eDevs

Thursday, July 28, 2011

EMMDEV 2011-07-28 [Moses Meditations] Songs and Blessings

And Moses recited the words of this song from beginning to end in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel: Deuteronomy31:30

The end of the book of Numbers details the defeat of the Midianites and takes us to the book of Deuteronomy which contains census stats, regulations, a reiteration of the ten commandments, the final details of dividing the land among the clans and warnings against falling away from the Lord.

Now, at the end of Deuteronomy, the two chapters prior to Moses' death contain a song that God commands Moses to teach the Israelites and his final priestly blessing over the people.

Both the song (ch.32) and the blessing (ch.33) are too long to reproduce here, but they are both beautiful and haunting.

The song warns the Israelites from falling away and it is sad to say that in many ways, this song became an accurate prediction of the Israelite decay that led to the exile nearly a 1000 years later.

The blessings pronounced here to each of Israel's tribes resembles those pronounced by Jacob over his sons at the end of Genesis. The blessings abound with a sense of God's working in the lives and history of His people.

What do we learn from these?
1. Moses is still responsive to God - God teaches him the song and he passes it on faithfully. The song contains painful truths about Israel's future unfaithfulness. It would have been tempting for Moses to avoid ending on a "down" note - but truth is more important than rhetoric and Moses remains faithful.

2. The blessings on each of the tribes reminds us of Moses' deep connection with his people and his knowledge of them. His farewell to them reveals both an intimate knowledge of them and a longing for their well-being.

This is a fitting end to life well-lived.

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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

EMMDEV 2011-07-27 [Moses Meditations] The true heart of leadership

My apologies for the sporadic devotions this last while - it's been quite busy and I have been fighting off a horrible sinusitus and head-cold - which has meant that I am quite brain-dead in the mornings!
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Moses said to the LORD, 16 "May the LORD, the God of the spirits of all mankind, appoint a man over this community 17 to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the LORD's people will not be like sheep without a shepherd."
Numbers27:15-17

If you've just been told that you are soon going to die, what would your first thoughts be?

Two verses previously God has told Moses that the time has come to die: `Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go up this mountain in the Abarim range and see the land I have given the Israelites. 13 After you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was`

I am amazed and humbled at Moses' response! He does not spare a thought for himself, but his thoughts go immediately to the Israelites with the concern that they will need a leader.

Moses is concerned that the leader will be someone appointed by God. He describes God as the "God of the spirits of all mankind" which echoes the sentiment we read at the appointment of David: "The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."(1Sam16:7) Moses wants the best possible godly leader for the Israelites.

Furthermore, Moses longs for a leader who will lead by example going out and coming in (presumably to the presence of the Lord and then back to the people) and then leading the people like a shepherd. (Remembering that in Palestine the shepherd leads the sheep rather than driving them.)

This is the true heart of leadership - caring about the people you lead. Moses is a great example to us.

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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

EMMDEV 2011-07-19 [Moses Meditations] The Bronze Serpent

The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived. Numbers21:8-9

The Israelites started complaining again. They complained bitterly against God and against Moses. Such was their anger and bitterness that they were going to need a wake-up call.

God sent venomous vipers among them and many Israelites died.

This brought about genuine contrition and the people asked Moses to pray that the serpents be removed. The answer to Moses' prayer was different than they expected...

The snakes were not removed.
Instead, Moses had to make a bronze image of a snake and "lift it up" on a pole. As people were bitten, they could look at the snake and they lived.

It would have been cleaner solution if God had simply removed the snakes, but the cycle of coming across the snakes, being bitten and then being miraculously healed served to remind the people of God's holy wrath and His amazing grace. It nurtured faith as they looked to the "symbol of their suffering."

More than a thousand years later, Jesus Christ would become much more than a "symbol of suffering" - He would carry the full weight of human brokenness to the cross of Calvary and be "lifted up" and as we look to Him in faith, we are healed.

Jesus Himself explained this to Nicodemus in John 3:14-15 "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

And, like the Israelites, we keep falling back into brokenness and we must keep looking to Christ to be healed!

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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/

Thursday, June 23, 2011

EMMDEV 2011-06-24 [Moses Meditations] Moses' Mistook#2

10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, "Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?" 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
12 But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me enough to honour me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them." Numbers20:10-12

Yesterday we saw that Moses' first mistake was to take some of the credit that belonged to God for himself. One might want to excuse him: He's irritated with the people, it feels like he's "been there done that and got the t-shirt." He feels that it is up to him and Aaron to show these people a thing or two: "Listen, you rebels, must _we_ bring you water out of this rock?"

But the water wasn't his and he didn't put it in the rock!
Moses was presumptuous.

But the second part the mistook Moses made was that his actions demonstrated a lack of trust in God. When this scenario had taken place previously, Moses had struck a rock and water had flowed. This time, however, the instructions are different.

Moses' actions seem to say: "Hey Lord, I know how its done, I've done it before, I'm going with my experience on this one rather than Your instructions."

Jamie Buckingham wrote a book after retracing the steps of the Exodus with local shepherds who taught him the tricks of the wilderness. In the book he talks about water that gets locked into sandstone shelves/layers in the mountainside. If you know where to tap a rock it can be like popping a cork and water will flow from the rock.

So one can see Moses' mental cogs whirring: "Oh I know how you do this - just find a similar kind of rock and whack it." But God wanted to take Moses' faith to a new level - last time it took a measure of trust to whack the rock. This time speaking to the rock without whacking it would have required new trust.
Moses wasn't up to the challenge - he didn't trust God.

We should not be too critical - we keep wanting the "good old days" when God wants to move us into new pastures. Will you trust Him to do something new?
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We'll break for the school holidays and finish the series on Moses off in term 3.
God bless!
Theo

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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/

EMMDEV 2011-06-23 [Moses Meditations] Moses' Mistook#1

The Bible doesn't sanitise the stories of its heroes. We know of David's philandering, of Saul's insecurities, of Peter's motor-mouth and now we know of Moses' mistook-mistake.

This is not the first time the Israelites are short of water. This is not the first time they are quarrelling with God. This is not the first time that Moses and Aaron went before God for guidance.

God's instructions were clear: "Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water."

Previously, when faced with a similar situation Moses had struck the rock with his staff and water had flowed. Now although God had asked him to _speak_ to it, Moses struck it again and said: "must _we_ bring you water out of this rock?" For this one misdemeanour God makes it clear that Moses will not enter the Promised Land.

Why God was displeased with Moses and Aaron?
There are two issues:
The first has to do with the holiness of His Glory.
There is only one God and it is not Moses!
Moses mistook the situation: "I've been here before - I know the drill, hit the rock, water flows, everyone's happy and I'm the good guy!"

God is jealous (in the very best sense of the word) for His glory. When we as human beings begin to take His glory for ourselves and make people look to us instead of to God, we are in grave danger.

God deals firmly with Moses, because Moses was the point-leader. To whom much is given, much is required and when God's power is abused for personal prestige, disaster will follow.

(We'll look at the second issue tomorrow)

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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

EMMDEV 2011-06-22 [Moses Meditations] Presumption

Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up toward the high hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the LORD's covenant moved from the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah.
Numbers14:44-45

Numbers 13 and 14 are among the saddest chapters in the history of Israel. They sent 12 spies into the land. The spies reported that the land was good but filled with fierce tribes and giants. Only Joshua and Caleb believed that God's presence would win the battle for them. The rest of the spies persuaded the people to rebel against God.

God is angry but Moses intercedes for the people. The ten spies continue to sow seeds of rebellion and doubt and are struck down by plague. God decrees that their desert wanderings will continue until the current generation are gone and their children will be ready to enter the promised land.

The Israelites make the mistake of thinking that God doesn't really mean what He has said and so they decide to pretend that the whole rebellion hadn't happened and go about entering into the promised land. This means attacking the Amalekites in the hill country even though Moses urgently warns them against this action. Their presumption results in them being trounced by the enemy.

There is a very sobering warning in all of this. We are often guilty of making our own plans and then asking God to bless them. There are many times that we are convinced that we know what God wants to do and we simply charge ahead.

The Israelites, so filled with misplaced religious fervour were doing things in their own strength and did not even notice that the signs of God's presence (Moses and the Ark) had not accompanied them.

We don't have the ark of the covenant anymore, but we still have our fellow-believers and wise counsellors. When we doggedly pursue our own plans and the wise fellow-believers in our lives are hesitant, we should be very careful.

Presumption is a trap easily fallen into.

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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

EMMDEV 2011-06-21 [Moses Meditations] Humilty and Kingdom Vision

After a short diversion for Pentecost, we move into the final stretch in our Meditations on the life of Moses....
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27 A young man ran and told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp."
28 Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses' aide since youth, spoke up and said, "Moses, my lord, stop them!"
29 But Moses replied, "Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!" Numbers11:27-29

This very important interlude takes place at a time when God tells Moses to gather and appoint leaders who can share some of the load in terms of hearing from and speaking for God.

The elders who are with Moses are filled with the Spirit and begin to prophesy, but there are two elders who had not been summoned but who had been chosen by God and so, even though they are not with Moses they begin to prophesy in the camp.

This causes consternation and people come running to Joshua who is Moses trusted aide.

Joshua's response is so typical:
- "this is out of our control."
- "we didn't authorise or sanction this."
- "it threatens our control over the situation."
- "who do they think they are?"
- "just imagine the kinds of precedents this will set!"
"STOP THEM!"

Unfortunately these attitudes are very present in the church and particularly amongst the clergy...

But Moses shows incredible wisdom, maturity and humility.

He is no empire-builder
-He's not a control-freak
-He doesn't need to be the centre of attention
-He is genuinely glad to see other people being used by and for God.

Moses has Kingdom-Vision: He is interested in God's Glory and the growth and development of God's people.
We can learn from his example.

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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

EMMDEV 2011-06-15 [Pentecost Week] When does it happen?

Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts2:38

So when does it happen? When do we receive the Holy Spirit?

There are many who see the "infilling of the Holy Spirit" as a separate experience. There _are_ many people who only become aware of the Holy Spirit's work after they have become Christians. With this awareness comes an increased openness and a profound deepening of their experience of the Spirit.

This deepening isn't the _first_ time the Spirit is at work in them. Peter makes it clear: When we make the decision to give our lives to Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit.

There are two NT passages that talk about the Holy Spirit's work at our conversion.
1Corinthians12:3 explains that it is the Holy Spirit who brings us to a point where we are ready to put our trust in Jesus... It says: "Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit."

Ephesians 1:13 tells us that the presence of the Spirit in us is the guarantee of our being God's children. It says this:
"And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance..."

What conclusions must we draw?
1. I could only receive Jesus as Lord if the Spirit helped me do it.
2. If I doubt the Spirit's presence in my life, then I must doubt that He saved me and I must doubt that I am God's child.
3. So, God's Spirit brings me to faith and lives in me as I choose to follow Him. But the relationship isn't stagnant, it can deepen and deepen as I follow Him and "lift my sails."
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This brings us to the end of the "Pentecost Interlude..."
I'll go back to "Moses Meditations" on Friday - enjoy the public holiday tomorrow...

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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

EMMDEV 2011-06-14 [Pentecost Week] Mighty Wind#5 - Speaking

1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Acts2:1-4

Acts 2 is basically a reversal of Gen 11... Gen 11 is the story of the Tower of Babel where humankind thought they could be like God. Building and scheming they were convinced that they didn't need Him any more - they could be independent and self-contained. They had "outgrown" their need for God."

God graciously intervened in this colossal foolishness by confusing their languages. My initial response to this was - "So? Big deal! So He slowed them down - they'll just settle on one language or develop a meta-language (like the "funnagallo" that developed on the mines)." But they didn't - the truth is interesting - people clung to their languages - unwilling to pursue a joint goal if they had to sacrifice "their" language. The Tower of Babel was never completed.

Language and culture are powerful dividing agents. At Pentecost the disciples were divinely enabled to speak other languages. If you read down a few verses, you'll see that they were able to impact the cosmopolitan group that had assembled in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost.

Not only has Christ's death "broken down the dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2) between races and cultures but the Holy Spirit helps us bridge the divide between me and my fellow human being.

Martin Luther King Jnr once said that Sunday mornings were the most "segregated hour" in American life. Fortunately this is changing. The key is surrendering to the wonderful gracious working of the Holy Spirit who will bridge the gap between ourselves and others. But if we go back to arrogant independence we are back at the tower of Babel.

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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/

Monday, June 13, 2011

EMMDEV 2011-06-13 [Pentecost Week] Mighty Wind#4 - Filling

Just what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit?
Does God open the tops of our heads and pour in a luminous liquid until we are "full to the brim?"
Does He "invade" or "possess" us?

This is a question that is crucial to our understanding of the Trinity and particularly the Holy Spirit. It is a question that the New Testament patiently answers again and again.

To put it as simply as possible, here is a basic definition:
To be filled with the Spirit is to be _open_ to the influence of the Spirit.

If we stick with the imagery of the Spirit as the breath or wind of God, then we also need an image for ourselves as those on whom this wind blows.

The first image is that of a windmill. But it is NOT a good image.
When the wind blows the windmill turns. The windmill has no choice.

The second image is that of a sailing ship. When the wind blows, the captain of the sailing ship has the sails hoisted and the ship, even if it is absolutely massive, can be moved by the power of the wind filling the unfurled sails. The captain can lower the sails if he does not want to be moved - it is his choice.

On the day of Pentecost a group of believers were together and raised their sails to the wind of the Spirit and the maiden voyage of the great ship we call the church began.

Hope you will unfurl your sails today!

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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/