A foot in light, a foot in darkness

SCRIPTURE READING: 1 JOHN

The apostles could write with confidence about what they knew of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their faith could not be shaken by arguments or persecution because they actually heard, saw, and touched the resurrected Jesus many times in the 40 days between his resurrection and ascension to Heaven. The fellowship of Christians today, just like those first-century disciples, is based on being a community of people who have also had encounters with Christ. Though we were not with the original first-century disciples who saw him after he rose from the dead, the fellowship of Christians today is based on an equally-real encounter with Jesus Christ today. But you can’t have fellowship with people if you are not being real with them. There have been many times I have not lived my life as Jesus did even after publicly acknowledging him. I got really good at deceiving myself. Internally, I was often loving the things of the world in wickedness while appearing outwardly like I had it all together. I often wondered if I was so disconnected that it was too late for me. I would read the story of Pharaoh's hard heart in Exodus or Esau's lack of repentance and feel hopeless. But God could see me the whole time and he has never stopped pursuing me. He loved me before I made a profession of faith in him and he continued to love me while having an appearance of loving him that did not match up way too often with what was happening on the inside of me. Not only did I fall short of God's perfect standard, but I also have proudly and defiantly run far in the other direction way too many times.

The book of 1 John tells us that we belong to the devil if we keep on making a practice of sinning. Words are important, but they are empty words if they are not backed up by actions. We are not saved by works, but our faith is dead if works do not accompany the faith we claim to have as the book of James teaches. If a professing Christian is not willing to give up their life for their fellow believers (in service to them or literally if circumstances ever call for such an extreme sacrifice), then that person is still dead in their sins no matter what they may say.

This heart-change that is required is not something we can strive for or work really hard to obtain. You cannot conjure up that which you do not have. If you want your heart to change, you can't do it yourself no matter how hard you try. No amount of self-help can result in a lasting change from the inside out. Luke 9:24 in The Message paraphrase of the Bible reminds us that self-help is no help at all. It is the Lord that must change our hearts because we cannot. You cannot conjure up that which you do not have. Our part is to give up trying harder and instead choose to surrender to God by the power of the Holy Spirit, trusting in what Jesus did on the cross. We must use our free will to make the choice to surrender our will to God's will. Only when you do that can God grant you what you cannot get any other way. Choose to repent of your sins and then trust in what Jesus has done. Don't strive or struggle within yourself, but have faith in the Lord to help you to do it. Only when we do this can we really truly know and understand who God is. Only the Holy Spirit can change the default settings of our sinful nature so that what comes out of us is godly rather than evil.

But what if, like as I described of myself earlier, you feel like you have gone too far and there is no turning back? I have talked to many people while praying with them who have expressed that very concern. They say things like, "I feel too filthy. I have gone too far. God could never forgive me. What's the use in trying when I just keep failing?" I have had all those same thoughts. But 1 John 1:9 tells us that if we confess our sins to God the Father, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. He can do this only because of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus on the cross because he is the only one who lived a sinless life and then died in our place. We broke the law and Jesus paid our fine. I owed a debt I could not pay. He paid a debt he did not owe.

The Apostle John warns us not to love this world nor the things it offers us. Jesus said we ccannot serve two masters. We will be loyal to and love only one master. When we call Jesus our Lord, it is not an expression of his divinity or equality with God. The Greek noun translated "Lord" is "kyrios." Your lord is the person or thing to whom you belong. Your lord is the person or thing that makes decisions for you or by which you make decisions. Your lord is your master. When you refer to Jesus of Nazareth as the Lord Jesus Christ, you are identifying Jesus as the Messiah not just of the Jewish people but of the world, and you are calling him your master. Before conversion to Christ, Satan is your owner and controller. Whether you intellectually accept or deny the reality of Satan's existence is irrelevant to the fact that he actually does exist and he is your master if you do not belong to Jesus. If you love the things of the world and what it offers you, Jesus is not your master. God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not practicing the truth. This is a state I chose to live in off and on far too many times and it has had disastrous results every time I have drifted that way. That is why I write about this now, not just as an encouragement and warning to my readers, but also for my own future accountability.

On the other hand, if your actions and not just your words are righteous, it will give you confidence when you stand before God on Judgment Day. Again, this is not because our actions save us. Ephesians 2:8-9 is clear that God saves by his grace when we believe. We cannot take credit for God's grace when we choose to surrender to it. We would have nothing to surrender to if he wasn't offering his grace to all people as a gift. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. If we are professing believers in Christ, let us go through the rest of this day and all future days acting as Jesus does and not just talking a good game. Let us cleanse ourselves and our surroundings of everything that does not please God. Live today actively trusting in what the Lord has done. Don't strive to earn what you can only trust in to legitimately receive.

The Real Story of Thanksgiving

Anybody who has known me for even a little bit of time or has visited any of my social media pages knows what a fan I am of Rush Limbaugh. One of the annual Thanksgiving traditions on The Rush Limbaugh Show was the reading of the real story of Thanksgiving. It comes from chapter 6 of Rush's second book written in 1992 titled See I Told You So. The chapter this story comes from is called Dead White Guys or What Your History Books Never Told You. To keep this tradition alive and to share information of America's real history with people who might not have heard this story,  I present selected and self-edited portions of this chapter that I consider most relevant for this year. You can find the whole book by clicking on this link.

The real story of Thanksgiving actually begins long before the first Thanksgiving. For me, I feel like Rush Limbaugh's telling of the first Thanksgiving should start back earlier in the chapter before he talks about the actual first Thanksgiving. For me, it should all begin with Christopher Columbus about 130 years earlier. As Rush points out, the politically correct view of Christopher Columbus today is that the Italian explorer did not actually discover America because people were already living here. According to the revisionist history that we are taught in schools today, Christopher Columbus brought nothing to the “peaceful New World paradise” but oppression, disease, brutality, and genocide. But this is not an accurate picture of Christopher Columbus, as I have also pointed out in some of my own Wisdom On Wheels blogs and podcasts, especially around Columbus Day. Christopher Columbus really did discover America. That does not mean that no human being had set foot on the continent before 1492 when Columbus discovered it. But just because there were people already here doesn't mean he didn't discover anything. I discovered a very small amount of money I didn’t know I had recently, but that doesn’t mean I’m denying its presence before I discovered it. But that doesn’t make me any less of a discoverer either. Maybe my middle name should be Columbus! Anyway, it was Christopher Columbus that brought this continent to the attention of the technologically advanced, civilized world and paved the way for the expansion of Western Civilization. In 2021 (and really long before that), Western Civilization has been wrongly equated to white supremacy. Nothing could be further from the truth. But that is the nature of the newspeak society in which we live today.

When Christopher Columbus discovered this land in 1492, what kind of a place did he discover? Did he find blissful natives living in perfect harmony with one another and communing with nature, as the politically correct history of today would have us believe? No. Nobody was painting with all the colors of the wind as sang in the Disney movie by Elizabeth Warren--I mean Pocahontas. What Columbus found was a land sparsely inhabited by nomadic hunting tribes. Many were constantly on the verge of starvation. They had not yet discovered the wheel and had no written language. They lived a violent, tribe against tribe, brutal existence. One of the Caribbean Indian tribes that Columbus came into contact with was the Arawaks. The Arawaks attacked and enslaved the Siboney. Another tribe, the Caribs, literally feasted on both tribes because they were cannibals. One of Columbus' search parties found large cuts of human flesh. Arawak boy captives were being fattened for the griddle. Girl captives were mainly used to produce babies for the Caribs to dine on. Did I mention you probably shouldn’t read this until after you have had Thanksgiving dinner today? Oops. Oh well, better a late warning than none at all, right? In today's history books, Native American life is often romanticized. But even a cursory examination of the historical record shows that life was far from utopian for these people long before Columbus. That's not to say that there were no atrocities against Indians by white people. But there were just as many committed against them by other Indians and with a greater degree of savagery. It is also worth pointing out there are more American Indians alive today than there were when Columbus arrived or at any other time in history. If Columbus was trying to commit genocide, he sucked at it.

The education establishment and the media have also twisted history when it comes to the contributions of America's earliest permanent settlers, the pilgrims. The story of the pilgrims begins in the early part of the 1600s. The Church of England under King James I was persecuting anyone and everyone who did not recognize its absolute civil and spiritual authority. Those who challenged ecclesiastical authority and those who believed strongly in freedom of worship were hunted down, imprisoned, and sometimes executed for their beliefs. A group of separatists first fled to Holland and established a community. After 11 years, about 40 of them agreed to make a perilous journey to what they called the New World. They knew in advance they would face hardships, but they also knew they would finally be able to live and worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail. It carried a total of 102 passengers, including 40 pilgrims led by William Bradford. On the journey, Bradford set up an agreement, a contract, that established just and equal laws for all members of their new community, irrespective of their religious beliefs. The ideas expressed in the Mayflower Compact came from the Bible. The pilgrims were a people completely steeped in the lessons of the Old and New Testaments. They looked to the ancient Israelites for their example. And because of the biblical precedent set forth in the scripture, they never doubted that their experiment would work. But this was no pleasure cruise. The journey to the new world was a long and arduous one. When the pilgrims landed in New England in November of 1620, they found a cold, barren, desolate wilderness. There were no friends to greet them. There were no houses to shelter them. There were no inns where they could refresh themselves. And the sacrifice they had made for freedom was just the beginning. During the first winter, half the pilgrims, including William Bradford’s wife, died of either starvation, sickness, or exposure. When spring finally came, Indians taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod, and skin beavers fur coats. Life improved for the pilgrims, but they did not prosper yet.

Rush points out in his book that this is where American history lessons often end. Thanksgiving is actually explained in some textbooks as a holiday for which the pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians for saving their lives rather than as a devout expression of gratitude with biblical roots. Here is the part that has been omitted: The original contract the pilgrims had entered into with their merchant sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store. Each member of the community was entitled to one common share. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belonged to the community as well. William Branford recognized that this form of collectivism was as costly and destructive to the pilgrims as the first harsh winter was, which had taken so many lives. So as governor of the colony, Bradford decided to take bold action. He assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage, thus turning loose the power of the marketplace. What we learn from this story in Rush’s book is that before Karl Marx was even born, the pilgrims had experimented with socialism and it didn't work! What Bradford and his community found was that the most creative and industrious people had no incentive to work any harder than anyone else unless they could utilize the power of personal motivation. The pilgrims decided early on to scrap socialism permanently. Bradford wrote that by taking away private property and trying to force the community to split their wealth evenly amongst themselves, they were trying to act wiser than God. For the community, this bred much confusion and discontent. The young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did not believe that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without any recompense. They thought it was an injustice to expect such a thing. The pilgrims found that people cannot be expected to do their best work without incentive. So instead, they harnessed the power of free enterprise through the capitalistic principle of private property. Every family was assigned its own plot of land to work and was permitted to market its own crops and products. They saw immediate, successful results, as it made all hands industrious. Much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been. It is here that Rush points out that supply-side economics existed before the 1980s and Ronald Reagan. All you have to do is read the story of Joseph and Pharaoh in Genesis 41. Following Joseph’s suggestion in Genesis 41 34, Pharaoh reduced the tax on Egyptians to 20% during the seven years of plenty and the earth brought forth in heaps. In no time, the pilgrims found they had more food than they could eat by themselves. So they set up trading posts and exchanged goods with Indians. In other words, their prosperity enabled them to be more generous. The profits allowed them to pay off their debts to the merchants in London and the success and prosperity of the Plymouth settlement attracted more Europeans. This began what came to be known as The Great Puritan Migration.

One of those attracted to the new world by the success of Plymouth was Thomas Hooker, who established his own community in Connecticut, the first full-fledged constitutional community and perhaps the freest society the world has ever known. Hooker’s Community was governed by the Fundamental Order of Connecticut, which established strict limits on the powers of government. So successful was this idea that Massachusetts was inspired to adopt its Body of Liberties, which included 98 separate protections of individual rights. These ideas and concepts are tied directly to the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution.

Nevertheless, the pilgrims and Puritans of early New England are often vilified today as witch burners and portrayed as simpletons. On the contrary, it was their commitment to pluralism and free worship that led to these ideas being incorporated into American life. Our history books purposely conceal the fact that these notions were developed by communities of devout Christians who studied the Bible and found that it prescribed limited, representative government and free enterprise as the best political and economic systems. There was a time when every schoolchild learned these basic lessons of the American culture. But now thanks to censorship, these truths are being systematically expunged from the history books in a favor of leftist claptrap.

That’s not where Rush’s chapter ends, but that is the end of the part that I found most relevant to us on Thanksgiving today. There is a part I want to focus on here at the very end that Rush points out. The first Thanksgiving was not primarily about the pilgrims thanking the Indians, although I am sure they were thankful for the help they received from them. But they recognized that their ultimate help came from the Lord. It is to him that they expressed thanks for. That is what Thanksgiving was about and continued to be about for a long, long time. What about today? What about you and your family? Is this just Turkey Day (or in my case Ham Day since that’s what I ate for Thanksgiving dinner)? Or is today for you about being thankful to God for what he has done in your life? Even if your life is pretty rough right now, you still can’t say he hasn’t done anything for you. He did the greatest thing he could ever do when Jesus came to Earth, lived a perfect, sinless life, and died on the cross. He paid a debt he did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay. All we have to do to avail ourselves of that is to follow Romans 10:9-10. If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved (NLT). With an offer like that, we all have something to be thankful for this and every Thanksgiving.

God's holiness and mercy

The Lord brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt around 1446 B.C. Repent of your sins and trust alone in what Jesus did on the cross for your salvation. If you do, then you will also be brought out of slavery, the slavery of sin. God has delivered us from Satan through the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, not through our own works. We don't earn our salvation. We do the right things in response to and out of thankfulness for what God has already done. It is Jesus' righteousness that gives us eternal life that is a relationship with God, not our own. And it is Holy Spirit that empowers us to do those right things to say "thank you" to Christ.

It has been three months since the Israelites were delivered from the bondage of slavery by the time we get to Exodus 19:1. That would also be a couple of weeks after the Lord first started providing manna in the wilderness in Exodus 16:1. Mount Sinai (or Horeb as it is also called) gets its name from the desert where it is located (Exodus 19:2). God said that after the people had been camping at Mount Sinai for three days, he would come down on Mount Sinai in a cloud and in the sight of all the people (Exodus 19:11). After three days, Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in a fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked with great violence (Exodus 19:18). When the Lord came down to the top of Mount Sinai, he called Moses up there, and Moses went (Exodus 19:20). The people could not come up to Mount Sinai because God had warned them to set boundaries around the mountain and set it apart for God (Exodus 19:23). Before the New Covenant and before you personally accepted Christ as your savior (if you have), there were barriers between you and God. The picture of the people being separated from God depicts that spiritual reality.

So to set the scene again, the Israelites left the land of Egypt three months before arriving in the wilderness of Sinai. They encamped around the mountain once they got there. All the instructions that God gave to Moses were to be given to the people. God said he had brought them out of Egypt on eagles' wings and brought them to himself. The language God uses stands out to me because of what God reveals in Revelation 12:14. In the middle of the seven-year Tribulation before the return of Christ, Israel will flee from the Satan-indwelt Antichrist and flee "on eagles' wings" to Petra. God doesn't change, and his covenant does not change either. That being said, God does give Israel a promise here, but it does have some fine print. Israel could be God's treasured possession IF they obeyed God fully and kept his covenant. They would be considered a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. When the people heard this, Israel said it would do everything the Lord said.

The next thing the Lord did was for the benefit of Moses, although it was spoken so that the people could hear it. God did this so the people would finally respect Moses' authority and listen to him rather than always grumbling against him. Remember in earlier chapters how many times they complained against Moses. Now, God was communicating directly with Moses. The Lord was cementing in the minds of Israel that Moses was their leader. One of the things that God makes clear to Moses, the priests, and the nation is to be careful about coming into the Lord's presence. Anyone who gazes upon the Lord without having been set apart for him will surely die. So, the Lord warned the people for their own sake to be careful and to consecrate themselves before coming into his presence.

It is different under the New Covenant. When Jesus died on the cross, the temple sanctuary's curtain was torn in two from top to bottom, and the rocks were split because of an earthquake (Matthew 27:51). Now anyone who has had their sins washed away by the blood of Jesus does not have to approach him with fear and trembling. We can draw near to the throne of grace with confidence and boldness. We do not have to fear, not because we merit God's favor, but because the blood of Jesus allows the Father to grant us mercy and grace (Hebrews 4:16). Let us view this in a balanced way. Before the cross, we could not even gaze upon the Lord. Now, if you are covered by the blood of Christ, you are invited into his presence without restriction. But let us not approach him flippantly. Let's come near to him with the love, honor, respect, and reverence that he deserves. And if you are still not covered by the blood of Christ, then you are still under the wrath and judgment of the Lord. Pastor Craig Groeschel of Life Church has a new sermon this week called "A Voice from Hell." You can watch it all week at https://live.life.church/. I encourage you to check it out. God offers mercy and grace to ANYONE no matter how evil they may have been, but you must come to God on his terms. Acknowledge and confess with your mouth that Jesus is your Lord and master. And believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. Getting saved from the eternal wrath of God is that simple (Romans 10:9-10). And don't put it off. You never know how much time you have left. Your next breath could be your last.

Jethro visits Moses

After several days in Exodus 17, we are now ready to move on to Exodus 18. Early on in the chapter, we see that Moses had two sons: Gershom and Eliezer. The name "Gershom" means "a sojourner there." The name "Eliezer" means "God is my help." Moses gave the name Gershom to his first son because he rightly noted that he had been a sojourner in a foreign land. He gave the name Eliezer to his second son because God was his help by delivering him and the nation of Israel from the sword of Pharaoh.

As the most famous leader of God’s chosen people, Moses had a strong influence on the people he led. But he also had a strong influence on his father-in-law, Jethro. At the beginning of Exodus 18,, we see that Jethro had heard about all that God had done for Israel and that Moses had done for his people. Moses was gaining quite the reputation with Jethro and so was the God that Moses served. What kind of reputation does God have among the people you know?

The relationship between Jethro and Moses was obviously based on respect and personal care. We know that because Moses bowed down and kissed Jethro upon seeing him. then they spend some time asking each other how they were doing. It would appear from the details that they were more than just cordial with each other. They actually cared about one another. When they went into the tent, Moses spent a good deal of time telling Jethro of all the miraculous things God had done on behalf of Israel. I can imagine the enthusiasm with which Moses explained all of this to Jethro and Jethro’s facial expressions as he heard for the first time Moses’ firsthand accounts of what we have recorded for us in our Bibles today. What a great time it had to be for both of them. Jethro rejoiced because of all the goodness which the Lord had done for Israel, whom He had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. “The Lord be blessed, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, for, in the matter in which they treated the people insolently, He was above them.” Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God, and Aaron and all the elders of Israel came to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God. Jethro was a priest of Midian of the Kenite clan. The Kenites were coppersmiths and metalworkers. They played an important role in the history of ancient Israel. Jethro’s statement that now he knows that the Lord is greater than all gods shows the power one’s testimony can have on those around them. Don’t discount or doubt that you have something to say that can lead others to Christ. Moses doubted God on this subject for a time, but the life of Moses is also a testimony of what God can do through a willing vessel.

More evidence of the relationship between Moses and Jethro is Jethro’s concern for Moses when he saw how much Moses was working. Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from the morning until the evening. When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why are you sitting by yourself while all the people stand around you from morning until evening?” Jethro was concerned that Moses was taking on too much. Although the Mosaic Law had yet to be given by God to Moses, God had already established the 6-to-1 day ratio of work to rest. On the seventh day, God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it He had rested from all His work which He had created and made (Genesis 2:2-3).

Then Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a dispute, it comes to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbor, and I make known the statutes of God and His laws.”

Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. You will surely wear yourself out, both you, and these people who are with you, for this thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it by yourself. Now listen to me, I will advise you, and may God be with you: You be a representative for the people to God so that you may bring their disputes to God. And you shall teach them the statutes and laws and shall show them the way in which they must walk and the work that they must do. Moreover, you shall choose out of all the people capable men who fear God, men of truth, hating dishonest gain, and place these men over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. Let them judge the people at all times, and let it be that every difficult matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they shall judge, so that it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you shall do this thing and God commands you so, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace.” God commands us to choose leaders that fear him. When governments are corrupt in places where voters elect their public officials and anyone can run for office, it is because those governments are reflections of their people. For Americans reading this, an interesting side note is that Article IV, Section 4 of the United States Constitution says that the United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government. This is a reflection of Exodus 18:21 and Jethro’s idea to provide out of all the people leaders who were rulers of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.

So how can we apply this to our lives? I don’t know if I could improve on the note in the Life Application Study Bible for Exodus 18:13-26. They say that Moses was spending so much time and energy hearing the Hebrews’ complaints that he could not get to other important work. Jethro suggested that Moses delegate most of this work to others and focus his efforts on jobs only he could do. People in positions of responsibility sometimes feel like they are the only ones who can do necessary tasks, but in actuality, others are often capable of handling part of the load. Delegation relieved Moses’ stress and improved the quality of governance. It helped prepare the Israelites for the system of government that would later be set up in Canaan. Proper delegation can multiply your effectiveness while giving others a chance to grow.

God isn't Barney

EXODUS 17:8-16

The last few posts have started off with Exodus 17:1-7. And now for the fourth time--haha, just kidding. We’re actually moving forward this time to the rest of the chapter, which means we are going to be looking at Exodus 17:8-16. I posted it earlier but didn’t talk about it much if at all. So we are going to do that a little bit now.

The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”

So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.”

Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner. He said, “Because hands were lifted up against the throne of the Lord, the Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation” (Exodus 17:8-16 NIV).

There are several people mentioned in this chapter:

1. The Amalekites- They attacked the Israelites at Rephidim, but were defeated.

2. The Israelites- They were attacked by the Amalekites at Rephidim, but won the battle. 

3. Moses- He told Joshua to go fight the Amalekites with some Israelite men while he obeyed God on top of a hill with his staff in his hands. When his hands were raised, the Israelites were winning. When they were lowered, they were losing. He also obeyed God in making sure there was a written record of these and many other events. He built an altar to the Lord and named it, “The Lord is my Banner.” As with many other times, the Lord supernaturally worked through Moses to achieve victory for his people.

4. Joshua- He was a “General” of the Israelite men who fought back and overcame the Amalekites with swords.

5. God- He displays his supernatural power here by granting the Israelites victory when Moses cooperated in obedience to the Lord by raising his hands with his staff in them.

6. Aaron- He hold up Moses’ hands with the staff in them so that God would continue to grant the Israelites supernatural victory. The Lord then told Moses to keep a record of the events, as he did with the rest of the Torah. God also said he would blot out the name of Amalek from under Heaven. 

7. Hur- He hold up Moses’ hands with the staff in them so that God would continue to grant the Israelites supernatural victory.

EXODUS 4-17

The word “staff” is used 71 times in the NIV Bible and 22 times here in Exodus. The very first time we see it, God asks Moses when he sees it, “What is that in your hand?” And, of course, Moses answers (Exodus 4:2). I’m pretty sure God does not have a vision problem. I’m also certain that is not the first time he had ever seen a staff. When God asks questions like that, he is not seeking information because he is omniscient. He has other reasons for doing so depending on the context of the question at any given time. When Holy Spirit asks you questions, it would be helpful to remember that as well.

Immediately we see either the supernatural properties of Moses’ staff or, more likely, what God directly does with a normal staff in order to demonstrate his power. According to the Midrash Yelammedenu, the staff with which Jacob crossed the Jordan is identical with that which Judah gave to his daughter-in-law, Tamar. It is likewise the holy rod with which Moses worked, with which Aaron performed wonders before Pharaoh, and with which, finally, David slew the giant Goliath. David left it to his descendants, and the Davidic kings used it as a scepter until the destruction of the Temple when it miraculously disappeared. When the Messiah comes it will be given to him for a scepter in token of his authority over the heathen (Jewish Encyclopedia). In reading that, the first thing I thought of was Revelation 2:27. He will rule them with a staff of iron and dash them to pieces like pottery (CJB).

The story of Moses’ staff in Exodus continues with Moses throwing it down and it became a snake on the ground. Then he picked it back up and it turned back into a staff (Exodus 4:4; 7:9-12). With this staff, Moses was able to perform many other signs (Exodus 4:17). With it, he turned the water of the Nile River into blood for a time (Exodus 7:15-20), brought a plague of frogs (Exodus 8:5), gnats (Exodus 8:16-17), brought thunder, hail, and lightning (Exodus 9:23), and brought a plague of locusts (Exodus 10:13). Moses brought it with him everywhere he went (Exodus 12:11; 17:5), including using it to part the Red Sea for he and the Israelites to walk through as the Egyptians pursued them (Exodus 14:16). It was used to supernaturally aid the Israelites in defeating the Amalekites as I have already mentioned here (Exodus 17:9). And we will see one more mention of the word “staff” of the book of Exodus a little later when God gives the Mosaic Law in Exodus 21:19.

DEUTERONOMY 25:17-19

Remember earlier when we read that the Lord said he would be at war with the Amalekites from generation to generation? You never want to be at war with God. Here’s a hint: In the end, God always wins one way or the other. Look at what the Lord will command Moses to tell the Israelites later in Deuteronomy 25:17-19. “Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and attacked all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!” Some Bible critics have made false claims of racism (some things never change) against God because he ordered the Amalekites to be totally wiped out. This command had nothing to do with their “race”--although, in reality, we are all a part of only one race (Acts 17:26)--but with the character of the people. Some have even falsely claimed that the God of the Old and New Testaments must be different because the God of the Old Testament is angry, hateful, and genocidal while the God of the New Testament is full of love and compassion. I suggest anyone who thinks anything even close to that to read their New Testament again from beginning to end. Here’s another hint: When Jesus returns, he’s not going to be turning the other cheek at his enemies, but returning as a conquering king to bring about an everlasting righteous government. God is full of mercy, love, grace, and extraordinary patience. However, he is also holy, just, righteous, jealous, and sometimes angry. The Lord is a man of war (Exodus 15:3) and the prince of peace (Isaiah 9:6). These are not mutually exclusive or contradictory. They work together to form the total character of God. If we are going to worship God as he truly is and all that he reveals about himself, we must accept all aspects of who he is, not just the ones that we like, are most comfortable with, or give us the most warm and fuzzy feelings. God isn’t Barney, but he is love (1 John 4:8, 16). God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16 NIV). He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9 NIV). But the choice of whether or not you will accept the gift of pardon that Jesus died and rose from the dead to purchase for you because of your sin debt you can never pay on your own--that’s up to you. Will you accept his loving, merciful gift and have a relationship with him that will last forever and grant you eternal life? Or will you die in your sins and experience his eternal wrath that will never end? Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them (John 3:36 NIV).

Jesus: Our rock and living water

For the third and final time this week, we are going to be beginning a post with Exodus 17:1-7 as we look at the symbolism or typology associated with Moses getting water from a rock. At the Lord’s command, the whole community of Israel left the wilderness of Sin and moved from place to place. Eventually, they camped at Rephidim, but there was no water there for the people to drink. So once more the people complained against Moses. “Give us water to drink!” they demanded.

“Quiet!” Moses replied. “Why are you complaining against me? And why are you testing the Lord?”

But tormented by thirst, they continued to argue with Moses. “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Are you trying to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?”

Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What should I do with these people? They are ready to stone me!”

The Lord said to Moses, “Walk out in front of the people. Take your staff, the one you used when you struck the water of the Nile, and call some of the elders of Israel to join you. I will stand before you on the rock at Mount Sinai. Strike the rock, and water will come gushing out. Then the people will be able to drink.” So Moses struck the rock as he was told, and water gushed out as the elders looked on.

Moses named the place Massah (which means “test”) and Meribah (which means “arguing”) because the people of Israel argued with Moses and tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord here with us or not" (Exodus 17:1-7 NLT)?

Now we are going to go to another Old Testament passage and two New Testament passages for more on this. In the first month of the year, the whole community of Israel arrived in the wilderness of Zin and camped at Kadesh. While they were there, Miriam, Moses' older sister, died and was buried.

There was no water for the people to drink at that place, so they rebelled against Moses and Aaron. The people blamed Moses and said, “If only we had died in the Lord’s presence with our brothers! Why have you brought the congregation of the Lord’s people into this wilderness to die, along with all our livestock? Why did you make us leave Egypt and bring us here to this terrible place? This land has no grain, no figs, no grapes, no pomegranates, and no water to drink!”

Moses and Aaron turned away from the people and went to the entrance of the Tabernacle, where they fell face down on the ground. Then the glorious presence of the Lord appeared to them, and the Lord said to Moses, “You and Aaron must take the staff and assemble the entire community. As the people watch, speak to the rock over there, and it will pour out its water. You will provide enough water from the rock to satisfy the whole community and their livestock.”

So Moses did as he was told. He took the staff from the place where it was kept before the Lord. Then he and Aaron summoned the people to come and gather at the rock. “Listen, you rebels!” he shouted. “Must we bring you water from this rock?” Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with the staff, and water gushed out. So the entire community and their livestock drank their fill.

But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust me enough to demonstrate my holiness to the people of Israel, you will not lead them into the land I am giving them!” This place was known as the waters of Meribah (which means “arguing”) because there the people of Israel argued with the Lord, and there he demonstrated his holiness among them (Numbers 20:1-13 NLT).

Once again, we see here the people grumbling against Moses and Aaron, accusing them of bringing all the people out into the desert to die. No matter how many times God provided for them, they continued to rebel in faithlessness against Yahweh. Moses finally had enough and, in his righteous anger (who wouldn't have had enough after all that time), disobeyed the Lord himself and it cost him what he looked forward to the most in this life, to lead his people into the Promised Land. Because he disobeyed the Lord, striking the rock instead of speaking to it and saying, "Must we bring you water from this rock," taking credit for it, the Promised Land of Israel was no longer a promise for Israel's leader.

Over 1,400 years later on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths (Hebrew: Sukkot), Jesus of Nazareth, Israel's Messiah, stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink! Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them!” By this, he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given since Jesus had not yet been glorified (John 7:37-39 NLT). If anybody knew how to take advantage of a setting to make a point, it was Jesus Christ. The Feast of Tabernacles was the seventh and final festival God gave to Israel. During this week-long event, families build shelters outside to live in with three walls and a roof made of branches. The purpose of living in the booth is a reminder of what the Israelites dwelt in for 40 years after the Lord brought them out of Egypt. This is also why the Apostle John used the phraseology he did in his gospel when he said the Word (Jesus) became flesh and tabernacled among us (John 1:14 TLV). Everything God did and does has a reason. There is no such thing as an overlooked detail with the God of the universe. During the Feast of Tabernacles, a sacrificial pouring out of water was performed at the Temple. The High Priest would lead a procession to the Pool of Siloam where he would fill a golden pitcher with water and then return to the courtyard of the Temple. The water at the Pool of Siloam came from the Gihon Spring, the principal supply of water for Jerusalem. Because it came from a spring, the water was considered "living water" and used for purification. After returning to the courtyard of the priests, they circled the altar once before the priest poured the water out onto the altar of sacrifice. They did this each morning except on the last morning when the priests would circle the altar seven times. This symbolized Israel's request that the Lord bless them with rain for the next harvest season. It was on this exact day when Jesus said, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink! Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them!” Again, nothing, n-o-t-h-i-n-g happens by accident with God (The Festival of Sukkot and Understanding the Feat of Tabernacles or Sukkot).

I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. All of them ate the same spiritual food, and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:1-4 NLT). Moses, who gave the law from God, struck the rock in Exodus 17:1-7 and the people drank water from it. Although Jesus is the only perfect person who kept the whole law for his entire life, the law struck him because he chose to take our place and our punishment for breaking God's law so that we could be set free and have the option for a restored relationship with God. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17 NIV). Moses, the representative of the Law, was not able to enter the Promised Land because, despite his own words, it wasn't he who provided the living water. It was God who provided the living water from the rock, and our spiritual rock, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:4, is Christ. For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are (Romans 3:20-22 NLT).

The split rock at Jabal al-Lawz, the most likely location of these events

Leadership lessons from Moses

We are going to start this post with the same passage that we looked at yesterday: Exodus 17:1-7. At the Lord’s command, the whole community of Israel left the wilderness of Sin and moved from place to place. Eventually, they camped at Rephidim, but there was no water there for the people to drink. So once more the people complained against Moses. “Give us water to drink!” they demanded.

“Quiet!” Moses replied. “Why are you complaining against me? And why are you testing the Lord?”

But tormented by thirst, they continued to argue with Moses. “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Are you trying to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?”

Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What should I do with these people? They are ready to stone me!”

The Lord said to Moses, “Walk out in front of the people. Take your staff, the one you used when you struck the water of the Nile, and call some of the elders of Israel to join you. I will stand before you on the rock at Mount Sinai. Strike the rock, and water will come gushing out. Then the people will be able to drink.” So Moses struck the rock as he was told, and water gushed out as the elders looked on.

Moses named the place Massah (which means “test”) and Meribah (which means “arguing”) because the people of Israel argued with Moses and tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord here with us or not” (Exodus 17:1-7 NLT)?

The people's quarrel with Moses was that they did not have water to drink. They accused Moses of bringing them out of Egypt to kill them, their children, and their livestock with thirst. As I said yesterday, the people's quarrel against Moses was legitimate in one sense, illegitimate in another, but in both cases, it demonstrated a lack of faith in God. I can sympathize with how they were suffering. Walking in a desert for a long time with water doesn't sound like my idea of fun. But they had been walking without water, not long enough to completely dehydrate, but long enough to really start feeling it and seeing those they love suffering. On the other hand, their statement that Moses brought them out there to die was more out of frustration than having any foundation in common sense. What incentive would Moses have had to give up the life he had as a prince in Egypt, become a fugitive for four decades, come back, stand up to the most powerful ruler in the world, and lead the people out of Egypt if he was just taking them out in the middle of nowhere to die a horrible death? But although I understand their frustration, this, too, demonstrated a lack of faith in God and his willingness to provide for them after bringing them that far.

There are many lessons in leadership to be learned from observing Moses' life. One time when Israel was still under bondage in Egypt, the Israelite foremen went to Pharaoh and pleaded with him. "Please don’t treat your servants like this," they begged. "We are given no straw, but the slave drivers still demand, 'Make bricks!' We are being beaten, but it isn’t our fault! Your own people are to blame!"

But Pharaoh shouted, "You’re just lazy! Lazy! That’s why you’re saying, "Let us go and offer sacrifices to the Lord." Now get back to work! No straw will be given to you, but you must still produce the full quota of bricks.”

The Israelite foremen could see that they were in serious trouble when they were told, “You must not reduce the number of bricks you make each day.” As they left Pharaoh’s court, they confronted Moses and Aaron, who were waiting outside for them. The foremen said to them, “May the Lord judge and punish you for making us stink before Pharaoh and his officials. You have put a sword into their hands, an excuse to kill us!”

Then Moses went back to the Lord and protested, “Why have you brought all this trouble on your own people, Lord? Why did you send me? Ever since I came to Pharaoh as your spokesman, he has been even more brutal to your people. And you have done nothing to rescue them!”

Then the Lord told Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. When he feels the force of my strong hand, he will let the people go. In fact, he will force them to leave his land!”

And God said to Moses, “I am Yahweh—‘the Lord.’ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty’—but I did not reveal my name, Yahweh, to them. And I reaffirmed my covenant with them. Under its terms, I promised to give them the land of Canaan, where they were living as foreigners. You can be sure that I have heard the groans of the people of Israel, who are now slaves to the Egyptians. And I am well aware of my covenant with them.

“Therefore, say to the people of Israel: ‘I am the Lord. I will free you from your oppression and will rescue you from your slavery in Egypt. I will redeem you with a powerful arm and great acts of judgment. I will claim you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God who has freed you from your oppression in Egypt. I will bring you into the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as your very own possession. I am the Lord!’”

So Moses told the people of Israel what the Lord had said, but they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery (Exodus 5:15-6:9 NLT).

After the Lord had delivered them from slavery, the Egyptians pursued Israel to the point that they were trapped between the fast-approaching Egyptian army and the Red Sea. As Pharaoh approached, the people of Israel looked up and panicked when they saw the Egyptians overtaking them. They cried out to the Lord, and they said to Moses, “Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren’t there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? Didn’t we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? We said, ‘Leave us alone! Let us be slaves to the Egyptians. It’s better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness!’”

But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving! Pick up your staff and raise your hand over the sea. Divide the water so the Israelites can walk through the middle of the sea on dry ground. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will charge in after the Israelites. My great glory will be displayed through Pharaoh and his troops, his chariots, and his charioteers. When my glory is displayed through them, all Egypt will see my glory and know that I am the Lord!”

Then the angel of God, who had been leading the people of Israel, moved to the rear of the camp. The pillar of cloud also moved from the front and stood behind them. The cloud settled between the Egyptian and Israelite camps. As darkness fell, the cloud turned to fire, lighting up the night. But the Egyptians and Israelites did not approach each other all night.

Then Moses raised his hand over the sea, and the Lord opened up a path through the water with a strong east wind. The wind blew all that night, turning the seabed into dry land (Exodus 14:10-21 NLT).

As Moses led the people of Israel away from the Red Sea, they moved out into the desert of Shur. They traveled in this desert for three days without finding any water. When they came to the oasis of Marah, the water was too bitter to drink. So they called the place Marah (which means “bitter”).

Then the people complained and turned against Moses. “What are we going to drink?” they demanded. So Moses cried out to the Lord for help, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. Moses threw it into the water, and this made the water good to drink.

It was there at Marah that the Lord set before them the following decree as a standard to test their faithfulness to him. He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you" (Exodus 15:22-26 NLT).

Soon after, the whole community of Israel set out from Elim and journeyed into the wilderness of Sin, between Elim and Mount Sinai. They arrived there on the fifteenth day of the second month, one month after leaving the land of Egypt. There, too, the whole community of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron.

“If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day, they will gather food, and when they prepare it, there will be twice as much as usual.”

So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “By evening you will realize it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt. In the morning you will see the glory of the Lord because he has heard your complaints, which are against him, not against us. What have we done that you should complain about us?” Then Moses added, “The Lord will give you meat to eat in the evening and bread to satisfy you in the morning, for he has heard all your complaints against him. What have we done? Yes, your complaints are against the Lord, not against us.”

Then Moses said to Aaron, “Announce this to the entire community of Israel: ‘Present yourselves before the Lord, for he has heard your complaining’” (Exodus 16:1-9 NLT).

In reviewing these passages, there are a number of principles that we can learn from these events in the life of Moses:

• Moses was not a distant, far-off leader, but he was with the people in all they endured. He was not above the "team," but a part of it. When the Israelite foremen went before Pharaoh, he awaited them to hear all that had occurred.
• Moses was a mediator to the Lord for the people he led. In the New Covenant, Jesus is our mediator to the Father, but we can still intercede for those we lead. Hey look, I'm a poet and didn't know it.
• Moses shared with the people what the Lord had spoken to them. God will give guidance to leaders who have ears to hear. Then they can pass that along as needed.
• Moses was an encourager. When the people wanted to give up in fear and go back to Egypt, Moses encouraged them to stay calm and trust the Lord. Leadership is not without challenges. When his people wanted to buckle under the pressure, Moses supported them in their time of need. Good leaders today do the same.
• Moses took divinely-directed action. God told Moses to raise his staff in his hand over the Red Sea and it would divide for them. Moses obeyed the Lord and took action. He did not use continued prayer as an excuse for lack of obedience. The Lord said to Moses, "Why are you carrying out to me? Tell the people to get moving!" So he did. A leader's words are important, but so are their actions.

Unconventional means of provision and victory

What can satisfy the thirsting of a human soul? Exodus 17 begins not just with soul thirstiness, but with physical thirstiness. The children of Israel had departed Egypt and were journeying through the wilderness, as the Lord had been leading them. Along the journey, there were already plenty of things they were not pleased with, that made them uncomfortable. They previously traveled for three days in the Desert of Shur, not finding any water until they came to Marah, the place of bitter water. So they grumbled and God solved the problem, making the water fit to drink (Exodus 15:22-27). Then they came to the Desert of Sin (what a name, huh) and grumbled against Moses and Aaron because they didn't have the same quality of food as free people in the desert that they had while they were slaves in Egypt. So God provided manna from Heaven for them as well as quail during the evening (Exodus 16). Then we go to Exodus 17 where, once again, the people had no water to drink as they traveled from the Wilderness of Sin to Rephidim. "This wilderness was probably the narrow plain of el-Markha, which stretches along the eastern shore of the Red Sea for several miles toward the promontory of Ras Mohammed, the southern extremity of the Sinai Peninsula" (Wilderness of Sin). It would have been about eight days of travel in stages from the Wilderness of Sin to Rephidim.

By the time the people got to Rephidim, Moses felt as if the people were ready to stone him because of the poor shape they were in. We might be tempted to pile on the Israelites here, but put yourself in their shoes. They didn't have shoes, but let's pretend they did since I already typed the word and don't feel like changing the phrase to make it historically accurate. You've been walking for days in a desert. You're free, yes, but this is the first time you've ever been free. You were slaves before, but you had everything you needed even though your quality of life in other ways was terrible. You've been on this cycle of desperate need, miraculous provision, desperate need, miraculous provision. Intellectually, it may be easy to think, "Well, God is just going to provide again because he has already shown us that he will so many times already in a short time frame." But humans aren't Vulcans. For all of you reading this who aren't Star Trek fans, that means we tend to wholeheartedly embrace emotion alongside logic as part of the human experience rather than trying to suppress emotion, thinking that logic is superior like the Vulcans. It's not like the whole nation of people had collective short-term memory loss and couldn't recall what God had already done for them. But that was then. This is now. "What if...?" Who among us hasn't had those "what if...?" thoughts before. "What if, this time, it's different? What if, this time, God doesn't come through? What if...?" So Moses went before the LORD, who told him to strike a particular rock. When Moses did, water came out of the rock for people to drink. Thus, the place was called Massah (Testing) and Meribah (Quarreling) because the Israelites quarreled with Moses and tested the LORD there (Exodus 17:1-7).

At this point, there is a division in Exodus 17. We go from the LORD providing water from a rock to the Amalekites attacking the Israelites. "The Amalekites were descendants of Amalek, a grandson of Esau. They were a fierce nomadic tribe that lived in the desert region of the Dead Sea. They made part of their livelihood by conducting frequent raids on other settlements and carrying off plundered goods" (Life Application Study Bible). For another Star Trek reference, they sound like the Ferengi to me. "A Ferengi's entire existence revolved around the acquisition of wealth, even above family and friends, according to their sacred Rules of Acquisition" (Ferengi). "One of the greatest insults in Israelite culture was to call someone 'a friend of Amalek.' When the Israelites entered the region, the Amalekites saw this as a perfect opportunity for profit. But this hostile tribe was moving in on the wrong group--a people led by God. For Israelite slaves to defeat such a warlike nation was more than enough proof that God was with them as he had promised to be" (Life Application Study Bible). Joshua selected some of the Israelite men and went to war against the Amalekites while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went to the top of the hill. When Moses held his hands up, the Israelites gained the advantage. When he lowered his hands, the Amalekites gained the advantage. As Moses got tired, they gave him a stone to sit on while Aaron and Hur held his hands up until the Israelites finally overcame the Amalekite army. Such an event might sound silly to some modern readers, but this literally happened as written. It was a testimony to the Israelites, and to today's reader, that the Israelites gained the victory, not because of their superior skill or might--they had neither. What it demonstrates is what God is able to accomplish through anyone that makes themselves available through faith and obedience.

What's your reason?

My favorite singer is Michael W. Smith. One of the lines from the chorus of his song Cross of Gold goes, "What's your line, tell me why you wear your cross of gold. State of mind, or does it find a way into your soul." Founder and CEO of the Church Answers blog Thom S. Rainer wrote an article last year titled Five Types of Church Members Who Will Not Return after the Quarantine. Here are the five types of people he listed:

1. "The decreasing attendance members. These were your members who, at one time, attended church almost four times a month. Before the pandemic, their frequency of attendance declined to twice a month or even once a month. COVID accelerated their trends. They are now attending zero times a month."
2. "The disconnected church members. If a church member is in a small group, his or her likelihood of returning is high. If they attend worship only, their likelihood of attendance is much lower. Please let this reality be a strong motivation to emphasize in-person small groups once everyone feels safe to return." There are some things I could say about "feeling safe to return," but that would turn this post into something that would best be left to times when I am actually aiming to talk about COVID-19 and the response to it since March 2020. What I can directly testify to is the importance of small groups or Life Groups as my church calls them. One of the things that has made Life Church feel like home to me is the personal connections I have made there. Let me qualify that a little by saying that the first thing I pay attention to with any church is not how they make me feel, but what their doctrinal statement is. If I don't agree with the beliefs of a church, they could be the nicest people in the world, but I don't belong there. That being said, how a person is treated once they begin attending can be just as important to keeping someone there as the doctrinal statement should be about whether or not a person begins attending in the first place. We call each other brothers and sisters in Christ for a reason. It's not just a nice sentiment. We are united as one under the blood of Jesus. When we are genuinely connected with other believers, we are more likely to stay at a church than if they are not.
3. "The church-is-another-activity church members. These church members see gathered attendance as yet another activity on par, or lower, than other activities. They were the church members who let inclement weather keep them from church but not their children’s Sunday soccer games. Commitment to the church was a low priority before the pandemic. They have no commitment in the post-quarantine era."
4. "The constant-critic church members. These church members always had some complaints for the pastor. In fact, your pastor may be dying a death by a thousand cuts. They are likely still complaining even though they have not returned to in-person services. Many of them will not return at all."
5. "The cultural Christian church members. They were part of a declining group well before the pandemic. They were those church members who likely were not Christians but came to church to be accepted culturally. Today, there are few cultural expectations for people to attend church. These cultural Christians learned during the pandemic that it was no big deal to miss church. It will be no big deal for them never to return."

People don't fall away because Jesus isn't good enough. But if the primary message that draws people to Jesus is not primarily about him and what he has already done for us in regards to eternity, then it's no wonder why people eventually become disillusioned and develop a harder heart toward godly things. Jesus said, "God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in Heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way" (Matthew 5:11-12 NLT). He also said, "In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33 NIV). When is the last time you heard an invitation to Christ that included promises of mockery, persecution, lies, evil, and trouble?

To be fair, of course, that's not all the Christian life is. There is love, joy, peace, GRACE like I talked about in my last post, that comes with conversion to Christ. But those are promises that come alongside the less positive ones mentioned above. Neither category of promises supersede the other. The ultimate reason for coming to Christ is because I owed a debt I could not pay. So Jesus paid my debt that he did not owe. If people are drawn to Christ with that being the reason, they are less likely to fall away when a sucky world acts like it sucks because that's already been factored into the equation. On top of that, they will encounter people in congregations who will love them as we are called to do because they came to Christ for the same reasons. I don't know who originated this comment, but the one I have heard use it the most is Bryan Fischer, who used to be with the American Family Association. "The Christian life is not a pleasure cruise, but a battleship." So let us dispense with false promises and expectations and get our armor on (Ephesians 6:10-18). There is a battle for souls going on every day. Are you on the field and in the game or a cheerleader on the sidelines?

Appreciating God's amazing grace

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found;

Was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,

And grace my fears relieved;

How precious did that grace appear

The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils, and snares,

I have already come;

’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,

And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me,

His Word my hope secures;

He will my Shield and Portion be,

As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,

And mortal life shall cease,

I shall possess, within the veil,

A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,

The sun forbear to shine;

But God, who called me here below,

Will be forever mine.

When we’ve been there 10,000 years,

Bright shining as the sun,

We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise

Than when we’d first begun

The above are lyrics to the song Amazing Grace. The movie by the same title, released in 2006, begins this way: By the late 18th century, over 11,000,000 African men, women, and children had been taken from Africa to be used as slaves in the West Indies and the American colonies. Great Britain was the mightiest superpower on Earth, and its empire was built on the backs of slaves. The slave trade was considered acceptable by all but a few. Of these, even fewer were brave enough to speak against it. That is until William Wilberforce came on the scene. Thanks to his tireless efforts despite many defeats year after year, British involvement in the slave trade was brought to an end, being made illegal on May 1, 1807. The overall abolishment of slavery took effect on August 1, 1834. Originally, Amazing Grace was a poem by former slave ship captain John Newton. The Library of Congress notes that there is no direct link between Amazing Grace and the abolition of slavery in Britain. Nonetheless, the hymn was written by a man who was moved to speak out against something from which he had once profited. In an essay Newton said: "I hope it will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me . . . that I was once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders." Thus we have the most recognizable hymn of all time.

The Greek word for "grace" is "charis." That's where Andrew Wommack got the name for Charis Bible College. Larry Pierce's Outline of Biblical Usage defines grace as affording joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness, including in speech. Grace is goodwill and loving-kindness. It is the favor due to grace. Grace is thankfulness for the benefits, services, recompense, and reward that come from it. I like to say it the following way: Grace is not just God giving us good things we don't deserve. It is empowerment from the Holy Spirit to help us live the lives God wants us to live. The testimony of John Newton's life, and anyone who has truly been forgiven by Christ, is that God's grace is so amazing because not one of us deserves it, yet he freely offers it to all people. Like Newton, once a person truly recognizes the depths of their sinfulness, grace can be properly appreciated and activated to change a person from the inside out. Charles Spurgeon said sinners will never accept grace until they tremble before a just and holy law. A person can have an emotional reaction to the idea of God's grace without it actually touching their hearts and changing them. The fruit of a changed life is the evidence of true conversion.

Romans 5:20 AMP says the law came to increase and expand [the awareness of] the trespass [by defining and unmasking sin]. But where sin increased, [God’s remarkable, gracious gift of] grace [His unmerited favor] has surpassed it and increased all the more. How do we make grace amazing in a culture that is losing not only its moral compass but the God who makes who gave us that moral compass? We make grace amazing by reminding people of our true condition before the almighty, perfect creator of the universe who is just and holy. The law is not outdated or useless. It just needs to be used properly, to show us our true state so that grace can be made amazing to us once again, individually and collectively. When I look at my own sinfulness in light of God's law, not only before I came to Christ, but after, and in some cases even in the present time, I cannot help but marvel at God's grace that I absolutely, positively do NOT deserve. And that makes me all the more thankful for it. May it do the same for you.

Convincing and convicting

Paul persuaded his hearers about the Gospel by fully testifying to the Kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from both the Law of Moses and the Prophets from morning to evening (Acts 28:23). The Law and the Prophets are God's 1-2 punch. They are how true converts are made, and people are legitimately won to Christ. Bible prophecy testifies to the divine authorship of the Bible. Only a divine Author could know the end from the beginning and declare, from ancient times, things that are not yet done (Isaiah 46:10). Only the God of the universe could breathe future predictions about the Messiah hundreds of years in advance. Then history would record how all of those prophecies would come to pass centuries later.

In my most recent search on this topic, while writing this, I have found estimates anywhere from 109 to 351 messianic prophecies fulfilled by Jesus. Why such a large discrepancy? It all comes down to whether or not we count direct predictions, repeated prognostications, Old Testament allusions, indirect references to the ministry of Christ, and prophetic types. Do we count all of those or some of them? How do we choose which to keep and leave out? I used to be pretty set on the 109 number, but as I have read more this time, I now realize the number could be much higher. That only makes the odds of the complete fulfillment of all of them all the more miraculous.

A professor and 600 of his students at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, once calculated the odds that one man could fulfill all of these prophecies. Then the professor submitted his work for review by a committee at the American Scientific Affiliation. Keep in mind that Jesus fulfilled hundreds of predictions, but after only considering eight of them, the group concluded that the odds of one man fulfilling only eight prophecies was 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000 or 1 in 10 to the 17th power. The professor demonstrated it this way: Mark 1 of 10 tickets. Then place all the tickets in a hat and thoroughly stir them. Have a blindfolded person draw one of them. The odds of picking the right one would be 1 in 10. Now let's repeat that scenario but instead place 100,000,000,000,000,000 silver dollars and lay them all over Texas so that they cover the entire state two feet deep. Mark one of the silver dollars and stir them all thoroughly. The odds that a blindfolded person could pick one silver dollar out of all those silver dollars covering Texas two feet deep are the same odds that any one person could fulfill just eight of the Old Testament messianic prophecies. Yet Jesus fulfilled hundreds!

Fulfilled prophecy proves the authenticity of the Bible. The Law of God, found in the Bible, convicts the sinner after convincing that the Bible is true. Paul said he would not have known sin if not by the Law (Romans 7:7). Then he wrote in 1 Timothy 1:9-10 that the Law is not for righteous people, but for lawless people like the insubordinate, ungodly, sinful, unholy, profane, murderers, the sexually immoral including homosexuals, enslavers, liars, and perjurers. There is not a person on Earth except Jesus Christ who has lived a sinless life. All of us have fallen into at least one of those categories at some point in our lives. When the Law is properly used, it is not to make us more righteous. It shows us how sinful and hopeless we are and thus why we need Jesus Christ as a substitute to take our punishment. Psalm 19:7 says Yahweh's Law is perfect and converts the soul. Yahweh is an English pronunciation of the proper name of God the Father. It is often written as "LORD" in most Bibles.

One of my favorite shows that used to be on TBN was The Way of the Master featuring Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron. They would often make the point from 1 Corinthians 1:18 that the message of the cross is, indeed, foolishness to those perishing. That is why their whole program and materials from their ministry at Living Waters emphasize the sinner's need to hear God's Law before the Good News can do its work. The Law shows the person without Christ their true hopelessness before God. Only then can they fully appreciate their need for a Savior. Without that, it all seems foolish or is taken too lightly. Romans 3:19 says the Law speaks so that every mouth may be stopped and all the world can be under God's judgment.

The bad news is that all have sinned and are under God's judgment. Everyone committing sin also commits lawlessness because sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4). But the Good News is that Jesus willingly became our substitute. He was the only one not worthy of death. Yet, He chose to take our punishment in our place. The innocent took the punishment of the guilty so that the guilty could decide to go free or not. It is up to each of us whether or not we will accept or reject that pardon.