I worked under a priest whose constant refrain was, “Everything
you do teaches.” Moses would have
agreed. On multiple occasions he wrote
things like, “When your son asks why…”
The expectation for God’s people, then and now, is that they will be
different in significant ways from other people and their children will notice
this and ask such questions. Here, he
anticipates such a question, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the
statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ Meaning is a big question and you wouldn’t
expect the answer to begin with a history lesson. Moses says the meaning of the testimonies,
statutes and rules is embedded in the work of God in the Exodus from
Egypt. The meaning of the Law comes from
the way in which the Lord became the covenant partner of the nation. His authority is based in His lovingkindness
in action.
Remember way back at the burning bush Moses asked the Lord, “Who
am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of
Egypt?” When the Lord promised to be
with Moses he asked the name of the Lord and the response was the enigmatic, “Yahweh”
or “I will be who I will be” or “I AM.” Here,
the leaders demand to know of John the Baptist who he thinks he is to take up
the mantle of prophet in this way. He could
have pointed back to his father, Zechariah’s experience with the archangel when
his birth was announced but instead he gives his own enigmatic answer, pointing
back to Isaiah, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” Like Moses, John saw his work as secondary to
the work of God. Moses looked back to
God’s deliverance in Egypt and John pointed forward to the coming of
Messiah. Neither man thought of his own
role as important in salvation history, it was all about God.
The writer of Hebrews points back to faithfulness and
obedience to what was once heard, “first proclaimed by the Lord, attested by
those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various
miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.” The giving of the law was, by traditional
teaching, attended by angels, hence the cherubim over the mercy seat, guarding
the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies.
Jesus, in earthly form, was, for a time lower than the angels but now,
crowned with glory and honor. Until we
understand two things, that God is the author and perfecter of our salvation
and that all glory and honor and praise belongs to Him alone, we will never
make progress in the faith. We must have
the mind of both Moses and John the Baptist, that it is all about Him.
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