Signs and wonders

Exodus 13-15

It is interesting and to a certain extent, amazing that even though God had sent plagues into Egypt one after another, and provided for them the way to worship Him and to be delivered, the Israelites still did not believe in His power and ability to provide for them. Miracles after miracles, and signs and wonders that the Lord did in their presence – it seems that all these were not enough to convince the Israelites.

I think that it is because their spiritual eyes were not opened to God- how the seeds of faith were not planted in their hearts and therefore, they could not associate the signs and wonders with the authority and power of God. This is a good example of how saving faith is not a result of signs and wonders (not saying that it cannot be a turning point in a person’s life, which God may have intended to do ),but it is the Holy Spirit that draws us to God first, so that when we see signs and wonders, we can then recognize that it is from God’s power and authority.

Moses

In our daily reading from Exodus, it’s interesting to have taken note that even though Moses was not eloquent in speech and he was rather reluctant to pick up the task that God had given him, God provided another alternative to which He would do His work through Moses- by speaking through Aaron. On first thought, it seems bewildering that God does not use Aaron directly for His purposes, but would rather work through Moses – but from here we can observe indeed that God doesn’t need our abilities; in His love and grace, He provides for His own purposes…

The Meaning of Hosanna

Here is a little misunderstood word.

Hosanna – it means “liberate us!”. Or “Set us free”, “save us”.

Shocking? Lots of people think that it just a praise word, but it is actually more than that. So picture Jesus making his entry into Jerusalem on the back of the donkey and the Jews were shouting”Hosanna!”.

The Jews were acknowledging Jesus as the promised Messiah, whom they thought would free them from the Romans. They were asking Him to liberate them from the Romans (which they thought the promised Messiah was going to do). Imagine their shock when Jesus went instead to clean out their religion.

We of course know that Christ has done much more than the Jews thought He would. He has liberated us from sin and death. He has set us free from legalistic religion. So next time we sing”Hosanna!”, remember the meaning and remember what Christ has done for us.

God glorified in man’s presence – paraphrase from Johnathon Edwards part 1

The writings of Johnathon Edwards are very enriching, but the english may be abit hard to understand for many of us… so i have attempted to paraphrase it abit so that we can share the amazing things he has to say about the Word. The following is the paraphrased version of “the works of johnathon edwards vol 2″ from the introduction of the sermon “God glorified in man’s dependence”.

God glorified in man’s dependence

1 Cor 1:29-31

 

That no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

 

The Christians to whom the apostles directed this epistle dwelled in a part of the world where human wisdom was in great repute; as the apostles observes in verse 22: “the Greeks seek after wisdom” Corinth was not far from Athens, which had been the most famous seat of philosophy and learning in the world. The apostles therefore explains to them how God destroyed and brought to nothing their own wisdom through the gospel. The learned Grecians and their great philosophers, by all their wisdom did not know God, thus they were unable to find out the truth in divine things. However, after they had done their utmost to no effect, God was pleased to reveal himself by the gospel, which they accounted foolishness. He “chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and the base things of the word, and things that are despised, yea, and things which are nothing, to bring to nothing the things that are”. The apostles also informs them in the text why He did – so that “no flesh should glory in His presence”. Here we can observe:

 

1. What God aims at the disposition of things with regards to redemption, that man should not glory in himself, but alone in God; 1Cor 1:29, 31 That no flesh should glory in his presence – that, according as it is written, he that glories, let him glory in the Lord.

 

1. How this end is in and through the work of redemption – by that absolute and immediate dependence which men place upon God for all their good.

 

With reference to point 2, firstly, all the good that they have is in and through Christ; “He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. (1 Cor 1:30) All the good of the fallen and redeemed creature is concerned in these 4 things, and it cannot be better distributed than into them; but Christ is each of them (wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption) to us and we have none of these apart from Him.

 

“He is made of God unto us wisdom”: in Him are all the proper good and true excellency of understanding. Wisdom was a things that the Greeks admired, but Christ is the true light of the world, and it is through Him that true wisdom is imparted to the mind. It is in and by Christ that we have righteousness: it is by being in Him that we are justified, have our sins pardoned and are received as righteousness into God’s favor. It is by Christ that we have sanctification: we have in Him true excellence of the heart as well as of understanding; and He has given us both inherent and imputed righteousness. It is by Christ that we have redemption, or the actual deliverance from all misery, and the blessing of all happiness and glory. Thus we have all our good by Christ, who is God.

 

Secondly, another instance which shows that our dependence on God for all our good is that it is God that has given us Christ, that we might have all these benefits through Him; he of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness etc…

 

Thirdly, it is of him that we are in Christ Jesus and come to have an interest in him, and so do receive those blessing which he has made unto us. It is God that gives us faith which draws us near to Christ.

 

Thus through this verse, we see the our dependence of each person of the Trinity for all our good- We are dependent on Christ the Son of God, as He is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. We are dependent on the Father, who has given us Christ, and made Him to be all these things to us. We are dependent on the Holy Ghost, for it is of Him that we are in Christ Jesus, it is the Spirit of God that gives us faith in Him, from which we receive Him and draw near to Him.