Tag: Exodus

Posted on

The Lord is Our Banner – Exodus 17:8-16

Yahweh Nissi means “the Lord is Our Banner” – in Exodus 17, Moses named an altar this after defeating the Amalekites. Banners were key to pre-modern warfare, telling soldiers who is leading and where to attack. “Under the banner” can also mean “in the name of” – “under the banner of love* for example.

The name is used only once, in a passage that is ultimately problematic. The Amalekites ambushed the people of Israel, and after God enables victory, the Amalekites are marked out as a people for destruction.

This destruction becomes relevant again in 1 Samuel, when Samuel instructs Saul to wipe out the Amalekites, down to the children.

This story is hard to square with the teachings of Christ, and is even difficult to reconcile with the teachings of the Old Testament like “do not kill.” This is important because we see leaders today justifying violence in God’s name as well. In reality, if the Lord is our banner then it redefines our relationship with our enemies.

Irenaeus was an early church father who struggled with this difference as well. He sees the story of the Old Testament as one of “gradual pedagogy” where His gradually moves a primitive, violent people to a full understanding of the God who is Love. Origen was another, who saw over time a development and revelation of how to interact with enemies, finding its fullness in the Cross.

If the Lord is our banner, He redefines the source of our security. We no longer place our faith in our own strength or resources, but rather in God Himself. We no longer need to have a scarcity mindset, but can rest in His abundance, letting that impact our engagement with others in love rather than fear and competition.

If the Lord is our banner, it redefines our identity, our vocation and equips us with a different ethic. We are to participate in God’s work of lifting up the marginalized, freeing the captives and giving sight to the blind.

— Guillermo Jimenez, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, July 21, 2024

Posted on

Wonder: Who is Like Our God? – Exodus 15:11-13

Advent starts in about a month, which is a preview of the birth of Christ, so we’re going to do a preview of that preview during November called “Wonder”.

Children are the best examples we have of wonder. Everything is new and exciting and they have not yet become disappointed or jaded. They have an openness and vulnerability that we would all like to emulate. When do we lose that? When did the what-ifs become no-we-can’ts? When did curiosity give way to caution? There are obviously good reasons we do this, but it’s still a tragedy, and we should seek not to throw the baby off wonder out with the bathwater of irresponsibility as we mature. As children of God, we should have a childlike wonder for Him and the World he made.

The passage comes from the song of Moses after the passage through the sea – Moses has led the people of Israel out of Egypt, pursued by Pharaoh’s army, trapped between the water and the chariots. What a conflicting time that must have been – on one hand rejoicing at the freedom gained and justice done, on the other hand terrified at the doom bearing down upon them.

But we know the story – God rescued the Israelites miraculously, leading them through the sea, and destroying the army that pursued them. That is the context for this song of relief and rejoicing and wonder.

In our lives, we have also experienced these moments of salvation – job offers at the right moment, just the amount of money needed arriving in the mail, other such rescues. But like the Israelites, we often forget. So let’s reconsider the wonder we should hold at these events.

Wonder is a catalyst for praise and worship. In this story, we see Moses’ song of rescue lead into Miriam leading corporate worship and the spontaneous dancing and playing of musical instruments. Much like David’s dancing before the Ark of God, when we are overcome with wonder it naturally leads to a joyful overflowing of worship.

Second, wonder activates covenant. Even when we have wandered, when we see the wonder of God’s goodness and creation, that re-engages our covenant relationship with God. That wonder itself is a core piece of that relationship. We are saved through faith, but too often we see “faith” as meaning “knowledge” and knowledge becomes the focus of our walk with God. And while that’s a part of it, wonder is unavoidably the core of our relationship with a God as mighty as ours.

That recognition of the greatness of God can also open us up to possibilities and transformation. The mystery of God is core to our relationship with Him, just as mystery is key to love. Our own smallness and the massiveness of the universe and its Maker, opens us up to the changes that God seeks in us.

But often these mountaintop experiences give way to the wilderness and the desert. We can easily follow the pattern of the Israelites, losing our wonder and going right back into “adulting” and the cares of daily life, and the griping that often comes with that. We hold onto the things we have done in the past, instead of being open to the new things God may have for us.

This is why we gather, to come together in worship and wonder, to refresh after our weeks in the desert. But we need to be sure to come in the childlike wonder that Jesus explicitly calls us to.

As we prepare ourselves for Advent, let us do so with that openness, wonder and vulnerability of a child.

–Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, October 30, 2022

Posted on

The Preparation of the Lamb – Exodus 12:1-14

On this Palm Sunday, we are looking back to the Passover that brought the crowds to Jerusalem in the first place. We can also think back to our Advent series, looking at the three prophecies about the coming of Christ, a key fulfillment of which we celebrate today.

We think specifically back to Ezekiel’s vision of God’s presence leaving the temple, a vision of God on a throne in glory – because now he returns, incarnate upon a donkey. Love returns.

We’re going to look at the Jewish perspective on the events of Palm Sunday and the Triumphal Entry, and the rest of Holy Week in the context of the events in the time leading up to Passover.

The Passover Lamb is a picture of Christ. Paul writes to the Corinthians: “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” Even before His death, John the Baptist called him “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Jesus also entered at the time when the Jewish people would have been seeking the Passover Lamb.

This calls to mind a story even older than Passover, the story of Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac, but miraculously given a sacrifice in his place. This happened on Mount Moriah – the same location, per 2 Chronicles 3:1, as the Temple, where Christ approaches on Palm Sunday.

In addition, the time described in Exodus – twilight, or “between two evenings” – is the same time of day we know Jesus himself was killed.

In terms of the specific day, Jesus was killed on the Day of Preparation – in fact, his execution was rushed because the Jewish leaders wanted it all done before the time of Passover began.

The Passover lamb needed to be “without blemish” – as Christ was. It could not be either younger or older than a year, in the prime of its life, just as Christ was. The lamb was to be killed by the Jewish people themselves, and done publicly. Like the lamb, Jesus was killed publicly by God’s people.

In Exodus 12:7, we also see that the blood of the sacrifice was not to be spilled out but captured and applied for deliverance from God’s wrath. Romans 5:9 says, “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” We see the wrath of God’s also in the fire where the lamb was to be “thoroughly” roasted – fire in scripture is a picture of God’s holiness and wrath, and Jesus took the full brunt of that.

The bones of the lamb were not to be broken, which we know was the case with Christ, despite all expectations.

All these connections were not just coincidence, but there to show that Christ is our Passover lamb. Christ was slain publicly, in the time and place, publicly, so that the wrath of God will pass over us.

Just as the Jews would take all of the leaven out of the house, representing sin, Christ’s sacrifice removes our sin. And as during Passover, we must apply the blood to our lives.

Have you “applied the blood,” accepting and requesting the salvation that Jesus offers through His death and resurrection?

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, March 28, 2021