21st June 2024

21st June 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (Exodus 15:22-27 focus v27)


Message (Alan Burke)


Where we are is in the wilderness, with fickle people who as the end of ch 14 told us they feared the Lord and they believe in the Lord and his servant Moses (14:31) well it’s now three days later, the Lord hadn’t lived up to their expectations and they are grumbling. Moses cries out to the Lord, he answered and the bitter water is made sweet. Now we are told of a decree and law, a state and a rule that the Lord makes for them. Initially here this is to do with the commands and the decrees that he has already given them, to give head to all that he has instructed them. The Passover, the Feast of unleavened bread, the consecration of the first born. The passover and feast of unleavened bread were to be yearly reminders the consecration of the first born would if it hadn’t already happened it would in the coming days where the women who were pregnant gave birth, where the animals gave birth, just because they were saved didn’t mean life didn’t have its normal routines and the people would have to do as the Lord commanded them. 


There is also a future element to this, prophetic element. For it looks to what the Lord would give to his people, for in the future he would give them commands and laws as his people, they would lay out what the Lord required of them and in preparation for that he tells them this now. For later in the book of exodus in chapter 19 when the Israelites arrive at Sinai that the law is given to Israel so what is it here, well it acts prophetically to what the Lord would give his people, the Law that would come at Mount Sinai, obedience to the Lord their God is a non negotiable. 


In all of this the Lord wants his people to hear his voice, to obey it, to be transformed into a holy nation. This transformation involves more than simply being a redeemed people, it means living in response to what the Lord has done. For this is only the first stop on their journey, they would be quick to grumble but the Lord wanted them to carefully listen to his voice, do what is right, pay attention. Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments (Jn 14:15). There are lots of people in this world who call themselves Christians and they might confess him with their lips but they are not living in obedience to him, they are not listing carefully to their voice, they are not paying attention to his command and living to keep his decrees and they are all to quick to grumble. We though are to try to keep his commands, all of them. We are to follow the word of the Lord. 


The Lord had been gracious to his people, they didn’t deserve the salvation that they received, and they grumbled, yet the Lord took them from Marah to Elim. It is a glimpse for them of what is to come, the land flowing with milk and honey. There at Elim the Lord provided his people everything they needed and a foretaste of what was to come. For the believer we live in the now and not yet. We like the Israelites have been saved by our Lord and God all through what he has done. We have been redeemed by Christ Jesus, his blood that was shed for us. And we live between the first advent of Christ and the second advent of Christ when he will come again to judge the living and the dead. When we face Merah, times of bitterness remember only one step along the way, there will be Elim’s but ultimately we are being taken not to the promised land but to glory, to dwell with our heavenly Father in the new heaven and the new earth. There will be many highs and lows along the way in the Christian life but what lies ahead is far better that makes the Eilm’s along the way look like a run down service station in the sticks where you can even get an ice cream on a hot summers day. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q 71. What is required in the seventh commandment?
A. The seventh commandment requireth the preservation of our own and our neighbour’s chastity, in heart, speech, and behaviour.
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