120227 - Exodus 15-16 God's cues to remember and worship

Monday SOAP: God has always given us drama, song, symbol, memorials, to inspire our worship, to remind us of the work He has done, and to build our faith. What are some memorials in your own life? I wish I had a page from a certain songbook, a mylar balloon and recordings of a couple of answering machine messages. Look for Jesus in the narratives of the Old Testament. Remember His work in your own life. Let song take root in your mind so that you may celebrate Him all week. (Ephesians 5:19)

-----------------------------------------------------------

S: Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. (Ex 15:1).

And Moses said, This is the thing which the LORD commandeth, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt. And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations. As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept. (Ex 16:32-34).

O: The Lord encourages memorials, testimonies, mnemonics, song and music, planting symbolism in Scripture for later revelation. Even keeping objects for proof of His work.

A: If not for our human tendency toward idolatry, would we not still have the Ark of the Covenant, with this omer of manna, Aaron's budded rod and the tablets of God's commandments? Remembering things to honor God is vital; making an empty ritual or an idol out of them is vanity. The Song of Moses will be recovered by those who go through the Tribulation. Jesus used the Manna to talk about the nature of His own mission. Knowing that He said the Scriptures speak of Him, (John 5:39), we should see Him on every page, and remember and celebrate the aspect of His work or character it reveals: He is the Bread of Life, (John 6:32-35), and because we have believed on Him, we have satisfaction. The people hungered and thirsted in the wilderness, complaining against God all the way, (Ex. 16:8), but we will one day be deliverd from the body of death, and will literally no longer have hunger or thirst. (Rev. 7:16) Jesus also said, "if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." (John 7:37) When they complained about water in the wilderness, Moses was shown to cut down a tree, which made the bitter water sweet. (Ex. 15:25) Might this not also represent Christ? Thrown into the bitter world to cure it by His tree? The Lord made them act out things in advance that could be later used to remind us of Him and even more fully reveal Him as Jehovah Raphah, our healer.

P: Father, thank you for the ways you have revealed Christ to us throughout your Word. We think on these things, we do these things and sing these things, in remembrance of Him.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We have all contracted the virus....

Last week and this weekend, I spent precious development time trying to rid myself of unwanted software on my coumputer called " Virtumonde ." Believe it or not, I'm pretty new to viruses and that kind of thing, coming from a background of developing on the Macintosh platform and using the Windows platforms to deliver product on. Well, this was a nasty wake up call to what Windows users have to deal with all the time. Virtumonde is called "Adware" and it's something that has sneaked on to your computer either by being installed along with some kind of trial software, or getting past your computer's defenses on the network. Its job is to watch what you do at all times with your computer, then occasionally pop up advertisements. In my case, most of the time, these advertisements were for anti-virus software. But they kept popping up an installation window for the software and beginning the installation even when I clicked, "no" for "do you w...
Read more

2023—Week21: Ezra01-Nehemiah11; John19-Acts04

Ezra-Nehemiah 11 : In the Jewish Canon, Ezra and Nehemiah are one book, and, although the division in ours makes sense, it’s clear that they cover the same basic period. They form one answer to the question at the end of 2 Chronicles’ hanging question, “Therefore, who among the LORD's people trusts in his God? Whoever among this group wishes to do so may travel to Jerusalem.” (2 Chronicles 36:23, ISV) Yet despite their trust, the people are greatly weakened until the ministries of Ezra and Nehemiah (and Haggai and Zechariah, Ezra 5:1) encourage them. Ezra’s trust is clearly represented in 8:22, where he is ashamed to request a protective guard for the fortune in treasures he carries, instead trusting in the hand of God for protection. Ezra’s prayer in Ezra 9, Nehemiah’s prayer in Nehemiah 1:5-11, and the people’s covenant prayer in 9:5-37 are the outcome. Faith precedes confession, because we don’t fully understand how badly we fall short until it’s revealed to us. Even then, we ne...
Read more

120613 - Luke 12 - The Devoted Servant

Image
Wednesday SOAP: A faithful servant isn't just (as Dr. J. Vernon McGee used to say) someone who would "vote for" Jesus, but someone who knows His master's will and is attentive - and entirely devoted - to His interests. A well-trained servant knows His master so well that he may be guided without a word - only a simple look, (Psalm 32:8), in contrast to willful animals who must be controlled by leashes, bits and bridles. (Ps. 32:9) S: Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. (Luke 12:37) O: Here's a promise that really sounds like too much. Jesus sounds like He is describing John 13:3-5 - but He is describing a future celebration for those followers who have been "awake." Christ was free to make any promise He wanted - or make no promise at all - so rather than adopting Peter's false humility that wo...
Read more