“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and
bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
It would seem simple to sort out why Moses, of all the people of Israel,
should be the one to go to Pharaoh, he grew up in Pharaoh’s household as a
child of the house. He is more qualified
for that particular mission than anyone else in the entire nation. It has, however, been a long time since he
was there and he had been asked a thorny question the last time he was with
them, “Who made you ruler or judge over us?”
He had been rejected in his role already. He is now living a quiet life tending his
father-in-law’s sheep, married with kids, why should he go back where he wasn’t
wanted? The risk is too great and the
reward not assured. God’s first promise
is presence, I will be with you. Sound
familiar? His second promise is that the
sign is that when they have come out they will worship on this mountain. It will already have been done if they
survive to worship. He has to take the
risk first to see the sign.
We are to rejoice not in the miraculous signs God does
through His people but that our names are written in heaven. That is a bit like the sign God gave to
Moses, we won’t know the reality until we have already run the race. Jesus’ resurrection, however, gives us a hope
that is sure and certain in that regard.
We can know it is true because of the sign of the resurrection. If we are “in Christ” then we will be
resurrected as He is. By the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit we know that we have already received this gift, our names
are written in heaven, engraved on His hands as He revealed to Isaiah. Who are we, we are the children of the living
God who have and will receive the inheritance of eternal life. We are sent to lead His children out of the
Egyptian bondage of sin and death.
The writer points to the worship on the mountain at Sinai,
the fulfillment of the promise to Moses, and says that Jesus is a better
mediator of a better covenant in that it is love that draws us to Him rather
than fear which kept them away. We are
called to the heavenly mountain where we join angels and archangels and all the
company of heaven in their song of praise to God and to the Lamb. Jesus’ blood speaks a word of forgiveness
while Abel’s cried out for vengeance on his murderer. Our response to God’s gracious gift of life
in His kingdom is worship in reverence and awe remembering that our God is a
consuming fire. The two truths that God
is a consuming fire and His judgment to be feared but in Jesus we pass through
that fire, are to be held constantly in tension, He has not retired from the
job of judge, but He has sent His Son to bear our punishment if we have faith
in Him. It might also be a good time to
meditate on the description of God as “consuming fire” in light of the burning
bush that wasn’t being consumed by the fire that was God. If we are in Christ then we know what that
holy fire looks like, burning in and through His people without consuming them.
O quickly come, dread Judge of all,
for, awful though thine advent be;
all shadows from the truth will fall,
and falsehood die, in sight of thee.
O quickly come, for doubt and fear
like clouds dissolve when thou art near.
for, awful though thine advent be;
all shadows from the truth will fall,
and falsehood die, in sight of thee.
O quickly come, for doubt and fear
like clouds dissolve when thou art near.
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