✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ
Exodus 3,1-8a.10.13-14 1219
Letzter Sonntag nach Epiphanius 019
Silas, Fellow worker of St. Peter and St. Paul, Bishop of Corinth, Martyr 50
Scholastica, Virgin, sister of Benedict of Nursia, Italy. Abbess, ✠ 543
10. Februar 2019
1. O Jesus Christ, Thou Glory of the Father, renew us according to the light of Your Immortal Being, so that our mortal body shall see Your Light. Amen. (Löhe 458)
2. »For 1Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and went to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3And Moses said: „I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.“ 4When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush: „Moses, Moses!” And he said: „Here I am.“ 5Then He said: „Do not draw near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.“ 6And He said: „I Am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.“ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. 7Then the Lord said: „I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8and I have descended to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 13Then Moses said to God: „If I go to the people of Israel and say to them: ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me: ‘What is His Name?’ what shall I say to them?“ 14God said to Moses: „I Am Who I Am.“ And He said: “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I Am has sent me to you.’“«
3. Throughout the pages of Holy Scripture, the Transcendent God makes Himself Immanent to His creation. Exodus 3 and the Burning Bush is one such event. Israel had been living in Egypt for 215 years, first as honored guests of the pharaoh, but later they were enslaved by a different pharaoh who did not know Joseph (Exodus 1,8). This slavery lasted between 64 - 144 years, which is far less time than the 245 years Africans were slaves in North America from 1620 1865.
4. Exodus 3 occurs when Moses is about 80 years old and is shepherding flocks in Sinai for his father-in-law, Jethro. The Lord personally shows up to announce His great, old testament act of deliverance. The Lord appears in His Glory as a holy fire and speaks with a Voice. God appears likewise in Matthew 17. »Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John, and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light. A Bright Cloud overshadowed them, and a Voice from the Cloud said: „This is My Beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him“« (Matthew 17,1-2.5). In Exodus 3 there is the Burning Bush and the Voice, and in Matthew 17 there is Jesus shining like the sun and the Voice.
5. Both Exodus 3 and Matthew 17 show us the Immanent God speaking about deliverance. The Lord is sending Moses to lead Israel from Egyptian bondage to the promised land of Canaan : God the Father is sending His Son to lead the world out of sinful bondage to the promised land of Paradise. The Gospel according to Luke tells us Moses, Elijah and Jesus were discussing His exodus that He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem (Luke 9,30-31). Six days earlier, Jesus had told his disciples that »I must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and to be killed, but on the 3. day be raised from the dead« (Matthew 16,21-22). This is the very topic Jesus spoke about with Moses and Elijah a week later.
6. Both Moses and Elijah had direct contact with the Immanent God. Moses saw Him and spoke to Him at the Burning Bush, again on Sinai when he received the Law and the covenant and countless times later in the tabernacle when he beheld God in His Glory. His last contact happened when God showed Moses the Promised Land from Mount Nebo, then Moses died and God buried him (Deuteronomy 34,1-7). Elijah spoke to the Lord on a number of occasions, perhaps most memorably, at Mount Horeb where God spoke to him in a low Whisper (1. Kings 19,8.12), and most amazingly when the Lord sent chariots of fire and horses a fire to take him up to heaven by a whirlwind (2. Kings 2,11). Both Moses and Elijah spoke to the Lord, saw Him and were prophets of His deliverance. In Matthew 17 these two men of righteousness speak to Jesus, the Son of God, who would soon accomplish the greatest act of deliverance by the Lord.
7. Moses freed Israel from their suffering and bondage in Egypt; he led them to the very border of the Promised Land. Elijah preached to Israel (the 10 Northern tribes), exhorted them to repent of their Baal idolatry and worship the Lord alone. Matthew concludes the Transfiguration event by writing: »And when Peter, James and John lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only« (Matthew 17,8). What a powerful proclamation made through Moses and Elijah one more time urging people to focus on the Lord alone, that is, to put our faith and trust in only Him.
8. „A person becomes justified through faith alone, but Jesus only is the foundation of faith. He has provided that an awakened sinner can come to faith. Therefore an apostle says that “Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith.” Jesus has not only atoned for sins and purchased righteousness, but He has also provided that a sinner shall become a partaker of this grace. And since this is done by faith, Jesus has also provided that the Holy Spirit shall work to that end and grant a true faith, in order that the works of grace may be perfected and that man may appropriate and enjoy the fruits of redemption.
9. „Jesus is the foundation of faith, for it is He of whom the gospel says that He has purchased all the good which the gospel offers to those who are rightly awakened. It is only through the gospel that a man can come to faith, for the gospel speaks of Jesus and, indeed, concerning Jesus only. Any doctrine that does not speak of Jesus, whatever experience and glory it may proclaim, is not the gospel. So then Jesus is in the Word. His suffering, His blood, His obedience and death are proclaimed in the Word, and this is the only means of coming to the right faith.
10. „It is Jesus only whom faith embraces and on whom it relies. When a person, after seeing the awful depth of his own misery, has once caught a right vision of Jesus, he cannot turn his thoughts from Him. Jesus becomes everything to such an one, and everything else is “counted as loss and dung.” He seeks for Jesus, comes to Him, longs for His righteousness, prays in His name, and hopes in Him alone. He presses on that he may grasp Christ more securely, and that he may trust Him with more certainty and with greater boldness.
11. „Jesus only is the basis and main cause of justification. Jesus only is considered by God when He makes a person righteous. God merely sees that the sinner has accepted Christ and that he is in Christ, in fellowship with Him. God does not wrathfully count such a person’s sins, for they are covered with the blood of Jesus. The Savior is sinless, and a justified man is considered quite as free from guilt as Jesus was when He had paid the whole debt of sin, and as pure, free from the corruption of sin, as Jesus has always been. Nor does God graciously look upon a person’s good deeds; no, He looks only on His beloved Son. If He were to look upon our good deeds, He would also see the sins wherewith these good deeds are contaminated, and He would by virtue of His righteousness be compelled to exact punishment. God looks upon His beloved Son only, in order that He may find something perfect to rest His holy eyes upon. The atonement and righteousness of Jesus only are then by God attributed to the justified sinner. Nothing else will avail and satisfy an awakened soul. Nothing else suffices for our salvation from eternal fire; no other righteousness is valid and pleasing before God than that of His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. It is by reason of this alone that God forgives sins and receives us into sonship with Him. Sins are forgiven, because Jesus “blotted out the bond against us” with His pierced, bleeding hand, and for the sake of His childlike obedience every one that believes on Him becomes a child of God. For Jesus’ sake every child of God is considered like Jesus Himself, and a like verdict is rendered in heaven at the time of every act of justification as was proclaimed with reference to Jesus at the transfiguration, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”
12. „Jesus only is the basis of the new birth, for it is faith in Him alone that brings regeneration of the heart. Paul expresses this is Ephesians 2,6, saying, “God made us to sit with Christ in the heavenly places.” When a man fixes his attention upon Jesus alone and upon the holiness which He purchased and perfected when He had “His delight in the law of the Lord,” he receives the Spirit which grants full enlightenment in the Word of God. The believer then becomes like the Lord Jesus, being “transformed into the same image.” The light of the glory of Jesus enlightens the soul to see aright and to perceive clearly the heavenly light in the Word of God, when the Sun of Righteousness arises and God takes His dwelling in the soul. God then also grants the believer a new mind, “the mind which was also in Christ Jesus.” His will becomes our will, and we thereupon always desire to be humble like Jesus, meek like Jesus, obedient like Jesus, pure in heart like Jesus, and occasionally we are also able to be thus, for in the new birth we received “a clean heart and a right spirit” and a mind like that “which was also in Christ Jesus.”“ (Schartau ¶ 9-13).
13. The Lord told Moses: »Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My Name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.« (Exodus 3,15). Jesus also told the Jews; »Before Abraham was, I am« (John 8,58). The Jews understood that in saying this Jesus was making Himself equal to God (John 5,18). Moses beheld His Lord in the Burning Bush. Only Jesus. He is the Author of our salvation and the Perfecter of our sanctification. Jesus on the cross suffering and dying for our sins. Jesus rising from the grave, triumphing over death with new life. Jesus gives us the forgiveness of the cross. Jesus gives us the promise of resurrecting our bodies on the last day. Jesus alone brings us the gospel of God the Father’s grace. Only Jesus. Amen.
14. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, Thou Brilliance of the Eternal Light; shine forth Your Light, so that we see the path of the Holy Scriptures which leads us to salvation and the gates of Paradise. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm
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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands.
Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.
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