March 13, 2011
Dear friends in Christ.
I think it was about 10 years ago when I first heard of the Do It Yourself, the DIY, Network. I remember being intrigued by the different levels of projects that they displayed, and being especially impressed at how they laid it all out so simply for people so that they could do it themselves. Since then, DIY has grown. All you have to do is type DIY into an Internet search engine and you will have millions of results in about 1/10 of a second. So if you need to know how to do something, with just a few key strokes you can find instructions on any topic under the sun. Well, in some ways, you could say that our lesson today is a bit of a DIY project, because as we study this section of Matthew, we will see Jesus showing us exactly how to resist and avoid temptation. Now, understand, this is not Jesus teaching us how to be holy, perfect, or sinless! Rather, this is Jesus teaching us by his word and his example how to live in our faith and avoid temptation. In fact, I invite you to open your Bibles to our Gospel lesson, to Matthew 4:1-11 and we’ll take a look at the lessons that Jesus is teaching us on avoiding temptation.
Now, as you are turning to Matthew 4, let me remind you of the events that took place just prior to our lesson today. John the Baptist had been preaching and preparing the people for the coming of Jesus. Then suddenly, without warning, Jesus had appeared at the Jordan requesting Baptism by John. After Jesus was baptized God the Father spoke from heaven and the Holy Spirit descended on him as a dove, and immediately Jesus went out into the wilderness. This is where we begin with Jesus’ lessons on avoiding temptation. We begin with lesson 1: Listen to the Lord your God. Take a look at what Matthew records, “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’ Jesus answered, ‘It is written: “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” ’ ” (Matthew 4:1-4). It was just after Jesus’ baptism when this event took place. For after the Holy Spirit had descended on Jesus he led Jesus out into the wilderness where he was to be tempted by the devil. As part of his preparation, Jesus had been fasting for the past forty days and forty nights. He had not eaten anything for over a month! He was undoubtedly being wracked by intense pangs of hunger, and was surely growing weak from lack of food. This was the opportune time the devil wanted, and this was when satan came to Jesus to tempt him!
But did you notice what satan did as I read the text for you? He appealed his temptation to Jesus’ hunger, but he disguised the temptation with religious talk. For he came to Jesus saying, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” With these words, satan was playing to Jesus’ human nature trying to get him to doubt that he truly was the Son of God, and trying to get him to doubt that the Lord God would take care of him. He was in effect trying to suggest that it was beneath the Son of God to go without food! After all, if Jesus really was the Son of God, he would have had the power to create food out of nothing and eat rather than wander around this wilderness starving himself simply because his Father in heaven had commanded him to. Basically, with this temptation, satan was trying to play to what he perceived as a weakness for Jesus.
This is the same thing that the devil does to us. When he tempts us, he always plays to our weaknesses. He focuses on our pet sins, entices us, and makes us want to do something we know is absolutely wrong. Even when we are wise to his temptations, and feel that we are ready to contend with him, he disguises his real temptation, as he did with Jesus, and leads us right around the defenses we’ve set up until we are wallowing around in the pool of the sins which we had hoped to avoid. This is when we need to learn a lesson from Jesus’ examples and listen to the Lord our God as he did. For on our own, we will constantly fall into temptation, but when we follow Jesus’ examples, he will help us stand against our enemy. This is what Jesus did when he was tempted. He didn’t use his almighty power to send satan packing, rather, he used God’s Word. For when satan tempted him to turn those stones in to bread, Jesus simply replied: “Man does not live on bread alone, but every word that comes out of the mouth of God.” In effect, Jesus was saying, “I will listen to what the Lord my God commands, and not you.”
This is the example that Jesus gives for us to follow. For when we are tempted, we have the Word of our Lord to which we also can listen. We have his Word recorded for us in the pages of Scripture, and when we are daily reading our Bibles, we are that much better prepared to face temptations. For when satan comes to tempt us, we can listen to the Lord by simply reminding ourselves of what he tells us in his word. When satan tempts us to steal, we can remember that the Lord says no. When satan tempts us to lie, we can remember how the Lord tells us to let our yes be yes and our no, no. When satan tempts us to do anything, we can listen to the soft, still voice of the Lord our God as he speaks to us through the Bible. Then, as we listen to the Lord our God, we can avoid the temptation into which satan is trying to lead us. Though there will still be times when satan’s temptations get the better of us and we fall into sin, when we turn to the Lord in repentance he will forgive us. When he forgives us he also equips us to listen to him all the more carefully, as we use his word to avoid temptation.
However, the problem is that this is never a onetime battle! The problem is that satan and all his evil angels are crafty individual who are always looking for a way around our line of defense, and just as the Germans marched right around France’s Maginot Line during World War II, satan’s forces quickly find a way to flank our fortifications. This is exactly what satan was trying to do to Jesus after his first temptation failed, and it is this second temptation that leads us into Jesus’ second lesson on avoiding temptation. Let’s take a look at what Matthew tells us, “Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw yourself down. For it is written:’ “He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” ’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is also written: `Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” (Matthew 4:5-7).
As satan lead Jesus to the highest point of the temple he tried to lead Jesus in to a false trust in God. Though Jesus had brilliantly proven he was the Son of God by listening to what the Lord said and trusting that the Lord would sustain him, satan was now trying to maneuver around that defense by getting Jesus to prove his trust. Quite simply, satan was playing on Jesus’ trust in the Lord and trying to use that trust against him. But Jesus’ trust never once wavered, because Jesus, the Author of the Scriptures recognized that satan was setting one Scripture against another. Yet, even as satan did this, Jesus demonstrated his trust in the Lord by placing one Scripture along side of another when he answered satan for Jesus basically responded, “It is true that the Lord has charged his angels to take care of his children, but it is also written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test!’ ”
Well, just as satan used this ploy against Jesus in the wilderness, so he also uses it against us on a regular basis. In fact, it is because we have placed our faith squarely in the Lord that satan constantly seeks to make us doubt that decision, by seeking to make us doubt the Lord himself. Just think about how satan tries to chip away at our trust when bad things happen in our lives. He subtly begins to plant doubts in our minds about the goodness of our God. He makes us wonder, “Why is this happening to me?” “What have I done to deserve this?” He even goes so far as to remind us that the Bible assures us that God loves his children, but we must not be his children if all these things are happening to us. He is right there telling us that the Bible says that God watches over those he loves, but he must not love us, if we are going through such frustrating hardships. And in doing this, satan is seeking to drive a wedge between us and our Lord. He is seeking to weaken our trust in the Lord our God. He is hoping to make us doubt the Lord’s love and give into the temptation to trust ourselves and turn away from the Lord. Though there are times when he succeeds in weakening or even breaking our trust in the Lord, when we turn to the Lord in repentance, it is the Lord who forgives us. It is the Lord who renews us. It is the Lord who reestablishes our trust in him and gives us the ability to trust him all the more. In fact, it is the Lord who assures us that when we completely place our trust in him, satan is not able to tempt us, because the Lord is on our side and fighting for us.
But once again, the problem still remains! Satan does not give up easily. He will continue to tempt us and tempt us as long as he is able. That is why Jesus’ third lesson to us is this: resist the devil and he will flee from you. When satan came tempting Jesus, this is exactly what Jesus did. Just as Matthew tells us in our lesson: “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ‘All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Away from me, Satan! For it is written: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.” ’ Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.” (Matthew 4:8-11).
When it came to the last temptation of the day, satan pulled out all the stops. He took Jesus to a high mountain, and because the Lord allowed him to, he showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and all their splendor. Then he simply said, “All this can be yours if you simply bow down to me and worship me.”
With these words, satan was trying to tempt Jesus with an easy way out. He was trying to tempt Jesus with an easy way out because he knew why Jesus had come to the earth. He knew that Jesus had come to the earth to suffer and to die for the sins of the world. He knew the horrors that Jesus would endure as he hung on that cross suffering under the weight of all those sins. He knew that in his human nature this would be something that Jesus just wasn’t looking forward to, and with this temptation, he was trying to get Jesus to take the easy way out. In effect he was saying, “Why go through all that pain and agony and suffering to attain the glory which the Lord has promised, when I can give you all that glory right now if you just bow down and worship me.” But what was Jesus’ response? “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.” (Matthew 4:10-11).
How often doesn’t satan do the same thing to us? How often doesn’t he tempt us to take the easy way out? How often doesn’t he whisper in our ears, “You know it’s so hard to get up in the morning to get to church on time, maybe you should just sleep in today.” How often doesn’t he try to convince us, “You know, God will understand if you miss church from time to time. He understands that you are busy and that you might want to go to church but your job has to take precedence over worship.” How many times doesn’t he try to convince you that you get more out of worshiping God in nature than you do from sitting in church and listening to the Pastor drone on and on about nothing. How often doesn’t it happen that he succeeds and we take the easy way out? Though there are times when we give in and take the easy way out, when we turn to the Lord in repentance, it is the Lord who forgives us. It is the Lord who builds us up, and it is the Lord who reminds us that when we resist the devil, he will flee from us. Sometimes it may happen with a single rebuke to our enemy. Other times we may have to stand our ground five, six, seven, or even more times as satan comes at us with stronger and stronger temptations. Yet, as Jesus taught us today, we know that when we resist satan, by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, satan must flee from us
Yet, while these lessons should be aptly learned, there is one final lesson we need to keep in mind. In fact, it is the very lesson that has been intertwined with the three we have learned here today and that lesson is simply this: when we do fall into temptation, turn to the Lord in repentance for forgiveness. Though by listening to the Lord our God, by placing our trust squarely in him, and by resisting the devil, we will avoid temptation, we are not perfect like our Savior, and we do fall into temptation. But when we do, we don’t need to beat ourselves up over it, because Jesus Christ our Savior, who endured all of satan’s temptations and never once fell into sin, is the one who forgives us. This is our comfort when we do fall Jesus Christ has forgiven all of our sins, and we can rely on his salvation.
What greater lessons could Jesus be teaching us today than these lesson on avoiding temptation. For it is through his example we have learned that through faith we are able to avoid satan’s temptation by listening to the Lord our God, by placing our faith squarely in the Lord, and resisting the devil until he flees from us. But best of all the lessons is the assurance that when we do fall into temptation all is not lost. Rather we can always turn to the Lord our God in repentance and he will forgive us. he will forgive us, strengthen us, and give us yet one more opportunity to learn from his lesson on avoiding temptation.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
One of the Mob; a Follower (Matthew 27:20-23)
Mach 9, 2011
Ash Wednesday
Preached from the perspective of one of the Mob on Good Friday
Dear friends in Christ.
Were you there when they crucified the Lord? Where you there when they nailed him to the tree? Were you there when they crowned his head with thorns? Were you there when the crowds cried, “Crucify”? Though I know that none of you were there on that dark day so many years ago, I can tell you that I was. I was there as one of that mob. I was there as a follower. I was there, and I can remember the details of that day as clearly as if it happened yesterday. I remember all the sights and sounds from that day. I remember how the sun seemed almost tentative as it warmed my skin that morning and how the breeze almost seemed to hold its breath when Pilate brought Jesus out before the crowd.
Funny thing, isn’t it, I can remember all those details. I can remember exactly how Jesus looked; bruised and beaten with blood trickling down his face from the crown of thorns pressed into his head. Yet I simply, for the life of me, cannot remember why I was part of the crowd in Pilate’s courtyard that morning. I can’t remember if I had gone there out of curiosity to find out why Jesus was on trial or if I had simply been swept along to the palace by the mentality of the mob gathering there. After all, I wasn’t a follower of Jesus at that time. Oh, I had heard him preach. I had seen some miracles, I liked what he had to say, but the Holy Spirit had not yet created faith in my heart to trust in Jesus as my Savior. Though I now know exactly why I was there as part of that mob that day, at the time when Jesus was on trial, I was merely following the crowd.
Yes, I do remember exactly what Jesus looked like when Pilate brought him out before the crowd. I remember Pilate’s booming voice as he asked the people, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” (Matthew 27:17) And I remember seeing the Chief Priests and the Elders circulating through the crowd persuading the people to ask for Barabbas and to have Christ crucified. (Matthew 27:20). I probably wouldn’t have noticed it except for the Elder who came up to me, put his hand on my shoulder, looked me straight in the eye, and told me that if I considered myself and Israelite, I would demand Jesus’ execution and Barabbas’ release. It was in that moment that time seemed to stand still as a saw the Chief Priests and Elders, essentially the entire Sanhedrin—the ruling body of the Israelites—milling through the crowd; turning the people against Jesus. I wondered what I should do! Should I stay and ask for Jesus? Should I do what my leadership told me? Should I just leave and go somewhere else? I didn’t know what I should do. I was frozen with indecision as I heard Pilate ask, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” (Matthew 27:21)
It took a few seconds before my mouth started working again. I heard some shouting for Jesus, but I heard others shouting for Barabbas. Then I heard more and more people taking up the cry for Barabbas, and before I knew it, I joined right in with all the people chanting Barabbas’ name and drowning out any other voices crying out for Jesus. When Pilate asked, “Why? What crime has he committed?” (Matthew 27:23) I didn’t even hesitate. I was right there shouting with the crowds, “Crucify!” “Crucify!” I was fully part of that mob now. I was following every direction that the collective mentality of crowd was giving me. My eyes were gleaming with evil intentions. My stomach hungered for the deed to be done. My blood was boiling with lust to see Christ’s blood spilled on the ground. Every fiber of my being demanded to see him nailed to the cross and crucified. Every part of me needed to see it happen, because I was caught up in the frenzy of the mob that day. I was following the crowd demanding that the governor give the order, so that we could go out to the place of the skull and see it come to pass.
Now, I’m not proud of what I did by any means. But, before you judge me too harshly, let me ask you a question. How often haven’t you done the same thing? How of then haven’t you been part of the mob; a follower of the crowd when it came to sins? How often haven’t your own temptations led you to a mob mentality as you quickly rushed in to your favorite and most comfortable sins with an ever increasing hunger for more? How often haven’t you simply followed the bread crumbs of temptation in to the courtyard of the palace of sin, joining with other sinners as a mob of people trying to justify their actions to each other by comparing their sins to other worse sinners in the world? How often hasn’t our blood boiled with lust as the TV screen, movie screen, or computer screen flickered before us? How often haven’t our mouths cried out with curses upon others, oaths sworn to get even with the person who wronged us in some way, foul language, lies, hatred, gossip, slander, or other sins? How often haven’t you acted just as I did in that crowd, following the mob mentality of sin that moves us to rush forward into more and more greater sins as we hurtle ever forward moving closer and close to the cliffs of damnation?
That’s where I was! I was hurtling through those gates, moving as one; following the mob of people as they led me behind Jesus, out toward the place of the skull. I was there, standing, watching, desiring, and needing to see the nails driven through his hands and feet! I was there needing to see him raised up, dropped into place, and left to die! I was there as part of that mob, following every move until I heard something that began to separate me from them. As they were crucifying him, I heard him pray, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:32–34) In that moment my heart seemed to stop beating as I came back to my senses. When I heard the exchange between one of the thieves and Jesus, and heard Jesus promising the thief that he would be in paradise with Jesus today (Luke 23:39-43) I began wondering if this Jesus might be the Messiah for whom I had been waiting. When the sun stopped shining and darkness covered the land for three hours, I knew there was something special about this Jesus. When I heard him cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) I was immediately reminded of what David had written about the Savior in Psalm 22. Then, when I saw how he died, how he declared everything to be finished, how he committed himself to his heavenly Father, and how the earth shook and the rocks split, I knew that this Jesus had to be the Son of God, the Messiah for whom I had waited, my God who saved me from my sins. Now, I told you that when I was part of that crowd in Pilate’s courtyard I wasn’t a believer. However, I can tell you that if I had not followed the crowd out to Calvary that I may not have had the opportunity to come to faith in Jesus as my Savior. Though I am not proud of my part in the mob, I know I am forgiven. I know that I am forgiven through my Savior who poured out his blood upon the mercy seat of God to atone for my sins.
The same thing is true for each and every one of you who have gathered here today! Though you may have given into a mob mentality when it came to your sins, your sins have been forgiven! Though there have been many occasions that you have rushed head long into your favorite and most comfortable sins, with an ever increasing hunger for more, your Savior’s blood has not only washed you clean, but gives you the desire to turn your back on those sins. Though you may have felt your blood boiling with lust, or your mouth on fire with vicious and sinful words, even these sins have been taken away! They were all nailed to the cross with Jesus your Savior. They were atoned for by his death. They were erased from your record by his blood poured out for you. But best of all, through the faith created in your hearts by the Holy Spirit, you all have been separated from the mob barreling its way toward the cliffs of damnation. Instead you are traveling with the group of believers, following after your Lord and Savior who redeemed you by his blood, made you his own, and has given you the guarantee of eternal life in heaven through faith in the one who poured out his blood for you.
Though none of you were actually there when the crucified our Lord, each time we review the events of that day, our Savior’s love is brought home to us all the more clearly. I pray that through my witness today that you have grown in your faith and your assurance that you have been forgiven by the Blood of the Lamb. I pray that you won’t find yourselves as I did, part of a mob; a follower. Rather, I pray that you will continually be found as a follower of Christ, your living, loving, and forgiven Savior. In his Name.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Ash Wednesday
Preached from the perspective of one of the Mob on Good Friday
Dear friends in Christ.
Were you there when they crucified the Lord? Where you there when they nailed him to the tree? Were you there when they crowned his head with thorns? Were you there when the crowds cried, “Crucify”? Though I know that none of you were there on that dark day so many years ago, I can tell you that I was. I was there as one of that mob. I was there as a follower. I was there, and I can remember the details of that day as clearly as if it happened yesterday. I remember all the sights and sounds from that day. I remember how the sun seemed almost tentative as it warmed my skin that morning and how the breeze almost seemed to hold its breath when Pilate brought Jesus out before the crowd.
Funny thing, isn’t it, I can remember all those details. I can remember exactly how Jesus looked; bruised and beaten with blood trickling down his face from the crown of thorns pressed into his head. Yet I simply, for the life of me, cannot remember why I was part of the crowd in Pilate’s courtyard that morning. I can’t remember if I had gone there out of curiosity to find out why Jesus was on trial or if I had simply been swept along to the palace by the mentality of the mob gathering there. After all, I wasn’t a follower of Jesus at that time. Oh, I had heard him preach. I had seen some miracles, I liked what he had to say, but the Holy Spirit had not yet created faith in my heart to trust in Jesus as my Savior. Though I now know exactly why I was there as part of that mob that day, at the time when Jesus was on trial, I was merely following the crowd.
Yes, I do remember exactly what Jesus looked like when Pilate brought him out before the crowd. I remember Pilate’s booming voice as he asked the people, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” (Matthew 27:17) And I remember seeing the Chief Priests and the Elders circulating through the crowd persuading the people to ask for Barabbas and to have Christ crucified. (Matthew 27:20). I probably wouldn’t have noticed it except for the Elder who came up to me, put his hand on my shoulder, looked me straight in the eye, and told me that if I considered myself and Israelite, I would demand Jesus’ execution and Barabbas’ release. It was in that moment that time seemed to stand still as a saw the Chief Priests and Elders, essentially the entire Sanhedrin—the ruling body of the Israelites—milling through the crowd; turning the people against Jesus. I wondered what I should do! Should I stay and ask for Jesus? Should I do what my leadership told me? Should I just leave and go somewhere else? I didn’t know what I should do. I was frozen with indecision as I heard Pilate ask, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” (Matthew 27:21)
It took a few seconds before my mouth started working again. I heard some shouting for Jesus, but I heard others shouting for Barabbas. Then I heard more and more people taking up the cry for Barabbas, and before I knew it, I joined right in with all the people chanting Barabbas’ name and drowning out any other voices crying out for Jesus. When Pilate asked, “Why? What crime has he committed?” (Matthew 27:23) I didn’t even hesitate. I was right there shouting with the crowds, “Crucify!” “Crucify!” I was fully part of that mob now. I was following every direction that the collective mentality of crowd was giving me. My eyes were gleaming with evil intentions. My stomach hungered for the deed to be done. My blood was boiling with lust to see Christ’s blood spilled on the ground. Every fiber of my being demanded to see him nailed to the cross and crucified. Every part of me needed to see it happen, because I was caught up in the frenzy of the mob that day. I was following the crowd demanding that the governor give the order, so that we could go out to the place of the skull and see it come to pass.
Now, I’m not proud of what I did by any means. But, before you judge me too harshly, let me ask you a question. How often haven’t you done the same thing? How of then haven’t you been part of the mob; a follower of the crowd when it came to sins? How often haven’t your own temptations led you to a mob mentality as you quickly rushed in to your favorite and most comfortable sins with an ever increasing hunger for more? How often haven’t you simply followed the bread crumbs of temptation in to the courtyard of the palace of sin, joining with other sinners as a mob of people trying to justify their actions to each other by comparing their sins to other worse sinners in the world? How often hasn’t our blood boiled with lust as the TV screen, movie screen, or computer screen flickered before us? How often haven’t our mouths cried out with curses upon others, oaths sworn to get even with the person who wronged us in some way, foul language, lies, hatred, gossip, slander, or other sins? How often haven’t you acted just as I did in that crowd, following the mob mentality of sin that moves us to rush forward into more and more greater sins as we hurtle ever forward moving closer and close to the cliffs of damnation?
That’s where I was! I was hurtling through those gates, moving as one; following the mob of people as they led me behind Jesus, out toward the place of the skull. I was there, standing, watching, desiring, and needing to see the nails driven through his hands and feet! I was there needing to see him raised up, dropped into place, and left to die! I was there as part of that mob, following every move until I heard something that began to separate me from them. As they were crucifying him, I heard him pray, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:32–34) In that moment my heart seemed to stop beating as I came back to my senses. When I heard the exchange between one of the thieves and Jesus, and heard Jesus promising the thief that he would be in paradise with Jesus today (Luke 23:39-43) I began wondering if this Jesus might be the Messiah for whom I had been waiting. When the sun stopped shining and darkness covered the land for three hours, I knew there was something special about this Jesus. When I heard him cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) I was immediately reminded of what David had written about the Savior in Psalm 22. Then, when I saw how he died, how he declared everything to be finished, how he committed himself to his heavenly Father, and how the earth shook and the rocks split, I knew that this Jesus had to be the Son of God, the Messiah for whom I had waited, my God who saved me from my sins. Now, I told you that when I was part of that crowd in Pilate’s courtyard I wasn’t a believer. However, I can tell you that if I had not followed the crowd out to Calvary that I may not have had the opportunity to come to faith in Jesus as my Savior. Though I am not proud of my part in the mob, I know I am forgiven. I know that I am forgiven through my Savior who poured out his blood upon the mercy seat of God to atone for my sins.
The same thing is true for each and every one of you who have gathered here today! Though you may have given into a mob mentality when it came to your sins, your sins have been forgiven! Though there have been many occasions that you have rushed head long into your favorite and most comfortable sins, with an ever increasing hunger for more, your Savior’s blood has not only washed you clean, but gives you the desire to turn your back on those sins. Though you may have felt your blood boiling with lust, or your mouth on fire with vicious and sinful words, even these sins have been taken away! They were all nailed to the cross with Jesus your Savior. They were atoned for by his death. They were erased from your record by his blood poured out for you. But best of all, through the faith created in your hearts by the Holy Spirit, you all have been separated from the mob barreling its way toward the cliffs of damnation. Instead you are traveling with the group of believers, following after your Lord and Savior who redeemed you by his blood, made you his own, and has given you the guarantee of eternal life in heaven through faith in the one who poured out his blood for you.
Though none of you were actually there when the crucified our Lord, each time we review the events of that day, our Savior’s love is brought home to us all the more clearly. I pray that through my witness today that you have grown in your faith and your assurance that you have been forgiven by the Blood of the Lamb. I pray that you won’t find yourselves as I did, part of a mob; a follower. Rather, I pray that you will continually be found as a follower of Christ, your living, loving, and forgiven Savior. In his Name.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, March 6, 2011
The Lord Has Blessed You! (Numbers 6:22-27)
March 6, 2011
Dear friends in Christ.
How have you been enjoying exploring God’s Islands of Adventure? Personally I have loved this Bible reading challenge, because so many of you are reading and studying the Scriptures for yourselves on a regular basis. Though only a few people have added their names to ships that have been anchored on the different Islands, so many of our members have told me that they are reading on a regular basis. More and more people are coming to Bible Study to study the Word of God together and discuss different things they have learned, and I have enjoyed preaching on different lessons from the Chronological schedule of readings that so many of you are following. I have enjoyed it, because I have seen just how the Lord has begun blessing us as a congregation through this Bible Reading challenge, for that is what the Lord does as we grow in our faith through his Word.
In fact, this is the very thing we want to study as we take a look at the Aaronic blessing recorded for us in Numbers 6:22-27. I invite you then to open your Bibles to our first lesson, to Numbers 6:22-27. Now, as you are turning to Numbers six, let me give you a little bit of background. The Nation of Israel had been camped at Mt. Sinai for roughly 10 months now, and during their time there they had seen amazing things, been unfaithful to the Lord, forgiven by the Lord, blessed by the Lord and accomplished great things for the Lord. They had seen the Lord appear to them in a fiery cloud on the top of Mt. Sinai. They watched as Moses climb the mountain and disappeared into that cloud of fire and smoke. They grew impatient for Moses return and persuaded Aaron to fashion them a new god, a golden calf. They felt the sword of the Lord’s judgment when Moses returned from the Mountain. They repented and were forgiven. They watched as Moses again returned to the top of the Mountain for another 40 days. But this time, when he came down, there was no golden calf. Rather, whIen Moses returned to them with his radiant face glowing with the glory of the Lord, they set to work constructing the Tabernacle. Now, as the Lord speaks to Moses in our lesson for today, the Lord bestows upon his people, both Israel and all of his followers, what we have come to know as the Aaronic Blessing: Take a look at verse 22: “The LORD said to Moses, 23 “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: 24 “ ‘ “The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.” ’ 27 “So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.” (Numbers 6:22–27, NIV84)
In such a simple way, with such well chosen words, the Lord our God bestows the gift of his blessing upon his people Israel; both physical descendants of Israel as well as spiritual Israel, people like you and me who are now Israelites through faith in Jesus. What a comfort it is to know that whenever we hear these words of blessing spoken to us, it is as if the Lord himself is speaking to us, placing his name on us and blessing us! Though it could be said that this is a blessing that we take for granted because we hear these words spoken so often, they are still filled with great comfort. Though it could be said that we have emptied the word bless of all its meaning by constantly using it after people sneeze, when we take a close look at the word bless, we find that it is an amazing word filled with layers if meaning.
For example, if you turn to the Dictionary, you will find that the word bless means, “to invoke divine favor upon someone”; to convey well-being or prosperity on someone”; or “to endow, as with a talent.” This pretty much describes how we view blessings in our lives, yet, if you dig a little deeper and take a look at the Hebrew word in our passage, you would find that the Hebrew word for bless is barek or barak depending upon how you pronounce it. Hearing that, many of you are probably thinking that our President’s name must mean “bless”. Interestingly that is exactly what it means, in Swahili, which I understand is the language either his Father or Grandfather spoke. However, based on what I could find, when it comes to Hebrew it seems that his name means lightning. This is all based on the length of the vowels and which Hebrew letter is used for the K sound. Anyway, as I was saying, the Hebrew word for bless is barek or barak, depending on how you pronounce it and it is a word that carries the idea of conveying favor upon a person. But it also carries the idea of kneeling down on the knees, either with a straight back, or bent over with your face toward the ground as in a position of worship or humility. This paints the picture that the person who is blessing you is greater than you and you are showing appreciation to that person by humbly accepting his gift of favor upon you. But the thing that is even more interesting is what you discover when you take a look at the etymology or the Word History of our English word bless. When we do this we find that it is a word that comes to us from the Old English which conveys the meaning of wishing happiness upon someone or consecrating someone. If we look back even farther we discover that the word can be shown to derive from a Germanic root that literally means “to consecrate with blood”
Though the Hebrew word itself may not convey the idea of consecrating with blood, when we take a look at how the Lord our God has blessed us, we quickly realize that it is the Lord who blesses us with his favor through the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for us by washing us clean with his blood and setting us apart as his brothers and sisters, children of God through faith in him. Thus, when we hear those words, “The Lord bless you and keep you” we are assured that it is the Lord our God who is not only continually bestowing his favor upon us, but he is also the one who is keeping us, and guarding us because we belong to him. Just as he assures us in Psalm 91:11, “He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;” (Psalm 91:11, NIV84)
How often hasn’t the Lord done this for us? How often hasn’t the Lord blessed us when we least expected it or simply needed it the most? How often hasn’t the Lord provided for you exactly what you needed in the very moment you needed? How often hasn’t the Lord protected you from harm? How many situations can you point to in your life that you can see the Lord’s protecting hand keeping you safe from trouble and danger? This is how the Lord our God has blessed us in the past and will continue to bless us into the future as he promises when we hear those beautiful words, “ ‘ “The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;” (Numbers 6:24–25, NIV84)
What is the first thing that you do when you walk into a dark room? You flip the light switch and turn on the lights so that you can see where you are, where you are going, and what is in the room! This is something that is so ingrained into our nature that we do it without thinking about it. We often do it when we walk into a room on a sunny day. We even do it when the power is out. Though we know the power is out, we naturally reach out and flip the switch to illuminate the room, only to stand there, befuddled for a moment or two, until we realize that the power is out and there can be no light. The Lord our God works in much the same way, each time we hear that the Lord is causing his face to shine upon us, we understand just how greatly he is blessing us. For throughout the Scriptures, whenever the Lord hides his face from his people they face suffering, hardship, destruction and even death. However, when he shines his face upon them he graciously blesses them with his loving presence.
The Lord has done the same thing for us! In fact, each week as we hear this blessing, we are assured that the Lord our God will continue to cause his face to shine upon us and be gracious to us! Each week we are reminded of how the Lord our God did that for us through his Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior. For Jesus, our Savior is the shining light of the Lord’s grace to us. As the Scriptures tell us, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being,” (Hebrews 1:3, NIV84) Jesus is the one who came to us, revealing his gracious love for us in all that he did. Though we had done nothing to earn it or deserve it, Jesus willingly carried the concrete slabs of our sins to the execution chamber of the cross. As the crowds gathered expecting to hear his final confession or pleas that he was innocent, they only heard him whisper, Father forgive them. As they taunted him, expecting him to reply, they heard only silence. Though they expected only to hear the strangled gurgle of suffocation when Jesus died, they heard him cry out in a loud voice, they felt the earth quake, and the rocks split. This is how the Lord our God has blessed us, how he has caused his face to shine upon us and been gracious to us! Though we had been lost in the dark midnight of sin, the dawn of the Lord’s grace rose upon us and the Light of Christ our Savior was shown in our hearts. Though we had done nothing to deserve it, it was Christ our Savior who: “redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with his holy precious blood, and innocent suffering and death. All this he did that I should be his own and live under him in his kingdom and serve him with everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness, just as he has risen from death, and lives and rules eternally. This is most certainly true.”
How greatly the Lord has blessed us that he should make his face shine upon us and be gracious to us, or that he should even turn his face toward us and give us peace. (Numbers 6:25–26, NIV84) Yet this is exactly what the Lord our God has done for us. He has blessed us not only by causing his face to shine on us but by turning his face toward us and giving us peace. Now I realize that the final clause of the Lord’s blessing sounds very similar to the second clause. Interestingly the same Hebrew word is used in both verses when speaking of the Lord’s face. Yet while verse 25 speaks about the Lord causing the light of his face to shine upon us, verse 26 speaks about the Lord fixing his loving gaze upon us; not only fixing his loving gaze upon us, but giving us his undivided attention. In such a simple way the Lord is assuring us that he is intensely interested in each and every one of us, and he will give us the individualized attention that each and every one of us needs!
What a comfort it is to know that the Lord our God cherishes us so much that he blesses us with his peace, which is the peace that goes beyond all understanding, the peace of the forgiveness of sins! This is the uplifting peace that the Holy Spirit pours out in our hearts as he assures us of the forgiveness of sins won for us by our dear Savior Jesus. This is the peace that builds us up when we are weak and sustains us when we cannot stand. This is the peace through which the Lord our God assures us that we have been completely forgiven of all our sins, that our slates have not only been washed clean but have been completely replaced without any chalk to keep a record of wrong, and that continues to assure us that we are, once again, in a right relationship with the Lord our God.
What greater blessing could there be than this blessing that the Lord our God bestows upon us each and every week! For it is through this very blessing that the Lord our God places his Name on us and blesses us as his people. It is through this blessing we are assured that he is watching over us, guarding us, and protecting us. It is through this blessing that we are assured of his peace and that we are in a right relationship with him through the forgiveness of sins. Though there are times when we take this blessing for granted, as you hear it one more time, let it wash over your heart and mind as you hear it one more time: “ ‘ “The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.” ’ (Numbers 6:24–26, NIV84)
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Dear friends in Christ.
How have you been enjoying exploring God’s Islands of Adventure? Personally I have loved this Bible reading challenge, because so many of you are reading and studying the Scriptures for yourselves on a regular basis. Though only a few people have added their names to ships that have been anchored on the different Islands, so many of our members have told me that they are reading on a regular basis. More and more people are coming to Bible Study to study the Word of God together and discuss different things they have learned, and I have enjoyed preaching on different lessons from the Chronological schedule of readings that so many of you are following. I have enjoyed it, because I have seen just how the Lord has begun blessing us as a congregation through this Bible Reading challenge, for that is what the Lord does as we grow in our faith through his Word.
In fact, this is the very thing we want to study as we take a look at the Aaronic blessing recorded for us in Numbers 6:22-27. I invite you then to open your Bibles to our first lesson, to Numbers 6:22-27. Now, as you are turning to Numbers six, let me give you a little bit of background. The Nation of Israel had been camped at Mt. Sinai for roughly 10 months now, and during their time there they had seen amazing things, been unfaithful to the Lord, forgiven by the Lord, blessed by the Lord and accomplished great things for the Lord. They had seen the Lord appear to them in a fiery cloud on the top of Mt. Sinai. They watched as Moses climb the mountain and disappeared into that cloud of fire and smoke. They grew impatient for Moses return and persuaded Aaron to fashion them a new god, a golden calf. They felt the sword of the Lord’s judgment when Moses returned from the Mountain. They repented and were forgiven. They watched as Moses again returned to the top of the Mountain for another 40 days. But this time, when he came down, there was no golden calf. Rather, whIen Moses returned to them with his radiant face glowing with the glory of the Lord, they set to work constructing the Tabernacle. Now, as the Lord speaks to Moses in our lesson for today, the Lord bestows upon his people, both Israel and all of his followers, what we have come to know as the Aaronic Blessing: Take a look at verse 22: “The LORD said to Moses, 23 “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: 24 “ ‘ “The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.” ’ 27 “So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.” (Numbers 6:22–27, NIV84)
In such a simple way, with such well chosen words, the Lord our God bestows the gift of his blessing upon his people Israel; both physical descendants of Israel as well as spiritual Israel, people like you and me who are now Israelites through faith in Jesus. What a comfort it is to know that whenever we hear these words of blessing spoken to us, it is as if the Lord himself is speaking to us, placing his name on us and blessing us! Though it could be said that this is a blessing that we take for granted because we hear these words spoken so often, they are still filled with great comfort. Though it could be said that we have emptied the word bless of all its meaning by constantly using it after people sneeze, when we take a close look at the word bless, we find that it is an amazing word filled with layers if meaning.
For example, if you turn to the Dictionary, you will find that the word bless means, “to invoke divine favor upon someone”; to convey well-being or prosperity on someone”; or “to endow, as with a talent.” This pretty much describes how we view blessings in our lives, yet, if you dig a little deeper and take a look at the Hebrew word in our passage, you would find that the Hebrew word for bless is barek or barak depending upon how you pronounce it. Hearing that, many of you are probably thinking that our President’s name must mean “bless”. Interestingly that is exactly what it means, in Swahili, which I understand is the language either his Father or Grandfather spoke. However, based on what I could find, when it comes to Hebrew it seems that his name means lightning. This is all based on the length of the vowels and which Hebrew letter is used for the K sound. Anyway, as I was saying, the Hebrew word for bless is barek or barak, depending on how you pronounce it and it is a word that carries the idea of conveying favor upon a person. But it also carries the idea of kneeling down on the knees, either with a straight back, or bent over with your face toward the ground as in a position of worship or humility. This paints the picture that the person who is blessing you is greater than you and you are showing appreciation to that person by humbly accepting his gift of favor upon you. But the thing that is even more interesting is what you discover when you take a look at the etymology or the Word History of our English word bless. When we do this we find that it is a word that comes to us from the Old English which conveys the meaning of wishing happiness upon someone or consecrating someone. If we look back even farther we discover that the word can be shown to derive from a Germanic root that literally means “to consecrate with blood”
Though the Hebrew word itself may not convey the idea of consecrating with blood, when we take a look at how the Lord our God has blessed us, we quickly realize that it is the Lord who blesses us with his favor through the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for us by washing us clean with his blood and setting us apart as his brothers and sisters, children of God through faith in him. Thus, when we hear those words, “The Lord bless you and keep you” we are assured that it is the Lord our God who is not only continually bestowing his favor upon us, but he is also the one who is keeping us, and guarding us because we belong to him. Just as he assures us in Psalm 91:11, “He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;” (Psalm 91:11, NIV84)
How often hasn’t the Lord done this for us? How often hasn’t the Lord blessed us when we least expected it or simply needed it the most? How often hasn’t the Lord provided for you exactly what you needed in the very moment you needed? How often hasn’t the Lord protected you from harm? How many situations can you point to in your life that you can see the Lord’s protecting hand keeping you safe from trouble and danger? This is how the Lord our God has blessed us in the past and will continue to bless us into the future as he promises when we hear those beautiful words, “ ‘ “The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;” (Numbers 6:24–25, NIV84)
What is the first thing that you do when you walk into a dark room? You flip the light switch and turn on the lights so that you can see where you are, where you are going, and what is in the room! This is something that is so ingrained into our nature that we do it without thinking about it. We often do it when we walk into a room on a sunny day. We even do it when the power is out. Though we know the power is out, we naturally reach out and flip the switch to illuminate the room, only to stand there, befuddled for a moment or two, until we realize that the power is out and there can be no light. The Lord our God works in much the same way, each time we hear that the Lord is causing his face to shine upon us, we understand just how greatly he is blessing us. For throughout the Scriptures, whenever the Lord hides his face from his people they face suffering, hardship, destruction and even death. However, when he shines his face upon them he graciously blesses them with his loving presence.
The Lord has done the same thing for us! In fact, each week as we hear this blessing, we are assured that the Lord our God will continue to cause his face to shine upon us and be gracious to us! Each week we are reminded of how the Lord our God did that for us through his Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior. For Jesus, our Savior is the shining light of the Lord’s grace to us. As the Scriptures tell us, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being,” (Hebrews 1:3, NIV84) Jesus is the one who came to us, revealing his gracious love for us in all that he did. Though we had done nothing to earn it or deserve it, Jesus willingly carried the concrete slabs of our sins to the execution chamber of the cross. As the crowds gathered expecting to hear his final confession or pleas that he was innocent, they only heard him whisper, Father forgive them. As they taunted him, expecting him to reply, they heard only silence. Though they expected only to hear the strangled gurgle of suffocation when Jesus died, they heard him cry out in a loud voice, they felt the earth quake, and the rocks split. This is how the Lord our God has blessed us, how he has caused his face to shine upon us and been gracious to us! Though we had been lost in the dark midnight of sin, the dawn of the Lord’s grace rose upon us and the Light of Christ our Savior was shown in our hearts. Though we had done nothing to deserve it, it was Christ our Savior who: “redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with his holy precious blood, and innocent suffering and death. All this he did that I should be his own and live under him in his kingdom and serve him with everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness, just as he has risen from death, and lives and rules eternally. This is most certainly true.”
How greatly the Lord has blessed us that he should make his face shine upon us and be gracious to us, or that he should even turn his face toward us and give us peace. (Numbers 6:25–26, NIV84) Yet this is exactly what the Lord our God has done for us. He has blessed us not only by causing his face to shine on us but by turning his face toward us and giving us peace. Now I realize that the final clause of the Lord’s blessing sounds very similar to the second clause. Interestingly the same Hebrew word is used in both verses when speaking of the Lord’s face. Yet while verse 25 speaks about the Lord causing the light of his face to shine upon us, verse 26 speaks about the Lord fixing his loving gaze upon us; not only fixing his loving gaze upon us, but giving us his undivided attention. In such a simple way the Lord is assuring us that he is intensely interested in each and every one of us, and he will give us the individualized attention that each and every one of us needs!
What a comfort it is to know that the Lord our God cherishes us so much that he blesses us with his peace, which is the peace that goes beyond all understanding, the peace of the forgiveness of sins! This is the uplifting peace that the Holy Spirit pours out in our hearts as he assures us of the forgiveness of sins won for us by our dear Savior Jesus. This is the peace that builds us up when we are weak and sustains us when we cannot stand. This is the peace through which the Lord our God assures us that we have been completely forgiven of all our sins, that our slates have not only been washed clean but have been completely replaced without any chalk to keep a record of wrong, and that continues to assure us that we are, once again, in a right relationship with the Lord our God.
What greater blessing could there be than this blessing that the Lord our God bestows upon us each and every week! For it is through this very blessing that the Lord our God places his Name on us and blesses us as his people. It is through this blessing we are assured that he is watching over us, guarding us, and protecting us. It is through this blessing that we are assured of his peace and that we are in a right relationship with him through the forgiveness of sins. Though there are times when we take this blessing for granted, as you hear it one more time, let it wash over your heart and mind as you hear it one more time: “ ‘ “The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.” ’ (Numbers 6:24–26, NIV84)
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, February 27, 2011
The Lord is our Bridegroom (Hosea 2:14-16, 19-20)
February 27, 2011
Dear friends in Christ.
Back in 1999 Julia Roberts starred in the movie, “Runaway Bride”, a story about a woman who has cold feet when it comes to being married. Though she has been engaged to be married a number of times, each time she leaves the groom standing at the altar, running out of the church and away from the marriage that was to be. During the course of the movie, as she is engaged to fiancée number 4, a reporter who had written an article about her comes to town to learn more about her. Though she cannot stand him at the beginning, slowly she begins to fall in love with this man, and the two of them make plans to be married. Yet, when it comes to their wedding, the same thing happens! She gets scared, she turns and she runs out of the church, fleeing the scene on the back of a Fed Ex truck. However, rather than just standing at the altar shocked and bewildered like the other grooms, this time the groom runs after her. This time the groom chases after her because he is simply not willing to let her go! Interestingly enough, this movie is, in many ways, a portrayal of our lives. We are the bride who keeps getting cold feet and running off, and the Lord is our Bridegroom. The Lord is our Bridegroom, and it is in his great mercy for us that he chases after us, that he leads us back to himself, and that he reconciles us to himself.
Now, as we take a closer look at how the Lord is our Bridegroom, I invite you to open your Bibles to our lesson today in Hosea 2:14-16, and 19-20. Now, as you are looking up Hosea 2, let me give you a little bit of background as to what is going on here. About two hundred years before Hosea was on the scene, King Solomon was ruling the land. He was the wisest and richest king Israel had ever known. He was the one who built the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. However, toward the end of his life he began to fall away from, the Lord and worship the false gods of his many wives. Then, after King Solomon died, ten of the tribes of Israel rebelled against his successor, Rehoboam, and founded the Northern Kingdom under the leadership of King Jeroboam. This left only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin who formed the Southern Kingdom under Rehoboam. Once the Northern Kingdom was established, King Jeroboam forbade his people to go to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. Instead, he set up two golden calf idols and commanded those living in the Northern Kingdom to worship these idols as their gods. So, by the time the Lord appointed Hosea as his prophet to the Northern Kingdom, idolatry was firmly established. Though Israel had acted as an unfaithful bride to the Lord her bridegroom, the Lord sent Hosea to her to call Israel back to himself. He says: “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. In that day,” declares the LORD, “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master,’”…I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD,” (Hosea 2:14-16, 19-20, NIV 1984).
Even though Israel had been unfaithful to him, by going off to worship false gods and idols, it was the Lord, Israel’s bridegroom, who in his mercy sent the Prophet Hosea to lead them back to himself so that they might be reconciled to him. Well just as the Lord did this for his people Israel, he does the same thing for you and me. For the truth is, each time we sin, we wander farther and farther away from the Lord. In this way we are so much like sheep grazing out in the pasture. Though we might start off grazing near the shepherd, before we know it we completely focused on the green grass before us. As we much on that grass, we keep our heads down, focused only on the green grass in front of us; following it as we graze. We go from patch to patch following the grass that seems to keep getting greener and greener. Then before we know it, with stomachs full to bursting, we look up and see that we have separated ourselves from the shepherd. The other sheep are nowhere to be found, and we are lost.
Though we may not have gone off to worship false gods and idols, we have all wandered away from the Lord, our Bridegroom. We have all fallen into sins that have led to other sins, that have given us cold feet when it came to spending time with the Lord either in church or personal Bible Study, and like Julia Roberts in “Runaway Bride” we have turned and run away from the Lord as fast as our feet could carry us because we knew our sins. Yet, even though we didn’t deserve it, in his mercy, the Lord, our Bridegroom ran after us. The Lord our Bridegroom called to us with the sweet love song of his Word. The Lord our Bridegroom spoke tenderly to us with the gospel message of salvation that is ours through Jesus Christ. The Lord, our Bridegroom allured us with the wedding gift of salvation that he provided for us through the death and resurrection of his Son in our place, and in doing so the Lord leads us back and reconciled us to him as his dearly loved bride. In fact, take a look at the promise the Lord makes to us in verse 19 and 20 of Chapter 2: “I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD,” (Hosea 2:19-20, NIV 1984).
During Old Testament times, when a couple was betrothed, they were setting themselves aside only for each other. They were promising themselves to each other as husband and wife. In fact, in those days people who were betrothed were recognized as husband and wife in all ways, except for the way that produces children. Everyone recognized that these two who had promised themselves to each other would soon be united as husband and wife in every way as soon as the marriage feast took place. When the Lord made this promise to his people Israel, that he would betroth them to himself forever, he was assuring them that he was the Bridegroom who loved them, who had forgiven them, who had set them apart for him, who had made them his people, and who, as their Bridegroom, loved them as a husband loves his wife.
This is the promise that the Lord, our Bridegroom has also made to us through the blood of our Savior. Though we didn’t deserve it by any means, in his mercy, the Lord our God betrothed himself to us when he reconciled us through the death and the resurrection of his Son, our Savior. In doing this the Lord has demonstrated his great love for us. He has assured us that we belong to him in the same way that wives and husbands belong to each other. He has assured us that we have been forgiven of all our sins. In fact, because we have been betrothed to the Lord our God, we have the joy and certainty of knowing that he is our God. Though here on earth we are living in the joy of engagement, so to speak, when the Lord calls us home, we will live in the joy of marriage, the joy of living with the Lord, our Bridegroom forever in heaven.
This is the, “happily ever after” that closes so many of the fairy tails of childhood, and this is the happily ever after that closed the movie “Runaway Bride”. Though Julia Roberts did run away from her marriage to the reporter, at the end of the movie we see the two of them finally married and beginning their lives as husband and wife. Today, we have seen the same thing in our lives. Though we have run away from the Lord, our Bridegroom, he is the one who chased after us. He is the one who led us back to himself. He is the one who reconciled us to himself. He is the one who has betrothed himself to us. Because of all of this we are looking forward to our happily ever after that we will spend with the Lord our Bridegroom, forever at the marriage feast in heaven.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Dear friends in Christ.
Back in 1999 Julia Roberts starred in the movie, “Runaway Bride”, a story about a woman who has cold feet when it comes to being married. Though she has been engaged to be married a number of times, each time she leaves the groom standing at the altar, running out of the church and away from the marriage that was to be. During the course of the movie, as she is engaged to fiancée number 4, a reporter who had written an article about her comes to town to learn more about her. Though she cannot stand him at the beginning, slowly she begins to fall in love with this man, and the two of them make plans to be married. Yet, when it comes to their wedding, the same thing happens! She gets scared, she turns and she runs out of the church, fleeing the scene on the back of a Fed Ex truck. However, rather than just standing at the altar shocked and bewildered like the other grooms, this time the groom runs after her. This time the groom chases after her because he is simply not willing to let her go! Interestingly enough, this movie is, in many ways, a portrayal of our lives. We are the bride who keeps getting cold feet and running off, and the Lord is our Bridegroom. The Lord is our Bridegroom, and it is in his great mercy for us that he chases after us, that he leads us back to himself, and that he reconciles us to himself.
Now, as we take a closer look at how the Lord is our Bridegroom, I invite you to open your Bibles to our lesson today in Hosea 2:14-16, and 19-20. Now, as you are looking up Hosea 2, let me give you a little bit of background as to what is going on here. About two hundred years before Hosea was on the scene, King Solomon was ruling the land. He was the wisest and richest king Israel had ever known. He was the one who built the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. However, toward the end of his life he began to fall away from, the Lord and worship the false gods of his many wives. Then, after King Solomon died, ten of the tribes of Israel rebelled against his successor, Rehoboam, and founded the Northern Kingdom under the leadership of King Jeroboam. This left only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin who formed the Southern Kingdom under Rehoboam. Once the Northern Kingdom was established, King Jeroboam forbade his people to go to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. Instead, he set up two golden calf idols and commanded those living in the Northern Kingdom to worship these idols as their gods. So, by the time the Lord appointed Hosea as his prophet to the Northern Kingdom, idolatry was firmly established. Though Israel had acted as an unfaithful bride to the Lord her bridegroom, the Lord sent Hosea to her to call Israel back to himself. He says: “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. In that day,” declares the LORD, “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master,’”…I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD,” (Hosea 2:14-16, 19-20, NIV 1984).
Even though Israel had been unfaithful to him, by going off to worship false gods and idols, it was the Lord, Israel’s bridegroom, who in his mercy sent the Prophet Hosea to lead them back to himself so that they might be reconciled to him. Well just as the Lord did this for his people Israel, he does the same thing for you and me. For the truth is, each time we sin, we wander farther and farther away from the Lord. In this way we are so much like sheep grazing out in the pasture. Though we might start off grazing near the shepherd, before we know it we completely focused on the green grass before us. As we much on that grass, we keep our heads down, focused only on the green grass in front of us; following it as we graze. We go from patch to patch following the grass that seems to keep getting greener and greener. Then before we know it, with stomachs full to bursting, we look up and see that we have separated ourselves from the shepherd. The other sheep are nowhere to be found, and we are lost.
Though we may not have gone off to worship false gods and idols, we have all wandered away from the Lord, our Bridegroom. We have all fallen into sins that have led to other sins, that have given us cold feet when it came to spending time with the Lord either in church or personal Bible Study, and like Julia Roberts in “Runaway Bride” we have turned and run away from the Lord as fast as our feet could carry us because we knew our sins. Yet, even though we didn’t deserve it, in his mercy, the Lord, our Bridegroom ran after us. The Lord our Bridegroom called to us with the sweet love song of his Word. The Lord our Bridegroom spoke tenderly to us with the gospel message of salvation that is ours through Jesus Christ. The Lord, our Bridegroom allured us with the wedding gift of salvation that he provided for us through the death and resurrection of his Son in our place, and in doing so the Lord leads us back and reconciled us to him as his dearly loved bride. In fact, take a look at the promise the Lord makes to us in verse 19 and 20 of Chapter 2: “I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD,” (Hosea 2:19-20, NIV 1984).
During Old Testament times, when a couple was betrothed, they were setting themselves aside only for each other. They were promising themselves to each other as husband and wife. In fact, in those days people who were betrothed were recognized as husband and wife in all ways, except for the way that produces children. Everyone recognized that these two who had promised themselves to each other would soon be united as husband and wife in every way as soon as the marriage feast took place. When the Lord made this promise to his people Israel, that he would betroth them to himself forever, he was assuring them that he was the Bridegroom who loved them, who had forgiven them, who had set them apart for him, who had made them his people, and who, as their Bridegroom, loved them as a husband loves his wife.
This is the promise that the Lord, our Bridegroom has also made to us through the blood of our Savior. Though we didn’t deserve it by any means, in his mercy, the Lord our God betrothed himself to us when he reconciled us through the death and the resurrection of his Son, our Savior. In doing this the Lord has demonstrated his great love for us. He has assured us that we belong to him in the same way that wives and husbands belong to each other. He has assured us that we have been forgiven of all our sins. In fact, because we have been betrothed to the Lord our God, we have the joy and certainty of knowing that he is our God. Though here on earth we are living in the joy of engagement, so to speak, when the Lord calls us home, we will live in the joy of marriage, the joy of living with the Lord, our Bridegroom forever in heaven.
This is the, “happily ever after” that closes so many of the fairy tails of childhood, and this is the happily ever after that closed the movie “Runaway Bride”. Though Julia Roberts did run away from her marriage to the reporter, at the end of the movie we see the two of them finally married and beginning their lives as husband and wife. Today, we have seen the same thing in our lives. Though we have run away from the Lord, our Bridegroom, he is the one who chased after us. He is the one who led us back to himself. He is the one who reconciled us to himself. He is the one who has betrothed himself to us. Because of all of this we are looking forward to our happily ever after that we will spend with the Lord our Bridegroom, forever at the marriage feast in heaven.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Jesus Reveals Himself as our Savior (Mark 1:40-45)
February 20, 2011
Dear friends in Christ.
For centuries magicians have been entertaining people with their tricks, illusions, misdirection and sleight of hand, and for centuries audiences have been clamoring to find out exactly how magicians did what they did. Though most have strictly followed the code that a magician never reveals his secrets, recently there have been some magicians who have come forward and publicly revealed at least some of their secrets. You may have seen some of the TV specials that have aired in the last few years, specials where a magician will perform a certain trick to amaze the audience and then repeat the same trick, revealing to them exactly how it was done. In some ways Jesus was doing a similar thing in our lesson today. It wasn’t that he was doing miracles to entertain the crowds who had gathered to see him and then revealing to them exactly how he had done it. Instead, Jesus was using his miraculous power to reveal himself as the Son of God; the Savior of the world. This, in fact, is the very thing that Mark is revealing to us in our Gospel lesson today!
Now, if you haven’t done so already, I invite you to open your Bibles with me to Mark 1:40-45. There, in Mark chapter 1, Jesus is traveling from village to village, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. As he was traveling, Mark tells us, “A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” 41 Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. 43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere. (Mark 1:40–45, NIV84)
Now, when this man came to Jesus, he was not just someone who had leprosy. Rather, this was a man who was in the last stages of a terrible, flesh eating disease. We know this because as Luke reports this same account he tells us that the man who met Jesus was a man who was “covered with leprosy” (Luke 5:12-14). He came to Jesus hoping with all his heart that Jesus would heal him. He came believing and trusting that if Jesus was willing to make him clean, he would be made clean by the divine power of his Savior, and when Jesus saw him, Mark tells us (Mark 1:41) that Jesus was filled with compassion when he saw the man. Now, we need to pause right there for a second because even though it is absolutely true that Jesus was filled with compassion, this translation pales in comparison to everything that is conveyed by the Greek word. For what the Greek word conveys here is that Jesus was moved in his inner being, his heart ached at the sight of this man suffering from an incurable disease. We could even go so far as to say that Jesus’ stomach was in knots at the sight of the man; even that his bowels, his intestines were in turmoil at the state of this man and his condition. For this state in which Jesus found himself was born, not merely out of sympathy for this man’s pain, but Jesus, our Savior felt this man’s pain, he carried this man’s infirmities, and he wanted to do something for him, which is exactly what Jesus did.
In such a simple and beautiful way, Jesus revealed himself as the Savior by revealing his compassion for this child of Israel, by reaching out and touching this man. Just think about what that must have meant to him! Here was a man who had lived apart from humans for a long time. Here was a man who had been shunned by his fellow Israelites as one who was unclean. Here was a man who had not felt the touch of any one, other than other lepers, in many, many years, and Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man! Can’t you just see Jesus, standing before this man who was kneeling in the dust before Jesus? Can’t you see Jesus’ face, pained at the suffering this man was enduring, as he reached out his hand touching the man and speaking those beautiful words, “I am willing, be clean”? In his compassion, Jesus revealed his almighty power as he healed this man of his leprosy, and through that miraculous display of power, Jesus revealed himself as our Savior!
Well, in the same way that Jesus revealed himself as Savior through the compassion he displayed in the life of this leprous man, so also he reveals himself as our Savior through the compassion he continually shows in our lives. Tough our Savior is now living with his Father in heaven, he is still moved by the troubles and the hardships that we face. Though this world might think that Jesus has turned a blind eye to the things that are going on today, we know that he is with us. Even now as so many of us are struggling through economic hardships, our Savior is with us. Even now was we are still reeling with sorrow from the loss two sons of this congregation, Jesus our Savior is compassionately dispensing his love for us and his comfort to us through the gospel message of salvation that we are hearing today. No matter what situation we might face in our lives, our Savior continually reveals his compassion in our lives. When we face troubles and hardships because of rising prices and falling income, our Savior is there, touching our lives with his love. When we are beaten down by the evil around us and all the troubles that our sins cause us, Jesus wipes our tears with the hand of his grace. When we feel as if the world has turned against us and there is nothing we can do to change it or there is no one we can turn to for help that is when Jesus wraps us up in the blanket of his word. When we feel that all hope is lost, our Savior holds us tight in the arms of his love and assures us that we belong to him; that he is our Savior. Though we may still face troubles, hardships and adversities in our lives, our Savior continually reveals himself in our lives through the great compassion that he continually pours out upon us through the love that he displays in calling us his own.
When that leprous man came to Jesus, trusting that Jesus would heal him, Jesus not only revealed himself as Savior through the compassion he displayed in that man’s life. He also revealed himself as Savior through the love Jesus displayed in warning him not to tell anyone what had happened. Take a look with me at verses 43-45: “43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere. (Mark 1:43–45, NIV84)
Now, I don’t know about you, but if I had been that leprous man, I would have been just a little surprised and maybe a little bit scared by what Jesus had just said. After all, here he was, kneeling in the dust, with Jesus’ hand on him, he had just head the tender words, “I am willing, be clean” spoken to him, the leprosy had left him and now Jesus was warning him not to tell anyone what had happened. If it had been me, I wouldn’t have understood why Jesus had warned me with such a stern voice not to tell anyone. I wouldn’t have understood why Jesus was immediately sending me away from him to go and show myself to the priests. After all, it wasn’t that Jesus didn’t want the publicity. For the truth is, we find in the other gospels that large crowds were following after him. Rather, by telling this man not to tell anyone, Jesus was revealing his love for his people; in part, his love for the people who were with him, but more specifically, for the people in Jerusalem. You see it was Jesus’ intention to send this man to the Priests in Jerusalem, who would examine him from head to toe, looking for anything that resembled leprosy. After this, the man would offer two birds as a sacrifice for purification. Then, on the eighth day, he was to bring two lambs as a guilt offering and as a sin offering. IN doing this, the man would be a testimony to the priest not only that Jesus had come to fulfill the law, but also that Jesus was the Messiah; the Savior who had been promised. He was here, and he was revealing himself as the Savior through his acts of loving kindness—a truth that he would ultimately reveal when he went to the cross as Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
When Jesus went to the cross, he revealed himself as our Savior through his willing sacrifice! For in the same way that husbands will give up their lives to save their wives, and parents will do anything to protect their children, Jesus willingly, lovingly gave up his life to free us from our sins. For when Jesus went to that cross, our Savior stretched out his hand and cleansed us from the leprosy of sin. Though our sins had bound us to the railroad track of death, and satan was steaming ever closer with the locomotive of damnation, Jesus swept in at the last minute, freed us from the chains that held us there, helped us off the track, and then allowed satan to run him over, completely destroying satan’s power over us. In such an amazing way, our Lord Jesus revealed himself as our Savior through his love for us; his love that led him to the cross where he freed us from our sins.
How amazing it is to know about our Savior and how he revealed himself to be our Savior through his loving and compassionate actions. How amazing it is to know that Jesus is our Savior who went to the cross in our place so that we could be his own and live under him in his kingdom. Though he may never have taken the time to perform a miracle and then reveal to the people exactly how he did it, through his words and actions he has revealed himself as the Son of God our Savior. He is the one who has freed us from our sins. He is the one who is always with us. He is the one who loves us and cares for us through any and every situation in life.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
Dear friends in Christ.
For centuries magicians have been entertaining people with their tricks, illusions, misdirection and sleight of hand, and for centuries audiences have been clamoring to find out exactly how magicians did what they did. Though most have strictly followed the code that a magician never reveals his secrets, recently there have been some magicians who have come forward and publicly revealed at least some of their secrets. You may have seen some of the TV specials that have aired in the last few years, specials where a magician will perform a certain trick to amaze the audience and then repeat the same trick, revealing to them exactly how it was done. In some ways Jesus was doing a similar thing in our lesson today. It wasn’t that he was doing miracles to entertain the crowds who had gathered to see him and then revealing to them exactly how he had done it. Instead, Jesus was using his miraculous power to reveal himself as the Son of God; the Savior of the world. This, in fact, is the very thing that Mark is revealing to us in our Gospel lesson today!
Now, if you haven’t done so already, I invite you to open your Bibles with me to Mark 1:40-45. There, in Mark chapter 1, Jesus is traveling from village to village, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. As he was traveling, Mark tells us, “A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” 41 Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. 43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere. (Mark 1:40–45, NIV84)
Now, when this man came to Jesus, he was not just someone who had leprosy. Rather, this was a man who was in the last stages of a terrible, flesh eating disease. We know this because as Luke reports this same account he tells us that the man who met Jesus was a man who was “covered with leprosy” (Luke 5:12-14). He came to Jesus hoping with all his heart that Jesus would heal him. He came believing and trusting that if Jesus was willing to make him clean, he would be made clean by the divine power of his Savior, and when Jesus saw him, Mark tells us (Mark 1:41) that Jesus was filled with compassion when he saw the man. Now, we need to pause right there for a second because even though it is absolutely true that Jesus was filled with compassion, this translation pales in comparison to everything that is conveyed by the Greek word. For what the Greek word conveys here is that Jesus was moved in his inner being, his heart ached at the sight of this man suffering from an incurable disease. We could even go so far as to say that Jesus’ stomach was in knots at the sight of the man; even that his bowels, his intestines were in turmoil at the state of this man and his condition. For this state in which Jesus found himself was born, not merely out of sympathy for this man’s pain, but Jesus, our Savior felt this man’s pain, he carried this man’s infirmities, and he wanted to do something for him, which is exactly what Jesus did.
In such a simple and beautiful way, Jesus revealed himself as the Savior by revealing his compassion for this child of Israel, by reaching out and touching this man. Just think about what that must have meant to him! Here was a man who had lived apart from humans for a long time. Here was a man who had been shunned by his fellow Israelites as one who was unclean. Here was a man who had not felt the touch of any one, other than other lepers, in many, many years, and Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man! Can’t you just see Jesus, standing before this man who was kneeling in the dust before Jesus? Can’t you see Jesus’ face, pained at the suffering this man was enduring, as he reached out his hand touching the man and speaking those beautiful words, “I am willing, be clean”? In his compassion, Jesus revealed his almighty power as he healed this man of his leprosy, and through that miraculous display of power, Jesus revealed himself as our Savior!
Well, in the same way that Jesus revealed himself as Savior through the compassion he displayed in the life of this leprous man, so also he reveals himself as our Savior through the compassion he continually shows in our lives. Tough our Savior is now living with his Father in heaven, he is still moved by the troubles and the hardships that we face. Though this world might think that Jesus has turned a blind eye to the things that are going on today, we know that he is with us. Even now as so many of us are struggling through economic hardships, our Savior is with us. Even now was we are still reeling with sorrow from the loss two sons of this congregation, Jesus our Savior is compassionately dispensing his love for us and his comfort to us through the gospel message of salvation that we are hearing today. No matter what situation we might face in our lives, our Savior continually reveals his compassion in our lives. When we face troubles and hardships because of rising prices and falling income, our Savior is there, touching our lives with his love. When we are beaten down by the evil around us and all the troubles that our sins cause us, Jesus wipes our tears with the hand of his grace. When we feel as if the world has turned against us and there is nothing we can do to change it or there is no one we can turn to for help that is when Jesus wraps us up in the blanket of his word. When we feel that all hope is lost, our Savior holds us tight in the arms of his love and assures us that we belong to him; that he is our Savior. Though we may still face troubles, hardships and adversities in our lives, our Savior continually reveals himself in our lives through the great compassion that he continually pours out upon us through the love that he displays in calling us his own.
When that leprous man came to Jesus, trusting that Jesus would heal him, Jesus not only revealed himself as Savior through the compassion he displayed in that man’s life. He also revealed himself as Savior through the love Jesus displayed in warning him not to tell anyone what had happened. Take a look with me at verses 43-45: “43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere. (Mark 1:43–45, NIV84)
Now, I don’t know about you, but if I had been that leprous man, I would have been just a little surprised and maybe a little bit scared by what Jesus had just said. After all, here he was, kneeling in the dust, with Jesus’ hand on him, he had just head the tender words, “I am willing, be clean” spoken to him, the leprosy had left him and now Jesus was warning him not to tell anyone what had happened. If it had been me, I wouldn’t have understood why Jesus had warned me with such a stern voice not to tell anyone. I wouldn’t have understood why Jesus was immediately sending me away from him to go and show myself to the priests. After all, it wasn’t that Jesus didn’t want the publicity. For the truth is, we find in the other gospels that large crowds were following after him. Rather, by telling this man not to tell anyone, Jesus was revealing his love for his people; in part, his love for the people who were with him, but more specifically, for the people in Jerusalem. You see it was Jesus’ intention to send this man to the Priests in Jerusalem, who would examine him from head to toe, looking for anything that resembled leprosy. After this, the man would offer two birds as a sacrifice for purification. Then, on the eighth day, he was to bring two lambs as a guilt offering and as a sin offering. IN doing this, the man would be a testimony to the priest not only that Jesus had come to fulfill the law, but also that Jesus was the Messiah; the Savior who had been promised. He was here, and he was revealing himself as the Savior through his acts of loving kindness—a truth that he would ultimately reveal when he went to the cross as Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
When Jesus went to the cross, he revealed himself as our Savior through his willing sacrifice! For in the same way that husbands will give up their lives to save their wives, and parents will do anything to protect their children, Jesus willingly, lovingly gave up his life to free us from our sins. For when Jesus went to that cross, our Savior stretched out his hand and cleansed us from the leprosy of sin. Though our sins had bound us to the railroad track of death, and satan was steaming ever closer with the locomotive of damnation, Jesus swept in at the last minute, freed us from the chains that held us there, helped us off the track, and then allowed satan to run him over, completely destroying satan’s power over us. In such an amazing way, our Lord Jesus revealed himself as our Savior through his love for us; his love that led him to the cross where he freed us from our sins.
How amazing it is to know about our Savior and how he revealed himself to be our Savior through his loving and compassionate actions. How amazing it is to know that Jesus is our Savior who went to the cross in our place so that we could be his own and live under him in his kingdom. Though he may never have taken the time to perform a miracle and then reveal to the people exactly how he did it, through his words and actions he has revealed himself as the Son of God our Savior. He is the one who has freed us from our sins. He is the one who is always with us. He is the one who loves us and cares for us through any and every situation in life.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, February 13, 2011
The Lord Is Our Warrior (Exodus 7-15)
February 13, 2011
Dear friends in Christ.
I don’t know about you, but ever since I was a little child, the account of Moses, the plagues, and the exodus from Egypt has been one of my most favorite Bible History stories. I can still remember the feeling of excitement that would come over me every year when we studied it in our Bible History lessons. I loved hearing about the amazing miracles that the Lord enabled Moses to do in the presence of Pharaoh. I practically cheered for Moses as he and Aaron stood before Pharaoh demanding that Pharaoh let God’s people go into the wilderness to worship. Though Pharaoh kept trying to change the deal, promising to let them go and not delivering on that promise, I admired Moses and Aaron for how they simply stood their ground on God’s Word and never backed down. But most of all, I remember marveling at the plagues that the Lord sent upon Egypt. I remember being amazed by the mighty displays of God’s power against the Egyptians; mighty displays that revealed God’s judgment against those who didn’t believe in him and that revealed his love for those who did believe in him. Though I didn’t realize it then, I realize now that the reason I so love these chapters so much is simply because they reveal the Lord God as the warrior that he truly is. They reveal the Lord as the God who truly loves his people, who defends his people, and as the God who fights for his people. Though there are many other places in Scripture that the Lord is revealed to us in this way, I truly love how these chapters show the Lord as our Warrior. In fact, these are the very words that Moses, Miriam, and all Israel used to describe the Lord after they had crossed the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s Army had been drown. They stood on the banks and sang, “The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his Name!” (Exodus 15:3)
But before I get too far ahead of myself, let’s take a look at exactly how the Lord is our Warrior! After all, the account of the plagues shows the Lord actively fighting to deliver his people from their slavery. Yet, not only do the plagues show the Lord actively fighting to free his people from their slavery to sin, they also foreshadow the Lord our Warrior actively fighting to free his people from their slavery to sin and death. For in the same way same way that a Knight of old would throw down his gauntlet as a challenge or even as a precursor for battle, so also the Lord threw down the gauntlet of a shepherd’s staff to begin his battle with Pharaoh. In fact, it is at the beginning of Exodus 7:1-13 where Moses and Aaron stand before Pharaoh and command him, in the Name of the Lord, to let the Lord’s people go into the desert to worship the Lord their God. But, as we know, Pharaoh did not feel compelled to listen to this Jehovah, who was the God of the slaves. After all Pharaoh had a plethora of gods and goddesses that he served, roughly 80 different gods and goddesses in fact. Not only did Pharaoh have a plethora of his own gods to serve, as Pharaoh, he was believed to be a god in the flesh himself! So why in all the world should he listen to the god of the Hebrews, the very people who had been enslaved to him for so many years.
So, it began! Pharaoh refused to listen to the Lord and demanded a sign. Aaron threw down his staff and it became a snake. Now this would have gotten Pharaoh’s attention straight away as the cobra was a symbol of Pharaoh’s ruling power. But, not to be out done, Pharaoh summoned his magicians and by their secret arts, which means by their satanic means, they too were able to produce snakes by throwing down their staffs. Yet, it was Aaron’s staff that swallowed up all the other snakes. The snake of God had overcome Pharaoh’s snake and his ruling power. But Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the Israelites go. Thus begins the 10 round battle between Pharaoh and God. The battle where the Lord brought judgment on all the gods of Egypt (Exodus 12:12 and Numbers 33:4) The battle where the Lord used the things of nature, the very things the Egyptians worshiped, to plague the people, to cause them to wonder why their god so and so was unable to protect them and stand up to the Warrior God of the Hebrews, and to destroy the power of Egypt—a blow from which they have never recovered.
Round 1: The Plague of Blood (Exodus 7:14-24). As Pharaoh was on his way to the Nile to worship, Moses and Aaron met him. They gave Pharaoh the Lord’s ultimatum to let his people go but Pharaoh refused. So Aaron struck the Nile with his staff and its waters turned to blood. Blood was everywhere in the land of Egypt. The fish died! Not only the sacred fish that they worshiped, but also the fish that the Egyptians ate and traded, and the river smelled so bad they could not drink the water. In one powerful swoop the Lord God took down some of the most important and most powerful gods of Egypt. He took down Osiris, one of the chief gods of Egypt who was also first of all the gods of the Nile. He took down Hapi, tauret and Nu, gods of life and fertility in the Nile. Though this was a powerful blow against Pharaoh and all of Egypt as the Nile to them was the source of their life, Pharaoh hardened his heart when his own magicians sought help from satan and were able to reproduce the same results, only on a much smaller scale.
Round 2: The Plague of Frogs (Exodus 7:25-8:15). Seven days later the Lord sent Moses back to Pharaoh with the same ultimatum, “Let my people go so that they may worship me.” To which he added, “If you do not let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs.” Though Egyptians were used to a great number of frogs filling their lands after the annual flood of the Nile, these frogs were naturally controlled by other predators. This time, however, the Lord brought the frogs up out of the rivers and streams of Egypt when Aaron stretched his staff over them. There were so many frogs that the people could barely move without stepping on one of them. They came up into the houses, the ovens, the kilns, the bedrooms, yes even the beds of the Egyptians. Though frogs pose no real threat to us, frogs were the symbol of the goddess Heket who presided over conception and birth. She was also said to be present at the birth of every Pharaoh of Egypt. Imagine the feeling of the Egyptians as they wondered what had happened to make their god malfunction and bring a curse upon the land. Imagine the favor that this goddess lost as the frogs sat in piles reeking and rotting after the Warrior God of the Hebrews destroyed them. Though the Lord showed Pharaoh that his gods could not control their own frogs, because the magicians were able to use satan’s power to bring up a small number of frogs, Pharaoh hardened his heart.
Round 3: The Plague of Gnats (Exodus 8:16-19). Again the Lord struck at the heart of the false gods of Egypt. This time, however, he went after Geb, the god of the land, the very god the Egyptians believed had created the earth and the great and fertile land of Egypt. Without warning the Lord told Aaron to strike the ground with his staff and throughout Egypt the dust became gnats or as another translation say, lice or perhaps fleas; the people of Egypt who so valued cleanliness were covered with vermin. The priests who served in the temples of the gods of Egypt were not able to do their duties because no one was permitted to enter a temple of a god with parasites upon them. Though Pharaoh may have been confident that his gods would eventually win the day, this time things were different. This time the Lord did not allow satan to intervene. This time the Lord knocked satan out of the battle completely as the priests themselves declared that this was from the finger of God when they could not reproduce the plague. Yet Pharaoh still hardened his heart!
Round 4. The Plague of Flies (Exodus 8:20-32). Now, in the Hebrew, the word flies is not there. Instead the Hebrew tells us that this is the plague of swarms. It may have been swarms of flies or even beetles. In our days we’ve seen both. Not too many years ago we saw swarms of Asian beetles that turned the air orange where they were swarming, and we’ve seen swarms of flies that turned the air black where they were. But regardless of what was swarming these swarms showed that the god Khepera, the god of creation, fertility, and resurrection, as well as all the other gods associated with those tasks were simply not cutting the mustard. They could not fight against the Lord our Warrior. But here’s the even greater thing. From this miracle on, the Lord separated his people. They were not affected by the rest of the plagues. They were spared while Egypt was ravaged. Yet even as Pharaoh saw this, he hardened his heart. He would not bow to the will of the Lord the God of the slaves, even though the God of the slaves was waging war against Pharaoh and all of Egypt’s gods and winning.
Round 5. The Plague of the Livestock (Exodus 9:1-7). This time it was Hathor, the cow goddess who was the great mother supposed to have conceived and brought forth all life, she was not able to stand up against the Lord. The cattle died, the sacred animals who were worshiped at Hathor’s temple. Even the bulls died, bulls where were symbols of Pharaoh himself. This plague affected all the livestock in Egypt and many died because of it. Yet not one of the Israelites animals died or even got sick. This time God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Pharaoh who had resisted the Lord had resisted to the point that he was no longer able to repent or turn to the Lord. His time of grace was at an end and the Lord hardened him in his unbelief, because Pharaoh had resisted the Lord—the Holy Spirit.
Round 6. The Plague of Boils (Exodus 9:8-12). Isis, the goddess of healing and medicine could not compete or even stand against the Lord God Almighty. One by one the Lord was showing all of Egypt’s gods to be false, useless, and nonexistent. Boils broke out on people and animals throughout Egypt, but not in the land of Goshen where the Israelites lived. In fact, because of this plague the magicians could not stand before Moses. Again Pharaoh did not listen. The Lord hardened his heart
Round 7. The Plague of Hail (Exodus 9:13-33). Now it was Nut’s turn. She was the goddess of the sky and she could not stop the rain, the hail, and the fire that the Lord rained down upon Egypt. With this plague there were some in Egypt who began to fear the Lord. They made sure that their animals and their families were inside when the plague came and they were saved. Those in the field, along with the barely and the flax were destroyed. Thus the Lord crippled the clothing industry, as Flax was what the Egyptians used to make linen. He also destroyed the beer industry as barely was one of the primary ingredients of beer and bread. Yet Pharaoh hardened his heart.
Round 8. The Plague of Locust (Exodus 10:1-20). Though there were times when the Egyptians saw plagues of locust, they had never seen a plague like this, nor would there ever be a plague like this again. When the Locusts came they covered the face of the land and they ate everything that was left after the hail. Though Pharaoh refused to listen to the Lord, some of his officials began to openly question his rule and urge him to listen because Egypt had been ruined by this war that Pharaoh kept fighting against the Lord our Warrior.
Round 9. The Plague of Darkness (Exodus 9:21-29). For three days the eye of Ra, the sun was blotted out. For three days the Lord visited the Egyptians with the same darkness that was seen in Genesis 1:2, for the Hebrew word for darkness is the very same word that the Lord used in Genesis 1 to describe what it was like at the beginning of creation when there was nothing but darkness upon the face of the deep! How it must have terrified the Egyptians to know that one of their greatest and most important gods had been taken away from them. There was no light in the land of Egypt anywhere, but there was plenty of light in the land of Goshen where the Israelites were.
Round 10. The Death of the Firstborn (Exodus 12:29-32) (Exodus 11:1-12:32). We know this plague well. At midnight, the Lord sent the Angel of Death through the land of Egypt to kill all the firstborn from the first born of Pharaoh who sat on the throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, even all the first born of the livestock. The only acceptation was for those who followed the Lord’s decree of the Passover. They sacrificed a one year old lamb, painted its blood on the doorposts and the door frames of their homes, and ate the roasted lamb in the house. That night the Lord took down the god Pharaoh and Pharaoh drove the people out of the land. That night the Lord our warrior delivered the people from the land of slavery and foreshadowed the deliverance he would bring through the Lamb of God when the time had fully come. That night the Lord won the victory for his pople.
Epilogue. (Exodus 12:33-15:21) Though Pharaoh had driven the people out, he didn’t like to lose. He sent his army after them and trapped them, or so he thought, at the Red Sea. Yet the Lord fought for his people again. He separated the two camps with a Pillar of Fire. He divided the Red Sea so the people could cross over on dry ground. Then, when Pharaoh’s army tried to follow he drown them in the Red Sea as the walls of water came crashing back down upon them. Thus the Lord delivered his people, demonstrated that the gods of the Egyptians, and all other gods for that matter are nothing but idols and demons, and he showed himself to be the Lord, the Warrior who fights for his people and wins.
Now, why did I spend the last 20 minutes telling you a story you already know? Because, even we need to be reminded that the Lord our God is the Warrior who fights for us! He is the one who delivered the Israelites out of the Land of Slavery when Egypt was the world’s super power. He is the one who fought the battle against satan and triumphed through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Savior! He is the Lord who has our backs! No matter what we might face in this life, the Lord is by our side. He will provide for us. He will lead us through trouble and hardship. Even if we should walk through the valley of the shadow of death, the Lord is with us and we don’t need to fear any trouble, because he will work it out four our good. Though satan, our enemy, is constantly trying to separate us from the Lord, the Lord is our all powerful warrior who cares for us and delivers us. He has promised us that no one can pluck us out of his hand. He is the one who loves us and cares for us because he is God our Savior and our hope is in him all day long.
No matter what satan might throw at us; no matter what hardships might come our way; no matter how hopeless the situations of our lives might seem, from these 8 chapters of Exodus, we are assured that the Lord is our Warrior. The Lord is the one who fights for us. The Lord is the one who loves us and has redeemed us with his own might arm and outstretched hand. So, when you feel down or depressed, remind yourselves of what the Lord did for the Israels, and be assured that the Lord is your Warrior. Just as he fought for his people Israel, he will fight for you, because you too, through faith, are descendants of Abraham, belonging to the house of Israel.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Dear friends in Christ.
I don’t know about you, but ever since I was a little child, the account of Moses, the plagues, and the exodus from Egypt has been one of my most favorite Bible History stories. I can still remember the feeling of excitement that would come over me every year when we studied it in our Bible History lessons. I loved hearing about the amazing miracles that the Lord enabled Moses to do in the presence of Pharaoh. I practically cheered for Moses as he and Aaron stood before Pharaoh demanding that Pharaoh let God’s people go into the wilderness to worship. Though Pharaoh kept trying to change the deal, promising to let them go and not delivering on that promise, I admired Moses and Aaron for how they simply stood their ground on God’s Word and never backed down. But most of all, I remember marveling at the plagues that the Lord sent upon Egypt. I remember being amazed by the mighty displays of God’s power against the Egyptians; mighty displays that revealed God’s judgment against those who didn’t believe in him and that revealed his love for those who did believe in him. Though I didn’t realize it then, I realize now that the reason I so love these chapters so much is simply because they reveal the Lord God as the warrior that he truly is. They reveal the Lord as the God who truly loves his people, who defends his people, and as the God who fights for his people. Though there are many other places in Scripture that the Lord is revealed to us in this way, I truly love how these chapters show the Lord as our Warrior. In fact, these are the very words that Moses, Miriam, and all Israel used to describe the Lord after they had crossed the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s Army had been drown. They stood on the banks and sang, “The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his Name!” (Exodus 15:3)
But before I get too far ahead of myself, let’s take a look at exactly how the Lord is our Warrior! After all, the account of the plagues shows the Lord actively fighting to deliver his people from their slavery. Yet, not only do the plagues show the Lord actively fighting to free his people from their slavery to sin, they also foreshadow the Lord our Warrior actively fighting to free his people from their slavery to sin and death. For in the same way same way that a Knight of old would throw down his gauntlet as a challenge or even as a precursor for battle, so also the Lord threw down the gauntlet of a shepherd’s staff to begin his battle with Pharaoh. In fact, it is at the beginning of Exodus 7:1-13 where Moses and Aaron stand before Pharaoh and command him, in the Name of the Lord, to let the Lord’s people go into the desert to worship the Lord their God. But, as we know, Pharaoh did not feel compelled to listen to this Jehovah, who was the God of the slaves. After all Pharaoh had a plethora of gods and goddesses that he served, roughly 80 different gods and goddesses in fact. Not only did Pharaoh have a plethora of his own gods to serve, as Pharaoh, he was believed to be a god in the flesh himself! So why in all the world should he listen to the god of the Hebrews, the very people who had been enslaved to him for so many years.
So, it began! Pharaoh refused to listen to the Lord and demanded a sign. Aaron threw down his staff and it became a snake. Now this would have gotten Pharaoh’s attention straight away as the cobra was a symbol of Pharaoh’s ruling power. But, not to be out done, Pharaoh summoned his magicians and by their secret arts, which means by their satanic means, they too were able to produce snakes by throwing down their staffs. Yet, it was Aaron’s staff that swallowed up all the other snakes. The snake of God had overcome Pharaoh’s snake and his ruling power. But Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the Israelites go. Thus begins the 10 round battle between Pharaoh and God. The battle where the Lord brought judgment on all the gods of Egypt (Exodus 12:12 and Numbers 33:4) The battle where the Lord used the things of nature, the very things the Egyptians worshiped, to plague the people, to cause them to wonder why their god so and so was unable to protect them and stand up to the Warrior God of the Hebrews, and to destroy the power of Egypt—a blow from which they have never recovered.
Round 1: The Plague of Blood (Exodus 7:14-24). As Pharaoh was on his way to the Nile to worship, Moses and Aaron met him. They gave Pharaoh the Lord’s ultimatum to let his people go but Pharaoh refused. So Aaron struck the Nile with his staff and its waters turned to blood. Blood was everywhere in the land of Egypt. The fish died! Not only the sacred fish that they worshiped, but also the fish that the Egyptians ate and traded, and the river smelled so bad they could not drink the water. In one powerful swoop the Lord God took down some of the most important and most powerful gods of Egypt. He took down Osiris, one of the chief gods of Egypt who was also first of all the gods of the Nile. He took down Hapi, tauret and Nu, gods of life and fertility in the Nile. Though this was a powerful blow against Pharaoh and all of Egypt as the Nile to them was the source of their life, Pharaoh hardened his heart when his own magicians sought help from satan and were able to reproduce the same results, only on a much smaller scale.
Round 2: The Plague of Frogs (Exodus 7:25-8:15). Seven days later the Lord sent Moses back to Pharaoh with the same ultimatum, “Let my people go so that they may worship me.” To which he added, “If you do not let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs.” Though Egyptians were used to a great number of frogs filling their lands after the annual flood of the Nile, these frogs were naturally controlled by other predators. This time, however, the Lord brought the frogs up out of the rivers and streams of Egypt when Aaron stretched his staff over them. There were so many frogs that the people could barely move without stepping on one of them. They came up into the houses, the ovens, the kilns, the bedrooms, yes even the beds of the Egyptians. Though frogs pose no real threat to us, frogs were the symbol of the goddess Heket who presided over conception and birth. She was also said to be present at the birth of every Pharaoh of Egypt. Imagine the feeling of the Egyptians as they wondered what had happened to make their god malfunction and bring a curse upon the land. Imagine the favor that this goddess lost as the frogs sat in piles reeking and rotting after the Warrior God of the Hebrews destroyed them. Though the Lord showed Pharaoh that his gods could not control their own frogs, because the magicians were able to use satan’s power to bring up a small number of frogs, Pharaoh hardened his heart.
Round 3: The Plague of Gnats (Exodus 8:16-19). Again the Lord struck at the heart of the false gods of Egypt. This time, however, he went after Geb, the god of the land, the very god the Egyptians believed had created the earth and the great and fertile land of Egypt. Without warning the Lord told Aaron to strike the ground with his staff and throughout Egypt the dust became gnats or as another translation say, lice or perhaps fleas; the people of Egypt who so valued cleanliness were covered with vermin. The priests who served in the temples of the gods of Egypt were not able to do their duties because no one was permitted to enter a temple of a god with parasites upon them. Though Pharaoh may have been confident that his gods would eventually win the day, this time things were different. This time the Lord did not allow satan to intervene. This time the Lord knocked satan out of the battle completely as the priests themselves declared that this was from the finger of God when they could not reproduce the plague. Yet Pharaoh still hardened his heart!
Round 4. The Plague of Flies (Exodus 8:20-32). Now, in the Hebrew, the word flies is not there. Instead the Hebrew tells us that this is the plague of swarms. It may have been swarms of flies or even beetles. In our days we’ve seen both. Not too many years ago we saw swarms of Asian beetles that turned the air orange where they were swarming, and we’ve seen swarms of flies that turned the air black where they were. But regardless of what was swarming these swarms showed that the god Khepera, the god of creation, fertility, and resurrection, as well as all the other gods associated with those tasks were simply not cutting the mustard. They could not fight against the Lord our Warrior. But here’s the even greater thing. From this miracle on, the Lord separated his people. They were not affected by the rest of the plagues. They were spared while Egypt was ravaged. Yet even as Pharaoh saw this, he hardened his heart. He would not bow to the will of the Lord the God of the slaves, even though the God of the slaves was waging war against Pharaoh and all of Egypt’s gods and winning.
Round 5. The Plague of the Livestock (Exodus 9:1-7). This time it was Hathor, the cow goddess who was the great mother supposed to have conceived and brought forth all life, she was not able to stand up against the Lord. The cattle died, the sacred animals who were worshiped at Hathor’s temple. Even the bulls died, bulls where were symbols of Pharaoh himself. This plague affected all the livestock in Egypt and many died because of it. Yet not one of the Israelites animals died or even got sick. This time God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Pharaoh who had resisted the Lord had resisted to the point that he was no longer able to repent or turn to the Lord. His time of grace was at an end and the Lord hardened him in his unbelief, because Pharaoh had resisted the Lord—the Holy Spirit.
Round 6. The Plague of Boils (Exodus 9:8-12). Isis, the goddess of healing and medicine could not compete or even stand against the Lord God Almighty. One by one the Lord was showing all of Egypt’s gods to be false, useless, and nonexistent. Boils broke out on people and animals throughout Egypt, but not in the land of Goshen where the Israelites lived. In fact, because of this plague the magicians could not stand before Moses. Again Pharaoh did not listen. The Lord hardened his heart
Round 7. The Plague of Hail (Exodus 9:13-33). Now it was Nut’s turn. She was the goddess of the sky and she could not stop the rain, the hail, and the fire that the Lord rained down upon Egypt. With this plague there were some in Egypt who began to fear the Lord. They made sure that their animals and their families were inside when the plague came and they were saved. Those in the field, along with the barely and the flax were destroyed. Thus the Lord crippled the clothing industry, as Flax was what the Egyptians used to make linen. He also destroyed the beer industry as barely was one of the primary ingredients of beer and bread. Yet Pharaoh hardened his heart.
Round 8. The Plague of Locust (Exodus 10:1-20). Though there were times when the Egyptians saw plagues of locust, they had never seen a plague like this, nor would there ever be a plague like this again. When the Locusts came they covered the face of the land and they ate everything that was left after the hail. Though Pharaoh refused to listen to the Lord, some of his officials began to openly question his rule and urge him to listen because Egypt had been ruined by this war that Pharaoh kept fighting against the Lord our Warrior.
Round 9. The Plague of Darkness (Exodus 9:21-29). For three days the eye of Ra, the sun was blotted out. For three days the Lord visited the Egyptians with the same darkness that was seen in Genesis 1:2, for the Hebrew word for darkness is the very same word that the Lord used in Genesis 1 to describe what it was like at the beginning of creation when there was nothing but darkness upon the face of the deep! How it must have terrified the Egyptians to know that one of their greatest and most important gods had been taken away from them. There was no light in the land of Egypt anywhere, but there was plenty of light in the land of Goshen where the Israelites were.
Round 10. The Death of the Firstborn (Exodus 12:29-32) (Exodus 11:1-12:32). We know this plague well. At midnight, the Lord sent the Angel of Death through the land of Egypt to kill all the firstborn from the first born of Pharaoh who sat on the throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, even all the first born of the livestock. The only acceptation was for those who followed the Lord’s decree of the Passover. They sacrificed a one year old lamb, painted its blood on the doorposts and the door frames of their homes, and ate the roasted lamb in the house. That night the Lord took down the god Pharaoh and Pharaoh drove the people out of the land. That night the Lord our warrior delivered the people from the land of slavery and foreshadowed the deliverance he would bring through the Lamb of God when the time had fully come. That night the Lord won the victory for his pople.
Epilogue. (Exodus 12:33-15:21) Though Pharaoh had driven the people out, he didn’t like to lose. He sent his army after them and trapped them, or so he thought, at the Red Sea. Yet the Lord fought for his people again. He separated the two camps with a Pillar of Fire. He divided the Red Sea so the people could cross over on dry ground. Then, when Pharaoh’s army tried to follow he drown them in the Red Sea as the walls of water came crashing back down upon them. Thus the Lord delivered his people, demonstrated that the gods of the Egyptians, and all other gods for that matter are nothing but idols and demons, and he showed himself to be the Lord, the Warrior who fights for his people and wins.
Now, why did I spend the last 20 minutes telling you a story you already know? Because, even we need to be reminded that the Lord our God is the Warrior who fights for us! He is the one who delivered the Israelites out of the Land of Slavery when Egypt was the world’s super power. He is the one who fought the battle against satan and triumphed through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Savior! He is the Lord who has our backs! No matter what we might face in this life, the Lord is by our side. He will provide for us. He will lead us through trouble and hardship. Even if we should walk through the valley of the shadow of death, the Lord is with us and we don’t need to fear any trouble, because he will work it out four our good. Though satan, our enemy, is constantly trying to separate us from the Lord, the Lord is our all powerful warrior who cares for us and delivers us. He has promised us that no one can pluck us out of his hand. He is the one who loves us and cares for us because he is God our Savior and our hope is in him all day long.
No matter what satan might throw at us; no matter what hardships might come our way; no matter how hopeless the situations of our lives might seem, from these 8 chapters of Exodus, we are assured that the Lord is our Warrior. The Lord is the one who fights for us. The Lord is the one who loves us and has redeemed us with his own might arm and outstretched hand. So, when you feel down or depressed, remind yourselves of what the Lord did for the Israels, and be assured that the Lord is your Warrior. Just as he fought for his people Israel, he will fight for you, because you too, through faith, are descendants of Abraham, belonging to the house of Israel.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Let Your Boast be in the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)
February 6, 2011
Dear friends in Christ.
According to a story in the Grand Rapids Press, the owner of a small foreign car had begun to irritate his friends by bragging incessantly about his gas mileage. So they decided on a way to get some humor out of his tireless boasting, as well as bring it to an end. Every day one of them would sneak into the parking lot where the man kept his car and pour a few gallons of gas into the tank. Soon the braggart was recording absolutely phenomenal mileage. He was boasting of getting as much as 90 miles per gallon, and the pranksters took secret delight in his exasperation as he tried to convince people of the truthfulness of his claims. It was even more fun to watch his reaction when they stopped refilling the tank. The poor fellow couldn't figure out what had happened to his car.
Well, in some ways, this was what was starting to happen to the Corinthians in our lesson for today. In fact, I invite you to open your Bibles and take a look at what the Apostle Paul has to say to the Corinthians in 1:26 and following. Now, as you turn to 1 Corinthians 1:26-31, you will find that the Corinthians weren’t boasting and bragging about the incredible mileage their chariots got. Instead, they were beginning talk pretty loudly about which preacher they liked the best because they had started to misunderstand the message of the Gospel. They had begun to focus their attention on the preacher rather than the message. They had started focusing on the Spiritual gifts rather than on the giver of the Spiritual gifts. They had begun focusing on things that made them look wise rather than on the wisdom of salvation that came through faith in Jesus Christ, and through all of this they were boasting and bragging about how wise they were, what gifts they had, and who they followed. So when Paul wrote these words he called on them to let their boast be in the Lord. Take a look at what Paul writes: “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”(1 Corinthians 1:26–31, NIV84)
In such a simple and loving way, Paul reminds them that when they were called to faith, there were not too many in that congregation who could claim great wisdom according to human standards. There were very few of them were influential or of noble birth. Yet, it was the Lord who chose them to be his own and through the teachings of the gospel, he had made them wise for salvation. He had chosen them to be his own. He had called them to faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior. He had given them every reason to boast in the Lord because it had not been by their power or by their might that they had come to faith, instead they had been called to faith by the working of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God.
The same thing is true for you and me. For if we honestly look at our lives, we must realize that there is no reason why the Lord should have chosen us. Yet, because the Lord did choose us to be his own, how often haven’t we secretly thought to ourselves that the Lord chose us because we were so special? How often haven’t we considered how smart we were that as soon as we heard the Lord’s Word we came to faith. How often haven’t we thought to ourselves that we did the Lord a favor in letting him chose us? Maybe you’ve never had thoughts like this, but I can guarantee that we have all been pretty confident in our own accomplishments at one time or another. I can guarantee this because we have all been confident in our own accomplishments as Christians. Just for example: if I asked you the question, “why are you so confident that you will be in heaven when you die?”, what pops into your head first? Is it the answer, “Because Jesus died for me.”? Or is it the answer, “Because I’ve been a good person.”? Too often, when we try to answer this question, our sinful nature plants that thought in our brains and tries to lead us down the path of trusting in our own accomplishments. But this is not just a onetime battle, this is a battle that rages constantly within us.
For our sinful nature seeks every opportunity to lead us away from the idea that God chose us and tries to make us think that we chose God. It tries to make us think that we are pretty good people on our own who don’t necessarily need God’s salvation. It tries to make us think of our sins as only minor infractions of God’s law and not the soul destroying projectiles that they are. It tries to make us think that God owes us something because we have struggled so hard to keep his law even though it is nearly impossible for us to do. This is when we begin to rely on our own wisdom rather than on God’s wisdom. This is when we begin to rely on our own accomplishments for salvation rather than on what our Savior has done for us. This is when we need to hear those very same words that Paul wrote to the Corinthians nearly 20 centuries ago, “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”(1 Corinthians 1:26–31, NIV84)
In such a simple way the Lord assures us that it was not we who chose him, but he chose us. He did not choose us because we were the strongest or the wisest. He didn’t choose us because we were the most influential or the noblest. Instead, he chose us because he loved us, and so that he might display his almighty power through us. He chose us so that he might make us wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior. Thus our boasting is no longer in ourselves, but our boasting becomes our proclamation of what Jesus did for us and how he saved us by his death and resurrection!
This is where the sinful world has problems. For, in the eyes of the world, any teaching about Jesus Christ is simply foolishness, because the world cannot figure out how Jesus death could possibly have forgiven sins. The world cannot figure out how Jesus Christ, a rather unremarkable character of the Bible could possibly have been the Son of God. The world cannot figure out how Jesus, a lowly child, and a weak human being, could have accomplished all that the Bible says he did. To the world, Jesus is nothing more than an annoying friend with a small foreign car bragging about his incredible gas mileage.
But to us, Jesus is the Son of God, our Savior. Jesus is the one whom Jacob prophesied in Genesis 49. In fact, if you still have your Bibles open, turn with me to Genesis 49:8-12. Now, Genesis 49:8-12 happens to be part of the Bible Reading that is scheduled for today if you are following the Chronological schedule. Not only is Genesis 49 part of that schedule, but it is also where Jacob is blessing his 12 sons shortly before his time on earth comes to an end, and in these particular verse he is passing the promise of the Savior on to his Son, Judah as he says, “Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons will bow down to you. 9 You are a lion’s cub, O Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse him? 10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his. 11 He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. 12 His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.(Genesis 49:8–12, NIV84)
Though this prophecy would not come true for many, many years, Jacob placed his faith in the promise of the coming Savior. His boast was not in the things he had done, but his boast was in the Lord who had provided for him, cared for him and called him to faith in the coming Savior. This is the boast that you and I carry with us today. It is the boast of all that our Lord has done for us! Though there is nothing special about us, it was the Lord who loved us and called us to be his own. Though we had done nothing to deserve it, it was the Lord who called us to faith by the working of the Holy Spirit in baptism. Though we may not be the wisest, the noblest, or even the most influential, the Lord has called us to be his own, he has given us the gift of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, and his has called us to make that message known throughout the world. Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
Dear friends in Christ.
According to a story in the Grand Rapids Press, the owner of a small foreign car had begun to irritate his friends by bragging incessantly about his gas mileage. So they decided on a way to get some humor out of his tireless boasting, as well as bring it to an end. Every day one of them would sneak into the parking lot where the man kept his car and pour a few gallons of gas into the tank. Soon the braggart was recording absolutely phenomenal mileage. He was boasting of getting as much as 90 miles per gallon, and the pranksters took secret delight in his exasperation as he tried to convince people of the truthfulness of his claims. It was even more fun to watch his reaction when they stopped refilling the tank. The poor fellow couldn't figure out what had happened to his car.
Well, in some ways, this was what was starting to happen to the Corinthians in our lesson for today. In fact, I invite you to open your Bibles and take a look at what the Apostle Paul has to say to the Corinthians in 1:26 and following. Now, as you turn to 1 Corinthians 1:26-31, you will find that the Corinthians weren’t boasting and bragging about the incredible mileage their chariots got. Instead, they were beginning talk pretty loudly about which preacher they liked the best because they had started to misunderstand the message of the Gospel. They had begun to focus their attention on the preacher rather than the message. They had started focusing on the Spiritual gifts rather than on the giver of the Spiritual gifts. They had begun focusing on things that made them look wise rather than on the wisdom of salvation that came through faith in Jesus Christ, and through all of this they were boasting and bragging about how wise they were, what gifts they had, and who they followed. So when Paul wrote these words he called on them to let their boast be in the Lord. Take a look at what Paul writes: “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”(1 Corinthians 1:26–31, NIV84)
In such a simple and loving way, Paul reminds them that when they were called to faith, there were not too many in that congregation who could claim great wisdom according to human standards. There were very few of them were influential or of noble birth. Yet, it was the Lord who chose them to be his own and through the teachings of the gospel, he had made them wise for salvation. He had chosen them to be his own. He had called them to faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior. He had given them every reason to boast in the Lord because it had not been by their power or by their might that they had come to faith, instead they had been called to faith by the working of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God.
The same thing is true for you and me. For if we honestly look at our lives, we must realize that there is no reason why the Lord should have chosen us. Yet, because the Lord did choose us to be his own, how often haven’t we secretly thought to ourselves that the Lord chose us because we were so special? How often haven’t we considered how smart we were that as soon as we heard the Lord’s Word we came to faith. How often haven’t we thought to ourselves that we did the Lord a favor in letting him chose us? Maybe you’ve never had thoughts like this, but I can guarantee that we have all been pretty confident in our own accomplishments at one time or another. I can guarantee this because we have all been confident in our own accomplishments as Christians. Just for example: if I asked you the question, “why are you so confident that you will be in heaven when you die?”, what pops into your head first? Is it the answer, “Because Jesus died for me.”? Or is it the answer, “Because I’ve been a good person.”? Too often, when we try to answer this question, our sinful nature plants that thought in our brains and tries to lead us down the path of trusting in our own accomplishments. But this is not just a onetime battle, this is a battle that rages constantly within us.
For our sinful nature seeks every opportunity to lead us away from the idea that God chose us and tries to make us think that we chose God. It tries to make us think that we are pretty good people on our own who don’t necessarily need God’s salvation. It tries to make us think of our sins as only minor infractions of God’s law and not the soul destroying projectiles that they are. It tries to make us think that God owes us something because we have struggled so hard to keep his law even though it is nearly impossible for us to do. This is when we begin to rely on our own wisdom rather than on God’s wisdom. This is when we begin to rely on our own accomplishments for salvation rather than on what our Savior has done for us. This is when we need to hear those very same words that Paul wrote to the Corinthians nearly 20 centuries ago, “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”(1 Corinthians 1:26–31, NIV84)
In such a simple way the Lord assures us that it was not we who chose him, but he chose us. He did not choose us because we were the strongest or the wisest. He didn’t choose us because we were the most influential or the noblest. Instead, he chose us because he loved us, and so that he might display his almighty power through us. He chose us so that he might make us wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior. Thus our boasting is no longer in ourselves, but our boasting becomes our proclamation of what Jesus did for us and how he saved us by his death and resurrection!
This is where the sinful world has problems. For, in the eyes of the world, any teaching about Jesus Christ is simply foolishness, because the world cannot figure out how Jesus death could possibly have forgiven sins. The world cannot figure out how Jesus Christ, a rather unremarkable character of the Bible could possibly have been the Son of God. The world cannot figure out how Jesus, a lowly child, and a weak human being, could have accomplished all that the Bible says he did. To the world, Jesus is nothing more than an annoying friend with a small foreign car bragging about his incredible gas mileage.
But to us, Jesus is the Son of God, our Savior. Jesus is the one whom Jacob prophesied in Genesis 49. In fact, if you still have your Bibles open, turn with me to Genesis 49:8-12. Now, Genesis 49:8-12 happens to be part of the Bible Reading that is scheduled for today if you are following the Chronological schedule. Not only is Genesis 49 part of that schedule, but it is also where Jacob is blessing his 12 sons shortly before his time on earth comes to an end, and in these particular verse he is passing the promise of the Savior on to his Son, Judah as he says, “Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons will bow down to you. 9 You are a lion’s cub, O Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse him? 10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his. 11 He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. 12 His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.(Genesis 49:8–12, NIV84)
Though this prophecy would not come true for many, many years, Jacob placed his faith in the promise of the coming Savior. His boast was not in the things he had done, but his boast was in the Lord who had provided for him, cared for him and called him to faith in the coming Savior. This is the boast that you and I carry with us today. It is the boast of all that our Lord has done for us! Though there is nothing special about us, it was the Lord who loved us and called us to be his own. Though we had done nothing to deserve it, it was the Lord who called us to faith by the working of the Holy Spirit in baptism. Though we may not be the wisest, the noblest, or even the most influential, the Lord has called us to be his own, he has given us the gift of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, and his has called us to make that message known throughout the world. Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
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