Saturday, July 02, 2005
Freedom!
A response to the response here. and a segue to my new series:
Babies, precious new, innocent life. Two times, two places in history; they are wiped away by the whim of a dreaded tyrant. Moms and dads, give this a moment for pause. Unless you have been given a helpless child to protect and care for, the depth of pain might not reach you. But even the childless can appreciate the horror. The midwives of Egypt were ordered to simply throw the newborn Hebrew babies in the river! (Exodus 1:22) Yea, just do that. Moses escaped, by remaining hidden for three months. (Ex. 2:2)
After Herod caught wind of a newborn King, “somewhere” in his kingdom, he sent out the order…simple and straight to the point, “Kill all the babies under two years old.” (Matthew 2:16) Jeremiah 31:15 “Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because her children are no more.” According to Matthew, this prophecy was fulfilled in the time of Christ. (2:18)
This is the first indication of the pointing to Christ in the life of Moses. It is also the story of freedom. Moses is eighty years old when God speaks to him through the burning bush. No, not a bush with fiery red leaves! This bush exuded fire but did not burn—a supernatural event. Get ready, because this entire story is built on the supernatural! Moses is told that God’s people must be allowed to go free and the time is now.
The Lord is going to work a series of miracles with one goal in mind: Freedom for His people. Why? Because they have believed His Word. The Lord spoke plainly, “I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land flowing with milk and honey…” (Exodus 3:17) Aaron relays the message given to Moses and he performs the miraculous signs before the people that God had commanded him to perform. (Ex. 4:28 and 30) Not only do the people believe, they bow their heads and worship. (v. 31)
Faith abounded, much like the settlers to America. They devoted their lives, this land, and their journey, to God. They compared it, in writing, to the Promised Land. They believed His Word! They worshipped the Lord and the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob gave them the land flowing with milk and honey…which we still enjoy to this very day, even if on the edge of the precipice.
God has always stood for freedom…Kings were not His idea. God wants to be King of our lives and with the establishment of the early covenants of this nation, we were the closest to that idea than we had ever been or have been since. It was a peak moment when the pilgrims established God as their ruler, with man as mere instruments in enforcing God’s Law, as the Old Testament judges had done ever so long ago.
Babies, precious new, innocent life. Two times, two places in history; they are wiped away by the whim of a dreaded tyrant. Moms and dads, give this a moment for pause. Unless you have been given a helpless child to protect and care for, the depth of pain might not reach you. But even the childless can appreciate the horror. The midwives of Egypt were ordered to simply throw the newborn Hebrew babies in the river! (Exodus 1:22) Yea, just do that. Moses escaped, by remaining hidden for three months. (Ex. 2:2)
After Herod caught wind of a newborn King, “somewhere” in his kingdom, he sent out the order…simple and straight to the point, “Kill all the babies under two years old.” (Matthew 2:16) Jeremiah 31:15 “Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because her children are no more.” According to Matthew, this prophecy was fulfilled in the time of Christ. (2:18)
This is the first indication of the pointing to Christ in the life of Moses. It is also the story of freedom. Moses is eighty years old when God speaks to him through the burning bush. No, not a bush with fiery red leaves! This bush exuded fire but did not burn—a supernatural event. Get ready, because this entire story is built on the supernatural! Moses is told that God’s people must be allowed to go free and the time is now.
The Lord is going to work a series of miracles with one goal in mind: Freedom for His people. Why? Because they have believed His Word. The Lord spoke plainly, “I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land flowing with milk and honey…” (Exodus 3:17) Aaron relays the message given to Moses and he performs the miraculous signs before the people that God had commanded him to perform. (Ex. 4:28 and 30) Not only do the people believe, they bow their heads and worship. (v. 31)
Faith abounded, much like the settlers to America. They devoted their lives, this land, and their journey, to God. They compared it, in writing, to the Promised Land. They believed His Word! They worshipped the Lord and the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob gave them the land flowing with milk and honey…which we still enjoy to this very day, even if on the edge of the precipice.
God has always stood for freedom…Kings were not His idea. God wants to be King of our lives and with the establishment of the early covenants of this nation, we were the closest to that idea than we had ever been or have been since. It was a peak moment when the pilgrims established God as their ruler, with man as mere instruments in enforcing God’s Law, as the Old Testament judges had done ever so long ago.
