February - Reading 2

Hello all and happy groundhog day!

Exodus:
As Brother John stated last night, Moses was quite anxious to shirk his duty to God and his people.As chapter four begins, he is contriving yet a third excuse (3:11 & 13) as to why he feels God has chosen with poor judgement. Remember in 3:18, God had told Moses that the elders would listen to him. Now Moses brings up the fact that he is not quick-witted enough to verbally spar with Pharaoh (I have also heard this verse interpreted to mean that Moses had a speech impediment, perhaps stuttering). God shows Moses two miracles to reassure him that it is He that is in control, three miracles if you count the hand in the cloak as infirming and healing. The other miracle involving the staff is significant because of the symbolism of the snake to Egypt. Pharaoh wore a snake on his headgear as a sign of his sovereignty.
The next portion of scripture I found a bit puzzling. Why would God have the intent of killing Moses after he had just commissioned him? I found this commentary that attribute Moses' ignoring of the Abrahamic covenant of circumcision still in full effect. Perhaps there was still a bit too much Egyptian nurturing in the deliverer for God's chosen race. Thanks to the fast thinking of Zipporah, Moses was spared. Once again, a woman has enabled the acts of the Exodus. Behind every good man...

In Matthew today, Christ reveals to us more about the nature of His cousin (we think), John the Baptist. Christ states that John is also one of the figures mentioned in the prophecies. John is now in jail but we will see that he remains the same old non-conforming, stubborn, Christ-proclaiming voice in the wilderness that he always was. DEFINATELY one of my favorite Biblical characters.

Finally, one thought on the reading in Acts. We see in verse 15 that all of Lydia's home was baptized. I have heard that some believe that this is the earlieast example of infant baptism as it is Lydias's conversion that affects the entire household. We will see this repeated in Acts 16:33 . I do not believe in infant baptism by any means but I would appreciate commentary from my fellow readers.

May God bless the reading of his word

- Clint

[ February 02, 2005, 05:56 AM: Message edited by: Clint Kritzer ]

 

Poor Moses! Doubting his way in doing the will of God. At this point in the saga of Moses, he is more a pity than a biblical hero. Moses doesn't really start trusting God until the parting of the sea.

In Matthew 11, John the Baptist had introduced Christ as One who would bring a fierce judgment and “burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (3:12). He was understandably confused by the turn of events: he was imprisoned, and Christ was carrying on a ministry of healing, not judgment, in Galilee, far from Jerusalem, the city of the King. John wondered if he had misunderstood Jesus’ agenda. It would be wrong to interpret this as a wavering of his faith. John's inquiry was more like, "Shouldn't you be doing things differently," not "Am I mistaken about who you are?"

He sent John’s disciples back as eyewitnesses of many miracles. Evidently He performed these miracles in their presence just so that they could report back to John that they had personally seen proof that He was indeed the Messiah. Jesus also paraphrases Is. 29:18,19; 35:5–10 to jog John's memory. John probably slapped his forehead saying "how dumb of me. Of course Jesus is doing exactly what Isaiah prophesied he would do."

Matthew 11:11 (ESV)
11 Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

John was greater than the OT prophets because he actually saw with his eyes and personally participated in the fulfillment of what they only prophesied. But all believers after the cross are greater still, because they participate in the full understanding and experience of something John merely foresaw in shadowy form—the actual atoning work of Christ!

[ February 02, 2002: Message edited by: John Wells ]

 

Can someone please explain these verses to me? I simply don't understand how they fit in to Moses goint to Pharoah to demand the release of Isreal.

Exo 4:24 - 26 KJV
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>24 And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him.
25 Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.
26 So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Bill

 

Hi Bill,

The law was going to be given to the Israelites through Moses. Circumcision had already been established with Abraham. That would be primary to the Israelite identification. Zipporah's father was a priest of God from what we can see. His name, Reuel, means "friend of God." Zipporah may have already known about the rite of circumcision. Moses certainly knew. Evidently one of them had disagreed with it, and when the Lord confronted Moses about it on the way to Egypt, Zipporah knew exactly what needed to be done, but we can see she was not very happy about it.

But Moses had one really important lesson that had to be learned: he had to learn to trust and obey implicitely if he was going to be the leader God had created him to be, the leader who would take the people out of Egypt en masse, in the midst of miracles, and later hand them the law. He must be the FIRST to obey the law, not the last! Therefore his son HAD to be circumcized in accordance with the part of the law in the covenant God had with Abraham.

I hope that helps a little.

 

Thanks...Helen,

That helped alot.

Bill

 

Thanks Helen for answering Bills ` question, it was this that I was going to ask when I came in here tonight, you beat me to it Bill.
Gwyneth

 

Clint, In Matt 11:2, Who were the two disciples that John sent to see Jesus?

 

Hi Mark -

I do not recall any place in the Gospels in which any of John's disciples are named, with the exception of Andrew who later became a disciple of Jesus.

The confusion may be that when we think of the word "disciple" in the modern time, we automatically assume that one is referring to one of the Twelve called and appointed by Christ. However, the proper definition of a disciple is:

John had an unmentioned number of disciples as his ministry had begun some years prior to Christ's (John 1:35) and in fact, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter was originally a disciple of John the Baptist (John 1:40). The "other" of John 1:40 is believed by many, if not most, scholars to be the Apostle John himself. We also see a distinction between the two sets of disciples in Matthew 9:14.

The account of Matthew 11:2-19 is repeated with little variation in Luke 7:18-35.

Though the question is unanswerable, I hope this helped.

[ February 03, 2004, 12:41 AM: Message edited by: Clint Kritzer ]

 

I have been lurking since New Years and reading with you. The insight in this group of believers has been a blessing to me. God Bless all of you.

Mike.

 

And may God bless you as well, Brother Mike. Good to have you with us again.

 

Our Scriptures for February 3 are:

Matthew 11:20-30

Acts 16:16-40

Psalm 26

Exodus 7-9

 

Our Scriptures for February 3 are:

Matthew 11:20-30

Acts 16:16-40

Psalm 26

Exodus 7-9

 

Our Scriptures for February 3 are:

Matthew 11:20-30

Acts 16:16-40

Psalm 26

Exodus 7-9

 

Our Scriptures for February 3 are:

Matthew 11:20-30

Acts 16:16-40

Psalm 26

Exodus 7-9