January 18, 2009
Scriptures:
Exodus 12:23 – 27
Scripture:
Ministry:
We were looking back at Joseph earlier, and I’d like to take a look at him again. Genesis 43:31-32 *“And he washed his face, and went out, and refrained himself, and said, Set on bread.** *And they set on for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians, which did eat with him, by themselves: because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews; for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians.” What a contrast to the privilege that we just enjoyed! Joseph ate by himself, his brethren by themselves, and the Egyptians by themselves. This is another type, because the Jews were very separate from the Gentiles. This is a picture of the Millennium, where the Jew’s Messiah will not be for the Gentiles; as it is now. There the wall of partition will not be broken down. Our’s is a very precious privilege; that the Lord says to us, “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you.” In glory, He will gather us around Himself. Meet it is that we should render praise and honour and glory and blessing to Him that has made it possible that we should be close to Him!
Hymn 248 – O happy day, that fixed my choice
Prayer
We have been looking at the story of Noah’s ark; today, I’d like to look at a few tangents to the story today. We’ll start with the “law of the first mention.” We know that the first time a word is used in the Bible, it defines the word for the rest of the Bible; it gives us insights into what God means when He uses that word. Obviously, there are quite a few first mentions in Genesis, and the story of Noah has some of them. Let’s look at three of them.
Read Genesis 6:8. The word in this verse is “grace.” This is a key concept in the Bible. We are only six chapters into the Bible and God has already proclaimed global judgement on the earth. However, one man and his family were exempt from that judgement: Noah and his family found grace in God’s sight.
Read Genesis 7:1. The first mention I want to look at in this verse is “come.” Noah, the one who had found grace in the sight of God, was commanded to build the ark, a place of safety from God’s judgement. After the project was complete, God calls to Noah; he says, “Come.” It’s interesting to note that God is within the ark, and He invites Noah in. This is a picture of the gospel invitation today: God invites “whosoever will” to come into his “ark” of safety from eternal judgement.
Read vv. 2. The last first mention we’ll look at briefly is “clean / unclean.” It’s amazing that God gives Noah these instructions, since it is not until the law that we learn what clean and unclean animals are. However, we clearly see that God is dividing the animals into two categories here: those who are acceptable and those who are not. Lord willing, we will talk more about this next time.
In looking at God’s instructions for the ark, we can see 7 different design features that God gave Noah:
If we look at these things closely,there might be some spiritual principles that we can glean here. The pitch speaks clearly of atonement, covering us from God’s judgement and bringing us into a relationship with Him. The size of the ark may speak of the fact that salvation is unlimited: there is room for all. The window was in the top of the ark, where Noah could look up to the Heavens; we should do the same, in both dependence and gratitude. And we know that Christ said, “I am the door,” and “I am the way.” If you are meditating on this this week and think of something else, we can add it to our list.
In our last chapter, we saw how the Jews’ adversaries had tried to stop them again; this time, the Jews responded by telling them that Cyrus had commanded them to build the house of God. So, the Gentiles wrote to Darius to explain the situation. Darius found Cyrus’ record and made his own decree urging the work on. However, what really pushed the work on is found in v. 14; they needed the encouragement of the prophets. It’s very much the same today: there are evangelists who bring souls in, materials for the house of God; there are the pastors and teachers who train them. But the ones who bring to the people God’s truth for “such a time as this” are the prophets; how needful they are. It wasn’t the decree of Darius as much as it was the words of Haggai and Zechariah that helped them complete the temple.
It is interesting to see how much Darius knew about Jewish life. He referred to the building as the “house of God,” not as the house of their god. He spoke of God as the “God of Heaven,” and the “God who has caused his name to dwell there.” He realized that God’s house had to be built in Jerusalem, and nowhere else. He even asked the Jews to pray for the well-being of him and his sons.
So, v.14, they finished the building of the temple, primarily according to the command of God, but also at the commands of Cyrus and Darius. They finished the work in the last month, Adar (around March), and so were ready to begin the new year commemorating the feasts of the Lord. First, though, we read about how they dedicated the temple to God, using just the procedure outlined by Moses in the law. Then they celebrated the Passover. As we were reminded this morning, we have a remembrance similar to that of the Jews’: it is the remembrance of what the Lord did for us. The Jews were told to keep the passover yearly, so that they would never forget God’s mercy to them. We willingly remember the Lord’s work weekly so that we too will never forget.
Hymn 75 – I gave my life for Thee
Prayer