March 21, 2010

Exodus 32

When my oldest sons were little, this chapter was one of their favorite readings of the Scripture. It is the ultimate in passing the buck. Here the Children of Israel have time and time again been miraculously saved by the Lord; and they have experienced a number of theophanies. They themselves were able to view a magnificent appearance of God on Mt. Sinai from which Moses and Joshua were invited to come meet with the Lord on the mountain top. Moses and Joshua were gone no more than 40 days and Israel begins to worry, “What has this all consuming fire done with Moses and Joshua? They are gone; we know not where. We are fearful of entering the presence of this God lest our fate end like theirs. What do we do?” Their solution was to make an image that would represent God. It would be safe. It was somewhat like what they experienced in Egypt. After all, the Egyptians had their bull god. Why not a calf god to represent the Lord? When Moses asks something to the effect of, “Aaron, what were you thinking?” He gets this ridiculous answer, “I threw the gold in the furnace and out came this calf!” My boys would roar with laughter at the lame excuse. Even at 7, 5 & 3, they recognized how incredulous was the response.

What is it about us as humans that we so quickly forget or cannot even grasp the greatness of the glory of the Lord? While not under pressure, we laugh at the Israelites for their fickle behavior. But let us get under pressure and we also, like the Israelites, begin to crack. Forty days is a long time to go without seeing His glory. We are designed by God to live in the presence of His glory. His glory is at times frightening. At times it is comforting. It is always amazing. Yet, we can never remember. That is why it is so incumbent upon us to seek His glory daily. As the deer pants for the water, so our souls long after Him—even if we do not recognize it. Nothing satisfies like His glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!

--Pastor john

Luke 1:26-38

I never cease to marvel at what God did in Mary. She sat in a different type of shadow. It was still a shadow of light. Here is a girl who is a virgin and who is willing to bear the insults of the community in order to be obedient to God, and she does it joyfully. But of greater import than Mary's attitude is what God created within her womb in that shadow. Using Mary's chromosomes, God adds special chromosomes to prepare a body for the God-Man.

His name is to be Jesus, which is the Greek transliteration for the Hebrew Joshua. Joshua means, "Yahweh saves," or, "Yahweh is salvation." He is the promised fulfillment of Genesis 3:15 and 12:3. He will be the very Son of God. Yes we are all sons of God in the sense that we are created by Him. We who have received Him are sons of God in the sense that we are adopted into His family. But He is the very Son of God, the Son of the Highest. He accomplished this salvation in His first coming in His death, resurrection and ascension.

He is the Son of David. As such, He fulfills the promise of 2 Samuel 7:12,13,16. But He has not ruled on earth upon the throne of His father, David. He will accomplish that when He returns, His second coming. You know the Shiite Muslims believe that they can hasten the second coming of the 12th imam, the "Mahdi," by creating chaos on earth. What contrast that is to our King. We can hasten His coming by preaching the good news of His death, burial and resurrection can bring new life and new order to people's lives. I like sitting in the shadow of that light. It is so different from the shadow of death that is in the rest of the world. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!

--Pastor john