Moses knew it, didn't he?
He knew that this wasn’t a good idea and it wasn’t going to go
well. He goes to Pharaoh and says that
the Lord has commanded that the people
be set free for a feast to Him in the wilderness. What is Moses talking about? Did the Lord command a feast in the
wilderness? When he asks that they be allowed to go three days into the
wilderness there is a statement in that request. Three days journey was deemed to be the limit
of the authority of Pharaoh and any other god.
To go three days journey was to go beyond Pharaoh's reach and worship a
god Pharaoh did not know. It was to say
to Pharaoh, you are not a god, you are certainly not our God and we are more
afraid of Him than we are of you. The
message would also be that they weren't coming back once they got out of
Pharaoh's reach. Pharaoh's response was
not only, "No" but also to make the people's lives more difficult in
his service by denying them the raw materials to make bricks. The people come to Moses to say,
"Thanks, thanks a lot for making us stink in Pharaoh's sight." Sometimes things get worse before they get
better. Moses was a bit discouraged by
this development wasn't he?
Does sin matter since the cross? If I believe aren't I saved? Isn't that good enough? What Lent says is that righteousness, the
pursuit of a righteous life, sanctification, matters. In that, we are in good company, we agree
with Jesus. Does He literally mean to
hack off your hands and feet and tear out your eyes? Obviously not, but what He is saying is that
life matters, life lived according to God's will, that sin continues to be a
weighty matter. Jesus' death on the
cross atones for sin, we don't maim ourselves because of the cross, forgiveness
and restoration. Most of our sin comes
directly from the heart, it spills out of the center of our being and only then
becomes manifest to the world. From of
old, through the prophets, it was told that we would be getting a new
heart. We must take good care of our new
hearts lest they become hardened to sin as Pharaoh's had.
When do we have the kind of worship Paul describes
here? I dearly want to see us have a
time when we can come together and see the Lord move in and through His people
just like this. Paul continues to
correct the community about the place of tongues among them and says that it is
more important in public meetings to have words of prophecy, truth-telling,
come forward that visitors can hear the need to repent and turn to Jesus. The worship he describes puts all the gifts
in play and keeps a balance, allows all to use their gifts in worship without
giving prominence to any. Worship needs
to have a time for conviction of sin in order that the cross may be lifted up
high and praise to truly happen.
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