If I may be permitted, I just have a devotional thought to share today. (Lord willing, we will return to Mark 16 on Monday and complete Mark by end of next week.) It begins with today’s passage in Hebrews. Moses was faithful “in” His house. Since every house is built by God (v4), it is proper to capitalize “His” in v5 because the house in which Moses was a faithful servant was Israel and Israel was God’s treasured nation. And it is proper to call Moses a “servant” because it is the most frequently used adjective attached to “Moses” in Scripture (starting with Ex. 4:10 I see more than 40 times, ending with Rev. 15:3).
One place to get the picture of Moses’ faithfulness is Lev. 8-9. God told Moses the process to go through in the consecration of Aaron and his sons as priests. The instructions were in Ex. 29 and the obedience of Moses in Lev. 8. Sometimes we forget, or at least I forget, that Moses acted as “priest” so as to establish the Aaronic order. Moses washed Aaron and his sons (8:6). Moses clothed them (8:7-9). Moses anointed the tabernacle and the chosen men (8:10-12). Moses killed the bull for a sin offering (8:15). Then he killed the ram for the burnt offering (8:19). And he killed the ram of consecration (8:23). Moses applied blood to Aaron and his sons and the altar (8:24). This is no small thing. Moses was the mediator for Israel’s priesthood.
Moses was a great mediator. He frequently interceded for Israel before the LORD who was often rightfully angry with them. Moses received the law (from angels) and passed it along to the nation, as part of establishing the Old Covenant. Moses obeyed God in all this, and the people were called to obey Moses as he faithfully told them all that God said and commanded. Truly, he was faithful in God’s house.
But of course, the point of Heb. 3 is that Jesus “has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house.” For all his greatness, Moses was still “in” the house. Jesus was “over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.”
Paul understood this, that he was “in the house” and thus must be responsible to the One who is over the house. “Let a man so consider us, se servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor. 4:1). “For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Cor. 4:5).
My personal meditation is that I need to remember this as a pastor, one who has been given by Christ to the Church (Eph. 4:11). I cannot serve myself or even my fellow believers; I must serve Christ, the Chief Shepherd (1 Pt. 5:4, i.e. the One over the house). I see this as a calling, not an occupation or career choice.
Here is a thought for us all. Because every believer has received a “measure of faith,” a gift “according to the grace that is given to us” (Rom. 12:3-8), we also have a calling (vocation) from God. What we have received is to be used in the house, the house/family of God (1 Tim. 3:15). We are all “stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Pt. 4:7-11). We have something the rest of the family needs! Let us be faithful bondservants for Jesus’ sake.
No comments:
Post a Comment