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....
Excellent post. Indeed someone greater than Abraham and even greater than Moses is here! And he is near to every one of us, awaiting for us to call upon his name. God bless.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I thank you for your comment you left for my latest blog "Come on England Go for it". I clicked "publish" but something went wrong with the blogger page and failed to pass it through. I apologise for this.
Hi Frank, thank you for your kind comment and your blog. I always enjoy seeing what you and Alex are doing and hope she continues to improve and feel better. I love how we can communicate this way from such vast distances in this world. We visited England in 2010 and loved it...hope we can again. Blessings to you and Alex ❤️
DeleteHi Susan,
ReplyDeleteLast week I believe I left a comment here, but I don't see it now, and I wonder if it was removed -- I know Blogger has been having some issues lately, especially with comments. (Or maybe I just forgot to hit "Publish"? Anyway, thanks for the wonderful post! It is truly amazing that we have the awesome privilege of being able to meet with our Creator God One-on-one at any time, and yet so often we take it for granted or don't even use that privilege. Praise God that Jesus is the only role model worthy of our utmost praise!
Love in Christ,
Laurie
Hi Laurie, thank you for your comments, always ❤️👍🏼, I too have been having more trouble with commenting. Sometimes I comment on someone ‘s post and I get some weird reason why it won’t publish and sometimes wonder if the blogger has somehow changed the settings, but I think maybe it is a Google issue. They have so many extra spy things now that I think the whole contraption is overloaded, lol. Glad your comment made it through 😊
DeleteI'm glad it did! Seems like the more Google and Blogger change things, the more difficult it gets! God bless you.
DeleteFine comment; what a privilege to be able to speak to the Lord Jesus at any time and to know that we are listened to!
ReplyDeleteIn part we have to see Moses as a "type" and that type - authority - does not take us into the land; we go in as attracted by the Ark, the type of Christ.
And Moses got into the land in the end - on the mount of transfiguration.
Amen David, we don't always get to see the desired outcomes, but the Lord has it all covered by His grace! thank you for sharing your thoughts <3
DeleteHi Susan,
ReplyDeletewhen you write about people raising people up, I have never really raised celebrities,the rich, or 'important people' up. Maybe it is because I have come across so many ordinary people who have so much love and humility. I remember seeing something on the television regarding the Pope's inauguration, stating that unless people came into the inauguration in a limousine they would not be allowed to enter. My immediate thought was that if Jesus came to the inauguration on a donkey he would not be allowed in.
Hi Brenda, so true! Jesus was born in a humble manger even though a His family was wealthy! Thanks for visiting! ❤️
DeleteHi Susan, dropping by your blog for the first time. I enjoyed reading this. I clicked on it because in my Thursday morning Bible study group at church we're doing a study on the book of Hebrews and we get to discuss the ways Christ is greater than Moses. Hebrew is such a great book, it helps us to gain a deeper understanding on who Christ is and what He accomplished on the cross and what He meant when He said it is finished and how we benefit from that now and especially in eternity. God bless you. :-)
ReplyDeleteP.s. thanks for dropping by my blog and leaving a comment. <3
ReplyDeleteHello, so nice that you popped by, I’ve been a bit inundated with life lately that I haven’t done much blogging lately. I hope to get back into a regular pattern of blogging as time permits. Thank you for your kind comments ❤️
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