Day 365

Day 365

Pray (ACts)

Read - Exodus 7

Message - Alan Burke

We all know plenty of people who are full of themselves, who think the world revolves around them, but I doubt any of those would elevate themselves to that status of a ‘god’ and make us bow down before them, although that day might be coming. Pharaoh was ruler over Egypt, he was king, and he was also a ‘god’. It wasn’t that he had some kind of over inflated view of himself, he was on some kind of ego trip, no, pharaoh and the people of Egypt believed it to be true, Pharaoh was god in Egypt, He was the living representative of their gods. And it was this pharaoh who asked with such derision ‘Who is the Lord’ (5:2), for he did not know who the Lord God was, nor did he care because he was god who ruled over his people and the Israelites. No matter how much he believed it to be the case or his people believed it, Pharaoh was a false god just as many that are worshiped today all over this earth. 

Because of this the Lord though had made Moses like God to Pharaoh (7:1), it didn’t matter if Moses had faltering lips or not, it wouldn’t have mattered if he was the best public speaker or a real wheeler dealer who could have sold snow to the Eskimos because it wasn’t dependant on how gifted Moses was it was all the work of the one true God. And this Moses-God would defeat pharaoh. All of this so that Pharaoh would be in no doubt that the Lord God is God indeed, for the power of Moses came not from himself but came from the Lord that Pharaoh had challenged him about asking; ”who is the Lord that I should obey him and let Israel go?, when he said I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go” (5:2).

To Moses the Lord gives a “prophet” Aaron. There are few text that give us such a clear view of what it means to be a prophet of God than this one. The term and office of prophet tends to be widely misunderstood, many people think of prophets as those who predict the far off future, men and women who have supernatural insight of what will happen in the years ahead. Yes there were prophets who did have such insight, but here the meaning just as the word prophet in Ephesians 4 where we are told how God gave… “the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Eph 4:11-12) were those who proclaimed. 

The term “prophet” means one who speaks on behalf of another - When we hear of the prophets of God, it was not them speaking their own views, desires, wishes, they weren’t making new decrees, new laws, changing policies that were already settled positions, for they were there speaking as God’s representatives. These men are to go, the excuses of Moses are no excuses at all, for the Lord would be the means by which his work of salvation would be accomplished, he was giving Moses, Aaron to speak on his behalf for those he calls he also equips. Moses learned this during his life and it is something that we should know to, the God who calls us to service also equips us to serve (2 Peter 1:3). Remember His grace is sufficient for you, His power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor 12:9).

Finally, Moses was like God to pharaoh, but Moses was not God. But there was another man who would come, who was fully man and also fully God. Jesus Christ who is able mediate both God’s word and salvation to us. Christ is the true “image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15). It is through him alone that we might be saved from our sin, salvation is found in Jesus alone and what we need to learn, just like Moses that we need to look not to ourselves but to the God of Salvation through Jesus Christ. We can’t save ourselves but he has made a way. 

Pray (acTS)

Sing

WSC
Q 18 Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?
The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam’ s first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called Original Sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it. (Rom. 5:12,19, Rom. 5:10–20, Eph. 2:1–3, James 1:14–15, Matt. 15:19)