Moses

We always think of Moses as the Law-giver.  It's true.  The law did come to us from God through Moses.  But what else did Moses do?

He was a savior to the people.
He was a deliverer.
He interceded for them when the Lord said He should wipe 'em out because of their rebellion.

That's not law.
That's mercy.
That's rescue.

And all of that (the law and the rescue) is why Jesus is the prophet greater than Moses (Acts 3:22).

Notes from Bible Class

"The glory of God's undying love" didn't die ... even when He did. 


John 3:6  -- "That which is born of the flesh is flesh.  That which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
That's like in Genesis 1: "after its own kind."


John 3:11 -- Nicodemus was a teacher in Israel.  Jesus thought he obviously should've known the things Jesus was talking about -- known them from the Old Testament scriptures.  Jesus says, "We speak what We know and testify what We have seen."  That's like in Luke 24 where Jesus shows the disciples how the entire Old Testament is all about Him and His atoning work.  Nicodemus should've known the first promise of salvation (Gen 3:15), He should've known the story about the bronze serpent (Num 21).  He should've known about the "Son of Man" (in Daniel).  He should've known about all those water stories (Gen 8, Ex 14, Josh 3, Jonah, et al) and also how washing was used in the tabernacle worship.  He should've known about the Spirit's blowing where He wills (Gen 1, Psalms, 1 Kings 19, et al).  But when Nicodemus didn't know these things that he should've known, what does Jesus do?  He talks about the Son of God on the cross, and that God wants to save, not to condemn.

From the Joseph Story

From Thursday's Bible class -- notes and ruminations:

Genesis 45:5, 8  Joseph told his brothers, "God sent me before you" into the land of Egypt.  Even though the brothers had committed a dastardly deed in selling their brother into Egyptian slavery, Joseph's explanation of events said that God was the one who brought him there.  God turned even their evil into good ... as He is wont to do.
The prophet tells us that "out of Egypt I have called My Son."  But God also sent Jesus (like Joseph) into Egypt.  And as it happened for Joseph, it was (to all outward appearances) attempted murder that sent the boy Jesus from Canaan to Egypt.


45:24    When Joseph had equipped his brothers for the trip to Canaan, sending them to fetch the rest of the family, he sent them off with "See that you do not become troubled along the way."  It's almost as if he knew they would begin to wonder if Joseph had really forgiven them, if it was a set-up, if there would be repercussions.  "Don't be troubled.  Don't be agitated.  Go in peace."  Joseph knew the human heart's inclination to doubt, to fear, to be troubled.  And he wanted to comfort them so that his beloved brothers would not be troubled.


45:27  The fellows told Dad, "Joseph is alive, and he's ruling Egypt."  Now, that's quite the shocker!  But then the story goes on: "When they told [Jacob] all the words which Joseph had said to them...."  Pastor pointed out that "all the words" means the guys would've had to admit to Dad what had happened that long-ago day, 22 years earlier ... and admit that they had lied all along.  "And Jacob's spirit revived."  It did?  Wow -- so he forgave them. 
How could he forgive that?  Well, think about his own past.  Jacob had deceived.  He had cheated his brother.  He had lied to his father.  He had been separated from his family.  But the Lord's mercy forgave him, so that love and mercy overflowed from him to others.   How about that?  When God is merciful and loving to scumbum sinners, it really does bear fruit in the lives of those who receive His love.


45:5 and 50:20   Even though the brothers meant evil against Joseph, God meant it for good "to preserve life."  "To save your lives by a great deliverance."  "To bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive." 

1. God worked for good by feeding physical food to gobs of people through Joseph's leadership in Egypt. 
2. God worked for good by saving the brothers from their impenitence, bringing their sin into the light of day that they might benefit from the forgiveness Joseph had for them.
3. God worked for good by preserving the life of the ancestor of Jesus.  Judah and his brothers did not die of starvation.  Their family continued, and the Messiah --the Savior-- was born just as the Lord had promised to Abraham.  

50:17  So when Jacob dies, the brothers send a message to Joseph: Dad said to forgive us for the evil we did to you.  Did Jacob say that, or did the guys just say it because they were shakin' in their boots?  Either way, it shows that we need a mediator, an intercessor, to plead for us sinners.

Led by the Spirit

After Jesus was baptized, the gospels tell us that He was "led by the Spirit into the wilderness" (Matt 4, Mark 1, Luke 4).  

Did Jesus have this magical feeling that He should go to the wilderness instead of into town?  What is it to be "led by the Spirit"?  How did He know to go to the wilderness?  How was He led?

It's not unlike how Simeon knew when to show up in the temple to see the baby Messiah.  The Scriptures told him/Him.

When Jesus was baptized, He was declared to be "the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world."  The Scriptures tell us about the scapegoat (Leviticus 16).  When the sin of the people was imputed to that lamb, it was driven into the wilderness to "take away sin."  When the sin of the world was imputed to Jesus, that made Him the true scapegoat.  That meant He had to go into the wilderness. 

He knew this.  He knew God's word. 
The Spirit led Him through what the Scriptures said.

That Wouldn't've Been MY Answer

Story: the raising of Lazarus (John 11)
Time: shortly before Holy Week
Characters: Jesus and Martha
Question:  I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live.  And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.  Do you believe this?

And the answer from Martha?  

Nothing that looks like a reasonable answer to a direct question.

Yeah, yeah, sure, we're used to hearing the reading, so it may go in one ear and out the other.  But look how odd the answer is.

"People who believe in Me will not die, even though they die.  Do you believe that?"

"You betcha, Jesus.  I believe You're the Messiah."  



Wait -- He was talking about resurrection.  This interchange would make sense: "Do you believe I'm the Messiah?"  "Yes, I do."  And this interchange would also make sense:  "Do you believe that I give/am life for those dead?"  "Yes, You are."

But Martha's answer to the question about death-vs-life was "Yes, You are the Messiah."  

In other words, she knew the Old Testament scriptures to teach that the Messiah would come into the world to overcome death, to be the resurrection, to be life, to give immortality.  

I don't remember anybody teaching me when I was little that that's what the Old Testament was all about.  I don't even remember hearing that the Old Testament was all about Jesus -- much less that it was about the Anointed One who would bring to us eternal life.

But that was a no-brainer for Martha.

Loving the Beautiful People?

He has no form or comeliness.
And when we see Him, 
there is no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected by men,
a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  (Isaiah 53)

Oh, so if there were beauty, 
then maybe we would desire Him.

In other words, 
we desire what pleases us, 

what makes us happy, 

what is beautiful to us.

"Well, DUH," you say. 

"Who desires what's despicable?" you say.

Oh.

Yeah.

There is One who does.

How weird!

How blessedly weird!

And amazingly, that weird, unearned love makes the ugly one beautiful. 

Christ and the Ten Commandments

Okay, we know that the Ten Commandments show us how we have sinned so that we know we need a Savior. 

We probably also know that the Ten Commandments show us what love looks like.  It shows us what Jesus did, how He lived, and what a holy life looks like. 

But there's also something else the Ten Commandments show us about Jesus.  Not just the good He did.  But also the injustice He suffered. 


"You shall not kill."  We killed Him.

"You shall not commit adultery."  We so often go a-whoring after other gods.  We didn't want our Bridegroom.

"You shall not bear false witness."  People told plenty of lies about Jesus during His earthly ministry.  And during His trial.  And during His crucifixion.  And people are still telling lies about Him today. 

And so on and so forth with the other commandments.   They do indeed show us the good He did.  And they show us the bad we have done to each other.   But the commandments also show us, in the cross, the bad that the Son of God endured from us, for us.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Sometimes you notice something that sets you bouncing and squealing with delight. And then you wonder how many gazillion other subtle allusions you walk right past without noticing.


But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
on those who fear Him,
and His righteousness to children's children,
to such as keep His covenant,
and to those who remember His commandments to do them. (Psalm 103:17-18)


To children's children.

God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father
and we are His true children. (Small Catechism)

To such as keep His covenant.

Drink from it all of you,
for this is My blood of the new covenant,
which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
(Matthew 26)

To those who remember His commandments to do them.

Neither you nor I could ever know anything of Christ,
or believe in Him and take Him as our Lord,
unless these were first offered to us
and bestowed on our hearts
through the preaching of the Gospel by the Holy Spirit.
The work is finished and completed,
Christ has acquired and won the treasure for us
by His sufferings, death, and resurrection, etc.
But if the work remained hidden and no one knew of it,
it would have been all in vain, all lost.
In order that this treasure might not be buried
but put to use and enjoyed,
God has caused the Word to be published and proclaimed,
in which He has given the Holy Spirit
to offer and apply to us this treasure of salvation.
Therefore to sanctify is nothing else than
to bring us to the Lord Christ to receive this blessing,
which we could not obtain by ourselves.
(Large Catechism, Third Article)

Matthew 8:4

Jesus healed the leper and then told him not to tell anybody but to go show himself to the priest, and offer the sacrifice that the law required, "as a testimony to them."

Now, I'm not going to pretend that I know what is supposed to be the testimony (the healing? the sacrifice? the obedience?) nor to whom the testimony is given (the people nearby? the guy's family? the priests?).

But as I pondered those things, it crossed my mind that the priests must have been seeing an awful lot of healings. Yes, the priests had heard what was up with John's preaching. And then Jesus' preaching. And all those people going out to be baptized. But they also had all sorts of people coming to the temple to "show themselves to the priests" that the healings might be verified and the sacrifices might be made.

It almost makes a person suspect that God set up those purification laws in the Old Testament to ensure that the priests in Jesus' day would be faced with evidence after evidence after evidence that some dude was busy doing all those things that the scriptures said the messiah would do.

Psalm 7

If there is iniquity in my hands,
if I have repaid evil to him who was at peace with me,
or have plundered my enemy without cause,
let the enemy pursue me and overtake me;
yes, let him trample my life to the earth,
and lay my honor in the dust.

Does it seem odd to you that we sometimes pray words like these in the psalms as if we are entirely innocent, and we're being picked-on unjustly (which might possibly be true in the civil realm), and it's time for God to straighten things out? Unlike us, however, Jesus really could say that He was innocent and didn't deserve the enemies to be picking on Him.

And yet ...

He made Him who knew no sin to BE sin for us.
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him.

So these words from Psalm 7 really were Jesus' words. "If I have done evil" (for our evil deeds were imputed to Him so that He might bear the guilt of them) "then let the enemy destroy Me."

He was willing.
He was willing to be overtaken, trampled, and dishonored.
He was willing,
so that God would judge us according to Jesus' righteousness.

The Enemy

In Psalm 35, David prays for God's help when he is being attacked by his enemy. He prays,
They reward me evil for good,
to the sorrow of my soul.
But as for me, when they were sick,
my clothing was sackcloth;
I humbled myself with fasting,
and my prayer would return to my own heart.
I pace about as though he were my friend or brother;
I bowed down heavily, as one who mourns for his mother.

I don't know when David wrote that. Maybe he was writing about King Saul who tried repeatedly to hunt him down and kill him. Maybe he was writing about his son Absolom and the coup attempt. Maybe it's about somebody else, or about all the different antagonists in David's life.

But it's also Jesus' prayer. (All the psalms are!) When we responded to God's goodness with evil, it brought sorrow to Jesus. When we were sick in sin, Jesus fasted and prayed for us. Even when we despised Him, He regarded us as a friend or a brother.

The Fast God Has Chosen

Sunday's [3-year] appointed Old Testament reading was from Isaiah 58:
Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the heavy burdens,
to let the oppressed go free,
and that you break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
when you see the naked, that you cover him,
and hide not yourself from your own flesh?
Then your light shall break forth like the morning,
your healing shall spring forth speedily,
and your righteousness shall go before you;
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry, and He will say, "Here I am."


We hear this passage and immediately think of what God demands of us, what we are to do. We are to share our food and clothing, to help those who are captives and in need. And that's true.

But this passage is also a picture of the cross of Jesus -- not merely the fast He requires of us, but even more, the fast He chose to undertake. In His death, He loosed His people from bondage to Satan and sin. He gives His body that we might eat the Bread of Life. By His death, He gathers us poor into His mansions. He was not ashamed to be naked on the cross, but covers us with the robe of His righteousness. He cried out to the Father, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" and the Father answered, "Here I am" and raised Him up on the morning of the third day that we might have light and healing.

Stilling of the Storm

On the road to Emmaus, Jesus explained to the two disciples (Luke 24) how the entire Old Testament was about Him and His work. Earlier He had told the Pharisees the same thing: "These are they which testify of Me" (John 5).

We recently studied the story from Mark 4, when Jesus stilled the storm for the fearful disciples whose boat was going down. The moral of that story is usually that God is more powerful than the storm. When Pastor teaches in Didache, his main point is that Jesus mercifully rescues those who have "no faith" and are accusing Him of not caring about them.

But there's something else too. Remember how Jesus went to the synagogue in Nazareth and preached from Isaiah (Luke 4) about the things the messiah would do? Remember how Jesus responded to John the Baptist (Matthew 11) about how to know whether He was the messiah? The Old Testament says thus-and-such; Jesus does thus-and-such; there's a clue that He's the one. The blind see; the deaf hear; the lame walk; the poor have the gospel preached to them.

Look at Psalm 107. Yahweh the Lord commands and raises the stormy wind which lifts up the waves of the sea. The sailors' hearts melt because of the trouble when their boat is pitching on high waves. The men in the boat are at their wits' end, declares the psalmist. Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses. He calms the storm so that its waves are still. Then they are glad because they are quiet. So He guides them to their desired haven.

What did Jesus DO?
That is precisely what Yahweh does.
He is the one whom the prophets foretold ... and He does more than just the "short list" from that passage in Isaiah.