Sunday School is for All Ages!

About seven weeks after celebrating the first Passover and leaving Egypt, Israel receives a message from the LORD at Mount Sinai through Moses.

Moses went up the mountain to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain: “This is what you must say to the house of Jacob and explain to the Israelites: ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now if you will carefully listen to Me and keep My covenant, you will be My own [treasured] possession out of all the peoples, although the whole earth is mine, and you will be My kingdom of priests and My holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to say to the Israelites” (Exodus 19:3-6).

In obedience, Moses descends, summons together the elders of Israel, and relays for them the message from the LORD. And we read:

Then all the people responded together, “We will do all that the LORD has spoken” (Exodus 19:8).

It seems like a sweet, simple story. But will Israel do all that the LORD has spoken? Nope. They won’t even finish receiving the instructions for the Tabernacle (Exodus 25-31) before they turn to serious and abhorrent idolatry (Exodus 32). In other words, they won’t even make it from the foot of this same mountain before they’ve failed to do all that the LORD has spoken.

Doesn’t the omniscient God know how it will go? Is He unable to see that Israel would not even come close to honoring their commitment to do all that the LORD has spoken? Is He an irresponsible covenant-maker, allowing Israel to make a commitment they could not keep?

The LORD certainly knew that Israel would not keep their end of the bargain. Yet He still cut covenant there at Mount Sinai. He still proceeded to provide the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-17), the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 20:22-23:33), and instructions for the Tabernacle (Exodus 25-31). In His mercy, He continued the work of making a kingdom of priests and a holy nation of a people who would never merit those titles by their own behavior.

In His mercy, God was pleased to honor Israel’s willingness to serve Him, despite their inability to do so. He was pleased to honor their godly intent, in spite of their worldly temptations. And so it remains with us, who can so closely identify with the prayer recorded by Thomas Merton in Thoughts in Solitude:

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Sunday School for all ages begins weekly at 9:45 AM. All are warmly welcome.

Sunday School is for All Ages!

In the first half of Exodus 19, “the house of Jacob and…the Israelites” encamp before Mt. Sinai from whence God speaks.

Moses went up the mountain to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain: “This is what you must say to the house of Jacob and explain to the Israelites: ‘…if you will carefully listen to Me and keep My covenant, you will be My own possession out of all the peoples, although the whole earth is Mine, and you will be My kingdom of priests and My holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to say to the Israelites (Exodus 19:3-6).

In exchange for their obedience, God offers Israel three privileges:

1. They would be His own treasured possession.

2. They would be His kingdom of priests.

3. They would be His holy nation.

Why would God offer Israel status as His treasured possession instead of a possessor of treasures? First, they already possess treasures. They left their 430-year enslavement with the spoils of Egypt simply handed to them (Exodus 12:35-36). But more important than Israel’s material wealth is her relationship with God. Out of all the peoples of the world, God chose to place His presence among the people of Israel (Deuteronomy 7:6-9). Israel’s wealth is not in what she possesses, but in the presence of the One by whom she is possessed.

Why would God promise that Israel would be a kingdom of priests instead of a family or community of priests? Because being part of a kingdom requires recognition that there is a King. There is One whose rule is authoritative to whom they will bow. The people of God will be a people under God’s authority as their King.

Why would God promise that Israel would be a holy nation instead of a great or mighty nation? Other nations knew greatness. But holiness implies being sacred, set apart, and sanctified for a specific purpose. Israel wasn’t delivered for mere greatness; she was set apart to assure the birth of Jesus Christ.

Sunday School for all ages begins weekly at 9:45 AM. All are warmly welcome.

For Further Study:

Jen Wilkin. (2022). God of Freedom: A Study of Exodus 19 - 40.

Sunday School is for All Ages!

In the account of God’s work forming and filling creation, we come to Genesis 2:18 where, for the first time, we read God’s assessment that something is not good.

Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper corresponding to him” (Genesis 2:18).

After finding no corresponding helper in all of creation, God provides for the man the woman. For the mandate to be fruitful, multiply, fill, subdue, and rule (steward the blessing), Adam’s corresponding helper was Eve.

Fast forward through time and we again find a pronouncement of “not good.” In Exodus 18:13-27, Jethro observes how Moses spends his time when Israel is not on the move. Moses sits down to judge the people, essentially serving as their sole arbiter, from sun-up until sundown. Notice specifically what Jethro identifies as “not good” about this arrangement:

When Moses’s father-in-law saw everything he was doing for them he asked, “What is this you’re doing for the people? Why are you alone sitting as judge…?” (Exodus 18:14, emphasis mine).

Once again, the pronouncement is rightly made: it is not good for the man to be alone. And, if we’re not careful, we’ll skip to the details of Jethro’s solution without rightly understanding the problem. The problem is not a multitude of people requiring a leader. The problem is not the position of leadership. The problem is not Moses’s abilities or even his calling to lead. The problem is simply that he has taken on the mandate to steward the people of God ALONE. Moses needs a corresponding helper. The helper corresponding to Moses’s need is not in the form of a wife, but in a multitude of capable leaders who will divide the weight of responsibility for God’s treasured possession.

Moses receives Jethro’s advice with gladness. And what of us? Will we receive the admonition throughout the pages of Scripture that it is not good for us to be alone? In the walk of faith before us, will we hear the warning: this thing is too heavy for you, you need a corresponding helper? We need a community of faith—a church family—within which we can experience the fullness of the gifts of the Spirit distributed by God to each one “as He wills” (1 Corinthians 12:4-11).

“In this way you will lighten your load, and they will bear it with you. If you do this … you will be able to endure…” (Exodus 18:22-23

Sunday School for all ages begins weekly at 9:45 AM. All are warmly welcome.

Sunday School is for All Ages!

In Exodus 18:1-12, we read of the sweet reunion between Moses and his family, with specific emphasis on his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian.

Despite the fact that Jethro and Moses did not share the same ethnic heritage or faith, Moses shows great honor to the man who had accepted him as a son (Exodus 2:11-22). We read how Moses goes out to meet Jethro. He doesn’t wait to be approached with a stiff request for audience; he displays open joy at Jethro’s arrival, showing honor and respect. Moses bows down before Jethro, kisses him, and invites him into his tent to catch up. In a day when we stumble so hard over our differences, Moses’s treatment of Jethro lands like a balm—a reminder that we can show respect and honor even while we continue to await the work of God to bridge differences.

And God’s work in Jethro is a thing of beauty! When Jethro hears from Moses the report of the LORD on behalf of Israel, he gives praise and glory to God and is gifted saving knowledge (Exodus 18:11). He makes a declaration of faith in the One true God. A Gentile, pagan priest receives the gift of faith in response to the report of the Lord. Jethro gets saved!

Think about it. Do any of us have someone about whom we secretly think, “I love [name], and it is never going to happen. I’ve prayed and prayed for so long now?” But, if God can save Jethro of Midian, a priest devoted to a foreign religion, simply because he hears the mighty deeds the LORD has done to deliver those who love Him, then who needs to start hearing the stories of our deliverance? Who else might God save through the hearing of our testimony, the report of the LORD in our lives?

Sunday School for all ages begins weekly at 9:45 AM. All are warmly welcome.

Sunday School is for All Ages!

Exodus 17:8-16 tells of the first battle in which Israel is commanded to directly engage the enemy. But the battle strategy is a little, well, different. Moses instructs Joshua to select some men to fight Amalek. Meanwhile, Moses plans to stand on the hilltop holding the staff of God.

That’s it. That’s the plan.

The next day, Joshua dutifully engages the enemy, while Moses assumes the position on a hill with the staff of God’s judgment in his hand. As long as Moses’s hands are raised, Israel wins in battle. When Moses’s arms tire and his hands droop, Amalek gains the advantage. In Exodus 17:16, we learn about the specific direction toward which Moses’s hands were raised: “toward the LORD’s throne.”

This odd battle strategy makes no sense until we pause to actually picture Moses’s posture on that hill, his cruciform positioning with his arms outstretched, bearing the staff of God’s judgment. Until we recognize Moses’s position on that hill as a mediator between the children of God and God, and until we visualize the scene of battle, we’ll miss the message God is foretelling.

Because so many years later, a truer and better Mediator will take His place on a hill with His arms outstretched bearing the weight of God’s judgment against all sin for all time. And the arms of this truer and better Mediator, Jesus Christ, will not drop until the victory is fully and finally won.

Even on the day of victory, it is given to Moses to appreciate a great work of God on behalf of Israel. To commemorate the victory, he builds an altar named Jehovah Nissi—the LORD is my banner.

In battle, a banner or an ensign was crucially important. It was the symbol of the kingdom for which one fought. It identified the proper rallying point—the place where soldiers would fall back to summons strength or courage; a place to recover and reorganize when the battle threatened to scatter the troops. Moses was given eyes to see that the people of God fought under the banner of God for the kingdom of God by the power of God who would assure their victory until the end.

Indeed, the LORD is still our banner.

Sunday School for all ages begins weekly at 9:45 AM. All are warmly welcome.

Sunday School is for All Ages!

In Exodus 16:4, we read how the LORD tested Israel. In their hunger, He tested them “to see whether or not they will follow my instructions.” But, in Exodus 17:2, we read that Israel tests the LORD.

This is not the first time the descendants of Jacob have grumbled to Moses about thirst, but the Hebrew term for their behavior is a different one this time. Before, they were grumbling and complaining in their distress. Now they’re quarreling, contending, and even bringing suit against Moses and the LORD.

When God tested Israel, it was for their good. When He tested them, it was to move them into a posture of trust and obedience; trust that they could cease their labors, receive the gifts of manna and Sabbath rest, and no longer behave as slaves, but as sons. But Israel testing God? This is definitely not good! When they test God, their attitude conveyed in their words and their judgment is, in essence, “You work for us and you’re failing on the job.”

Wow.

How do we think God should respond to such ungodly insolence? We might enjoy seeing the children of Israel powerfully put in their place after displaying such haughty contempt for the LORD Almighty. Yet, let’s notice God’s response:

“The LORD answered Moses, ‘Go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take the staff you struck the Nile with in your hand and go. I am going to stand there in front of you on the rock at Horeb; when you hit the rock, water will come out of it and the people will drink.’ Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel” (Exodus 17:5-6).

Isn’t it interesting that God specifies that Moses should take the same staff that he used to strike the Nile, as if he was hauling some staff assortment? God’s language in these verses is meant to make us revisit the moment when Moses struck the Nile with his staff. In Exodus 7:20-21, we read of the first plague where Moses, in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials—the elders of Egypt—raises his staff and strikes the Nile, turning all of the water in all of Egypt to blood. The elders of Egypt bore witness to the judgment of God through the striking of Moses’s staff.

Now, with this same staff, the elders of Israel will bear witness to the judgment of God again being meted out with Moses’s staff—upon what? This time, Moses is commanded to strike the rock at Horeb (another name for Sinai). And we read in verse 6 that God Himself, who had been placed on trial by Israel, stands on the rock that is struck. This might be an altogether odd trial scene, except that the Apostle Paul provides an explanation for us:

“Now I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:1-4, emphasis mine).

That rock—the rock at Horeb, the mountain of God—that rock was Jesus Christ. The staff of God’s judgment that we’d be pleased to see turned on an ungrateful, insolent people, is instead turned onto the rock upon which the manifest presence of God has stood. God turned the staff of His righteous judgment away from those who merited it and turned it onto Himself. The staff of God’s judgment was turned onto Jesus Christ and what happens? Streams of life-giving, living water are provided from a rock in the desert.

Millenia before the birth of Jesus, the work of Calvary is foretold. At Calvary, the work of redemption is finished where God’s judgment strikes the Innocent, and mercy flows forth upon the undeserving.

Sunday School for all ages begins weekly at 9:45 AM. All are warmly welcome.

Sunday School is for All Ages!

Yearly, our church hosts an Easter Eggstravaganza that includes an Easter egg hunt. After hiding about 450 eggs all around our small church, we open the doors and loose basket-wielding children eager to fill them with as many eggs as quickly as they can. As you can imagine, some are better gatherers than others. Some are quick with a keen eye; they fill their baskets, their pockets, and soon enough are handing surplus eggs off to parents and friends. Some come back with a comparatively meager haul. For some reason, we never do seem to find as many as we hide.

I couldn’t help thinking of this Easter scene when reading how God rained bread from heaven for the children of Israel (Exodus 16:4). Similar to the problem of thirst at Marah in Exodus 15:22-27, the desert conditions of the land where they sojourned simply could not provide sustenance for such a large number of people. When the hunger pangs were severe enough, they again grumbled to Moses. Moses again cried out to the LORD, and the LORD again promised provision.

“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘I am going to rain bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. This way I will test them to see whether or not they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days’” (Exodus 16:4-5, emphasis mine).

In their hunger, the children of Israel are tested by God to see whether or not they would follow His instructions. The test wasn’t their hunger, but their obedience. And God’s instructions, described throughout the rest of Exodus 16, boil down to three principles:

1. Only gather what you need, sufficient for the day.

2. Don’t hoard extra.

3. On the Sabbath, rest from gathering.

In the midst of the manifold ways Israel failed all three of these tests (Exodus 16:20 & Exodus 16:27-29), we read an interesting principle for daily bread application:

“So the Israelites did this. Some gathered a lot, some a little. When they measured it by quarts, the person who gathered a lot had no surplus, and the person who gathered a little had no shortage. Each gathered as much as he needed to eat” (Exodus 16:17-18).

Much like our Easter egg hunt, when the children of Israel begin to fill their baskets with manna, some are better gatherers than others. But in the end, we read that one person’s surplus meets another person’s need. What if we thought of our daily bread in this way? “I have what I need for the day; to whom can I give my surplus?” “My quart jars are full for the day; whose aren’t?”

Such was the posture of the earliest church following Pentecost. We read that they “held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need” (Acts 2:44-45). Not out of compulsion, to satisfy a law, but because their hearts were moved to be part of the daily bread provision for their brothers and sisters in the faith.

Sufficient unto the day is the manna thereof. Sufficient: enough to meet the demands of a situation or proposed end; occurring in such quantity, quality, or scope as to fully meet demands, needs, or expectations. Sufficient, not surplus. Whose sufficiency is lacking for want of our freely offered surplus?

“Give me neither poverty nor wealth;
feed me with the food I need.
Otherwise, I might have too much
and deny you, saying, “Who is the LORD?”
or I might have nothing and steal,
profaning the name of my God” (Proverbs 30:8-9).

Sunday School for all ages begins weekly at 9:45 AM. All are warmly welcome.

Sunday School is for All Ages!

With the high of the miraculous Red Sea crossing long behind them and the journey through the wilderness wearing on them, Israel becomes hungry. We read in Exodus 16:2 that they grumbled against Moses and Aaron.

…“If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat and ate all the bread we wanted. Instead, you brought us into this wilderness to make this whole assembly die of hunger!” Exodus 16:3

Somehow, they could remember the taste of unleavened bread and roasted lamb. But, where was their memory of the bitter herbs meant to remind them of the bitterness of their bondage in Egypt?

Let’s not be too quick to condemn Israel. Their journey was terribly hard. They were dragging all they owned through the Sinai desert—the wilderness—for about a month at this point. Food was scarce and hunger is a hard burden. I wonder, how many of their children had asked for food they couldn’t provide? That would break the strongest of us, for sure. This is not a time to minimize Israel’s hardship, but to recognize the weight of it.

We rob ourselves of the comfort of Scripture when we minimize its message. When we make the failures of our heroic characters smaller, or the tribulations described in the Bible less than they were, we rob ourselves of the comfort of a God who provides, heals, and restores amidst the worst of situations. We leave ourselves ill-prepared to endure the discipline of sanctification in exchange for the eternal weight of glory that awaits us (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

Israel, in her hunger, is hurting, and she turns it all toward Moses and Aaron. Fortunately, Moses is able to see this hurt for what it is, and yet again, he speaks caution over God’s people.

“…in the morning you will see the LORD’s glory because He has heard your complaints about Him. For who are we that you complain about us? …He has heard the complaints that you are raising against Him. Who are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the LORD” (Exodus 16:7-8).

Are we able to receive Moses’s words of caution? He doesn’t scold them for being hungry. But he does call them to account for the reality of their words. Around 1500 years before Christ, Moses previews the warning Jesus will issue to the Pharisees: “…out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34, NKJV). Their grumbling was an overflow of their heart toward God, their lack of trust that He would honor His word to them and continue to provide for their needs.

Israel is hurting, but she is not in a place where she will lift her hurt to the Lord. And because she won’t lift her hurt to the Lord, she turns it outward upon her leaders. Israel hasn’t learned to pray like the prophet Habakkuk:

How long, LORD, must I call for help
and You do not listen
or cry out to You about violence
and You do not save? (Habakkuk 1:2).

Because Israel hasn’t learned to pray through hardship like Habakkuk, she also hasn’t learned to praise through hardship like Habakkuk.

Though the fig tree does not bud
and there is no fruit on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though the flocks disappear from the pen
and there are no herds in the stalls,
yet I will celebrate in the LORD;
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!
The LORD my Lord is my strength;
He makes my feet like those of a deer
and enables me to walk on mountain heights! (Habakkuk 3:17-19).

What a prayer! Though the crops fail, the food supply dries up, and the grocery shelves are empty. Though my pantry is bare, my stomach growls, and all my livelihood is gone. Though my wallet is empty, and my job is lost, yet—even so—I will celebrate in the Lord, the God of my salvation who makes my steps sure, even in rocky places.

Because Israel in her time of hunger hadn’t learned to lift her hurt heavenward, she turned it outward. What about us? As we submit to the sanctifying leadership of God—even through wilderness wanderings—where do we take our hurt and fear? Are we spewing it outward, or lifting our eyes to the heavens from which comes our help (Psalm 121:1)?

Sunday School for all ages begins weekly at 9:45 AM. All are warmly welcome.

Sunday School is for All Ages!

Miriam sang to them:

Sing to the LORD,
for He is highly exalted;
He has thrown the horse
and its rider into the sea.

Exodus 15:21

Just a little while before the Red Sea crossing, Israel was in Egypt, preparing for the Passover and the tenth plague that would cause Pharaoh to forcefully expel them from the land. In the midst of packing all they owned to carry out of the only land they’d known for 430 years, the women of Israel made sure to pack their tambourines.

When the Lord delivered Israel through the waters of judgment and death, safe to the other side, Miriam knew just what the occasion required, and she led forth with that tambourine. Led by the women of Israel, they sang what has become known as the Song of Moses.

LORD, who is like you among the gods?
Who is like you, glorious in holiness,
revered with praises, performing wonders?

Exodus 15:11

Just as Israel literally passed through the waters of death and judgment through a miraculous work of the Lord, we who are born again and have participated in the symbol of baptism have figuratively done the same. We have been delivered from death in sin and raised to newness of life in Christ Jesus. Our participation in water baptism symbolizes that inward work of deliverance that Jesus accomplished in us. And Scripture tells us that we who persevere to the end will join the Song of Moses again:

…those who had won the victory over the beast, its image, and the number of its name, were standing on the sea of glass with harps from God. They sang the song of God’s servant Moses and the song of the Lamb:

Great and awe-inspiring are your works,
Lord God, the Almighty;
just and true are your ways,
King of the nations.
Lord, who will not fear
and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
All the nations will come
and worship before you
because your righteous acts
have been revealed.

Revelation 15:2-4

As we journey toward our eternal home in union with Christ, have you packed your tambourine?

Sunday School for all ages begins weekly at 9:45 AM. All are warmly welcome.

Sunday School is for All Ages!

How many times have we seen this verse used to suggest that in a day of adversity, believers are to simply remain silent, sit back, and let the Lord work on our behalf?

Without a second of doubt, the Lord is working on our behalf. But, if we’re to be so passive in the day of tribulation, why was Israel sent into battle just a few pages later (Exodus 17:8-16)? Why did they have to take the Promised Land by conquest (Joshua 6 & following)? Why are we provided the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18) or commanded to wage war against our flesh (1 Corinthians 10:3-6; Galatians 5:19-26) and the devil (James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:8-9)?

Since Scripture does not contradict itself, how are we to then rightly understand this command to silence in Exodus 14? We place the verse back into the full context of the passage.

Moses is addressing a people in panic mode. Although exactly where God had led them, they are entrapped; a sea is ahead of them and Pharaoh’s army is encroaching behind. Jacob’s descendants catch sight of the Egyptians in pursuit and are seized by terror. In their fear, they resort to blame, anger, accusation, and insult.

They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Isn’t this what we told you in Egypt: leave us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness” (Exodus 14:11-12).

They had seen the miraculous judgment of God against Egypt through ten plagues. They had been protected and preserved through 430 years of enslavement. They followed the visible, manifest presence of God in the form of a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night to arrive exactly beside the Red Sea for this moment. And yet, they panicked, which soon turned into a torrent of bitter and unbridled speech. Reckless words.

To this reckless panic, Moses speaks: “Be quiet.” Unofficial translation: “Stop talking right now, while you’re still ahead.” Fear is one thing. Attacking Moses is ungodly, but not fatal. But Israel needs to hush now before letting their mouths go too far.

Bitter and unbridled speech in the day of adversity is still for us a call toward caution. Following the admonition of Moses to Israel, we pray for Holy Spirit discernment to recognize when our words are sanctified or profane. And before we sin with our speech, we hold our peace.

Sunday School for all ages begins weekly at 9:45 AM. All are warmly welcome.