A Kingdom of Priests (20)

 Advent

 

Continuing with Hebrews Chapter Two:

 

“For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, ‘I will proclaim Your name to My brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise.’” Hebrews 2:11 – 12.

 

Here we have a quotation from Psalm 22:22, a psalm of crucifixion and resurrection, a psalm of a grain of wheat falling into the ground and dying, so that it may bring forth much fruit (John 12:24). This, of course, is also our calling in the Firstborn Son, as Paul writes in 2 Cor. 4:12, “So death works in us, but life in you.”

 

What does it mean when the Firstborn says, “I will declare Your name”? How might we think about this? One of the reasons that this is important is that if Jesus sends us as the Father sent Him, then we also ought to be declaring the Name of the Father to our brethren. Is this what we are doing?

 

Jesus says in John 14:7, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”

 

Philip respond to this by saying, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”

 

Jesus replies, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

 

This is to be the measure and standard of our testimony as well, the testimony of the Body of Christ, that the people who see us see Jesus, the Head of the Body; that the people who see us see our Father.

 

Is there not a mystery surrounding the Name of the Father? That Name which the Son declares to His brethren?

 

Let’s consider the following from Jesus’ prayer in John 17:

 

“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave me out of the world…”

 

“Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We…”

 

“While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me…”

 

“…and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

 

Consider the above slowly, that is s-l-o-w-l-y. What do these things mean?

 

The idea that “I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known” suggests an unfolding illumination of the Name, an ever-deepening understanding of the Name, an increasingly intimate koinonia with the Name, the Person, of our Father…indeed, of the Trinity.

 

Perhaps Paul expresses the ever-expanding glory of this when he writes his desire that his readers, “…may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God” (Eph. 4:18 – 19).

 

One may pray verbally “in the name of Jesus” and yet not know that Name. One may know that Name and yet not pray verbally in the Name of Jesus in a particular situation. Are we so foolish as to think that reciting words, as important as words are, is the equivalent of knowing His Name and of praying in His Name?

 

So then, how did Jesus manifest the Name of the Father? How are we to manifest the Father’s Name?

 

In Christ, how are we to keep others in the Name of the Father? That is, how are we, by the grace of God, to serve others, guard others, shepherd others, in the Father’s Name?

 

How are we receiving the Name of the Father from our Lord Jesus? How are we sharing that Name with our brothers and sisters?

 

A continuing Advent means a continuing declaration and manifestation of the Father’s Name to the “many sons [and daughters] which the Father is bringing to glory” in and through the Firstborn (Hebrews 2:10).

 

As we gather as His People, are we declaring the Father’s Name to one another?

 

Do we have the Name of the Lamb and of our Father written in our hearts and minds (Rev. 14:1)?

 

Is the Nature of the Holy Trinity such within us, His People, that we can begin to see that glorious City descending “from God”?

 

 

 

A Kingdom of Priests (19)

 

Advent

Continuing to ponder Hebrews Chapter Two:

 

Consider that in the Incarnation Jesus Christ became as we are, yet without sin:

 

“But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus…Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same…Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things.” (Hebrews 2:9, 14, 17).

 

An element of the Incarnation is that the Son of God identified Himself with mankind, with the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, and specifically with “His brethren” (2:17), that is those of 2:11, those who are called by the Father and from the Father (John 17:6,9, 20 – 21).

 

Since we are sent by Jesus Christ as the Father sent Jesus Christ (John 17:18; 20:21), an element of our own incarnational calling is to identify with mankind, with the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, and specifically with our brethren in Christ.

 

There is a holy tension here in that the Church is not the world and the world is not the Church; we are to be distinctly holy as our Father is holy. The Holy City has walls, but it also has gates – and we need to understand them both.

 

Consider Paul in Athens, “…for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are His children.’ Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.” (Actos 17:28 – 29).

 

Can we see the “we” of this passage? Paul is identifying himself with his audience, a broad audience, an audience that is not predisposed to believe him, an audience that may very well be hostile to him; but he is saying “we.”

 

When I hear sermons in which the preacher is constantly saying “you” to his congregation I cringe. There may be times when we need to say “you,” but they should not be the rule. And for sure, if I must say “you,” I had better first establish a “we.” I must identify with the audience.

 

Then we have 1 Corinthians 9:19 – 23, in which we read, “For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more…I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. I do all things for the sake of the Gospel…”

 

We need to remember that man looks on the outward appearance, but that God looks on the heart, even Samuel the prophet had to be reminded of this. The way folks look can trip us up, I know it can trip me up, what about you?

 

Here again, in 1 Corinthians 9:19 – 23, we see Paul identifying with his broad audience, with all of humanity – the great “we.”

 

But, as I said above, there is a holy tension, for then we have passages such as Colossians 1:24, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.”

 

And then 2 Timothy 2:10, “For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.”

 

So on the one hand we incarnationally identify with all people, “for God so loved the world,” and on the other hand we specifically identify with the sons and daughters of the Living God, “I will declare Your name to my brethren.” This is, indeed, a holy tension – we may not fully understand this, but we are called to participate in it.

 

This is a dimension of what the continuing Incarnation should look like in us, in you and in me and in our congregations. We can see our dual commitment to the peoples of the world and to the Church in Galatians 6:10:

 

“So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

 

In Advent Jesus Christ identifies with both humanity in general and particularly with His brothers and sisters in His Father. Does His continuing Advent look like this in our lives? In the lives of our congregations?

 

In Christ, are we living for others?

 

A Kingdom of Priests (18)

 Advent

Meditating on Hebrews Chapter Two, one of the great Advent passages in the Bible:

 

In verses 1 – 4 we read the first of many warnings in Hebrews; let’s note the phrase, “so great a salvation.” How great is this salvation? Consider 2:15, we have been freed from the fear of death. Also ponder 2:16 – 17; God is bringing many sons (and daughters) to glory, and we have one Father with our Lord Jesus, and for this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brethren. (Are we ashamed to call Him our Brother?)

 

This is indeed a “great salvation.” To be freed from the fear of death, to be called “brethren” by Jesus Christ, to have the same Father as Jesus Christ, to realize that our Father is “brining many sons to glory” through Jesus Christ – surely this is a “great salvation.”

 

Why the warning then? Why the warning not to disobey this message? I suppose that, contrary to all common sense and logic, we have the warning because our propensity is to disobey this glorious message. How so?

 

Well, do we not disobey it by not preaching and teaching it? How often have we heard messages that we are the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ? That we are of one Father with Jesus Christ? That the Father is brining many sons and daughters to glory in Jesus Christ? Is this our framework, our motif, our understanding who Jesus Christ is and who we are in Him? As you look back over the messages you’ve heard, perhaps the messages that you yourself have spoken, is this foundational reality in Christ woven into your experience?

 

And then there is the question, “Are we living in this foundational reality, is it woven into the ground of our being?” That is, are we living in this world as Christ Jesus lives in this world? Are we one with Him and the Father in incarnational expression, can we say that to see the Body of Christ is to see Jesus Christ? Are we living as the sons and daughters of God at work, at school, in our families, our neighborhoods, at recreation, in entertainment…in all aspects of life?

 

Are we on mission with the Firstborn Son?

 

As we living in the Priesthood of our High Priest? Are we living as holy and royal priests in Him? Are we offering ourselves to God as both priests and sacrifices?

 

Consider that Chapter Two is a foundational stone for what follows in Hebrews, and what follows is to be read as sons and daughters, as priests…not read as strangers to the Family, not read as those outside the Priesthood of Melchizedek, not read as those outside the Priesthood of Jesus Christ.  

 

In Hebrews 2:12 we read, “I will proclaim Your Name to My brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise.” This is from Psalm 22:22, in which we see not only the Crucifixion but also the Resurrection, and the fruit of the Resurrection is a “seed that will serve Him” (22:30), a transcendent generation in Him and the Father. (See John 12:23 – 26).

 

And so Jesus teaches us to pray, “Our Father.” And so Jesus says, “…go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God’” (John 20:17). And so Jesus says, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me…” (John 17:6).

 

Jesus Christ came to call His brothers and sisters home (John 16:25 – 30).

 

What are we to do with the freedom that Jesus has purchased for us? We are to be on mission as He is on mission. We are to lay our lives down as He has laid His life down. We are to serve in His Priesthood. We are to offer ourselves as He has offered Himself. We are to humble ourselves as He has humbled Himself. We are to know Him in the koinonia of His sufferings. As He walked this earth to participate in the Father’s bringing many sons to glory, so ought we to live. As Jesus proclaims the Name of the Father to us, so are we to proclaim the Name of the Father to others.

 

Let us make no mistake, as the Father sent Jesus, even so Jesus sends us (John 17:18, 20:21). Let us not be so foolish as to ignore the warning of Hebrews 2:1 – 4. Let us not be afraid to teach the Scriptures.

 

And let us ponder, that if Jesus was perfected through sufferings (speaking of His humanity) Hebrews 2:10, 5:8 – 9; ought we not to embrace this aspect of cruciform living, so that we might be “partakers of His holiness” (12:10)?

 

Is Advent continuing in us, His People?

 

A Kingdom of Priests (17)

 

Advent

 

Certainly, two of the great Advent passages are Philippians 2:1 – 18 and Hebrews Chapter 2. Yet do we preach these during Advent? Do we meditate on them during this holy season?

 

In Philippians 2:1 – 4 we see that we are to display the life of the Trinity, then in 2:5 – 11 we are to have the same attitude and mind as Christ Jesus in His incarnation, then in 12 – 18 we see facets of Christ working in us and through us – culminating in a picture of Paul being poured out as a sacrificial drink offering, rejoicing (even as Christ Jesus rejoices Hebrews 12:1 – 2). Can we see ourselves and our churches in this extended passage?

 

In 2:1 “if there is any koinonia of the Spirit.” If there is such koinonia, then we are to be of the “same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.” Isn’t this a picture of the Godhead? The unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? And isn’t this a picture of our calling in the Trinity in John 17:21 – 23?

 

It is out of this koinonia that we learn to “regard one another as more important than yourselves” (Phil. 2:4) All of the foregoing is what Advent ought to look like in our lives, that continuing Advent in which Jesus Christ lives within His People, His Body.

 

Then we have the Incarnation in Phil. 2:5 – 11, and there is mystery here that is beyond our comprehension; we have 2:7 connecting with John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” In turn we see Hebrews 2:9, 14, and 17:

 

“But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus…Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same…Therefore He had to be made like His brethren in all things…”

 

As Jesus, we are to be bond-servants; as Jesus, we are to humble ourselves; as Jesus, we are to be obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Our lives do not belong to ourselves; as Jesus, we are not to seek to maintain our prerogatives.

 

Philippians 2:1 – 18 teaches us that the Incarnation is to be our model for life, and that the Incarnation is to live within us, “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). Do we see the relationship of Jesus and the Father in this verse? Consider John 5:19:

 

“Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.’”  We are to abide in the Vine, for without Him we can do nothing (John 15:1ff).

 

As Jesus is the Light of the world, so in Him we are to be lights in the world (Phil. 2:15). In fact, Jesus says, “You are the light of the world…” (Matt. 5:14). It really does a discredit to Christ for us to sing, “This little light of mine…” We don’t have “little” lights – we have the Light of the world living and shining in us and through us and we ought to be living in that awareness…for it is an awareness of Him, our Lord Jesus Christ, and not ourselves. The world doesn’t need little lights, the world needs the Light.

 

What else can you see regarding Advent in Philippians 2:1 – 18?

 

How is this picture of Advent unfolding in your life?

 

In the lives of our congregations?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Kingdom of Priests (16)

 

 

This coming Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent; what does Advent look like in our lives and in the lives of our congregations? Is Advent an idealized time of looking back to Bethlehem 2,000 years ago and celebrating it today as a memorial? Is it a recognition that God came to earth 2,000 years ago, lived and died and rose again, and ascended to heaven and that we expect Him to come back someday?

 

Or, is it that God in Christ not only came to earth 2,000 years ago, but that in actual fact He continues to live on earth within His People, His Body, His holy and royal Priesthood? That is, do we see Advent as a season that has been unfolding since the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, and do we see ourselves as participating in the Advent of Christ? Do we see Advent as Christ causing us, His People, His Bride, His Body, to grow up into Him in all things (Ephesians 4:11 – 16)?

 

This is more than romantically saying, “Jesus lives within my heart.” This is declaring that God, the Trinity, lives within His People, His Family. So that, in the words of Athanasius, “He became as we are so that we might become as He is.”

 

In John 14:17 Jesus says that the Spirit of truth (the Holy Spirit) will be in us, and then in 14:23 He tells us that He and the Father will come and live within us. In John 17:23 He says to the Father, “I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one…”

 

In Ephesians 2:21 – 22 we see that we are “…a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” This image, in turn, leads us to the “holy and royal Priesthood” passage of 1 Peter 2:4 – 10, in which we read, “…you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession…”

 

The Gospel is about so much more than being “saved” from punishment, from sin, from death; it is also about being saved from these things so that we might belong to Jesus Christ as His sisters and brothers, so that Jesus might be “the Firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). The Gospel is about our calling and purpose in the Trinity, it is about us being a Priesthood in Jesus Christ, with Jesus as our High Priest; it is about us being sent by Jesus Christ even as Jesus Christ was sent by the Father, it is about us not being served by others, but about us serving and laying down our lives for Jesus Christ and others…giving our lives, by His grace, as a ransom for many…a mystery of mysteries.

 

On the Day of Pentecost God raised up a New Temple as the Holy Spirit came to live within the People of God – and those who are in Christ today are an extension and continuation of this Holy Temple, this Holy Place where the Trinity lives and touches the lives of those around us. This is, my dear friends, a continuing Advent.

 

By all means let us have manger scenes, but let us be faithful in making the connection between the manger scenes and what He looks like today in His People. Let us not simply dress our children in the likeness of Mary and Joseph and shepherds and Wise Men – let us teach our children to be clothed with Jesus Christ. Let us not simply tell the world about Jesus coming to earth 2,000 years ago, let us show the world what Jesus Christ looks like today, as His continuing Advent shining in darkness, His continuing Advent set upon a hill, His continuing Advent touching the untouchable and loving the unlovable.

 

As Christ’s holy and royal Priesthood, we are to not only serve the Bread and Wine at the Lord’s Table, we are to be, in Him, broken Bread and poured out Wine for others – His continuing Advent, His coming into the world and for the world.

What does Advent look like in our lives?

In our congregations? 

 

 

 

 

A Kingdom of Priests (15)

 

“I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.” John 17:15 – 19.

 

John Chapter 17 has been termed, “Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer.” While it is that, for we see the Son offering Himself as both Priest and Sacrifice, out of the High Priestly Prayer flows a Prayer of Commissioning for us, the kingly Priesthood in Jesus Christ. In John chapters 13 – 17, Jesus Christ gives us commissions of love, unity, and priesthood. We are to love as He loves, live in unity with one another as He and the Father live in unity, and serve as sacrificial priests, sent by God, as He serves as our High Priest sent by God.

 

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34 – 35).

 

“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (John 17:20 – 21).

 

“As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” (John 17:18; see also John 20:21).

 

Let’s be clear about something as we read these passages, we are not given the option of saying, “Well, that is Jesus and these passages cannot be fulfilled in my life, or in the life of our congregation, because I (and we) am not Jesus.” Jesus Christ is clear, we are to love as He loves, we are to be in unity with one another as He and the Father are in unity, and we are sent even as He is sent.

 

Now then, while it is true that we are not Jesus Christ, it is not true that these passages cannot be fulfilled in our lives, for in John 15:1 – 11 Jesus teaches us that He is the Vine and we are the branches, that He is our sole source of Life. In fact, Jesus says that “apart from Me you can do nothing.” Throughout John chapters 13 – 17 we see the theme of the indwelling Trinity, of God living in His People, of us being the Place where God lives. Therefore, we naturally ought to be loving as God loves, living in unity as God is One, and serving and going and giving as God in Jesus Christ goes and serves and gives.

 

As the Father is the Way of Life for Jesus Christ, so Jesus Christ is our Way of Life.

 

“Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.” (John 5:19).

 

To be transformed into the image of the Firstborn Son (Romans 8:29), is to be transformed into the cruciform, it is to live with arms outstretched to both embrace humanity and to receive its nails – this is the body (Body) language acceptable to God in our Lord Jesus Christ. Hence Paul writes, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).

 

Jesus gives us the posture of our commission when He says, “…just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

 

Here’s the thing dear friends, this is to be our Way of Life whether we are at work, with neighbors, involved in civic life, with family, in marriage, at school, at recreation or entertainment, or gathered with the saints in worship and koinonia and outreach. This is to be the Way of our bank accounts, our calendars, our resources, and the gifts that God has given us – the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ should form and inform all that we have, all that we do, all that we are; our marriages, our families, our friendships, our congregations, our missions.

 

As a holy Priesthood in Jesus Christ, we are both priest and sacrifice, and as such we are called to be set apart, sanctified, devoted, consecrated, for the sake of others, that they may be sanctified in truth (John 17:19; Romans 12:1 – 2). We are to present ourselves as living sacrifices, not being conformed to the present age, but being transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that the perfect and acceptable and good will of God may be worked out in our lives, so that with Jesus we may say, so that in Jesus we may say, so that Jesus in His Body may say, “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:4).

 

Is this the Way we are living?

 

Is this the Way our congregations are living?

A Kingdom of Priests (14)

 Intercession (9)

With the following proclamation, Yahweh proclaimed His glory and His ways to Moses:

 

“Yahweh descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of Yahweh. Then Yahweh passed by the front of him and proclaimed, Yahweh, Yahweh God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:5 – 7).

 

Keeping the above in mind, let’s consider Numbers chapters 13 and 14. Here is the account of Israel sending twelve spies into the Promised Land and, upon their return, choosing to believe the ten unbelieving spies rather than the faithful two witnesses, Joshua and Caleb. While the ten saw the same things as the two, they interpreted what they saw differently – isn’t this the way of life? So often life is not a matter of circumstances, it is a matter of how we respond to circumstances; it is a matter of whether our lives are anchored in the True and Living God.

 

The People of Israel chose to take the counsel of the ten unbelieving spies and reject the command of Yahweh, and the counsel of Moses, Joshua and Caleb; the people chose to return to Egypt. Once again Yahweh tells Moses that He will destroy unbelieving Israel and make a great people from Moses, and once again Moses intercedes for Israel. (Please read the full account of this so that you can see these Divine dynamics; also note the similarities between Moses’s intercession in Numbers 14 and his intercession in Exodus chapters 32 – 34, there is much to see and learn and emulate).

 

The thing I want us to see is what Moses says to Yahweh in Numbers 14:17 – 19:

 

“But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared, ‘Yahweh is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations.’

 

“Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of the people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”

 

Can we see what Moses is saying to God, when he says, “…just as You have declared”? Moses is repeating back to Yahweh the very words that Yahweh spoke to Moses in Exodus 34:5 - 7 when God revealed His glory and His ways to Moses. In other words, the glory and ways of God, which God revealed to Moses by what He spoke to Moses, became the basis for Moses’s intercession in Numbers chapter 14.

 

There are those who see the acts of God, and there are those who learn the ways of God. As a holy and royal Priesthood, we are called to learn the ways of God so that we might not only have an intimate relationship with Him, but so that we might also live intercessory lives and engage in deep intercessory prayer.

 

Do we not see the Nature of God in Moses? As Moses sees and imbibes the glory and ways of God, the Way of God, is he not transformed into that image? Does not the Nature of God live in Moses? Can we see Christ in the cry of Moses, “But now, if You will, forgive their sin – and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!”? (Also note Paul in Romans 9:1 – 3).

 

O dear friends, what a tragedy that American Christianity has been traduced into a religion of the Great Self, of “What’s in it for me?” What a greater tragedy that we are exporting this teaching into other nations. Can we not see that this is the spirit of the very antichrist that “takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God” (2 Thess. 2:4)?

 

What of the Gospel of which Bonhoeffer wrote, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die”? Of Elliot who wrote, “He is no fool, who loses what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose”? Of which Christ proclaims, “If anyone will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me…” (Mark 8:34ff)?

 

Can we see Christ in Moses and Moses in Christ? Can we see the intercessory Christ in us, as individuals and as His People? Are we learning the Way of the Intercessory life of God in Christ?

 

Are we coming to know, to deeply know, the Word of God and the God of the Word? The basis of our intercessory praying and living must be the God of the Word and the Word of God; God has proclaimed His glory and His ways through His Word.

How shall we pray…and live…today?

A Kingdom of Priests (13)

 Intercession (8)

Moses desired to know the ways of God, to see the glory of God; Moses wanted more than to see the acts of God, he wanted to know God intimately. Yahweh promised Moses that when Moses returned to the mountain that He would reveal Himself, in a measure (Ex. 33:20 – 23), to Moses. Thus we read:

 

 “Yahweh descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of Yahweh. Then Yahweh passed by the front of him and proclaimed, Yahweh, Yahweh God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:5 – 7).

 

Let’s note three things before we continue with 34:5 – 7:

 

“Then Yahweh said, Behold, there is a place with Me, and you shall stand there on the rock…” (33:21). This “place” and this “rock” speak to us of our Lord Jesus Christ – it is ever and always in Jesus Christ that we have koinonia with God. Moses experienced a measure, a dimension, of this koinonia and its glory, but a greater glory was coming.

 

“So be ready by morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to Me on top of the mountain.” (34:2). Our lives are to be a continuing offering to God, and this should be an earmark of every morning of every day of our lives (Romans 12:1 – 2). We are not our own, we have been bought with a price, and every morning we should be “ready” and “present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice,” not “conforming ourselves to this age,” but rather we ought to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds," so that we may live out the "will of God, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

 

Carnal Christians, those who live according to the “flesh,” get up in the morning and do what they want to do, setting their own agendas and trajectories. However, those sons and daughters living and led by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14), acknowledge every morning that their lives are not their own but belong to Jesus Christ, presenting themselves – heart, mind, soul, and body – to God every morning, as living sacrifices in the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ, proclaiming that by the Cross of Christ they are crucified to the world and the world is crucified to them (Galatians 6:14).

 

The third thing to note, is that in Jesus Christ we receive the fullness of God and we “see” the glory of God (John 1:14 – 18; 14:6 – 9). This fullness is ever expanding within us, ever growing, ever transforming us (2 Cor. 3:17 – 18). This means, among other things, that as glorious as Moses’s experience and understanding was (see Exodus 34:29 – 35), that compared to the glory of Jesus Christ and His Gospel, that it has no glory:

 

“For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.” (2 Cor. 3:9 – 11).

 

The life of Moses is a pattern of “greater things” yet to come, as is the history of Israel (1 Cor. 10:11).  If we are not learning to see beyond the history, then we are not reading and understanding what we call the Old Testament as it is meant to be read and understood (Luke 24:27, 44 – 47), for the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings reveal Jesus Christ.

 

Are we content to just know the acts of God? Or do we hunger to know God and His ways? Are we looking for exhilarating experiences, or are we seeking His Face so that we might know Him intimately? Is our knowledge and relationship with God based on externalities, or are we living in union with Him? Consider the dynamics of the New Covenant:

 

“After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (Hebrews 8:10).

 

“Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” (John 14:23).

 

O that we would know what it is to cry, “Abba Father!” (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6)

 

 

The Greatest Treason

 I've been pondering what is below for a while. 

Sayers's play, The Zeal of Thy House, is one which ought to be taught in divinity school and in church leadership. While the play isn't quoted below, she discusses it in her letter from which the following is excerpted. 

Much everlasting love,

Bob

 

“I think it comes to this: that, however urgently a thing may be needed, it can only be rightly demanded of those who can rightly give it. For the others are bound to falsify and so commit:

 

            ‘the greatest treason: To do the right thing for the wrong reason’

 

“And, by the time you have done it, you know, it is no longer the right thing.”

 

Excerpt from a letter from Dorothy L. Sayers to John Wren-Lewis, Good Friday, March 1954

 

The quote she uses is from Murder in the Cathedral, by T.S. Eliot, Part I. Here are a few lines from this section of the play:

 

Thomas Becket: “Now is my way clear, now is the meaning plain:

            Temptation shall not come in this kind again.

The last temptation is the greatest treason:

To do the right deed for the wrong reason…

 

“While I ate out of the King’s dish

To become the servant of God was never my wish.

Servant of God has chance of greater sin

And sorrow, than the man who serves a king.

For those who serve the greater cause may make

the cause serve them.”

A Kingdom of Priests (12)

 Intercession (7)

"Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight…

 

“I pray You, show me Your glory!” (Exodus 33:13, 18)

 

Moses desired to not just know the works of God, he also wanted to know the ways of God; and in desiring to know the ways of God Moses desired to see the glory of God. Yes, there is indeed a glory in knowing the works of God, but there is another glory in seeing the ways of God. The act of the Cross of Christ is glorious, the heart of God that is manifested in the Christ of the Cross is inexpressible.

 

Can the works of God be separated from the ways of God? Of course not. Can our understanding of the ways of God and the acts of God grow and mature? Of course they can. Children often only see the acts of their parents, without ever growing to know their parents. The same can be said in all relationships – we can see what a person does but not see who the person really is.

 

The Psalmist tells us that God “…made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel” (Psalm 103:7).

 

Paul desired to “know Him and the power of His resurrection and the koinonia of His suffering” (Phil. 3:10).

 

Jesus came to reveal the Father to us, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth…No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him know.” (John 1:14, 18)

 

“Jesus said to him, Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who as seen Me has seen the Father…” (John 14:9).

 

The desire that Moses had, to know the ways of God, to see God and His glory, would have two fulfillments; the first would be an immediate fulfillment in Moses’s own life, the second would be a greater fulfillment with the Incarnation – what Moses desired for himself would have a greater fulfilment in our own lives…assuming that we also desire to know Him deeply, to know not just the acts of God but also the ways of God, and not just the ways of God but the Way of God (John 14:6).

 

Do we know Him, or do we simply see His acts? Are we spectators or are we knowers?

 

I meet few professing Christians who speak as if they know the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In fact, I have hardly ever met professing Christians who talk to me of Jesus; they talk of church, of programs, of music, of preachers and pastors, of a "Christian" worldview, but they seldom talk to me of Jesus. Most of the Sunday school sessions I’ve endured, and most of the small groups, have been places where Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit are spoken of as strangers, as a God who has been read about but never really known. People will talk about the works of God, but hardly ever of the ways of God, hardly ever of knowing God.

 

How can this be? How can this be with people who have been “going to” church for decades? What have we done? How is it that this condition does not appear to bother us?

 

As we will see with Moses, knowing the ways of God enables us to move into a dimension of intercession not available to us if we only know the works of God.

 

Well, I’d like to write a bit more now, but we have a hurricane coming our way and I’d better post this while I still can.

 

Love and blessings…Bob

 

 

 

A Kingdom of Priests (11)

 Intercession (6)

Continuing to reflect on Exodus chapters 32 – 34:

 

“Aaron said, ‘Do not let the anger of my lord burn; you know the people yourself, that they are prone to evil. For they said to me, Make a god for us who will go before us…’” (Exodus 32:22 – 23a).

 

We are, I think, all prone to idols. While we may see our individual propensity to idols at times, there are other times we need to mutually guard one another – in fact, if we aren’t living in accountable relationships in which we warn one another of idols, I don’t see how we can make this pilgrimage. We cannot ascend this mountain by ourselves, we must be roped to one another, we must warn one another of danger.

 

Most idols look good, they appear very very good. Many idols start out as good, even instruments of blessing and salvation – consider the bronze serpent in the wilderness. We make Nehustan’s (Num. 21:6ff; 2 Kings 18:4) out of anything and everything. As I write this I’m thinking of having coffee with an acquaintance a few years ago, he brought a book about leadership to give me. His large church had latched onto this book and its approach to leadership and had made it the center of its focus, teaching, and preaching.

 

Whatever the merits of this book may have been, it did not merit the absorption of a congregation - only Jesus Christ merits our absorption. Why were the pastor and church leadership excited about this book? Because it promised results – pragmatic results are what we normally look for, they are what we have become addicted to, they are what we need to achieve in order to sustain our churches and our ministries; visible results have become our validation – not the centrality and worship of Jesus Christ. Let me say again, most idols look good, religious, and promise results.

 

Will we be like Aaron and acquiesce in idol worship, even teaching people to make golden calves? Will we go along to get along?  

 

Note this statement in Exodus 32:25, “Now when Moses saw that the people were out of control – for Aaron had let them get out of control…” Responsible leadership, a responsible priesthood, does not give people what they want, it gives them what they need – and that is a continuous focus on the True and Living God.

 

The people said to Aaron, regarding Moses (32:23), “Make a god for us who will go before us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

 

Could it be that this is our attitude regarding Jesus Christ? Could it be that, since His ascension into heaven (Luke 24:50 – 51; Acts 1:9 – 11), we have been functionally saying, “For this Jesus, we do not know what has become of Him?” Have we made idols that make sense to us; success, entertainment in the form of lyrics that focus on us and not Christ, personal comfort, marketing our wares instead of sacrificially witnessing for Jesus Christ? The epistemology of this world and age instead of Biblical – Holy Spirit illumination (1 Cor. 1:16 – 2:16; John 14:16 – 17; 15:26 – 27; 16:13 – 15)?

 

Are we a priesthood that is faithful to our Great High Priest, our Lord Jesus Christ? Or, are we as Aaron, giving people what they want and teaching them to make idols?

 

A Kingdom of Priests (10)

 Intercession (5)

As we continue to consider the intercessory life of Moses, and work toward yet another pinnacle of his intercession for God’s People, there are more things to be seen in Exodus chapters 32 – 34. These three chapters provide a foundation and a framework for a life of intercession and intercessory prayer, yielding glory and riches in our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, as I hope we will see, they provide a great Cornerstone in intercessory living and praying.

 

I hope you will make these chapters a subject of meditation and allow them to soak you and bathe you, and then seep out through the pores of your skin into your daily living – may they become the fragrance of our daily lives in Jesus Christ.

 

Here are some observations to incorporate into our ponderings:

 

“Then Yahweh smote the people, because of what they did with the calf which Aaron had made.” (Exodus 32:35). While Moses’s intercession prevailed with God earlier in this chapter, for God did not destroy all of Israel and He did not make a great nation out of Moses (32:9 – 10); there was nevertheless accountability, there were nevertheless judgmental consequences for those who had sinned. Judgment belongs to God and not to us, punishment (whether given or withheld) belongs to God and not to us, to be forgiven by God does not mean that we are absolved of the temporal consequences of our sin – these consequences may be mitigated, they may be held in abeyance, or we may experience in them in full, these are things beyond our control or full understanding. We are called to be intercessors, not arbiters.

 

“Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, ‘Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, To your seed I will give it.’” (Exodus 33:1). As we noted previously, Moses appealed to Yahweh’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 32:13) as he pleaded with God for Israel. Now we see God referring to this same covenant. What can we learn from this?

 

Scripture is one of the two great foundations of intercession, the other, as we shall see, is the character, essence, Nature of God as revealed in Scripture. When we know God’s Covenant, when we know His promises, then we can appeal to Him on the basis of His Covenant and promises; that is, we can intercede with God on behalf of others according to His Word. Informed intercession is intercession imbued with the Bible, with the Word of God. Just as a wise lawyer appears in court before the judge with a knowledge of both  statutory law and common law, so the wise intercessor appears before the Throne of Grace and Mercy with an understanding of God’s Word and His Ways.

 

Also compare 33:1 with 32:11. In 32:11 Moses says to God, “…Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt…” While in 33:1 God says to Moses, “…you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt.” Whose people are they? Well, of course they are both God’s people and Moses’s people – are not God’s people our own people? And should not our people be God’s people? God’s people may not be such that we want them, and they may be such that it appears that God does not want them – but at the end of the Day God is faithful to His Covenant and so ought we to be too. Just as we didn’t choose our natural family, we can’t really choose our spiritual family.

 

In Exodus 33:7 – 11 we see that Moses had a “tent of meeting” that was “outside the camp” in which “Yahweh would speak with Moses…face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend.” Do you and I have a “tent of meeting”? Or does the preponderance of our spiritual life take place “within the camp”? Do we have a special place where we commune with God?

 

Jesus tells us that we ought to enter into our closets to commune with God. This does not mean that we shouldn’t have public fellowship with God, for we are called as Christ’s Body, but it does tell us that there is indeed a place in our lives that ought to be sanctified as a Holy of Holies and not for public display. Make no mistake, the fruit of this intimate communion should be public, but the intimacy that produces the fruit is experienced in places known only to the Father and His sons and daughters…in the invisible.

 

Many of us have the propensity to substitute religious activity for communion with God. We think that doing the work of God is the same as intimacy with God, we think that “ministry” is the same as koinonia with God and with one another. We deceive ourselves in this thinking, and vocational ministers are especially susceptible to this self-deception; I write from experience. Vocational ministers can be so busy with the “work of God” that they fail to experience deep relationship with God; when this happens, is the “work of God” really the work of God? Is it not something of our own doing, our own making, our own sustaining?

 

Jesus says, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” (John 6:29). He says, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). The work of God is that we believe – we must believe in Christ the Son before we can “do.” We must abide in Jesus Christ if we are to bear fruit, for apart from Him we can do nothing.

 

We must learn what it is to leave the crowded camp and to go away to our Tent of Meeting and commune with the Holy Trinity. Yes, there will always, always, be activity to engage us within crowds of people, within congregations, within communities – and we can become addicted to this activity, our egos can come into play, we can think that we are indispensable to everyone…even to God. We can think that if we were to leave and go away to the Tent of Meeting to spend time with God that everything will fall apart – and the more we buy into this deception, the greater its hold will be on us. Perhaps even worse, this is what we will model for others.

 

Where is your Tent of Meeting? Perhaps a chair in a room in your home? Perhaps a special walk in the woods? Maybe the seashore? Your front porch early in the morning?

 

Of course we can take our Tent of Meeting with us, for wherever we go our hearts go with us and it is within our hearts, our souls, our minds that we meet with the True and Living God.  

 

Are we modeling the Tent of Meeting for others? For our congregations, our families, our friends, our neighbors? Or…are our lives declaring that it is not really necessary to know God in the Tent of Meeting…that activity is what really matters, that it is up to us to sustain the work of God, that if we were to spend time with Him in the Tent of Meeting that everything else would fall apart? Are we confusing ourselves with God?

 

Many years ago I arrived rather early in the morning to see a pastor and his wife. They were glad to see me and made me comfortable in their living room and brought me coffee. Then the husband said to me, “Brother Withers, please excuse us. We have not yet had our morning prayers together. Please be comfortable and we will be back.” With those words they retired to their bedroom, to their Tent of Meeting.

 

This occurred around 1969 and, as you can see, I still remember that morning. This husband and wife set and example for me…what example am I setting?

 

What about you?

A Kingdom of Priests (9)

 

Intercession (4)

 

“On the next day Moses said to the people, You yourselves have sinned a great sin; and now I am going up to Yahweh, perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.

 

“Then Moses, returned to Yahweh, and said, Alas, this people has sinned a great sin, and they have made a god of gold for themselves. But now, if You will, forgive their sin – and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!” (Exodus 32:30 – 31).

 

Our Intercessory Life in Jesus Christ, the call of the holy and royal Priesthood which has been placed upon us in Christ, is that which impels us to offer ourselves in Jesus Christ in place of others, it causes us to cry out with Moses, “…and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written.”

 

Who can bring about such things other than the Holy Trinity living within us…living within us as individuals and within us as the Body of Jesus Christ?

 

This Intercessory Life is to be manifested in both our prayers and our daily living – it is to be heard in our words and witnessed in our actions; the heavens and the earth are to kiss each other in unity, harmony, and expression.

 

Consider and compare Paul with Moses:

 

“I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could pray that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of mf brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh…Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.” (Romans 9:1 – 3; 10:1).

 

Do you think that if we loved others as Moses and Paul that we would be reluctant to tell others the Good News of Jesus Christ? Do you think that if we loved others as Paul and Moses that we’d be an introverted people, obsessed with our own happiness and temporal desires, intent on self-preservation? Or would we be a people living Christ’s Intercessory Life?

 

Jesus said, “Take my Life for their life.” Moses said, “Take my life for their life.” Paul said, “Take my life for their life.” What are we saying? How are we living?

 

Now let me make what may seem at first a quite outrageous statement, we are making a grave error if when we read what Moses said, “…perhaps I can make atonement for your sin,” and think, “Well, that isn’t for me to do, only Jesus can do that.” This is an error and it is a repudiation of the holy and royal Priesthood that we are in Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest, for He calls us to participate in His Priesthood, and this means, in some Way, participating in His Atonement not only as those who are the recipients of the Atonement, but also as those who participate as priests and offerings – we mediate the Atonement, in Christ, to others as we serve as priests and sacrifices.

 

Consider Colossians 1:24, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.”

 

Now I think that to get a glimpse of what Paul is saying is akin to hearing words which it is not lawful to utter (2 Cor. 12:4). To attempt to speak of what Paul is saying and experiencing is akin to the Levites uncovering the holy things of the Tabernacle while in transit and therein profaning them. What I mean is that we really can’t explain everything in our life in Christ; we can’t explain or define the Trinity, or the Incarnation, or the Atonement, or the Eucharist; nor can we explain or define Colossians 1:24.

 

However, this does not mean that they cannot touch us and that we cannot touch them, for we are called to Life in the Trinity, and this Life is ineffable, numinous, and majestically transcendent. When we speak of these things we speak in awe, acknowledging both their transcendent glory and the limitations of our speech and vision.  

 

We are called to experience the “koinonia of His sufferings” (Phil. 3:10). This means that we drink His cup of sufferings, that we are “conformed to His death” as we are also “conformed to His image” (Phil. 3:10; Rom. 8:29). Paul writes of our “suffering with Him” and of our being “glorified with Him” (Rom. 8:17).

 

In one of the Grand Paradigms of Scripture, 2 Cor. 1:3 – 11, we see our call to intercessory living, “But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer…”

 

Perhaps there is a sense in which we can measure the faithfulness of the professing church, or conversely its apostasy, by our measure of intercessory living in Jesus Christ.

 

What do you think?

A Kingdom of Priests (8)

 

Intercession (3)

 

In some respects, the record of Moses and Israel in the Wilderness is a record of Moses’s intercession for the People of God. Moses is an image of our Great Intercessor, our Lord Jesus Christ, who not only laid His Life down for us, but who also lives, constantly making intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25). It is this Image, the Image of the Firstborn Son, that we are called to be transformed into – and this includes living an intercessory life and a life of intercessory prayer.

 

In Exodus Chapter 32, in response to Israel’s making an idol in the image of a calf, we read:

 

“Yahweh said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation…

 

“Then Moses entreated Yahweh his God, and said, O Yahweh, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?...

 

“Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Yourself, and said to them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever…

 

“So Yahweh changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.” (See Exodus 32:9 – 14).

 

What can we learn about intercession in this passage? What do you see? Are there some foundational intercessory principles in Exodus Chapter 32?

 

Consider verse 10 when Yahweh says to Moses, “Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.”

 

How did Moses respond? Was Moses excited about the idea that God would make of Moses a great nation? That Moses and his descendants, his seed, would supersede the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? What an opportunity to rid himself of these people who didn’t appreciate him and the call that God had placed on his life. What an opportunity to be exalted by God. What an opportunity to do things “the right way.”

 

Don’t we get tired of others getting in the way of God? Of our purpose and destiny? Of our agendas?

 

How might we have responded? How would we have been tempted? How did Moses respond?

 

“Then Moses entreated Yahweh his God, and said, O Yahweh, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a might hand?”

 

What kind of question is this for Moses to ask God? “Why are you angry?” O come on Moses, just look around you, just think back to all the trouble Israel has given you (and there is more to come!). These people, whom God has delivered from Egypt, and whom God desires to bring into the Promised Land, have made a golden idol and are worshipping it even as you and God speak, and you are asking Yahweh why He is angry? Are you crazy? Do you not “get it”?

 

But Moses is not thinking about his own honor or glory, he is thinking about God and God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – Moses is thinking about God’s Covenant and God’s glory. Moses has not forgotten that when Yahweh first appeared to him at the burning bush that He appeared to him proclaiming, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6).

 

And so in Exodus 32:11 – 12 Moses appeals to God’s glory and testimony and implores God, “Turn from Your burning anger and change Your mind about doing harm to Your people.”

 

Then in Exodus 32:13 Moses appeals to God’s Covenant, “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel [Jacob]…” Moses is saying, “Remember the burning bush, remember how You revealed Yourself to me. Don’t consider me or my descendants, don’t think about making a great nation of my people – these are my people – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are my people, these worshippers of a golden idol are my people. You have given me to them as Your servant and their servant and I will not abandon You, Your glory, or Your Covenant…and I will not abandon them.”

 

There is yet more to come regarding intercession in Exodus 32, and we’ll pick this chapter back up in our next post. For now, consider that Moses was seeking the glory and honor and testimony of God, and the welfare of God’s People, before Moses’s own glory and honor. Moses put the interests of God and God’s People before his own, or we could say that Moses’s interests were at one with God’s interests and the welfare of God’s People.

 

Moses was attentive to Yahweh’s revelation of Himself at the burning bush as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – and as Jesus points out, this meant that God is not the God of the dead but of the living. Moses saw himself in communion with God and the People of God – the transcendent People of God – how else could Moses “see” the things he saw, and be obedient to the heavenly vision and commission?

 

As the call of Jesus Christ makes clear (Mark 8:34 – 38), those who follow Jesus Christ give up their lives for Him and others – there is no middle ground. The cult of “me first” leadership that prevails in much of the professing church is pagan and represents apostasy – it represents false shepherds and prophets and priests and elders making merchandise of the People of God. Intercessory leadership is not expecting to be served, but to serve and to give our lives as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:25 – 28).

 

Let us not to be so foolish as to speak of leadership or leadership principles unless our conversation is rooted in the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ.

 

As Moses demonstrates, intercessory living is seeking the glory of God and the welfare of His People as our Way of Life in Jesus Christ…for indeed, this is the Way of Jesus (1 John 3:16).