished the work already and he now lives to pray for me to sustain my faith as he did Peter’s (Heb 7:25; Rom 8:34).

Questions to ask:

1. Do I recognize the significance of how God has chosen to reveal himself through a people and how he has kept covenant with them and through them even when they were faithless?  
2. Do I understand that God is at work through people and through me?  
3. Do I trust that is is his work and that he will complete it?

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 9

Not going to try to catch up.  Picking up comments on chapter 10 tomorrow.

Soli Deo Gloria!