After all this encounter with the Lord in a burning bush,
having heard a voice from within the bush, seen the signs, given the promise
concerning the future, Moses says to the Lord, "Please send someone
else." Somebody needed some healing
and a spine. He had multiple reasons for
not wanting to go back to Egypt though.
He was a wanted man by Pharaoh, he had killed an Egyptian in defense of
a slave. He wasn't welcomed by the
Hebrews either. He was a man without a
people. It might be slow out here
tending his father-in-law's sheep but it was safe. Moses, of all people, was happy with
safe. When God gets angry He gives Moses
a helper, his brother Aaron who will do the talking. The caveat is that God will speak to Moses
and Moses will speak to Aaron. If you
look forward to Exodus 20, right after the giving of the Ten Commandments to
the nation, you will see they, too, want Moses to hear from God and tell them
what He said. He receives reassurance
that the men who want to have him dead are gone, it is time to saddle up and
ride. He is also told that this won't go
well with Pharaoh and that he will have to threaten his first-born son. Why does the Lord come against Moses? He hasn't circumcised his son and he can't be
the leader of the people if he isn't willing to identify with them. Does his father-in-law know Moses is a Hebrew
when he asks leave to see if his brothers are still alive? Who does Jethro think he is referring to?
Moses had sought greatness long ago, forty years ago, while
he was still in Egypt. He was done
seeking it now, he wanted God to send someone else. The disciples still don't understand
greatness, they think it is thrones and palaces even though Jesus is telling
them about the cross. They didn't
understand but how could they have understood?
No one had ever heard or thought that a Roman cross was a pathway to
greatness. If they didn't understand the
parables they couldn't possibly have understood this saying. They are not prepared to serve yet. When they see someone using the name of Jesus
to cast out demons they want to protect the franchise and stop it. Jesus says that anyone who sees great things
by use of His Name won't be able to also speak against Him, so leave them
alone. It will be a thing of honor to
belong to Him and those who help them will have a reward but little did they
know that those will be relatively few and far between.
Apparently there was a problem about the gift of tongues at
Corinth. There seems to have been
spiritual pride among those who had that particular gift and Paul has to put it
back into place among the gifts. Tongues
is typically a very private gift, it edifies the one who has the gift. It is, for whatever reason, still something
that causes pride issues in the church, in some places it is the mark of a true
Christian who has the Spirit. How that
can be, given Paul's teaching on the gifts here in 1 Corinthians, is a complete
mystery to me. Paul says that we should
have greater value for those gifts which edify the body rather than the
individual. We have a problem with
wanting to be the greatest, just like the apostles, we need more humility like
Moses in the church.
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