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)

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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.

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