September 17, 2006 Being Mutually Responsible
Exodus 19: 1-6; 24:1-8
A farmer once asked his neighbor if he might borrow a rope. “Sorry” said the neighbor. “I'm using my rope to tie up my milk.” “Rope can't tie up milk,” said the farmer. “I know,” replied the neighbor, “but when a man doesn't want to do something, one reason is as good as another."
Even though we think of ourselves as responsible people, we find it easy to make excuses to God and to others when confronted with opportunities to be the people of God. God meets us in worship, witness and forgiveness and calls us to praise, share, and show mercy. God's covenant with Moses called on the children of Israel to respond in mutual trust. And we have that same responsibility to God.
Carried on Eagle Wings
The image of being carried by an eagle is thought by some to be in the grip of powerful talons, instead the text refers to a ride on the strong shoulders of one who can see with a heavenly perspective the mouse-like activity far below. Covenant relationships are carried by God. Our task is to stay on the journey.
The good news is that we are not alone. God has the power to renew, protect, and carry his children, on wings like eagles. How often we forget that wonderful promise. Like the Israelites, when we face difficulties, we are unable to fly above the circumstances. We tend to think we can manage alone.
Lucy is in her booth, with the sign up saying "The psychiatrist is--5 cents." Snoopy waits for advice. Lucy begins, "It used to be that a person could live isolated from the world's problems," she notes. "Then it got to be that we all knew everything that was going on. The problem now is that we know everything about everything except what's going on. That's why you feel nervous….Five cents please." Snoopy thinks to himself, "I'm short a nickel, I'm still nervous, and I still don't know what's going on."
God reminded the children of Israel how he had delivered them from slavery in Egypt and had been with them through the wilderness. God remains faithful to us today and like a mother hen gathers her chicks, protects and shelters us with love, mercy and grace. "And He will raise you up on eagle's wings, bear you on the breath of dawn, make you to shine like the sun, and hold you in the palm of His Hand." As long as we trust in God's faithfulness and respond with our love to God's continuing care, we don't have to understand "what's going on."
You are a Special Treasure
God promised to make the people a special treasure if they kept the covenant. When Queen Victoria was a child, she didn't know she was in line for the throne of England. Her instructors were frustrated because they couldn't motivate her. Finally, her teachers decided to tell her that one day she would become the queen of England. Upon hearing this, Victoria quietly said, "Then I will be good." The realization that she had inherited this high calling gave her a sense of responsibility that profoundly affected her conduct from then on.
We have a high calling to be the children of God, a special treasure. We need to respond with faithfulness and dedication in the realization of this gift.
One of the most meaningful exercises in the Disciple Bible Study is when the class identifies the gifts and graces of each person in the group.. We find it difficult to hear others talk about our gifts and graces for ministry; either because we assume they want us to do some task at the church or we find it difficult to see ourselves as gifted. The truth is that we do have many tasks that gifted people like those in each class are indeed called to do for the church and for others..
We Will Obey
Obedience is our offering of well-being, and it bears itself out in our living in relationship with God. In Romans 12:1, Paul writes, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship." That was a different concept from making sacrifices on the altar. That animal sacrifice was and is no longer necessary, because Christ made the eternal sacrifice in our name with his life and death. We can lay aside our worries about being "good enough" and express our obedience through fulfilling our vows to participate, pray, support and faith-sharing.
Franz Jägerstatter was beheaded for refusing to serve in the German army in WW II. He said, "Remember that God burdens none of us with a heavier cross than he can bear." Few of us are asked to make the ultimate sacrifice for our faithfulness to God. Yet we often complain when we feel we are weighed down with burdens. We want to shift responsibility to someone else. God calls for faithfulness and obedience from each of us and promises to remain with us.
In the contemporary song, Trading My Sorrow, Darrell Evans writes, "I'm trading my sorrow, I'm trading my shame, I'm laying it down for the joy of the Lord, I'm trading my sickness, and I'm trading my pain. I'm laying it down for the joy of the Lord"
Like the children of Israel, our response should be, "Yes, Lord. We will obey." We can sing, "Yes Lord, yes! I'm pressed but not crushed persecuted not abandoned. Struck down but not destroyed, I'm blessed beyond the curse for his promise will endure, And his joy's gonna be my strength."
"Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise. Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of thy love. Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for thee. "# 399 United Methodist Hymn
Go to these sites for art works of Moses
http://www.louisglanzman.com/moses.html
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/sistine/A-Moses.html
John Wesley’s Notes on Exodus 19:1-6; 24:3-8
Chapter XIX This chapter introduces the giving of the law upon Mount Sinai, which was one of the most sensible appearances of the divine glory that ever was in this lower world.Here are,
I. The circumstances of time and place, ver. 1, 2.
II. The covenant between God and Israel settled in general. The gracious proposal God made to them, ver. 3 - 6. And their consent to the proposal, ver. 7, 8.
III. Notice given three days before of God's design to give the law out of a thick cloud, ver. 9. Orders given to prepare the people to receive the law, ver. 10 - 13. and care taken to execute those orders, ver. 14, 15.
IV. A terrible appearance of God's glory, ver. 16 - 20.
V. Silence proclaimed, and strict charge given to the people to observe a decorum while God spake to them, ver. 20 - 25.
1 In the third month after they came out of Egypt. It is computed that the law was given just fifty days after their coming out of Egypt, in remembrance of which the feast of Pentecost was observed the fiftieth day after the passover, and in compliance with which the spirit was poured out upon the apostles, at the feast of Pentecost, fifty days after the death of Christ. Mount Sinai was a place which nature, not art, had made conspicuous, for it was the highest in all that range of mountains. Thus God put contempt upon cities and palaces, setting up his pavilion on the top of a mountain, in a barren desert. It is called Sinai, from the multitude of thorny bushes that over - spread it. 3 Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and the children of Israel - The people are called by the names both of Jacob and Israel, to mind them that they who had lately been as low as Jacob when he went to Padan - aram, were now grown as great as God made him when he came from thence, and was called Israel. 4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on Eagle's wings - An high expression of the wonderful tenderness God shewed for them. It notes great speed; God not only came upon the wing for their deliverance, but he hastened them out, as it were upon the wing. Also that he did it with great ease, with the strength as well as with the swiftness of an eagle. They that faint not, nor are weary, are said to mount up with wings as eagles, Isa
40:31. Especially it notes God's particular care of them, and affection to them. Even Egypt was the nest in which these young ones were first formed as the embryo of a nation: when by the increase of their numbers they grew to some maturity, they were carried out of that nest. I brought you unto myself - They were brought not only into a state of liberty, but into covenant and communion with God. This, God aims at in all the gracious methods of his providence and grace, to bring us back to himself, from whom we have revolted, and to bring us home to himself, in whom alone we can be happy. 5 Then ye shall be a peculiar treasure to me - He doth not instance in any one particular favour, but expresseth it in that which was inclusive of all happiness, that he would be to them a God in covenant, and they should be to him a people. Nay you shall be a peculiar treasure: not that God was enriched by them, as a man is by his treasure, but he was pleased to value and esteem them as a man doth his treasure; they were precious in his sight. He took them under his special care and protection, as a treasure that is kept under lock and key. He distinguished them from, and dignified them above all people, as a people devoted to him, and to his service. 6 A kingdom of priests, a holy nation - All the Israelites, if compared with other people, were priests unto God, so near were they to him, so much employed in his immediate service, and such intimate communion they had with him. The tendency of the laws given them was to distinguish them from others, and engage them for God as a holy nation. Thus all believers are, through Christ, made to our God kings and priests, Rev 1:6, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, 1Pet 2:9.
Chapter XXIV Moses as mediator between God and Israel, having received divers laws and ordinances from God in the foregoing chapters, in this chapter,
I. Comes down to the people, acquaints them with the laws he had received, and takes their consent to those laws, ver. 3. writes the laws, and reads them to the people, who repeat their consent, ver. 4, 7. and then by sacrifice, and the sprinkling of blood ratifies the covenant between them and God, ver. 5, 6, 8.
II. He returns to God again, to receive farther directions. When he was dismissed from his former attendance, he was ordered to attend again, ver. 1, 2. He did so with seventy of the elders, to whom God made a discovery of his glory, ver. 9 - 11. Moses is ordered up into the mount, ver. 12, 13. the rest are ordered down to the people, ver. 14. The cloud of glory is seen by all the people on the top of mount Sinai, ver. 15 - 17. and Moses is there with God forty days and forty nights, ver. 18.
1 Worship ye afar off - Before they came near, they must worship. Thus we must enter into God's gates with humble and solemn adorations. 2 And Moses alone shall come near - Being therein a type of Christ, who as the high priest entered alone into the most holy place. In the following verses we have the solemn covenant made between God and Israel and the exchanging of the ratifications: typifying the covenant of grace between God and believers through Christ. 3 Moses told the people all the words of the Lord - He laid before them all the precepts, in the foregoing chapters, and put it to them, whether they were willing to submit to these laws or no? And all the people answered, All the words which the Lord hath said we will do - They had before consented in general to be under God's government; here they consent in particular to these laws now given. 4 And Moses wrote the words of the Lord - That there might be no mistake; as God dictated them on the mount, where, it is highly probable, God taught him the use of letters. These Moses taught the Israelites, from whom they afterwards travelled to Greece and other nations. As soon as God had separated to himself a peculiar people, he governed them by a written word, as he has done ever since, and will do while the world stands. Pillars according to the number of the tribes - These were to represent the people, the other party to the covenant; and we may suppose they were set up over against the altar, and that Moses as mediator passed to and fro between them. Probably each tribe set up and knew its own pillar, and their elders stood by it. He then appointed sacrifices to be offered upon the altar. 6 1. The blood of the sacrifice which the people offered was (part of it) sprinkled upon the altar, which signified the people's dedicating themselves to God, and his honour. In the blood of the sacrifices, all the Israelites were presented unto God as living sacrifices,
Rom 12:1. 2. The blood of the sacrifice which God had owned and accepted was (the remainder of it) sprinkled, either upon the people themselves, or upon the pillars that represented them, which signified God's conferring his favour upon them, and all the fruits of that favour, and his giving them all the gifts they could desire from a God reconciled to them, and in covenant with them. This part of the ceremony was thus explained, Behold the blood of the covenant; see here how God sealed to you to be a God, and you seal to be to him a people; his promises to you, and yours to him, are yea and amen. Thus our Lord Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant (of whom Moses was a type) having offered up himself a sacrifice upon the cross, that his blood might be indeed the blood of the covenant, sprinkled it upon the altar in his intercession (Heb 9:12,) and sprinkles it upon his church by his word and ordinances, and the influences and operations of the Spirit of promise by whom we are sealed
Almighty, eternal, just and merciful God, give us the ability to act in accordance with our knowledge of your will and to desire always what pleases you. Cleanse and enlighten our hearts and enkindle in us the fire of the Holy Spirit, that we may follow in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ your beloved Son, and with your grace alone make our way to you, Most High. You who live and reign in perfect Trinity and simple Unity, glorified and all-powerful God, now and forever. Amen.
North Georgia Conference Prayer Calendars and Prayer Resources The Prayer Calendars, available in a PDF format, may be reprinted or posted online for individual use or church-wide distribution. Select the monthly calendar or one of the 31-day prayer calendar topics listed below. September 2006 Prayer Calendar - "Prayers for Discovering Your Spiritual Gifts" September 2006 Prayer Calendar - (for churches outside the North Georgia Conference) August 2006 Prayer Calendar - "Prayers for Raising Children" August 2006 Prayer Calendar - (for churches outside the North Georgia Conference) July 2006 Prayer Calendar - "Prayers for Growing a Life of Peace " July 2006 Prayer Calendar - (for churches outside the North Georgia Conference) Prayers for Advent Prayers for Building a House of Prayer Prayers for Christian Stewardship Prayers for Our Church Family Prayers for Developing a Servant's Heart Prayers for Disciple-Making Congregations Prayers for Discovering Your Spiritual Gifts Prayers for Growing a Life of Joy Prayers for Growing a Life of Love Prayers for Growing a Life of Peace Prayers for Hope Prayers for Justice Prayers for Lent Prayers for Missions Prayers After Natural Disasters Prayers for Our Nation Prayers for Pastors Prayers for Raising Children Prayers for the Unreached North Georgia Conference PrayerForce