Words of Life September 2019 sample

SUNDAY 1 SEPTEMBER

REVELATION 15:1-4

Sing to God new songs of worship ‘Great and marvellous are your deeds, Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, King of the nations!’ (v 3)

ON the first day of the week Christians meet for worship. It is a constant reminder that on the first day of the week Christ rose from the dead. Such a celebration cannot be confined to one Easter Sunday in the calendar.

Worship in most denominations will include music, in keeping with Paul’s instruction: ‘Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts’ (Colossians 3:16). So, for a number of Sundays we will look at some of those ‘psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit’, starting with the song of Moses, also of the Lamb found in Revelation.

We should not be surprised that much of the content of this song in Revelation is found in the Old Testament, yet various writers note that quoting scriptures in this way is unusual in Revelation. However, there is a link between the martyrs who stand on a ‘sea of glass’ (v 2) and Moses’ first song which came after passing through the Red Sea. There is also the suggestion that the sea ‘glowing with fire’ might bring it close to being red.

It is a curious song as there is no mention of the work of the Lamb or Moses and most of the phrases are found in the psalms. Perhaps they are part of the great and marvellous deeds (v 3). The quoted verses focus on God’s name, who should come to worship and the works of God. Although it’s the song of the martyrs, William Barclay notes that there is no mention of a single achievement. He says, ‘Heaven is Heaven because in it at last all self, and self-importance, are lost in the presence of the greatness and the glory of God.’1 Perhaps this song provides a template for worship in praising God for his power, for his holiness, his justice and truth.

Sing to God new songs of worship: All his deeds are marvellous; He has brought salvation to us With his hand and holy arm: He has shown to all the nations Righteousness and saving power; He recalled his truth and mercy To his people Israel.

(Michael Baughen SASB 344 v 1)

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MONDAY 2 SEPTEMBER

EXODUS 1:1-10

Preparing for the future Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt (v 8)

Galatians 4:4 (CEV)

v9

ALTHOUGH it seems very early to be preparing for Christmas, God’s own plans for the birth of the Saviour started many, many years before the event until: ‘When the time was right, God sent his Son, and a woman gave birth to him.’ Indeed, the story begins back in Genesis with Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden. Later in the story Joseph and his family settled in Egypt, after which we pick it up in Exodus when God is planning for a leader to bring the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.

There came a time when a Pharaoh who did not know Joseph came to power. He felt it unnecessary for these Hebrew people to have special treatment – and to add to his intolerance ‘the Israelites have become far too numerous for us’.

It is interesting that the problem focused on the number of people. In the past five years or more we have witnessed large numbers of migrants moving across Asia, Europe and the Americas escaping war, persecution or hardship.

Certainly in Europe one of the objections that was voiced was of the sheer number of refugees that a country was being asked to accommodate.

The events of Exodus occurred more than 3,000 years ago and yet today we are still confronted by slavery and challenged by refugees. How does the Church respond?

Across Europe churches have called on governments to act and provided support through centres or in communities.

Making a response to refugees has also given rise to a new initiative in the UK called Welcome Churches, whose vision is for every refugee to be welcomed by their local church. It is a great aim. Let us pray that it may be so.

PRAYER SUBJECT:

For those treated as slaves. For refugees fleeing from war, persecution or other concerns that make them leave their homeland.

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TUESDAY 3 SEPTEMBER

EXODUS 1:11-22

Genocide!

‘If you see that the baby is a boy, kill him’ (v 16)

PHARAOH’S solution to the growing number of Israelites in Egypt was to make them slaves. One can only imagine what it would be like to live under such conditions: fear, uncertainty, anger, discouragement and more. We are told their lives were bitter.

His other intention was to stop the natural Hebrew population increase – today it would be called genocide or ethnic cleansing. So Pharaoh sent for the Hebrew midwives and told them to kill the baby boys.

Three things might be noted. First, the names of the two Hebrew midwives are recorded. Second, the two women ‘feared God’, who was kind to them and rewarded them with families. Finally, it was only the boys who were to be killed.

Did this mean the Israelites would just die out or would intermarrying see the Hebrews fade away?

If only the boys were killed, what would happen to the baby girls? History has detailed far too graphically how women and children are treated when caught up in conflicts. The kidnapping in 2014 of up to 300 girls from Chibok School in Nigeria is one example. Another is that the Nobel Peace Prize 2018 was awarded jointly to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad ‘for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict’.

Some 3,000 years separate these events but the same evils are being seen.

As for the Hebrew slaves, we know they made bricks, but a story about Egypt’s turquoise mines may suggest they were also miners. The mines were on the Sinai Peninsula, and while on a visit to this region Jamie Buckingham relates how his guide showed him an old mine and on the wall some writing – ‘a prototype of modern-day Hebrew’. Asked what was written, the guide replied, ‘God is eternal.’2 Despite their circumstances the Israelites held on to that truth.

v 13

vv 16, 21

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WEDNESDAY 4 SEPTEMBER

EXODUS 2:1-10

Rescued!

‘This is one of the Hebrew babies’ (v 6) Exodus 1:22 Numbers 32:59

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PHARAOH’S concern for the growing number of Israelites in Egypt led him to order that ‘every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile’. Jochebed was the mother of Moses and a descendant of Levi. We read that she hid her son until she could hide him no longer. Then, not quite as Pharaoh had ordered, the baby ended up in the Nile – lovingly placed there in a basket with his sister keeping watch.

What did Jochebed think would happen? I wonder if she knew Pharaoh’s daughter regularly visited that stretch of the river – we are not told. How long was Miriam prepared to watch and what was she to do beyond passively waiting?

And waiting for what?

It’s clear that when Pharaoh’s daughter saw the child she knew exactly who he was. ‘This is one of the Hebrew babies,’ she told one of her servant girls. She must have known her father’s edict and that she should drown Moses, but perhaps she just could not bring herself to kill a child.

However, up jumps the waiting Miriam with the offer of a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby. So Moses’ mother was able to nurse him. When he grew older she had to give him up to Pharaoh’s daughter. Although we do not hear of Jochebed again, she had ensured Moses’ survival and his part in God’s plan for the future of Israel.

In rescuing Moses, Pharaoh’s daughter went against the official order. In a similar way Oskar Schindler saved the lives of more than 1,200 Jews during the Second World War. By employing them in his factories he saved them from certain death in the concentration camps, spent nearly all his money in doing so and risked his own life. His motivation for this act is unclear. Perhaps a divine nudge led him to display compassion and humanity at a time when it took great courage.

THURSDAY 5 SEPTEMBER

EXODUS 2:11-15

A fatal intervention

Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand (v 12)

IN time Moses was taken to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. We assume he received the education of a prince and came to know his way around the Pharaoh’s palace. We might also conclude his mother had nurtured him as an Israelite and taught him their history, hence one day he went to ‘where his own people were’. His purpose was to ‘watch them at their hard labour’. Was this the first time? Did Moses regularly do this?

To ‘watch them at their hard labour’ means more than being a spectator. To ‘watch’, or ‘look on’ in older translations, is ‘to see with emotion’ – either satisfaction or distress.

Looking on as a Hebrew was beaten would cause distress.

As a result Moses – making sure no one was watching – killed the Egyptian. That seems rather cold and it could be questioned whether that was his intention. Moses felt it was right to intervene. We may think the way he acted was wrong but what else could he do? Did he have enough authority to order the Egyptian to stop? Probably not because when Pharaoh heard about it he tried to kill Moses – but Moses fled and went to live in Midian.

Reading this story reminded me of Bramwell Booth’s story. As a young boy, 12 or 13 years old, he was taken to a drinking saloon by his father. He remembers the place ‘crowded with men …and with women also, dishevelled and drunken, in some cases with tiny children in their arms’. He recalls: ‘My father, holding me by the hand, met my inquiring gaze and said: “Willie, these are our people; these are the people I want you to live for and bring to Christ.”’3 ‘Our people’ were God’s family not Bramwell’s – but looked upon ‘with emotion’. The memory remained with Bramwell and he spent his whole life wanting to bring them to Christ.

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FRIDAY 6 SEPTEMBER

EXODUS 2:16-22

Choose a name carefully ‘I have become a foreigner in a foreign land’ (v 22)

Exodus 3:1

Ephesians 2:19

Hebrews 11:13-16

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IN 2013 a judge in the USA ruled that a couple could not call their son Messiah. She reasoned that the name Messiah could cause the boy difficulties if he grew up in a predominantly Christian area, adding, ‘It could put him at odds with a lot of people and at this point he has had no choice in what his name is.’ The mother said she would appeal. So what’s in a name?

When Moses (meaning ‘I drew him out of the water’) fled from Egypt he went to Midian. While he was sitting at a well, seven sisters arrived to draw water for their father’s sheep troughs and were harassed by some shepherds.

Moses could not look on and stand idly by, so came to their rescue – although they were not ‘his people’. He dealt with this situation without resorting to violence. Then he went the extra mile and drew water and watered their flock, which means he did the women’s work – or put another way, the work that women do.

No wonder when the girls returned to their father, sometimes called Reuel and at other times Jethro, they were full of the encounter. With characteristic hospitality their father invites Moses for something to eat. He stayed with Jethro and married his daughter Zipporah (a name meaning ‘warbler’ or ‘twitterer’). Was her character reflected in her name? It doesn’t sound very flattering – although possibly better than being called Leah, which meant ‘heifer’!

The final name to mention from these verses is that of Moses’ firstborn child Gershom (‘an alien here’) – so named because Moses felt an alien despite being welcomed into Jethro’s house. Paul tells the Ephesians: ‘You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.’

The writer of Hebrews takes this thought further, saying: ‘All these people … were foreigners and strangers on earth … they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one.

Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.’

SATURDAY 7 SEPTEMBER

1 PETER 3:3-4

The gift of beauty It should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit (v 4) ADVERTISING in Britain is very predictable. As soon as children return to school in September the ‘must have’ things for Christmas are being highlighted in shops and television commercials. So, on Saturdays I thought I would provide my own gift guide for readers. I start with the gift of beauty.

Unfortunately, it may be difficult to find because as the adage says, it ‘is in the eye of the beholder’ – and that can change. Samuel Logan Brengle’s view changed: ‘I walked out over Boston Common before breakfast, weeping for joy and praising God. … I was filled with love for all his creatures. I heard the little sparrows chattering: I loved them. I saw a little worm wriggling across my path; I stepped over it; I didn’t want to hurt any living thing. I loved the dogs, I loved the horses, I loved the little urchins on the street, I loved the strangers who hurried past me, I loved the heathen – I loved the whole world!’

An experience John Larsson summarises: ‘The sense of beautiful newness in the world without is matched by a clean and beautiful newness within.’ 4 The First Letter of Peter would endorse that: ‘Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewellery or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight’ (3:4).

The sense of beauty coming from within is captured by Albert Orsborn who, basing his thoughts on Ecclesiastes 3:11, writes: In their appointed days, All things their Maker praise, For all are beautiful in their time, And in their various ways.

Yet true it is to say, All beauty fades away Save that which in the heart resides And cannot know decay.

Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me, All his wonderful passion and purity; O thou Spirit divine, all my nature refine Till the beauty of Jesus is seen in me. 5 13

SUNDAY 8 SEPTEMBER

COLOSSIANS 1:15-20

God and God alone He is the image of the invisible God (v 15) THESE verses are not set out like a song but they have a song-like quality to them with the pairing of phrases: in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, thrones or powers, rulers or authorities and through him and for him.

Paul’s letter to the Colossians aimed to instruct the Christians about the dangers of Gnosticism. The Gnostics thought all matter was evil; linked to this was the thought that God could not deal with the evil world. If these were to be kept apart the only way for God to interact with man was through a series of intermediaries, each one becoming more and more removed.

Against that background Paul writes about the supremacy or preeminence of Christ. To counter the gnostic claim that Christ cannot be truly man, Paul states that ‘God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Christ)’. Similarly how can Creation be evil when all things have been created through him and for him? It is through Christ that we are reconciled to God not through knowledge – indeed salvation is due to redemption and the forgiveness of sins (v 14).

Paul acknowledges Christ’s part in Creation (v 18) as does the prologue of John’s Gospel. Apparently, when Paul says that ‘in him all things hold together’ he uses the verb in the present tense. Although we witness incredible natural disasters – for example devastating earthquakes – still all things are held together in Christ. We are not about to become ‘formless and empty’ (Genesis 1:1). Not only is Christ involved in Creation but also he is described as the firstborn of the new creation or community to which we may all belong.

Another couple of months and we will be singing Christmas carols.

Charles Wesley captures this thought when he writes: ‘Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; Hail the incarnate deity! Pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus our Immanuel’. Christ is the image of the invisible God and Paul uses the same term that describes humankind having been created in God’s image.

A great song but what about our response? How do we respond to such a lofty poem? Eliza Edmunds Hewitt summarises our aim and aspiration: Growing like him who my pattern shall be, Till in his beauty my King I shall see!

(SASB 665 v 4)

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