Tag: Exodus

sermon, Stories That Shape Our Life

Saved to Serve

Posted on by Jay Givens

Christians observe a sacred meal commemorating Jesus’ death. Depending on your tradition, it is called the Lord’s Supper, communion, or the eucharist. On his final evening, Jesus instituted this meal using two elements from the Jewish Passover meal–bread and wine. The Jewish Passover is a remembrance of God’s liberation of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. Specifically, it refers to the last of the ten plagues God sent against Egypt, when the Angel of Death passed over the homes that had the blood of a lamb on their doorframes but killed all the firstborn sons in homes not protected by the lamb’s blood. Jesus connected his coming death to this Passover story, that those covered in his blood would not know eternal death. After the stories of the plagues and the exodus, the description of the Passover festival, and the crossing of the sea, Exodus 19 tells of the Hebrews’ arrival at Mount Sinai as the end of this rescue operation and the start of a covenantal relationship between God and Israel.

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God Saved the People from Bondage (Ex 19:4)

God begins by emphasizing his liberation of the people, that he rescued them on eagle’s wings and carried them to himself. They had been enslaved in Egypt. God appeared to Moses and told him that he heard the Israelites’ cries and groans, so God was sending Moses to liberate them. The ten plagues of the exodus were an undoing of the creation story in Genesis 1. At creation, God took the dark, chaotic waters and brought life and order out of them. In the exodus, however, when Pharaoh refused to release the people, God unleased a series of plagues that took the ordered life of the great empire and brought it crumbling down into chaos and disorder. Like Genesis 1, the plague stories begin with chaotic waters (the Nile turning red and killing fish). While Genesis 1 ends with the creation of human life as the culminating act of order out of the chaos, the end of the exodus plagues is not life but death, the death of the firstborns.

With this, Pharaoh lets the people leave, then changes his mind and chases after them. The chaotic waters return once again in the form of a sea of water separating the people from any hope of escape as Pharaoh’s chariots bear down upon them. Yet God saves his people by simultaneously bringing order and salvation to them while bringing chaos and destruction to Pharaoh’s army. First, God separated the darkness from the light (with Egypt in one and Israel in the other), just as in the first day of creation. Then, the wind/Spirit of God hovered over the waters until land appeared (like day three). God created a way for his people to find life through the midst of the chaos, as he protected them. When the Egyptian army pursued through the waters, God removes his protective presence, and the waters returned to the chaos they had been before. The army lay dead and God’s people stood liberated and free. This is what God reminds them of as they stand at the mountain of God, the very place where Moses first received his calling to rescue the people. Now, however, God extends this call to all the people assembled before him, to those he had redeemed.

God Invited the People to Serve (Ex 19:5-8)

Now God invites them into a relationship with him. After reminding them how he redeemed them, he makes a covenant with them. If they fully keep the instructions he will give to them, then God offers them a unique relational status. Notice they are rescued first, then they are invited into covenant. This is a pointer to the fact that salvation is not based on our works but rather it is a free gift of God. God liberated the people. Now he invites them to show their thankfulness to him for that liberation by keeping his covenantal instructions. If they fully obey this covenant, then out of all the nations they will be his treasured possession. If they fully keep these commandments, then out of the whole earth they will be a nation set apart as a kingdom of priests. When the people hear this offer, they reply, “we will.” We will keep this covenant fully and fully obey these instructions. Unfortunately, the history of the nation demonstrates they do not.

God Called the People to Consecration (Ex 19:9-25)

To prepare for this covenant, God told the people to consecrate themselves for two days. They were to wash their clothes and avoid sexual relations. That is, they were to cleanse themselves and disrupt the daily routines of life in preparation and expectation of something new and marvelous. They were also asked to treat the mountain as holy (that is, to treat it as set apart). Anyone setting foot on the mountain was to be put to death. They were to respect God and not think they were on equal footing with the divine. This was his mountain at the moment. He was about to set foot upon it so they should respect it.

On the third day, the Lord would descend from heaven upon the mountain and pronounce the covenant. God promises Moses that God’s actions would result in the people realizing that Moses was indeed God’s chosen leader so that they would place their trust in him. Anytime Christians sense God’s call to a new venture–whether the calling of a new minister, the start of a new ministry, or a new pursuit within one’s family or one’s personal life–we should prepare ourselves through prayer and consecration. We should ready ourselves to listen for the voice of God and to accept his call.

God Pointed Toward His Ultimate Plan (Rev 5:9-14)

As we observed above, the people were called to fully obey the covenant yet none of them over the centuries was able to do so, save one. Jesus kept the covenant fully and he did so for all of us, whether Israelite or not. Jesus was the firstborn over all creation (Col 1:15) who voluntarily became Egypt’s firstborn to die in our place. He was the Lamb whose blood covered us and so allowed death to pass over those who accept his sacrifice. In the Revelation, the Song of the Lamb picks up this imagery from Exodus 19 alongside the imagery of Jesus as the Passover lamb. Jesus’ blood purchased us and so now we have become his treasured possession. No longer is this treasured possession one people “out of all the nations.” Rather, in Christ, we who are “out of every nation” are now one people, the people of the Lamb. We are called to serve him as kings and queens and priests. We are to serve God by serving our fellow human beings even as we represent him to the world. We are not saved for our own benefit. We are saved to serve.

Each time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we should recall the words of Jesus. He said the bread was his body broken for us. As we partake of the bread, we should dedicate ourselves to acts of service that will honor Jesus by restoring his body and making it whole. What person do you know who needs to become part of Jesus’ body today? Will you consecrate yourself to service for that person, to witness to your Lord and Savior who died for them? Jesus also took the cup and said it was his blood poured out for us. As Jesus gave his life for us, we are called to pour out our lives in service to him and to others. Who in your sphere of influence needs your service today? How will you be Jesus’ priest to that person? Jesus set us free to serve. May we serve one another because he first served us.

Saved to Serve (Exodus 19)

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Bible, psalms, sermon

Who Is Like the Lord?

Posted on by Jay Givens

Psalm 113 is the first psalm in the Great Hallel of Passover (Pss 113-118). One thing that we find in the text is that we should exalt the LORD at all times. Because of the liberation of God’s people through the Passover, verse 1 describes the radical change that has occurred for the Hebrews. While in Egypt, they moaned and cried out because of oppression. Now, however, they shout “Hallelu Ya” (Praise the Lord)! Before the Passover, they were the servants of Pharaoh, but afterwards servants of the LORD. Three times in the text, there is an emphasis that the “name of the LORD” (YHWH) should be praised. To the Hebrews, the name was symbolic of someone’s character, so the praise the name was to shine a light on the character of the LORD. He is YHWH, the “I Am Who I Am” who fulfills his promises. At the burning bush, Moses is told that God is the I Am, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who will free the people and deliver them into the land promised to those ancestors. Because of who he is, we are to praise him now (whatever our current circumstances) and praise him forevermore. From the dawn to dusk, his name is to be praised (vv. 2-3).

Another thing we find in the text is that the LORD is the Exalted One. He is over all the nations. There is no God like him. His glory is described as being not “in” the heavens but “above” them. Who is like him? He sits on high as King of the Universe (vv. 4-5). Yet this great and mighty God who dwells above the heavens humbles himself. We are told that he stoops down to look upon the heavens and the earth. What is it he searches for as he lowers himself (rather non-regally) to stoop and search the earth?

The text tells us that he does this because the LORD is the One who exalts. The surprising thing in verses 7-9 is that the object of his gaze are the poor and the childless. We are told he raises the poor from the dust and the needy from the dung hill (NIV, “ash heap”). He even puts the poor onto level ground with royalty. The psalm reminds us of the parable of Jesus about the rich man and Lazarus. The poor beggar Lazarus is exalted at the end of the story while the rich man is punished. In the ministry of Jesus, we find his care focused on the blind, the lame, the lepers, the tax collectors, the so-called “sinners” (as defined by the religious elites). He shows compassion to them but engages in debate and argument with the rich and powerful (both politically and religiously). The placement of the poor and the prince on level ground can also be seen in the selection by the Spirit of Jesus of two of the primary early Christian leaders–Paul, the well-educated Pharisaic rabbi, and Peter, the plain-spoken fisherman. Jesus places them on equal footing (or even places Peter a little above as he was selected for leadership much earlier than Paul).

The other object of God’s focus, as mentioned above, is the childless woman. She will be “settled” in her home “as” a happy mother. The text doesn’t promise she will be a mother, but God will bless her just as he blesses the woman with child. Still, the statement reminds us of the care the LORD has for the motherless wife–Sarah, Rachel, Samson’s mother, and Hannah most notably. In fact, some scholars have noted the similarities between words and phrases of this psalm and Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel 2. Both images (the poor being exalted and seated and the childless being settled and happy) are apt images for the Exodus. The slaves are liberated from poverty; the mothers who lost children find happiness.

This compassion for the lowly and exaltation of the humble is the story of Jesus. Paul tells us that Jesus, though he was in very nature God, did not grasp at equality with God but humbled himself to become a servant. (The God who stoops in Psalm 113 is the same humble God seen in Jesus.) Jesus lowers himself into the dirt and dung of human existence, even to the point of a violent and humiliating death on a Roman cross. But then God the Father exalted him! He gave him “the name” (mentioned three times in Psalm 113) that is “above” every name (as God is “above” the heavens) so that all tongues will confess “Jesus is LORD” (Hallelu Ya!), for the name above all names is the name YHWH, the LORD.

This is also the story of the Church. Paul tells us that God chose the foolish and the lowly in order to shame the wise and the powerful. His purpose in so doing was to make sure that no one could boast about themselves (that is, be arrogant). They could only praise him in humility. Praise the LORD!

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“Who Is Like the Lord?” Psalm 113
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