This morning I was thinking about Moses, his trials and tribulations, his temper costing him the blessing of entering the Promised Land, and how that often gets interpreted as meaning one can lose one's salvation. I thought about how Moses begged the Lord to change His mind, however the Lord is the Lord, and His final answer was "no".
I'm not going to take this into the whys of it not being about losing salvation. That is something that is amply discussed and easily refuted with careful study.
As I thought about Moses and his foibles as well as his triumphs, I thought about how much like Moses our walk with Jesus is. We have our struggles, and failures, and triumphs! and failures....etc, and many times we fail in trusting the Lord, we fail when we lose our temper with coworkers, or even worse; our spouses...but Moses was an exceptional leader and a pillar in the Jewish people's faith. Christians think about Moses once in a while, mostly when watching Charleton Heston play him in the movie "The Ten Commandments" at Easter / Passover time. But for the Jews Moses is a much bigger deal. Moses recorded the first five books; The Torah. He led Israel out of Egypt. He parted the Red Sea!!!...well, actually God did, but Moses gets the credit....but he did that one little thing wrong; striking a rock; and it carried a huge penalty. Remember the Egyptian he murdered? That didn't cost him the Promised Land. Anyway, that's how my musings went this morning...AND THEN the words "Greater than Abraham is here".
That thought took me aback for a moment. Abraham was great, even by Jewish thinking, as well as Christians and even Muslims too!!! And Abraham had his issues as well, he told some "little white lies" about Sarah being only his sister that got Sarah into some awkward situations. I wish I could have been a fly on their wall to hear what she had to say about that, because knowing Jewish women I know she would have had some words! Yet he is the father of the "great faiths" of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. And pondering over that, then pondering those words of Jesus: "I tell you greater than Abraham is here".
We as people tend to idolize other people, not all people, but certain ones. Many people, even Christians, idolize President Trump right now. They probably would be thrilled to meet him, and be thoroughly gobsmacked in such a situation. I would too! I thought about the people that I hold high...I thought Charles Krauthammer was amazing, what an intellect, but he did not accept Jesus as Messiah, and unlike what many Christians believe, Jews do not get an automatic pass. They revere Abraham and Moses, but "Greater than Abraham is here". Any one of us might get excited to meet with and get the attention of some great world leader, or even a famous movie star, but "Greater than ABRAHAM is here" who is even greater than anyone we can currently put on a pedestal.
And then I thought about the fact that Jesus gives us the honour of meeting with Him, being in His presence, ANYTIME. Wow! Yet we often look at prayer and reading the Bible as things to do at the bottom of the list of things that we need to get done.
Just something I was pondering this morning....
I'm not going to take this into the whys of it not being about losing salvation. That is something that is amply discussed and easily refuted with careful study.
As I thought about Moses and his foibles as well as his triumphs, I thought about how much like Moses our walk with Jesus is. We have our struggles, and failures, and triumphs! and failures....etc, and many times we fail in trusting the Lord, we fail when we lose our temper with coworkers, or even worse; our spouses...but Moses was an exceptional leader and a pillar in the Jewish people's faith. Christians think about Moses once in a while, mostly when watching Charleton Heston play him in the movie "The Ten Commandments" at Easter / Passover time. But for the Jews Moses is a much bigger deal. Moses recorded the first five books; The Torah. He led Israel out of Egypt. He parted the Red Sea!!!...well, actually God did, but Moses gets the credit....but he did that one little thing wrong; striking a rock; and it carried a huge penalty. Remember the Egyptian he murdered? That didn't cost him the Promised Land. Anyway, that's how my musings went this morning...AND THEN the words "Greater than Abraham is here".
That thought took me aback for a moment. Abraham was great, even by Jewish thinking, as well as Christians and even Muslims too!!! And Abraham had his issues as well, he told some "little white lies" about Sarah being only his sister that got Sarah into some awkward situations. I wish I could have been a fly on their wall to hear what she had to say about that, because knowing Jewish women I know she would have had some words! Yet he is the father of the "great faiths" of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. And pondering over that, then pondering those words of Jesus: "I tell you greater than Abraham is here".
We as people tend to idolize other people, not all people, but certain ones. Many people, even Christians, idolize President Trump right now. They probably would be thrilled to meet him, and be thoroughly gobsmacked in such a situation. I would too! I thought about the people that I hold high...I thought Charles Krauthammer was amazing, what an intellect, but he did not accept Jesus as Messiah, and unlike what many Christians believe, Jews do not get an automatic pass. They revere Abraham and Moses, but "Greater than Abraham is here". Any one of us might get excited to meet with and get the attention of some great world leader, or even a famous movie star, but "Greater than ABRAHAM is here" who is even greater than anyone we can currently put on a pedestal.
And then I thought about the fact that Jesus gives us the honour of meeting with Him, being in His presence, ANYTIME. Wow! Yet we often look at prayer and reading the Bible as things to do at the bottom of the list of things that we need to get done.
Just something I was pondering this morning....
