Christian Service as a Means of Grace (Part 1)
December 18, 2023 at 3:37 pm | Posted in Means of Grace | 3 CommentsTags: Biblical bondage, Christian service, commentary on Exodus, Exodus 4, Joshua 24, Luke 17, Means of Grace, serving God, Sunday School lessons on Exodus
The principles of Christian service are closely related to the principles of Christian worship, but not exactly the same.
21 And the Lord said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go. 22 And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: 23 And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.
Exodus 4:21-23
The Lord heard the cries of the children of Israel because they were in bondage, and He was concerned about delivering them, but not merely because of the fact of the bondage itself. They had been serving and they were still going to be serving after He delivered them, but they had been serving the wrong master. Pharaoh’s greatest sin wasn’t having slaves, nor even forcing them to work, nor even cruelly making them work for little or no pay. No, his greatest sin was mismanaging God’s property, and failing to acknowledge that he was a servant himself. As undisputed ruler of all Egypt, Pharaoh was a glorified servant, yes, but still just a middle manager. The next several chapters of Exodus stress this language. God’s people were going to come OUT OF Egypt for the purpose of SERVING not only THEIR true God, but THE one and only true God.
Serving God is not how we earn or deserve or make a meritorious claim on God’s grace. Christian service is service to Him, but it is a means of grace for us. We were made to serve Him, and failing to serve Him is an attempt to rob Him of glory and give it to someone else or ourselves.
13 And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat. 14 Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord.
Joshua 24:13-14 (emphasis added)
We must worship Him in spirit and in truth; we must serve Him in sincerity and in truth. Our service must be from the heart (“not with eyeservice, as menpleasers”) and must be service TO the right God. We are going to serve – the question for us as we seek to utilize God’s means of grace to grow and make progress in our sanctification is WHO we will serve.
As we are commanded by God to serve others, especially our spouses and loved ones and church family, what will help us make sure that this service is really a form of serving God?
5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. 6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. 7 But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? 8 And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? 9 Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. 10 So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.
Luke 17:5-10
The first thing that will help us in our attitude about service is to remember that God does not NEED our service, which we can continue to look at next time.
Worship as a Means of Grace (Part 3)
December 14, 2023 at 11:05 am | Posted in Means of Grace | 2 CommentsTags: Biblical worship, Christian worship, commentary on Exodus, Exodus 20, Exodus 34, Job 1, Psalm 29, Psalm 95, Sunday School lessons on Exodus
For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
Exodus 34:14
18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. 19 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.
Exodus 20:18-19
Worshiping God in truth means presenting ourselves before the truth of God: all that He is and all that He commands us to do.
And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.
Exodus 20:20
Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
Psalm 29:2
Worshiping God in truth means giving Him the highest honor and glory. Worshiping Him in spirit means adorning our outward acts of worship with holiness.
O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.
Psalm 95:6
Worship in spirit involves submitting to Him. Worship in truth means acknowledging Him as our Creator.
20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, 21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.
Job 1:20-21
Worship in spirit involves acknowledging God in the worst circumstances. Worship in truth involves recognizing that God is ultimately orchestrating these circumstances.
Hit the Hay or Hit the Bricks?
June 28, 2022 at 3:57 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 2 CommentsTags: Christian ministry, commentary on Exodus, common expressions, common expressions in the Bible, Exodus 5, hay, ministry burnout, straw, Sunday School lessons on Exodus
The common expression “hit the hay” comes from a time when mattresses and pillows were sometimes stuffed with hay. It means to go to bed and go to sleep. Technically, though, hay refers to grain crops and is typically used to feed animals. A more accurate expression might have been “hit the straw,” although that one suffers from a lack of alliteration. Both hay and straw are mentioned in the Bible. Here is one of the most well-known mentions of straw:
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword. And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? get you unto your burdens. And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens. And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves. And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.
Exodus 5:1-8
The people had to gather straw to make bricks, and it is generally assumed that the straw was mixed into the mortar used to make the bricks. This may be correct, but it may have also been needed for burning in the fire used to bake the bricks.
Pharaoh hoped that God’s people would be too tired from all this work to worship God, or to stir up trouble. He wanted them so worn out that, by the end of the day, they wouldn’t have enough energy to do anything other than “hit the hay.”
Of course, Moses had been instructed by God to lead His people out of Egypt – to get them to “hit the bricks,” so to speak. God’s people had been serving Pharaoh when they should have been serving God. As Christians, we have to be be intentional about who we serve. The world will have us in bondage if we’re not careful – too tired to serve the Lord. When the world says “hit the hay,” we need to “hit the bricks,” and get to church, to get more involved in ministry. Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together (Hebrews 10:25). Some people get “church burnout.” They think the Lord is telling them to take some time off from church. I’m not talking about missing a service now and then for honest reasons, but we really must not take an extended time off from ministry. When Jesus spoke to people who were laboring and were “heavy laden” (Matthew 11:28), He didn’t tell them to take some time off or to take a break from the ministry, or to go somewhere where they would feel more appreciated. No, He told them to come to Him. When you are worn out, that’s when you ought to be most aware that you need Jesus and you need to be serving Him.
Remembering the Laws
December 27, 2018 at 3:33 pm | Posted in Q&A | 3 CommentsTags: commentary on Exodus, Deuteronomy 6, Exodus 21, Exodus 22, Law of God, mnemonic devices, Moses, Old Testament Law, Sunday School lessons on Exodus
Question: The laws that were given to Moses by God in Exodus 21 and 22 were given orally. How could so many laws be remembered by Moses and then transmitted to the people without writing them down?
Answer: Later on (probably during the wilderness wanderings) Moses did write them down, and, since he was inspired by the Holy Spirit at that time, there was no possibility of him making a mistake in remembering them. However, before they were written down, they were given with certain literary and mnemonic devices built into them to help with their memorization. One of these is the device of chiasmus. Also, faithful Hebrew fathers were supposed to rehearse the laws with their children frequently and regularly, so that they could be remembered and passed down from generation to generation. See Deuteronomy 6:1-9.
Cooler than the Other Side of the Pillar
November 12, 2018 at 2:37 pm | Posted in Q&A | 3 CommentsTags: 1 Corinthians 10, Christophanies, Christophany, commentary on Exodus, Exodus 14, parting of the Red Sea, pillar of cloud, pillar of fire, Sunday School lessons on Exodus
Question: The children of Israel were led by a pillar of cloud/fire as they left Egypt. When they got to the Red Sea, did the pillar go over or across the sea so they would know they were supposed to go across, too?
Answer: If you look at Exodus 14:19-22 it appears that the pillar moved from in front of the Israelites to behind them in order to act as a shield between them and the Egyptians. After they crossed the Red Sea, it must have returned to the forefront in order to keep leading them. What’s really interesting is that Verse 19 connects the pillar with “the Angel of God,” which many Bible scholars take as a Christophany (a preincarnate appearance of Christ in the Old Testament). I Corinthians 10:1-4 also seems to support this idea.
The Laver as Baptistry?
July 17, 2018 at 3:31 pm | Posted in Q&A | 5 CommentsTags: Baptism, commentary on Exodus, Exodus 30, holiness, laver, purity, ritual purification, Sunday School lessons on Exodus, Tabernacle
Question: Does the washing and purification of the priests in the laver of the Old Testament Tabernacle have any significance for the New Testament ordinance of baptism?
Answer: The Tabernacle laver (made of bronze) is first mentioned in Exodus 30:18. The priests were required to use it to wash both their hands and feet every time they went from the courtyard into the Most Holy Place – upon penalty of death. Its primary function was practical: sanitary hygiene. Many of the priests handled raw meat and bloody flesh. Although “germs” weren’t common knowledge in those days, God certainly knew about their relation to disease, and many of His laws protected the people from things like Hepatitis A (which is easily spread by the failure to wash hands when dealing with shared food preparation) without their knowledge. However, the laver also had a symbolic function. Most people know the expression “cleanliness is next to Godliness.” While this expression is not precisely from the Bible, it does express the idea that holiness is associated with purity. The idea that people would approach the presence of the holy God with dirty hands and feet would be offensive as a reminder of how wrong it would be for sinful people to approach a pure and righteous God. When gentiles would convert to Judaism in the Old Testament, they would be baptized as a symbol of washing away their sin and “uncleanliness.” New Testament baptism is different, though. For Christians, our sin was borne and expiated by Jesus on the Cross, and our baptism, which should be subsequent to conversion, symbolizes our identification with Christ in His death (going down into the water), burial (being under the water), and Resurrection (coming up out of the water).
Is God Your Fill-in-the-Blank?
April 19, 2018 at 4:55 pm | Posted in Q&A | 2 CommentsTags: commentary on Exodus, Exodus, Exodus 3, First Commandment, I AM THAT I AM, Moses, Name of God, Sunday School lessons on Exodus, the great I AM
Question: In Exodus 3:13-14 Moses asked God to tell him the name that he should tell the people when they asked Moses who sent him. God told Moses that He was “I AM THAT I AM,” and that he should tell them “I AM” sent him. Did God leave a blank at the end of His revealed name so that people could fill in the blank with whatever they needed Him to be? In other words, the people in Egypt needed to be delivered from bondage, so they could finish God’s statement by imputing to Him the name, “I AM… your Deliverer.” When they got hungry or thirsty later on, they could think of Him as “I AM… your Provider.” When they got sick, they could could call Him “I AM… your Healer.” If they were attacked, they could pray to “I AM… your Shield.” And so forth. Does that make sense – the idea that God would be whatever you need Him to be?
Answer: God used the name “I AM” which sounds abbreviated to us, but which actually points to His supreme holiness. In other words, Moses was looking for a way to describe what manner of God this was Who had spoken to Him, and God could not point to anything outside of Himself for comparison. He had to stop at simply “I AM” because there is no thing and no one in this universe to which He can be properly compared, since everything is “creaTION” except for God Himself, Who is “CreaTOR.” He used the name “I AM” in the singular sense of “I AM it, I’m all there is when it comes to ‘gods.’ I’m the only one that’s real.” (This was a real deal-breaker for Pharaoh and the Egyptians who had gods for everything from frogs to houseflies.) I think this interpretation is reinforced by the First Commandment, where God declared that He is one God (I AM the LORD your GOD), and that no one is allowed to make up any other little g gods “before Him.”
Perhaps people will think of the name “I AM THAT I AM” in whichever sense they find more comforting. I know that people like to think of God as being whatever they need Him to be during difficult times. Personally, I take greater comfort in knowing that whatever He reveals Himself to be in the Bible is ultimately what is best. When I swing out into eternity and leave this world behind I’m depending on the God that is “real” to hold me in His everlasting arms, regardless of whatever personal ideas I might have ascribed to Him.
The Real Emancipation Proclamation
March 9, 2018 at 2:04 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 8 CommentsTags: commentary on Exodus, Exodus 33, Moses, proclamation of Christ, Proverbs 20, self-promotion, serving others, sovereignty of God, Sunday School lessons on Exodus
Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?
Proverbs 20:6
We have a strong tendency to promote ourselves. The Hebrew word translated as “proclaim” in Proverbs 20:6 is qara. It is from a root word meaning to stop someone and accost them. Most of us are willing to go out of our way – to insert ourselves into someone else’s path if necessary, to stop them in their tracks, to grab hold of them – and in some way try to cause them to think well of us as individuals. We are like traveling salesmen or street-corner hucksters, distributing a good opinion of ourselves and seeking our own glory.
This category, “most men,” is contrasted with the “faithful man.” The rhetorical question, “Who can find one?” emphasizes the scarcity of faithful people, but it also draws a sharp distinction between the self-promoter – the one who accosts people to tell them of his own goodness – and the faithful person who is literally hard to find. Why is he hard to find? Because he’s not trying to be found. He’s too busy serving other people.
In the Book of Exodus God spoke with Moses face to face, in a sense. He spoke to him as a friend, and assured him that He had favor with God. This prompted Moses to ask for a huge request. Knowing that ordinarily no man could see God with His glory unveiled and live, Moses asked for a special dispensation: “Lord, show me your glory.”
God agreed to a partial granting of this request:
And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.
Exodus 33:19 (emphasis added)
God, like the boastful men of Proverbs 20:6, proclaims, too, but this is a different type of proclaiming. This is an announcement not tinged with a desperate need for acceptance. This is a bold, straightforward, official proclamation of Who God is – according to God Himself! And he told Moses flat-out: “I will decide on My own – without anyone else’s help or input – who will receive grace and who will receive mercy.”
As Christians, we are commanded to serve. Part of our service is to proclaim the truth about God, and part of that truth is that the results are up to Him, not us. Our part is to be faithful – to walk humbly with God, and to obey His Word. Our accosting of other people on God’s behalf may be successful or unsuccessful according to our estimation, but we should find comfort and hope and the resolve not to quit in knowing that the distribution of God’s grace and mercy to those to whom we minister is in His hands.
Old Testament Prayer
January 5, 2018 at 10:59 am | Posted in Biblical prayer, Q&A | 2 CommentsTags: Christ the Mediator, commentary on Exodus, Exodus, Exodus 2, Hebrews 4, intercessory prayer, Moses, Old Testament prayer, prayer, Sunday School lessons on Exodus
Question: In Exodus Moses talks to God and relays messages back and forth between God and the people. Did people in the Old Testament pray in the way that we do?
Answer: That’s a really good question that forces us to think about the nature of prayer. We know that people prayed in the Old Testament, even before Exodus. Two notable examples are Abraham in Genesis 20:17 and Abraham’s servant in Genesis 24:12-14. After Exodus the Old Testament is replete with all kinds of prayers in all kinds of situations. Many of the Psalms are in the form of prayers, although sin could always serve as a hindrance to prayer (Psalm 66:18).
It is possible that in Exodus 2:24-25 when God heard the “groaning” of the Israelites in their bondage in Egypt that this groaning was a type of call to God for help, but it is also possible that, after hundreds of years in Egypt, the people had forgotten about Abraham’s God and did not practice prayer. It may be that through the ministry of Moses and the priesthood the practice of praying to the one true God was reinstated.
Your reference to Moses, though, is especially astute, because it reminds us that, while Moses interceded with God on behalf of the people, under the New Testament we have a better Intercessor (Romans 8:34) and Mediator (I Timothy 2:5) that allows us to call upon the Lord in His name freely whenever we want (Hebrews 4:14-16).
The Deep End 
Worship as a Means of Grace (Part 2)
December 20, 2023 at 11:24 am | Posted in Means of Grace | 3 CommentsTags: Biblical worship, Christian worship, commentary on Exodus, Exodus 20, Exodus 32, Exodus 34, First Commandment, Second Commandment, Sunday School lessons on Exodus
Exodus 20:2-3
Worshiping God involves worshiping Him in spirit, recognizing that He is not physically limited by time or space. We must not act as though He is available to be worshiped only at appointed times or locations. Our worship must not be hypocritical, merely outward. We must worship Him with our spirits, and we must worship Him in truth, not faking it. Worshiping in truth also means worshiping the true God.
In Exodus 20:2 He identifies Himself as the true God. Exodus 20:3 is the First Commandment. “Before Me” means “in My presence,” which, for the omnipresent God, is everywhere all the time. This is the Second Commandment:
Exodus 20:4-5
The First Commandment is about worship. The Second Commandment is about worship and service. He is the true God; we must not act like there’s another one. And don’t try to make anything that looks like a god. In the incident with the golden calf the people broke both of these commandments.
Exodus 32:17-18
This was “true worship” from a worldly point of view. There was: excitement; sacrifice; unity; enthusiasm; purpose; planning; commitment. It was “true worship,” but it was not worship in truth. It was syncretism and rationalization. It was not acceptable to God in any way, shape, or form.
Not all graven images are graven with tools like chisels. Graven image worship also involves engraving a false god in our minds, and giving it attributes that God doesn’t really have OR deleting one that He does have.
Exodus 34:5-8
Recognizing the revelations of God’s true attributes, Moses worshiped. One of those attributes is His jealousy, which we will look at next time.