Lesson 107: The King on the Cross (Luke 23:26-49)

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I always feel inadequate to preach, but I never feel more inadequate than when I preach on the crucifixion of Jesus. There is simply no way that I can do justice to this most profound event in the history of the world. Meditating on the cross of Christ should evoke many feelings in our hearts: mourning for our sin that put Him there; horror at God’s dreadful judgment that required such a price; gratitude for the great love and mercy of the Savior; and awe at the fact that such as One as He would do such a thing as this for such a sinner as I. Yet I lack the ability to set forth all of these things as they ought to be explained and applied. And so we all must cast ourselves afresh on God and pray that He would use His Word in our hearts beyond my ability to preach and beyond your ability to listen.

Today I am going to present an overview of the crucifixion as described by the Holy Spirit through Luke. In subsequent weeks, I am going to go back and pick out some of the details that call for more meditation than a single message allows. Today I want to set before you four broad themes that the cross displays:

The cross displays the awfulness of human sin, God’s dreadful judgment, His amazing love, and His amazing Savior.

1. The cross displays the awfulness of human sin.

Down through history, wicked men have done some terrible things: slaughtered innocent women and children, tortured people for pleasure, and resorted to cannibalism and other evils too hideous to mention. But never has the human race stooped so low as when they crucified the Lord of glory and mocked Him while He was hanging on the cross. The horror of violence is proportionate to the innocence of the victim. If one mobster shoots another mobster, we tend to say, “That’s too bad, but he had it coming.”

But if a man tortures and murders a little child, we recoil in horror, because the child did nothing to deserve such terrible treatment. But while children are relatively innocent, Jesus alone is truly innocent and undefiled (Heb. 7:26). He was never tainted by sin in thought, word, or deed. He gave up the glory of heaven and came to this earth, not for Himself, but to lay down His life for sinners. He went about doing good to all. His teaching and His miracles proved Him to be God’s anointed one, or Messiah. For men to disregard all of His miracles (which they tacitly admit when they say, “He saved others”), to make sport of torturing such a one, and then to jeer as He hung on the cross with His life slowly ebbing out of Him, was the most heinous crime imaginable!

The Bible says, “Men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). The darkness of the human heart was never as dark as when they crucified the Son of God. Thus God sent darkness over the land as a portent of His judgment to come, when men who do not repent will be cast into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 25:30). This was not an eclipse of the sun, which is impossible during a full moon. Rather, it was a miracle sent from God so that sinful men might tremble at His power and judgment.

The hardness of the human heart is seen in that the Jewish religious leaders did not even cease their mocking, but paid no attention to this miraculous sign in the heavens. John Calvin (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], “Harmony of the Gospels,” 3:317) says that “their amazing madness ought to strike us with horror,” (the French edition says, “Make our hair stand on end”) that they would be so blind as to ignore this warning from God. He then adds, “But this is the spirit of stupidity and of giddiness with which God intoxicates the reprobate, after having long contended with their malice.” He darkens their minds, so that seeing, they do not see (Matt. 13:14).

Those who witnessed this horrific event had different reactions. The religious leaders are the most guilty, since they had seen Christ’s miracles and heard His teaching, but knowingly and willfully rejected Him and even taunted Him as He died (23:35). The Roman soldiers also were guilty of mocking Him (23:36-37), but it was more out of ignorance and stupidity. Many just stood and watched out of curiosity, perhaps not knowing what to think (23:35). The thieves on the cross both mocked at first, although the one soon came to repentance (23:39-43; compare Matt. 27:44; Mark 15:32). The multitudes, after witnessing the whole spectacle, went away beating their breasts, perhaps vaguely recognizing that something terrible had taken place (23:48). Perhaps this was the initial working of God’s Spirit in convicting them of sin in preparation for Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost. Christ’s acquaintances and the women who accompanied Him from Galilee stood at a distance, probably out of fear and confusion (23:49).

Luke paints this whole scene to show us not only the sin of those who crucified the Savior, but to get us to examine our own hearts. While we may not be as guilty as the religious leaders, we all are guilty: “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him” (Isa. 53:6). Allow the spectacle of the cross to overwhelm you with the awfulness of your own sin!

2. The cross displays God’s dreadful judgment against sin.

Being sinners by nature, we tend to minimize both our sin and God’s wrath against sin. We think that our sin isn’t all that bad, and we can’t understand why God would get so worked up about it. But as Calvin explains, “It was an astonishing display of the wrath of God that he did not spare even his only begotten Son, and was not appeased in any other way than by that price of expiation” (ibid., pp. 316-317). “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23), and nothing less than the death of God’s own Son could satisfy His holy wrath that is justly due for our sin!

God’s judgment is seen in several ways in this story. I’ve already mentioned the darkened sun as one portent of the wrath to come. It should have made every person there shake with fear and cry out for God’s mercy. Also, Jesus warned the daughters of Jerusalem who wept for Him of the coming judgment on the city. For the Jews, children were God’s blessings; it was a curse to be barren. But Jesus warned that the days were coming when they would say, “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed” (23:29). So great would be the suffering and slaughter, that it would be better not to have children than to watch them starve and be hacked to pieces by the Roman swords. At that time, men would call to the mountains to fall on them, since that would be a more merciful form of death than what awaited them. If it was unnatural for Jesus, the “green tree,” to be burned, how much worse would it be when God’s judgment was poured out on the guilty, dried up nation, ready for the fire?

But God’s temporal judgments on Jerusalem were nothing in comparison with the eternal judgment that Jesus often warned about. He used the most descriptive language to picture the torments of hell. In addition to describing it as a place of outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, He called it a place “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48). He pictured the rich man in torment, crying out for a wet finger to cool his tongue, “for I am in agony in this flame” (Luke 16:24).

Sometimes I think we err in focusing on the physical suffering of Jesus on the cross, while we miss the fact that it was just a glimpse of the spiritual agony He endured. It is significant that none of the four gospels use much detail to describe His physical suffering. Luke simply says, “They crucified Him” (23:33). Granted, most of his readers had witnessed crucifixions, so they knew the awful suffering it entailed. It was one of the most horrific, slow, tortuous deaths ever invented. But I think that G. Campbell Morgan is right when he says that he often wished that no one had painted a picture of the crucifixion. He explains,

I am not denying the tragedy of the physical, but I often feel that in connection with our children, we are in danger if we talk too much with them of the nails and the thorns and the spear. These were merely the incidentals, all of them necessary, I grant you, to work out into visibility before these poor human eyes of ours, something of the unfathomable sorrows of God in Christ in the Cross. Yet there is always a danger lest for very pity of heart, we become more occupied with the physical suffering, than with the spiritual agony. (The Gospel According to Luke [Revell], pp. 266-267.)

The point of Christ’s suffering on the cross was that He bore God’s dreadful judgment that we deserved, thus satisfying His wrath for us. If Christ crucified is your Savior, you will escape the day of God’s wrath on sinners. As Paul triumphantly puts it, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).

I must underscore that you cannot eliminate or skim over this point about the cross revealing God’s wrath against sin and be a true Christian. In my next point I will talk about God’s amazing love as seen in the cross, and it is true. But to skim over God’s wrath and rush on to His love is to miss the offense of the cross. That offense is that we are sinners deserving of God’s judgment. We can do nothing in ourselves to appease that judgment. What we cannot do, God did, not sparing His own Son, so that no one can boast before God.

James Stalker points out how that, just as in Christ’s day there were religious men who said, “Come down from the cross and we will believe you,” so there are still such men. He says, that they “have no sense of their own unworthiness or of the majesty and the rights of a holy God. They do not understand a theology of sin and punishment, of atonement and redemption; and all the deep significance of His death has to be taken out of Christianity before they will believe it” (The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ [Zondervan], pp. 103-104). So we must see in the cross the awfulness of human sin and the dreadfulness of God’s judgment before we move on to the next point.

3. The cross displays God’s amazing love toward sinners.

As Charles Wesley put it in his great hymn, “Amazing love, how can it be, that Thou my God shouldst die for me!” That is the only explanation for why Jesus did what He did. If He had stood on His rights, He would have said, “They deserve what they have coming. Let them all pay for their own sin! Why should I have to suffer in their place?” Thank God that He drank the cup of God’s wrath because of His unfathomable love!

That love is seen in what is called Christ’s first words from the cross, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (23:34). I hope to deal with this verse in more detail in a later message. In passing, I will say that although many weighty early New Testament manuscripts do not contain the verse, there are reasons to believe that it was a part of Luke’s original gospel. Christ’s words here breathe the same spirit that He taught in the Sermon on the Plain, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (6:27-28).

Just as the gardener in Jesus’ parable asked the owner of the fig tree to give it another year (13:6-9), so Jesus here pleads for another chance for this guilty nation (Norval Geldenhuys, Commentary on the Gospel of Luke [Eerdmans], pp. 608-609). And, God, who could have made the ground open and swallow these rebels on the spot, because He is full of love and mercy, answered the prayer by giving Israel 40 more years before judgment fell. He sent them the preaching of Peter on the Day of Pentecost and the ministry of the apostles and other believers, and many thousands came to repentance and faith.

We should learn here what Calvin calls the astonishing (p. 291), inestimable (p. 302) love of God towards us in Christ. He further notes (p. 303) that all the sufferings that Christ endured are here portrayed so that we may see more clearly how much our salvation cost Him. When we reflect that we justly deserved what He endured, we might more and more be moved to repentance. And, Calvin says, God here plainly shows us how wretched our condition would have been if we had not a Redeemer.

Christ’s prayer for those who so badly mistreated Him should give hope to the worst of sinners. Yes, you have abused and mistreated the Savior by your life of sin. Yes, your sin put Jesus on the cross. You need forgiveness. And forgiveness is precisely what Jesus prays on behalf of guilty sinners! He doesn’t offer it based on your deserving it, but simply because of His great love and mercy. It cost Him dearly, but it is free to you if you will receive it. The cross reveals God’s amazing love for sinners.

4. The cross reveals God’s amazing Savior for sinners.

Luke wants every eye to be on the marvelous person of Jesus Christ. The titles that His enemies mockingly hurled at Him are true, even though they did not believe. He is “the Christ of God, His Chosen One” (23:35). He is “the King of the Jews” (23:37, 38). He is the innocent (or righteous) one (23:47), who had done nothing wrong (23:41). Note these five contrasts about His person:

 Jesus is fully human, yet fully divine.

As a man, Jesus was so weak from His night in the garden and His scourging that He could not even bear His own cross. His terrible physical suffering on the cross shows His full humanity. He felt the same physical agony that the two thieves did. His emotions felt the sting of the mockery. He felt the disappointment of His disciples’ fearful defection. His soul agonized for the coming judgment that He predicted for Jerusalem. As a man, Jesus entrusted His soul to God at the point of death, just as He had trusted the Father throughout His earthly life.

And yet the fact that the creation groaned with the power of the sun being darkened shows us that this was no mere man who hung on that cross. He could predict accurately the horrible destruction of Jerusalem. His death fulfilled David’s prophecy in Psalm 22:18, of the soldiers casting lots and dividing His garments among them. He was the Christ of God, God’s Chosen One, the promised King of the Jews. As God, He could promise salvation to the penitent thief on the cross, granting him forgiveness and the assurance that he would be with Him that very day in Paradise. As God in human flesh, He was truly innocent of all wrong. He is, in Paul’s words, “our great God and Savior” (Titus 2:13). Anyone who denies either the full humanity or the full deity of the Lord Jesus Christ has denied the very essence of the Christian faith.

 Jesus is innocent and righteous, yet He bore our sins.

Throughout the story of Christ’s trials and crucifixion, Luke repeatedly affirms His innocence. Three times Pilate proclaims it (23:4, 14-15, 22). The thief on the cross repeats it (23:41). The centurion reaffirms it (23:47). Jesus Christ is the righteous one, our Advocate with the Father, who is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:1-2). I think that Calvin (p. 327) is right here in saying that this Roman centurion was probably not converted so as to utter this testimony of Christ, but rather “was only for a moment the herald of Christ’s divinity.”

Christ could not have been the Savior of others if He had sins of His own. If He had blemishes on His character, He would not have been an acceptable lamb for the sacrifice for the sins of others. But by His offering of Himself, Jesus abolished that old sacrificial system, symbolized by the tearing of the veil in the temple (23:45). Those sacrifices could not permanently cleanse the worshipers (Heb. 10:1-4), but Jesus, by the one offering of Himself, once for all paid the price of our sins (Heb. 10:11-14)! This is why, by the way, the Roman Catholic celebration of the Mass is such an affront to God. They claim that the wafer actually becomes the body of Christ and that weekly they are sacrificing Him again and again, and that the worshipers must continually take His sacrifice in order to be progressively cleansed. But Scripture plainly proclaims that rather than suffering repeatedly, “now once at the consummation He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb. 9:26).

 Jesus was rich, yet He became poor that we might be rich in Him.

When the soldiers gambled for the very last possession that Christ had on this earth, His clothing, He was literally stripped of everything. Calvin observes (p. 298,

For the Evangelists exhibit to us the Son of God stripped of his garments, in order to inform us, that by this nakedness we have obtained those riches which make us honorable in the presence of God. God determined that his own Son should be stripped of his raiment, that we, clothed with his righteousness and with abundance of all good things, may appear with boldness in company with the angels, whereas formerly our loathsome and disgraceful aspect, in tattered garments, kept us back from approaching to heaven.

Or, as Paul put it, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9).

 Jesus is full of mercy, love and forgiveness, yet He is the Judge of all.

I’ve already touched on this, so I will only mention it in passing. You see the Lord’s compassion in speaking to the women lamenting along the way to the cross. His thoughts were not on His own suffering, but on what they and their children would suffer. You see His compassion and mercy in His prayer for His persecutors, as well as with the thief on the cross. Yet, His mercy and love do not negate the sober fact of judgment. He was crucified in our place because God does not brush over sin. All sin will be judged. Either you trust in Jesus as the one who bore your judgment, or you will face it yourself.

 Jesus is the crucified one with no followers, yet He is King of all.

Jesus was basically alone on the cross. John’s gospel records how that apostle, along with Mary, the mother of Jesus, were there at the cross. But the rest stood off at a distance. The sign over the cross, stating the criminal’s offense, read, “This is the King of the Jews.” It was Pilate’s dig at the Jewish leaders. They had forced him into crucifying Jesus, so he got back at them by saying, “Here is your Jewish King!”

But Luke wants us to see that Jesus is truly not only the King of the Jews, but of all the nations. Though He was crucified in shame, He is risen and coming again to reign in power and majesty. Luke wants each of us to ask, “Is the crucified Jesus my King?”

Conclusion

John Gordon was a respected general for the South in the Civil War. After the war, he was running for the U.S. Senate, but a man who had served under him in the war, angry over some political incident, was determined to see him defeated. During the convention, he angrily stamped down the aisle with his anti-Gordon vote in hand. As he saw Gordon sitting on the platform, he noticed how his once handsome face was disfigured with the scars of battle. Overcome with emotion, he exclaimed, “It’s no use; I can’t do it. Here’s my vote for John Gordon.” Then, turning to the general, he said, “Forgive me, General. I had forgotten the scars.”

If your love for the Lord has grown cold, go back to the cross and remember the scars—not just the physical scars, but the scars of God’s wrath that Jesus bore in your place. Let His amazing love turn your heart from sin and give you more devotion to serve Him.

Discussion Questions

The Puritans often talked about the exceeding sinfulness of sin. How would it help us to see this more in our day?
The idea of God’s wrath toward sin is not popular now. How can we properly emphasize it without people shrugging us off?
Discuss: We cannot properly understand God’s love until we have understood His wrath against sin.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

8. Amor Eterno – A História de Oseias e Gômer

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O calendário na parede indicava cerca de 760 anos antes do nascimento de Cristo. Jeroboão II ocupava o trono de Israel, o reino do norte, e suas façanhas militares tinham expandido as fronteiras de Israel para muito além do que já tinham sido desde os dias do glorioso reinado de Salomão. O dinheiro dos impostos cobrados das nações sujeitas a Israel jorrava na casa do tesouro em Samaria, a capital, e o povo de Israel gozava um período de prosperidade sem precedentes.

Como quase sempre acontece, com a prosperidade veio a degradação moral e espiritual. O secularismo e o materialismo tomaram conta do coração do povo, e o pecado corria solto. A lista de pecados parecia a da América do século XX: blasfêmia, mentira, morte, roubo, bebedeira, perversão, perjúrio, fraude e opressão, para citar apenas alguns. No entanto, o que mais entristecia o coração de Deus era o pecado da idolatria (Oseias 4:12, 13; 13:2). Os bezerros de ouro feitos por Jeroboão I, cerca de 150 anos antes, tinham aberto as comportas para todo tipo de mal proveniente da idolatria dos cananeus, incluindo alcoolismo, prostituição religiosa e sacrifício humano.

Uma vez que o Senhor considerava a nação de Israel como Sua esposa, Ele via a adoração a outros deuses como adultério espiritual. O Antigo Testamento fala frequentemente de Israel adulterando ou se prostituindo após outros deuses (Dt. 31:16, Jz. 2:17, por exemplo). Desde o princípio, o Senhor dissera à nação que não a dividiria com os outros. “Não terás outros deuses diante de Mim” foi o primeiro dos dez grandes mandamentos (Ex. 20:3). Mas Israel persistia em ignorar esse mandamento; e lá pelos dias de Jeroboão II a situação ficou intolerável. Deus ia falar de forma decisiva, e o primeiro a ser escolhido foi um profeta chamado Amós. O ex-pastor de ovelhas de Tecoa trovejou as advertências do julgamento iminente de Deus, mas a nação lhe deu pouca atenção. Por isso, Deus falou novamente, desta vez pelo profeta Oseias, cujo nome significa “O Senhor é salvação”.

A primeiríssima coisa que Deus falou a Oseias foi acerca do seu insólito casamento: “Vai, toma uma mulher de prostituições e terás filhos de prostituição, porque a terra se prostituiu, desviando-se do SENHOR” (Oseias 1:2). Ao longo dos anos, estas instruções têm sido entendidas de diversas formas pelos estudiosos das Escrituras. Alguns acreditam que Deus estivesse mandando Oseias se casar com uma ex-prostituta. Outros acham que uma mulher de prostituições se referia simplesmente a uma mulher de Israel, o reino do norte, uma nação culpada de adultério espiritual. Seja qual for o caso, é óbvio que ela era uma mulher profundamente afetada pela negligência moral da sociedade onde vivia, e Deus pretendia usar o relacionamento pessoal do profeta com ela como uma lição clara e objetiva sobre o Seu próprio relacionamento com Seu povo infiel, Israel. Fosse qual fosse seu passado, Gômer deve ter demonstrado algum sinal de verdadeiro arrependimento e fé no Senhor. Talvez ela tenha correspondido ao ministério cheio do Espírito do próprio Oseias, e ele se viu atraído por ela com um amor profundo e abnegado. Deus o levou a tomá-la como esposa e foi assim que Gômer, filha de Diblaim, tornou-se a insólita esposa do jovem pregador iniciante.

O início de seu casamento deve ter sido lindo, à medida que o amor entre eles florescia. E Deus abençoou sua união com um filho. Como o coração de Oseias deve ter se enchido de alegria! Ele estava convencido de que seu casamento seria melhor do que nunca com este pequeno para iluminar seu lar. Foi Deus quem deu o nome ao bebê, pois este nome devia ter um significado profético para a nação. Ele o chamou de Jezreel, pois foi lá que Jeú, bisavô de Jeroboão, ambiciosamente subiu ao trono por meio de violência e derramamento de sangue. Embora a dinastia de Jeú tivesse prosperado por algum tempo, sua destruição despontava no horizonte e devia acontecer no vale de Jezreel (Oseias 1:4-5).

Foi logo após o nascimento de Jezreel que Oseias parece ter notado uma mudança em Gômer. Ela se tornou irrequieta e infeliz, como um passarinho preso na gaiola. Ele continuou a pregar, conclamando a nação desobediente a deixar o pecado e confiar em Deus para livrá-la das ameaças das nações circunvizinhas. “Voltem para o Senhor!” era o tema da sua mensagem, e ele pregava poderosa e repetidamente (Os. 6:1; 14:1). No entanto, Gômer parecia cada vez menos interessada em seu ministério. Na verdade, talvez tenha começado a se ressentir dele. Talvez até tenha acusado Oseias de pensar mais na sua pregação do que nela. Ela começou a procurar outras coisas para se ocupar e a passar cada vez mais tempo longe de casa.

Os perigos são grandes quando marido e mulher têm poucos interesses em comum. Às vezes, ele segue o seu caminho, e ela o dela. Cada um tem seus próprios amigos e há pouca comunicação para unir os dois mundos. A preocupação do marido com o trabalho talvez seja o maior fator contribuinte para a separação. Ou talvez seja o crescente envolvimento da esposa em atividades fora de casa e a consequente negligência do seu lar. Pode ser também um simples desinteresse pelas coisas do Senhor de qualquer uma das partes. No entanto, isso abre o caminho para uma grande calamidade. Marido e mulher precisam fazer coisas juntos e ter interesse nas coisas um do outro. Nesta história inspirada, a responsabilidade é claramente colocada em Gômer, não em Oseias. Ela não compartilhava do amor do marido por Deus.

Isso nos leva, em segundo lugar, à incessante agonia de Oseias. A Escritura não nos dá detalhes sobre os acontecimentos, mas o que ela diz nos permite fazer algumas conjecturas sobre o que causou a trágica situação que veremos em breve. Provavelmente, as ausências de Gômer foram ficando cada vez mais frequentes e prolongadas, e logo Oseias começou a sentir uma ponta de suspeita sobre a fidelidade dela para com ele. À noite, ele se deitava na cama e lutava com seus medos. Durante o dia, ele pregava com o coração pesado. E suas suspeitas foram confirmadas quando Gômer engravidou pela segunda vez. Agora era uma menina, e Oseias estava convencido de que a criança não era sua. Sob a direção de Deus, ele a chamou de Lo-Ruama, que significa “desfavorecida” ou “não-amada”, implicando que ela não desfrutaria do amor do seu verdadeiro pai. Novamente, o nome era um símbolo do afastamento de Israel do amor de Deus e da disciplina que logo viria. Contudo, nem mesmo essa mensagem espiritual conseguiu acalmar a alma atribulada do profeta.

Tão logo a pequena Desfavorecida foi desmamada, Gômer concebeu mais uma vez. Era outro menino. Deus disse a Oseias para chamá-lo de Lo-Ami, que significa “não meu povo” ou “não meu parente”. Este nome simbolizava a alienação de Israel do Senhor, e também desmascarava as escapadas pecaminosas de Gômer. A criança nascida na casa de Oseias não era dele.

Agora tudo tinha vindo à tona. Todo mundo sabia dos casos amorosos de Gômer. Embora o segundo capítulo inteiro da profecia de Oseias descreva o relacionamento do Senhor com Seu povo infiel, Israel, é difícil deixar de sentir que isso é demonstrado no relacionamento entre Oseias e Gômer, ensanduichado entre dois capítulos que claramente descrevem essa história triste e sórdida. Ele pleiteou com ela (2:2); ameaçou deserdá-la (2:3); e mesmo assim ela continuou correndo atrás de seus amantes, porque eles lhe prometiam muitas coisas materiais (2:5). Em certa ocasião, ele até tentou impedi-la (2:6), mas ela continuou a procurar seus companheiros de pecado (2:7). Oseias sempre a levava de volta, demonstrando seu amor e perdão, e eles tentavam novamente. No entanto, o arrependimento dela tinha vida curta e logo ela estava outra vez atrás de um novo amante.

Então, veio o golpe fatal. Talvez tenha sido um bilhete ou um recado enviado por um amigo, mas a essência parece ter sido: “Estou indo embora, e desta vez é para sempre. Encontrei meu verdadeiro amor. Não volto mais”. Como Oseias deve ter sofrido! Ele a amava tanto, e chorou tanto por sua causa, que era como se ela tivesse morrido. Seu coração doía por saber que ela escolhera uma vida que certamente a levaria à ruína. Seus amigos provavelmente lhe disseram: “Deixa-a ir, Oseias. Agora você pode se livrar dessa adúltera de uma vez por todas”. Mas Oseias não pensava assim. Ele queria tê-la em casa de novo.

Não podemos deixar passar essa mensagem de amor eterno. Oseias queria ver Gômer novamente ao seu lado como uma esposa fiel. E ele acreditava que Deus era poderoso o suficiente para fazer isso. Um dia ele ouviu uma fofoca de que ela tinha sido abandonada pelo amante. Ela tinha se vendido à escravidão e atingido o fundo do poço. Essa era a última gota. Com certeza, agora, Oseias iria esquecê-la. Mas seu coração lhe disse: “Não!”. Ele não poderia desistir dela. E, então, Deus lhe falou: “Vai outra vez, ama uma mulher, amada de seu amigo e adúltera, como o SENHOR ama os filhos de Israel, embora eles olhem para outros deuses” (Os. 3:1).

Gômer ainda era amada por Oseias, mesmo sendo adúltera, e Deus queria que ele fosse atrás dela novamente e lhe mostrasse seu amor. Como alguém poderia amar tanto? A resposta estava bem ali no mandado de Deus a ele: “como o SENHOR ama”. Só alguém que possui o amor e o perdão de Deus pode amar com essa perfeição. E quem experimenta o amor perdoador de Deus não pode deixar de amar e perdoar os outros. Maridos cristãos devem amar a esposa como Cristo amou a Igreja (Efésios 5:25), e Oseias é um excelente exemplo bíblico desse tipo de amor.

Assim ele deu início à sua busca, levado por esse indestrutível amor divino, amor que tudo sofre, tudo crê, tudo espera, tudo suporta, e jamais acaba. Finalmente ele a encontrou, toda esfarrapada, machucada, doente, suja, desgrenhada, largada, presa a uma plataforma de leilão de um asqueroso mercado de escravos, uma figura repulsiva da mulher que um dia fora. E ficamos nos perguntando como alguém poderia amá-la nessas condições. Oseias, no entanto, comprou-a por quinze peças de prata e um ômer e meio de cevada (Oseias 3:2). Então, ele lhe disse: “tu esperarás por mim muitos dias; não te prostituirás, nem serás de outro homem; assim também eu esperarei por ti” (Oseias 3:3). De fato, ele pagou por ela, levou-a pra casa e, por fim, restabeleceu-a como sua esposa. Embora não encontremos nada mais na Escritura sobre o relacionamento entre os dois, podemos presumir que Deus tenha usado esse ato magnânimo de amor e perdão para enternecer o coração de Gômer e mudar sua vida.

Quantas vezes o marido ou a esposa devem perdoar? Alguns dizem: “Se eu sempre perdoar, simplesmente vou acabar aceitando sua vida de pecado”. Ou, “Se eu sempre perdoar, ela vai achar que pode fazer o que quiser”. Outros dizem: “Se eu sempre perdoar, é como se estivesse endossando seu comportamento”. Ou, ainda, “Não posso suportar outro golpe como esse. Se ele fizer de novo, vou embora”. Entretanto, essas são respostas humanas. Preste atenção na resposta do Senhor Jesus. Veja, Pedro tinha feito ao Senhor a mesma pergunta: “Senhor, até quantas vezes meu irmão pecará contra mim, que eu lhe perdoe? Até sete vezes?” E a resposta do Senhor foi: “Não te digo que até sete vezes, mas até setenta vezes sete” (Mt. 18:21-22). Isso é muito perdão. Na verdade, Cristo estava simplesmente dizendo, de forma encantadora, que não há limite para o perdão.

Às vezes, são apenas pequenos deslizes e coisas do dia a dia que precisam ser perdoados, alguma palavra áspera ou alguma acusação mais irritada. Mas nós ficamos alimentando a mágoa, deixando-a nos consumir, e guardamos a amargura e o ressentimento que corroem o nosso relacionamento. Talvez seja um pecado mais grave, como o de Gômer, e nós não conseguimos esquecê-lo. Ficamos remoendo o problema e nos torturando por causa dele, trazendo-o sempre à mente, numa tentativa inconsciente de punir o nosso cônjuge pelas mágoas que sofremos. Nós tentamos perdoar, mas pouco tempo depois lá está ele novamente, atormentando nosso pensamento. Grandes mágoas, às vezes, levam tempo para serem curadas. Elas vão e voltam ao pensamento. Não há como evitar isso. No entanto, a cada volta, precisamos, antes de qualquer outra coisa, lembrar a nós mesmos que já perdoamos, e então repetir o quanto fomos perdoados por Deus, pedindo-Lhe que retire os pensamentos destrutivos e rancorosos da nossa cabeça.

Perdoar não significa, necessariamente, sofrer em silêncio. A necessidade de conversa franca e aberta requer que expressemos os nossos pensamentos e sentimentos, que falemos sobre a nossa mágoa e como o nosso cônjuge pode nos ajudar a superar isso. Deus nos diz o quanto o nosso pecado O magoa. Gômer, com certeza, sabia o quanto seus casos amorosos partiam o coração de Oseias. O que dissermos precisa ser dito com amor e carinho, mas temos tanto a necessidade quanto a obrigação de compartilhar o que está no nosso coração.

Perdoar também não significa, necessariamente, tomar medidas positivas para nos resguardar contra os pecados recorrentes. Esse ponto talvez necessite de um aconselhamento mais extensivo; talvez seja preciso uma reavaliação sincera da nossa personalidade e dos nossos hábitos; pode significar também uma mudança do nosso estilo de vida ou de lugar. Deus toma medidas positivas para nos ajudar a querer agradá-lO. É para isso que serve a disciplina divina. Nós não disciplinamos uns aos outros, mas podemos discutir as medidas que nos ajudarão a evitar as mesmas armadilhas no futuro.

Perdoar, no entanto, significa sofrer pelo pecado da outra pessoa. Não podemos retaliar, de forma a fazer a pessoa culpada pagar pelo seu erro. Devemos absolvê-la de toda a culpa. Deus pode usar esse amor perdoador para amolecer corações endurecidos e mudar vidas calejadas mais rápido do que se possa imaginar. Esta é a lição de Oseias e Gômer, a lição do perdão. O amor e o perdão de Deus permeiam toda a profecia de Oseias. Por favor, não entendam isso de forma errada. Deus odeia o pecado; o pecado entristece o Seu coração; Ele não pode fechar os olhos para o pecado; Sua perfeita retidão e Sua perfeita justiça exigem que Ele o trate. Mas Ele ainda ama os pecadores e diligentemente os busca e lhes oferece Seu amor e Seu perdão.

O antigo povo de Deus, Israel, estava sempre voltando aos seus pecados. “Que te farei, ó Efraim? Que te farei, ó Judá? Porque o vosso amor é como a nuvem da manhã e como o orvalho da madrugada, que cedo passa” (Os. 6:4). No entanto, Deus nunca deixou de amá-los. “Quando Israel era menino, eu o amei; e do Egito chamei o meu filho” (Os. 11:1). “Atraí-os com cordas humanas, com laços de amor” (Os. 11:4). “Como te deixaria, ó Efraim? Como te entregaria, ó Israel?” (Os. 11:8). E, justamente porque Ele nunca deixou de amá-los, Ele não deixou de pleitear com eles: “Volta, ó Israel, para o SENHOR, teu Deus, porque, pelos teus pecados, estás caído” (Os. 14:1).

É assim que precisamos amar. É assim que precisamos perdoar. Precisamos arrastar as feridas purulentas cultivadas em nosso coração até a cruz de Cristo ━ onde um dia depositamos o fardo da nossa culpa e descobrimos o perdão de Deus ━ e devemos deixá-las lá. Quando conseguirmos perdoar plenamente, a nossa mente será libertada do cativeiro de ressentimento que criou uma barreira entre nós, e seremos livres para crescer em nossos relacionamentos.

Vamos conversar sobre isso

Na sua opinião, quais são as principais causas de separação entre marido e mulher?
Quais os interesses que vocês dois têm em comum? O que mais vocês poderiam fazer juntos para fortalecer sua união?
Nem sempre maridos e esposa têm consciência do amor do outro. Seria de grande ajuda se cada um de vocês terminasse a seguinte frase: “Eu me sinto amado quando você…” ou “Eu digo que o amo quando…”
Você consegue pensar nas coisas que seu cônjuge tem feito a você que o impedem de expressar livremente seu amor por ele? Conte-as ao seu cônjuge e expresse seu completo perdão a ele.
Como você pode impedir que os erros que você perdoou de outras pessoas fiquem voltando à sua mente e destruam sua paz?
Que medidas positivas você e seu cônjuge podem tomar para impedir que certos pecados fiquem se repetindo em suas vidas?

Tradução: Mariza Regina de Souza

Related Topics: Christian Home, Love, Marriage

2. Jochebed (Exodus 2:1-10)

I. Introduction

Have you ever had to give up and let go of someone or something very precious to you?

When you let go, when you released that person or that thing, did you feel like part of you was breaking; now there was some new emptiness in your life? Transition to our next woman of influence, Jochebed…Moses’ mother. I wonder,

Can you imagine what it would be like to give away your 3-month-old baby, not knowing what would happen to him? After you had given birth, held that baby, nursed, rocked and stayed up all night trying to ease his crying and then to give him up?

I’m curious, how many here are either adopted, have adopted children or someone in your family has been adopted? Adoption is a wonderful way to unconditionally love someone but it comes with a painful price tag (as we’ll see in our story). To adopt a child means someone has to give up a child. Maybe you’ve not given a child up for adoption, but I’m sure that most everyone here has some experience with giving up something precious to you. Some of you have lost children to divorce, some have run-away, and some have even died. . Truthfully, there is a certain amount of pain, a loneliness pain, when they leave home to go to college, when they get married, when they start their own life. “Someone has said ‘mothers begin saying good-bye to their children from the moment they are born’.”¹ And we don’t want to forget there is also a pain that comes from wanting a child and yet not having one, perhaps even having to give up that possibility.

Some, its likely all of us, know the pain of giving up, letting go of someone, or something precious to you: A relationship, a job, a dream.

Life comes with the pain of losses, of giving up and letting go and we are rarely ready to let go. Life comes with the opportunity to learn the art of Releasing when we have no control, of dealing with extenuating circumstances that we can do nothing about. Question we have to ask is:

What do you do when you can’t do anything more?

II. Jochebed

1. Married

Exodus 2:1 A man from the household of Levi married a woman who was a descendant of Levi. (NET)

Exodus 6:20 Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. (The length of Amram’s life was 137 years.) (NET)

Amram was “the Levite man” who was Moses’ father. He lived 137 years. That’s a significant fact. Possible that he was alive during the Exodus, remember Moses was 80 years old then. Amram married Jochebed who was also from the tribe of Levi, one of Jacob’s 12 sons. Jochebed’s name means, “Honor of God” or “God is glory”. We don’t know but we hope that she too was alive to see the Exodus. Amram and Jochebed were strong in their faith during a time where many Israelites had become idolatrous.

How do we know? Moses, in the wilderness, instructed them to put away pagan gods. Joshua 24:14 “throw away gods your forefathers worshipped beyond the river and in Egypt. So we know some of the Jews had compromised. Just like today, true faith was mixed with pagan beliefs. But this couple worshipped Jehovah God. This couple had great faith. Hebrews 11:23 BY FAITH they hid Moses…They saw life through the eyes of faith.

What’s the Definition of faith? = Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (NIV)

What does it mean that they had faith? Certainly faith in God, that He exists, that He made a covenant with Abraham that set them apart as a chosen people, His people. They had faith that God had made promises to them through Abraham that they would be a nation, a people with land, their land. The prophecy of 400 years of bondage (Gen 15:13) was coming to a close. So when Jochebed gave birth to Moses….

2. Moses’ Mother

1. Birth

Exodus 2:1-2 A man from the household of Levi married a woman who was a descendant of Levi. The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a healthy child, she hid him for three months. (NET)

Hebrews 11:23 By faith, when Moses was born, his parents hid him for three months, because they saw the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. (NET)

“not an ordinary child” Hebrew for “fine” is “tov”(TOE v)= means “good”, “beautiful” It’s the same word that used in the Creation account in Genesis 1:4(light), 10(land and sea), 18(sun, moon, stars), 25(animals), 31(mankind, looked and said=very good). Moses was tov, beautiful, fine, good, and not ordinary. This word conveys the possibility that Jochebed sensed something was special about her new baby boy. Perhaps God might use him to fulfill the Promise. Exodus 2:2b She “hid” him for 3 months. Reason was Pharaoh’s edict.

When the plan to have the midwives kill all the male newborns failed, Pharaoh gave the order to throw all baby boys into the Nile, drown them.

Can you imagine trying to hide a newborn baby? Keep him quiet? Have you ever worked in the baby bed nursery at church? You can never get them all quiet at the same time. Someone is always crying.

What strong faith this woman had, but also what courage.

Hebrews11:23 they were “not afraid of the king’s edict”

What if she had been “found out”, they would take the baby and kill him, perhaps she would lose her life, potentially the whole family, husband, 2 other children= Miriam=young little girl and Aaron=3 years old. The choice to hid the baby put the whole family at risk.

But there came a day when she knew she couldn’t hide him any longer, had to let him go…

2. Basket Plan

Exodus 2:3-4 But when she was no longer able to hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him and sealed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and set it among the reeds along the edge of the Nile. His sister stationed herself at a distance to find out what would happen to him. (NET)

Think of her alterative choices. What if she kept the baby at home until eventually the authorities came? What would she do if he was snatched out of her arms and taken to certain death? Or would it be wise to just distance herself from this baby and let someone else throw him in the Nile? After all she did have a husband and two other children to consider and take care of. What to do? All her choices were difficult. Have you ever been there? Where it didn’t matter which decision you made, they all seemed risky?

Jochebed made a decision, and she made a plan.

Exodus 2:3 But when she was no longer able to hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him and sealed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and set it among the reeds along the edge of the Nile.

“When she could hide him no longer” …She either purchased or made a basket out of papyrus and covered it with an asphalt type material that made it watertight. (Isaiah 18:2 writes that the Egyptians made their boats, skiffs out of this material. So she made a little miniature Nile boat for her baby.²) She put the child in the basket among the reeds near the bank of the river. This would be shallow water, away from the currents that would have carried him down the Nile. Here there would be less danger from crocodiles than if she just put him down on the beach. Perhaps there would be some shade too from the sun in the reeds.

Imagine the emotions, the feelings Jochebed had as she placed him down and backed away. Imagine being her as she left him here alone in the water. Yes, Miriam is watching from a distant place on the shore, but she, his mother had to let him go. She had to walk away. She didn’t just “let him go”, she was a woman of faith, and she “let him go and trusted her God. The life of Jochebed as a woman of influence teaches us that there are times in our lives when we have done all we can do, we’ve said all we can say, there is no more and we have to …

Truth: Let it go and trust God

So what happens when you trust God, eyewitness account: Miriam is near by, watching and..

III. Pharaoh’s Daughter

Exodus 2:5 Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself by the Nile, while her attendants were walking alongside the river, and she saw the basket among the reeds. She sent one of her attendants, took it,

There is great historical debate on who was Pharaoh’s daughter? The Apocrypha calls her Tharmuth, other names suggested are Merris, or Bityah, perhaps even the well-known Hatshepsut( HAT shep shoot). If the Pharaoh here is Rameses (RAM uh sees) II, he had over 60 daughters.³ We don’t know, but whoever she was, she had enough influence to kill Moses or keep him alive.

Text says she went to bathe in the Nile. Nile was considered emanation (em uh ney shun) THE SOURCE of the pagan god Osiris( O sigh rus) and the waters had magical properties.

It was not uncommon for Pharaohs and other Egyptians to bathe ceremonially in the sacred Nile River, as many Indians do today in the Ganges River. The Egyptians believed that the waters of the Nile possessed the ability to impart fruitfulness and to prolong life.⁴ Dr. Thomas Constable

While her attendants were walking up and down the banks keeping undesirable people and animals away, she saw the basket. She was curious, what could be in it? Verbs tell us that she herself opened it and saw Moses and at that very moment he cried. I wonder if she picked him up, cuddled him to stop his cries; did he smile at her and melt her heart? “she took pity” on the baby. This is a huge part of the story… Jewish Study Bible

“The verb could be given a more colloquial translation such as “she felt sorry for him.” But the verb is stronger than that; it means “to have compassion, to pity, to spare.” What she felt for the baby was strong enough to prompt her to spare the child from the fate decreed for Hebrew boys. Here is part of the irony of the passage: What was perceived by many to be a womanly weakness – compassion for a baby – is a strong enough emotion to prompt the (this) woman to defy the orders of Pharaoh. The ruler had thought sparing women was safe, but the midwives, the Hebrew mother, the daughter of Pharaoh, and Miriam, all work together to spare one child”⁵

They are women of great influence.

At just this moment, Miriam steps forward and approaches the daughter and volunteers her service to find a Hebrew woman to nurse the child, and whom did she bring back? The baby’s own mother. So Jochebed got her own child back, at least for a while. Can you see the Providence of God in this story? Why to Trust?

Jochebed just happened to put Moses in the right spot on the Nile?
Pharaoh’s daughter just happened to see the basket?
Moses just happened to cry at the right time?
Miriam just happened to be near by?
Jochebed just happened to be available and able to nurse?
Pharaoh’s daughter just happened to have enough influence to save the baby Moses?

Faith and trust in God knows that even when God seems silent, He is always working for the good of His children. Faith and trust in God knows that God often works behind the scenes of our lives. What some call fate or luck or “it just happened” is really God’s providential care.

Has anything “just happened” to you recently that you know really was God working for you? Sometimes we need to slow down and learn to see Him and His presence in our circumstances and thank Him for His care.

IV. Letting Go Again: Jochebed Did Get Moses Back…

…for a little while. Probably about 3 years. Those must have been precious years. Years she had to love and influence her child for God. Those early years, pre-school years, made an indelible impression on Moses. I imagine he learned about the Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and the Great Covenantal promises made to the Hebrews. Perhaps he learned what it means to have faith in God and fearless courage. But there came a day when he grew older… When Jochebed had to let him go AGAIN…to let him go and trust God again.

Exodus 2:10 When the child grew older she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “Because I drew him from the water.”

Jochebed, she’s the one, who took him to the Royal Palace. He went from her arms to the arms of Pharaoh’s daughter. Hugs and kisses and then she turned away and went home. Again, the second time, was this time even harder for her?

I would have wondered if he would be safe? Would he be treated differently because he was Hebrew? Would he forget me? Would he forget our family? Would I ever see him again?

So we come back to the question

What do you do when you can’t do anything more?

Women of Influence choose to: Truth: Let it go and trust God

Application: Does this speak to you, where you are today?

What are some areas of your life you need to stop holding on to and start trusting God? Is it your past? My pastor often says “Give up the hope of a better past, it’s keeping you from a better tomorrow” Past hurt, past decision?

Maybe it’s a relationship that is toxic and you need to make a hard choice.

Or maybe the relationship has been too close, too controlling, or maybe the seasons of life have changed and it’s hard to let it go and move on.

What do you do when you can’t do anything more?

My story: Brent’s diabetes (Another stone of remembrance)

When my youngest son was 5 years old he started loosing weight, was always thirsty and he started wetting the bed at night though he’d been potty trained for a long time. I took him to the pediatrician and I knew it was a urinary tract infection, we’d get the pink bubble gum antibiotic and he’d be fine. But that was not the case. They took the urine sample and when the doctor came back he coldly said “I think your son has diabetes and I want you to go immediately to the Juvenile Diabetes clinic, I’ve already called them to tell them you’re on your way. I was in shock. I felt like cold water had been poured all over me. That day began a new life for my son and for our entire family and me. I learned to give injections, to plan meals, to test blood, to watch for highs and lows, and I learned to trust God in a new, powerful way. Growing up, we wanted him to have all the normal experiences of childhood, sleepovers, soccer, basketball, baseball, and football, field trips, then dates, eventually college and marriage: without me. I had to learn over and over and over again to…

Let go and trust God

Even today, I can’t tell you how hard it is at times not to want somehow control his diabetes: to make sure he’s eating good food, exercising, taking care of himself, but he has a wife and two daughters…I really have to “Let it go and trust God…and I do Trust and pray ….

I want to be sure to add, even if this sounds like heresy in our “health, wealth, prosperity” theology culture:

When you let go and trust God not all babies in baskets are rescued, not all illnesses are healed, not all jobs are restored, not all relationships are mended but this is True: when you let go and trust Him – God is glorified and He will work it out for ultimate good.

Application: So what about you? Where are you in this story?

Has He brought something to your mind that you’ve been holding on to and need to let go? Maybe you need to let go of a dream that is not going to come true; yet, the idea of letting it go seems too painful. Maybe it’s something material, a possession you have? Can you fill in the blank _____ “Lord I hear You saying ‘Let it go and trust Me with it’”

Women of Influence, women who are affecting their world, their family, their workplace, their friends for good for God have open hands. Hold on to things and people with open hands, like Jochebed they know when to release and…

“Let it go and trust God.”

Prayer

¹ Patterson, 24.

² R. Alan Cole, “Exodus,” Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, ed. D. J. Wiseman (Downers Grove, Illinois: Intervarsity Press, 1973) 57.

³ Cole, 58.

⁴ Dr. Thomas Constable, “Constable’s Notes,” Lumina, www.bible.org.

⁵ Notes, Lumina, www.bible.org.

1. Introduction and Midwives (Exodus 1:1:15-21)

I. Introduction: This weekend we are going to be talking about influence.

Are you a woman of influence? Do others see you as a woman of influence?

In our world, people of influence get attention.

Time magazine publishes annually a “Person of the Year” issue that features and profiles a person, group, idea or object that “for better or for worse...has done the most to influence the events of the year”.¹

Christianity Today magazine recently had an article (Oct 19,2012) “Fifty Women you should Know” as their cover story: about Christian women who want to pursue influential roles in politics, the church and public life…

Every week ABC News has the “person of the week”=someone who has stood out and affected others.

Influential people get our attention and they can change our lives.

1. Since we’re going to be talking about influence this weekend let’s first define it.

Dictionary = “the power to change or affect someone or something”

“The power or capacity of causing an effect in indirect or intangible ways: sway”²

Examples: He used his influence to reform the company’s policies.

It’s a Powerful word representing a phenomena that one can’t see, touch, taste, smell or hear, but yet it can be sensed. Few would dispute its existence and fewer could dispute its common use and abuse.

So influence is about affecting, changing, swaying people’s thoughts/opinions, or their actions for either good or bad. I desire to be someone who influences others for good, don’t you?

We’re going to look at 5 different women: 2 are midwives, one is a mother, one is a sister, one a wife. All are women of influence who vitally affected the life of Moses and all can teach us timeless truths that can impact our families, our friends, our world for good.

2. I’ve been living with these women for months, thinking about their lives, studying them, reading commentaries and journal articles about them.

I’ve often been frustrated because there isn’t more information to answer questions I have about them, to tell me more about what they were thinking, feeling as their lives circled around this giant of a man named Moses. Good bible students and teachers hold back and only teach what is in the text as truth, only what is there, not what we imagine or think but what we read. So much of the stories of our women are left out. Most times we don’t know their motivations, their tone of voice, their feelings, we’re not told the details. We can only speculate what’s in between the lines. It’s at these times I’m reminded that God has given us all we need to know:

2 Peter 1:3-4 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness though our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. (NIV)

And even though we may wish we knew more, we have enough here to give us truths and lessons in their actions, in how they influenced their world by what they did. Just think for a minute, Moses would not have lived past 3 months old if it had not been for the providential care of God working through 4 of our 5 women. Moses would not have made it back from Midian to Egypt to become God’s deliverer had it not been for the plan of God and the intervention of his wife. These are the stories of how God can and does use women who are willing, obedient, courageous, and faithful for His good and His glory. I can’t wait to introduce you to them, but first lets do a little background review of the times and life of Moses, set our scene.

II. Review of Historical Times and Brief look at the life of Moses

1. “Exodus” is the title of the biblical text where we find the stories of our women and our introduction to Moses.

The English word “Exodus” given to this book is a transliteration of the Greek word meaning to “exit” or “way out”. The Hebrew title is abbreviated to Shemot= “Names” which is the opening words of the book. Exodus is part of the Torah, first 5 books written, we believe, by Moses and the book tells us how the Hebrew people made their “way out” of Egypt. Time covered is approximately 1500-1400 B.C. When Exodus begins, the Hebrews had been in Egypt for about 400 years.

2. We need to ask, “How did they get there?” The book of Genesis tells that story.

Abraham was called to leave his country and God made a covenant with him, He promised him land, and he would become the father of a nation, and through him, would be a blessing to the entire world. One night through a vision God reaffirmed this covenant but also gave him a prophecy:

Genesis 15:12-14 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a dark sleep and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. (NIV)

Let’s skip ahead to Genesis 37.

Every family has conflict, right? Families are messy; the biblical families are no different. Abraham’s great grandson Joseph was his father Jacob’s favorite. That favoritism caused family conflict, as it usually does. Joseph, the favorite, hated by his brothers was sold into slavery in Egypt. Through providential care the family is eventually reunited and all the Hebrews move from the area of Palestine to Egypt just as God had foretold. Over time, over many years, the Hebrews, these foreigners, aliens who lived separate from the Egyptians, they multiplied and grew and became slaves to the Pharaoh. Life was miserable for them. They cried out to their God for mercy, for help, for rescue. God heard their cries

Exodus 2:23b-25 ...the Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. (NIV)

Isn’t it comforting to know God hears our cries when we’re in trouble and isn’t it comforting to know He wants to help, He wants to be involved in our lives, He wants us to call out to Him.

God’s people needed Him to intervene and He does. He raises us a Deliverer named Moses.

3. Moses was born right into this difficult world of slavery.

His life like ours can be divided up in different ways: early years, middle aged, senior (mature) years. A popular way is to look at Moses’ 120 years in 3 divisions of 40:

1. First 40 years he lives in Egypt, most of that in the Royal Palace as a prince of Egypt. However, there came a day when he began to feel with compassion the plight of his biological people, the Jews. In that effort to save them he killed an overbearing Egyptian and tried to cover it up. But the cover-up failed as they always do, and he fled the country, which takes us to the next 40yr

2. Moses from 40 years old to 80 is a shepherd in the desert around Midian. There he marries and becomes a father. Its in the desert that Moses has great opportunity for solitude and personal reflection, and becomes so convinced of his own inadequacies that it was initially very hard for God to convince him that he indeed was the man to deliver the Hebrews from Egypt. But the call of God was obeyed and Moses at 80 returns to Egypt to move into the 3rd part of his life.

3. The next 40 years Moses leads the people of Israel out of bondage into the wilderness, receiving the Law and taking them to the very border of the Promised Land.

Hebrews 11:24-28 gives us his Divine Biography:

By faith, Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. By faith, Moses when he had grown up refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith he left Egypt not fearing the king’s anger: he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of bloods that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. (NIV)

Faith is an attitude of the Heart, and God had Moses’ heart.

But our focus will be on the women surrounding this amazing man of God. These are amazing women and the story would not be the same without them.

“One of the most interesting observations for a woman who looks closely at the man Moses is the fact that many of the key players in his life are women. Humanly speaking those women must have helped to determine the events of his life. Many of the women acted courageously and defied tyranny and oppression in so doing. They were wise and resourceful in handling tough and seemingly impossible situations.” ³ Dorothy Patterson

Our study this weekend will represent women of all ages. We have a very young girl, young mother, middle-aged wife and some mature women. They are each one going to encourage us and challenge us to be women of influence, affecting our world for good for God. Let’s start with the midwives.

III. The Midwives (Exodus 1:15-21)

A. Command

Pharaoh had a problem. The Hebrew slaves had become so numerous that he feared insurrection or an alliance with a foreign nation so he ruthlessly worked them but they continued to multiply and grow as a sub people group within the nation. So his next plan was to command the Hebrew midwives to kill all baby boys, to commit male infanticide, yet allow the baby girls to live.

Exodus 1:15-16 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you assist the Hebrew women in childbirth, observe at the delivery: If it is a son, kill him, but if it is a daughter, she may live.” (NET)

Here we meet Shiphrah(shif ruh) and Puah(poo ah). They’re called “the Hebrew midwives” but were they Hebrew or Egyptian women? Original text is not clear. (Jewish Study Bible) “the phrase could mean ‘midwives to the Hebrews’, or midwives who were Hebrews” ⁴It’s been assumed by some that they must have been Egyptian since one would hardly have expected Hebrew women to have aided Pharaoh in killing the baby boys. But, both of the names are Semitic. In Hebrew, the name Shiphruh = “beauty” or “fair one”; the name Puah= “splendid” or “girl”. Likely that they were not the only midwives but probably the chief midwives, or oversaw the midwives. The Hebrew word “midwife”= “one who helps to bear”. Midwife helped at childbirth by taking the newborn, cutting the umbilical cord, washing the baby with water, salting and wrapping the baby. In Egypt and among the Hebrews, women often crouched down in delivery on a pair of bricks or stones or on a birth stool.

So, instructed by Pharaoh, his command, at this time, right at delivery, the moment of birth, as the midwife is catching the baby, she is to determine the sex of the child, and if it were male, she apparently was to suffocate the baby so it appeared to be stillborn. She would have the opportunity to do that as she handled the newborn. And then she would have to cover up the murder. What a difficult position these women were put in. Their boss, their ruler, their authority told them to commit what they knew in their hearts was wrong. They had to make a decision; they had to make a choice.

I wonder have you ever been there? In a hard place like that?

B. Choice.

Exodus 1:17 But the midwives feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live. (NET)

“Feared God” Wikipedia “Fear of God is the idea of living in respect, awe, and submission to a deity”⁵ In the Hebrew =serious fear, serious reverence. The word for God = ELOHIM, the God of Israel. The choice they made was to disobey Pharaoh’s command and reverence God who is the life-giver. They believed human life is precious and they could not kill the babies.

What implications that has for us today! With this choice came consequences.

C. Consequences

Exodus 1:18-21 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this and let the boys live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women– for the Hebrew women are vigorous; they give birth before the midwife gets to them!” So God treated the midwives well, and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he made households for them. (NET)

1. Confrontation with Pharaoh (v. 18)

Have you ever been called in to your boss, teacher, your mother and you knew it was going to be bad? You knew you were in trouble? Can you imagine what these women felt when they were summoned to Pharaoh? Would they be found out? Would they be killed?

Obviously Pharaoh observed his plan for extermination was not working and he wanted to know why? Why have you let the boys live?

Their response was v. 19. Egyptian women need the care of a midwife more than the Hebrew women who were lively, robust and delivered the babies so fast that they didn’t need the help of a midwife. By the time the midwife comes, the baby is born, washed and with the mother. What could they do?

As far as the midwives arriving too late, that might have been true. Perhaps they just didn’t tell the fact that their tardiness was deliberately planned. The Scriptures don’t tell us the details here so we aren’t even sure if this was a lie or the truth. What we do know was: these women chose to disobey the command because it was the wrong thing to do. Because they did the right thing, the thing that pleased God, they were

2. Blessed by God (v. 20-21)

Exodus 1:20-21 So God treated the midwives well, and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he made households for them. (NET)

They refused to violate the law of life. God blessed them for doing what is right in His eyes. He blessed them with “households” “families” of their own.

That brings us to a truth for all times: to be a woman of influence:

Truth: Know the difference between right and wrong and choose right. This has been God’s desire for us all the way back to the Garden of Eden and all the way forward.

Paul would write to the Romans that God has created us to know Him.

Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (NIV)

We have been given a conscience and the revelation of His Word to learn what pleases God, what He deems right and wrong. Know the difference and choose right.

*In our lives, when we learn truths about God through the circumstances of our lives they become like “stones of remembrance” (Joshua 4)

Illustration: When one of my sons was in middle school he worked in the school library. His second year, a few new boys started going to his school and became his friends, and unfortunately influenced him… negatively. Both of my sons tend to want to please others, but this particular son, at that tender, difficult age, longed for their friendship and was willing to go along with whatever they planned. All them were musical and had a “little” band. They had instruments and speakers but they were lacking microphones. So my son, who worked in the library where the school’s AV equipment was stored, was challenged to “borrow” some microphones. He knew right from wrong, he knew it was stealing, but he choose wrong. Later, that afternoon at home, I’m checking through the book bags and lunch boxes and gym bags getting ready for the next day and I came across the microphones. I asked him what are these? …Just an aside, at home, I was called “the question lady” because I asked the kids so many questions. Where are you going, who will be there, what will you be doing, how many people are going, which parents is home. I was relentless. “What are these?” Right off he confessed and spilled the whole story, how he was the designated “stealer” for their band, and besides no one would ever miss a couple of mikes, they weren’t even going to keep them, just borrow them. I had the normal mother reaction, “just wait til your dad gets home and we’ll talk about this then”. I was sick, it was a private school and I wondered what could happen to him. So my husband came home, was told the story and I remember he calmly said “Tomorrow morning we, you son and I, are going in early to the principal and you will tell exactly what you did, you know it was wrong and you are going to confess”. I was praying “God, please use this for your good and your glory” We felt it was a big thing, little did we know how big. Despite tears and moans and pleadings from our son, my husband took my son to school and he confessed. I wish I could tell you that all worked out fine and they were pleased he confessed and it went away quietly because we had parented well and it since it was the first offense he was gently punished. Not so fast. The principal said it had to go before the peer/faculty committee and they would decide his penalty. After meeting they decided to expel him from school. That was a surprise; we had two other children there. We felt that was so harsh but what really surprised us was some of the reactions and advice from other parents, Christian parents, who said we should have just quietly returned them and not said anything— covered it up. We should not have let our son have such severe consequences without fighting back. Today, we look back and believe it was the hand of God removing our son from further negative influence and helping us see some things we needed to take care of at home. Not only did my son need to learn this truth, we needed to re-affirm our belief too: To

Know the difference between right and wrong and choose right.

Application

Is this where you are right now? Or perhaps someone close to you is facing a hard decision, wanting to do right but afraid of the consequences? The backlash? Perhaps it’s at work, you’ve been asked to compromise, it feels all wrong. Maybe it’s a hard parenting choice and you’re getting resistance. Maybe a friend has asked you to cover something up and you know you will lose the relationship if you say “no”.

I don’t know where you are now, or where you may be headed but I do know to be a woman of influence for good for God in your world you will need to choose the right over the wrong. Others will watch you; your influence will be affected by what you do. ASK God for his strength, His help, to choose right.

Prayer

¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Person_of_the_Year

² http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sway

³ Dorothy Patterson, Touched by Greatness (London: Christian Focus Publications, 2011) 19.

⁴ The Jewish Study Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004) 108.

⁵ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deity

3. Miriam (Numbers 12:1-15)

I. Introduction

“Jesus embodies the rule of God in which no one is beyond God’s forgiveness no matter who they are or what they have done.”¹

Do you believe that?

Women of Influence are not perfect women, we know no one is perfect. We know that all of us make mistakes, we all have failures, we all sin and that’s why we all need a Savior. So when we fail, when we sin, no matter how little or how big that sin is, we need to remember, with God there is forgiveness. Our God forgives.

Nehemiah in looking back to this period of Hebrew history says (Neh. 9:17):

They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery, BUT You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love… (NIV)

David would never get over being amazed at God’s forgiveness. (Ps 103:2-3)

Praise the Lord, O my soul and forget not his benefits-who forgives all your sins… (NIV)

Paul wanted the entire world to know that in Jesus Christ God has forgiven us.

Eph 1:7 In him (Jesus) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. (NIV)

Col 3:13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another, Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you. (NIV)

There is Forgiveness for Sin with God that is a THEME throughout Scripture all the way back to the Garden of Eden and all the way forward until eternity.

Because God has always provided a way back to Him, forgiveness for our sins, He calls us to come to Him, confess to Him, receive from Him our forgiveness.

He calls us to then Live in our Forgiveness. This also became true for Miriam, our next woman of Influence. We’re going to look at a brief overview of her life and focus on her failure and her forgiveness.

II. Miriam

1. Name means “Bitterness” Greek version= Mary, Mara, Miriam. It was/ is a popular Hebrew name.

2. Numbers 26:59 = We know that her parents were Amram and Jochebed, so she was a full sister to Aaron and Moses. Exodus 2:4 = she is the first born, the oldest of the 3 siblings.

3. Also from Ex 2 we know she was the one who stood guard when her mother put baby Moses in the basket into the Nile. She was the one who was her mother’s eyes and ears as she watched to see what happened to the baby. She was the one who bravely spoke to Pharaoh’s daughter and offered to find a Hebrew nurse for the baby.

Miriam was the key person to oversee the course of the floating cradle and then to intercede at just the right moment with a suggestion that not only ensured the baby’s life but also helped to prepare him for his destiny.² Dorothy Patterson

Quick on her feet, protective of her little brother, perhaps (ask those of you who are first born to witness) perhaps she always felt a certain responsibility for her younger brothers. I see this in my daughter who has 2 younger brothers and my granddaughter who has 2 younger brothers. There is this nurturing, some might say “mothering”. Funny, my daughter is only 18 months older than her next brother, but until he was 7 he did exactly what she said. Amazing. One day, I remember, he said “You’re not my mother!” It was all over, then we had normal sibling rivalry. The youngest brother never let her do that! I see history repeating itself in my grandchildren.

FROM OUR story we see that as a young girl, Miriam was a caring, courageous sister. But when he was about 3, Moses left her home and lived in the palace. About 40 years go by. Perhaps word got to her when Moses fled after murdering an Egyptian. We know that another 40 years pass before God uniquely calls Moses to go back to Egypt, go back and deliver the Hebrews from their oppression.

Miriam is a witness to the Exodus. She is there to see her brother Aaron as the right hand spokesman for Moses. She is there as days and likely months pass while God displays his Power and His miracles in front of Pharaoh. She is there the night they all leave Egypt and she is there when God parts the Red Sea allowing the Hebrews to cross and drowning all the Egyptians. She is there, she sees it happen and she is filled with gratitude. That’s the next time her name is mentioned.

4. Song leader, Women’s Leader, Prophetess

Exodus 15:20-21 Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a hand-drum in her hand, and all the women went out after her with hand-drums and with dances. Miriam sang in response to them, “Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea.” (NET)

The people of God have just experienced a tremendous God-given deliverance from their enemy, they are free people and this song is composed to celebrate that victory. Throughout history people compose and sing songs that solidify their experience and tell their story. We, in America have a song that tells our freedom story. “Star Spangled Banner” our national anthem. (We really fought 2 wars against the British for our freedom, the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. At the end of the latter war, that Francis Scott Key penned our victory song after on morning he saw the large American flag flying triumphantly above Fort Covington, the city’s last line of defense. )

O say can you see by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Miriam led the women in their victory song. She was an influential leader of the women, they followed her in praise. We’re also told here that she was a prophetess=female prophet. That meant God spoke to her and spoke through her to the people. We don’t know how many prophetess were in Israel over the years; just a few are recorded. Huldah (2Kings 22:1-20) Deborah (Judges 4,5) Anna (Luke 2:36-38) Phillip’s 4 daughters who are all prophetesses (Acts 21:9). To be called a prophetess meant God was using her mightily, she had great influence for good and then…

III. Her Failure (Numbers 12)

Set this story in context. The Hebrews have been given the law, set out, they are traveling to the Promised Land. So this is early in their journey. People have been grumbling about water, food. Even Moses has complained to God that he needs help, God instructs him to delegate out to 70 elders some of the responsibility of leading. We know that complaining is contagious, next complainers are Miriam and Aaron. We are in Hazeroth when this happened.

Numbers 12:1 Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married (for he had married an Ethiopian woman). (NET)

Then, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses…Don’t you wonder what the backstory was? We don’t know, but possibly she began to question Moses’ decisions. Perhaps if they made the decisions as a team, the 3 of them, it might be better. Or they could take turns leading. We don’t know what she was thinking but there was discontent brewing and it came to a head over Moses’ wife. …they spoke against Moses because of the Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite.

Who was this woman he married? We know he married Zipporah (Ex. 2:21) she was a Midianite, so who is THIS WOMAN?

Two explanations are possible:

1. This is a reference to Zipporah, “Cushan” was a part of Midian (Hab 3:7) Both Midianites and Cushites were nomadic.

2. Moses married a second woman in Egypt, a Nubian= Cush. The latter is more plausible since Nubia was part of the Egyptian empire and dark skinned women were considered beautiful.³

Bottom-line is we don’t know, but this just seems to be a smokescreen to their real complaint.

Numbers 12:2 They said, “Has the LORD only spoken through Moses? Has he not also spoken through us?” And the LORD heard it. (NET)

Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? they asked. Hasn’t he also spoken through us? Both Miriam and Aaron are involved in this but we’re focusing on Miriam. It would seem that she was discontented with the influential role God had given her and she wanted more. Miriam tried to step out of her role and wanted to step into her brother’s. We can fall into this trap too, in our churches: the ministry roles God gives us; our workplaces: complaints about our boss; even at home: our discontent with where we find ourselves can cause us to lose influence for good. Because we know that Moses had his authority to lead directly from God, her rebellion and discontent was ultimately against God Himself. So, she launches a power play that backfired.

Numbers 12:2 They said, “Has the LORD only spoken through Moses? Has he not also spoken through us?” And the LORD heard it. (NET)

…and the Lord heard it. God says to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, you three, meet Me at the Tent of Meeting. When they get there, God says Aaron and Miriam, you two, step forward. Listen to me, when I talk to prophets, I send visions, dreams but not so with Moses. I talk to Him directly, face to face, I speak clearly to Him, special, unique. Why were you not afraid to speak against Him? Divine Rebuke. We’re told this made God really angry and He leaves. When He does, they look at each other and Aaron sees Miriam is covered with leprosy. We don’t begin to know how horrible that disease was in ancient times. For her it meant isolation, leaving the community and living outside the camp, alone (Numbers 5:1-3). Because of the intercession of her two brothers God limits her time for seven days before she could return.

People have often questioned why did God just punish Miriam with leprosy? Why not Aaron too? There is no biblical answer but there are hints in the text to the backstory. Jewish Study Bible and other readings conclude that…

..Miriam and not Aaron was punished because she instigated the gossip and vocalized it, as indicated by the feminine gender of the verb “spoke” in 12:1 and the placement of Miriam (name) before Aaron (name)” it’s speculated that Aaron was silent or just agreed.⁴

Joseph Telushkin suggests this difference stems from the Hebrew verb used to describe their comments about Moses’ wife. It is feminine – ve’teddaber (“and she spoke”) – indicting that Miriam was the one who initiated the conversation against Moses (Telushkin, 130).

There were consequences of her sin, just as there is with ours. She faced humiliation, a week separated from the community; surely tension in the family.

This was a great failure, a tremendous loss of influence for her. And what a great warning to us not to lose our influence for good by our own sin.

But I have included her failure for another reason.

That is to be encouraged by her forgiveness. No, we don’t hear of her again for almost 40 years, that’s not to say she doesn’t still lead, we just don’t know. But what we do know is that God recorded her death, and that’s very significant. Very few of female leaders have details of their death. Numbers 20:1 In the first month the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.

Many scholars believe this is the 40th year of the Exodus, toward the end of the journey, close to entering in the Promised Land. They people have come full circle and the land is just ahead. Right before they enter, all three deaths, Miriam, Aaron and Moses are recorded. The ones who had led for 40 years passed the baton to others.

Although Miriam sinned and suffered some consequences we know that God forgave her. How? God gives her Divine Biography hundreds of years later, through the prophet Micah right before Assyria captures Israel. Micah (contemporary of Isaiah) records a conversation with God who gives a case against Israel.

Micah 6:2-4 Hear, O mountains, the Lord’s accusation; listen you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the Lord has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel. “My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me. I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam. (NIV)

This is the God who years later included her name as a leader of His people. He could have written her off, could have excluded her name but He forgave her and remembered her. You see:

Truth: When we do sin, we can be forgiven. We can go forward and Live in our forgiveness.

There may be consequences, but God forgives and God restores. That’s our God of grace and mercy. This is the God of Calvary.

1. This is the gospel.

We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (R3:23) but the free gift of God is forgiveness in Christ Jesus (R10: 9,10) When we confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord we are forgiven. For me personally I was raised in a Christian home, in church all my life, but it wasn’t until I was married, in my mid-twenties that I embraced Christ as my Savior and Lord. It’s not enough to be raised a Christian; to have Christian parents, a believing heritage, each one must on our own embrace the faith. Each one of us is called to have a faith story. Wonder what is yours?

As we go on to live the Christian life, we live into our forgiveness by:

2. Keeping short accounts with God

I John 1:8-9 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us [all of us will have failures, fall into sin like Miriam did] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (NIV)

For Miriam, in another time, the law required she be put out of the camp, an isolation for seven days of purification, after which God restored her. There were seven days before she could live into her forgiveness. For you and I our relationship with God eternally is secure because of the Cross. When we fail and sin in our everyday life and we confess, he forgives instantly because of the Cross. There may be consequences of our sin we have to live through, but when you…

Live in Your Forgiveness there is no shame, no guilt, no condemnation because we are forgiven. Part of our inheritance as believers is a Peace with God (R 5:1) and we have the Peace of God ruling our hearts (Phil 4:7). You really cannot be a woman of influence if you’re still carrying your sin, if you haven’t given it to the foot of the Cross and asked for his forgiveness. But if you have, and you know that He has released you and you still carry guilt, and shame….you are not fully

Living in your Forgiveness and you won’t be able to tell others about our God who forgives all our sins.

My pastor says that when you have asked God’s forgiveness and you know that He has forgiven you, but you can’t get peace, it won’t let you go, then perhaps you need to ask for prayer, for help from the church, from others.

James 5: 13-16 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is anyone of you sick? He should call the elders of he church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other that you may be healed. (NIV)

There is a healing for the sin-sick heart, its called Forgiveness. But we cannot talk about Living in our Forgiveness without mentioning …

3. Forgiving others

For the believer this is not optional, it’s an integral part of our faith and our influence. The Lord’s Prayer says:

Forgive us our sins as we forgive others. It’s the key to living in harmony in our homes, churches in our world. i.e. Peacemaker’s Four Promises of Forgiveness

1. I will not dwell on this incident.

2. I will not bring this incident up and use it against you.

3. I will not talk to others about this incident.

4. I will not allow this incident to stand between us or hinder our personal relationship.⁵

My story: another stone of remembrance is learning to forgive my husband. Story of separation and rejection.

Application

1. So let me ask you, are you satisfied where God has placed you? With what he has given you to do, to be? Do you minister to others out of a grateful heart or honestly is Miriam’s discontent resonating with you? In every season of life we can face this temptation. Yet, truly women of influence are marked by contentment not resignation, contentment not rebellion. Women of influence cannot get over the fact that God would choose to use them and that reflects in a humility that allows God to use you greatly.

2. Are you carrying any guilt or shame that God has forgiven? Do you need to release it? Do you need to talk to someone you trust? A safe person?

3. Have you forgiven others? Have you let go of past wounds and pain, no matter how difficult, how great the hurt?

There is a call on our lives as believers, and that call is to …

Live in your Forgiveness

Prayer

¹ Lewis B. Smedes

² Patterson, 58.

³ Jewish Study Bible, 308.

⁴ Jewish Study Bible, 309.

⁵ Peacemaker Ministries

Resource Download Page: Women of Influence surrounding the Life of Moses

These are the available downloads for the Women of Influence Surround the Life of Moses series:

PDF Women's Retreat Booklet	PDF (Student Handout, Questions, and Devotions)
Lesson 1 (Midwives) Downloads:	Lesson 1 Text Lesson 1 Audio Lesson 1 Notes Student Handout Lesson 1 Group Study Questions
Lesson 2 (Jochebed) Downloads:	Lesson 2 Text Lesson 2 Audio Lesson 2 Notes Student Handout Lesson 2 Group Study Questions
Lesson 3 (Miriam) Downloads:	Lesson 3 Text Lesson 3 Audio Lesson 3 Notes Student Handout Lesson 3 Group Study Questions
Lesson 4 (Zipporah) Downloads:	Lesson 4 Text Lesson 4 Audio Lesson 4 Notes Student Handout Lesson 4 Group Study Questions

4. Zipporah (Exodus 4:24-26)

I. Introduction

Are you ready for our last woman of influence? I don’t think you’ll forget her.

“Zipporah May be Obscure, but the Wife of Moses Mattered” is the title given to an article by Beth Brophy in the Jan. 25, 2008 edition of US News and World Report magazine.¹

I couldn’t have said it better. Our last influential woman, named Zipporah, has a lot of mystery surrounding her story. In fact, quoting the article:

“Bizarre is typical of how biblical scholars describe the tale of Zipporah and her husband, Moses, especially the section in which God attacks Moses, and Zipporah uses a blood ritual to successfully defend her husband and son. ‘For mystery, mayhem, and sheer baffling weirdness, nothing else in the Bible quite compares with the story of Zipporah and the “bridegroom of blood.”’”² (that last part is a quote of Jonathan Kirsch by Beth).

Difficult to understand, challenging to figure out, not many details to help and yet, Zipporah is a woman who mattered, her life was influential in many ways as the wife of Moses and the mother of his sons. We’re going do a quick overview of her life and zero in on the most compelling part of her story, the part that teaches us how to be an influential woman for good.

II. Zipporah Biography (Exodus 2:16-22)

Exodus 2:16 Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and began to draw water and fill the troughs in order to water their father’s flock. (NET)

1. Priest of Midian= name is Reuel (Jethro) If you were to look at 10 different maps, you might find 5 different locations for Midian because they were nomadic people who lived in different locals at different times, much like Abraham did. Midianites originated from Abraham through his second wife Keturah ³ who he married after Sarah died (Gen 25:1-2). God chose to have the Covenantal promises given through Sarah’s son Isaac. So Moses and this family were distantly related, very distant cousins, yet, both coming from Abraham. Zipporah’s father, Jethro, was a priest and it’s possible he was God-fearing. However we don’t know for sure. We do know he was a wise man and Moses respected his opinions and they had a close relationship.

2. Seven daughters, one is Zipporah, care for their father’s flocks.

3. One day she and her sisters have an encounter with a stranger at a well where they were trying to water the flock. It’s such a good story. It is very much like Jacob and Rachel, who met in a similar way, at a well. The girls are getting water and some other shepherds push them away, and Moses just happens to be there and “rose to their defense.” He not only drove them away but also watered the animals. So the girls go home and tell dad who says “where is he, go invite him for dinner.” Zippporah’s name = “little bird.” Hebrew tradition is that when her dad said go, get him, she flew fast like a little bird to find him.

Moses accepted the invitation and then stayed for about 40 more years.

Exodus 2:20-21 He said to his daughters, “So where is he? Why in the world did you leave the man? Call him, so that he may eat a meal with us.” Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. (NET)

4. Zipporah became his wife and the mother of his sons= Gershom and Eliezer (Ex 18:2-6).

So far the story is clear, concise, we can understand, they met, they married, they had children. But as we read further into her story, we enter the “extraordinarily puzzling”⁴ part. But, this is also the part of her story that is the reason this obscure woman matters, the reason why she is such an influential part of this story and teaches us for all times what matters to God.

Approximately 40 years Moses and Zipporah and their family have been living with dad in the Sinai mountains area(also called Mt Horeb) Moses has been tending the flocks too. One day he saw an amazing site, a bush that continued to burn without being consumed. Right there, God called to him and said that He had seen and heard the misery of the Hebrews. (Ex 3:10) So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt. (NIV)

After many objections, Moses agrees to go back as God’s Deliverer of the Hebrews. He gets permission from his father-in-law and the family prepares to pack up and leave. One day they depart.

III. Her Bold Act (Exodus 4:24-26)

Exodus 4:24-26 Now on the way, at a place where they stopped for the night, the LORD met Moses and sought to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off the foreskin of her son and touched it to Moses’ feet, and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.” So the LORD let him alone. (At that time she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” referring to the circumcision.) (NET)

On the way from Midian to Egypt, at a lodging place for the night, the Lord met Moses and tried to kill him. How did God try to kill him? Some have thought that Moses got deathly ill, very sick. Others have said he might have been injured severely. The text is not clear. We are told that Zipporah takes a flint knife, a sharp knife, and circumcises her son. She takes the skin and touches Moses’ feet, and what does that mean? Then she says “You are a bridegroom of blood”.

The Jewish Study Bible says this is “extraordinarily puzzling” because there are so many unanswered questions in these 3 verses. How did God attack Moses? Why did she perform the circumcision? Which son was involved? What do her words mean?

Even though we have many unanswered questions that have plagued commentators for centuries, there is ONE THING we do know for sure…

What Zipporah did stopped God’s hand against Moses and she saved his life.

Truth: Somehow she knew what to do and she did it.

What did she do? She circumcised her son. Why? I think we have an answer.

IV. Circumcision

Circumcision was the “‘covenant sign’ given by God to Abraham and his descendants”⁵ in Genesis 17. God had commanded Abraham to circumcise every male baby on the eighth day as a sign that they belonged to the people of God; any uncircumcised male was to be cut off from his people, for he had broken God’s covenant.⁶ As we think of our story we have to ask Why was this child not circumcised? We don’t know. It’s possible that Zipporah didn’t want to have her child go through this rite, or that Moses was negligent and just ignored doing it. We don’t know, but how could the Deliverer, the leader of the Exodus, representative of the nation, not have his son carry the covenantal sign? For Moses to have ignored this requirement was unacceptable, open disobedience.

F. B. Meyer states

“How insignificant this omission may have appeared in itself, it could not be tolerated in one who was to stand out as God’s chosen and honoured servant. If God remembered the Covenant, it was surely necessary that His servant should…”⁷

Let’s go back to our article and read:

Despite the many ambiguities, the main message of the story is clear, (according to Kirsch): “The lesson the Bible intends is that God insists on circumcision as the essential symbol of the covenant of his chosen people.⁸

At just the right time, Zipporah did just the right thing: She did what God required, God required circumcision and she did it, and that is why she matters, why she has influence.

She knew what God desired and she did it.

V. Application Do You Know What God Desires For You? And Do You Do It? Or Is There Something You Really Need To Do But Have “Put Off”?

It may seem small, or maybe it’s huge, but there it is, right in front of you.

My seemingly small “stone of remembrance” of obeying God in a small way …I’m not saying this is an example for everyone, it was an act of obedience for me.

Illustration: my baptism: God wanted to take away my fear of dying.

Know what God wants and do it….How do we know what God wants?

1. Word of God. Moses was the first to record God’s Word when he wrote the Torah, the first five books. Until that time, God’s Word was handed down orally. Today we have the written Word of God to guide us, to let us know what God desires for his people. My pastor says “Reading the Scripture is not a spectator sport, in it we find ourselves, God’s love and grace drawing us to Him, showing us His Ways, bringing us to the fullness of our redeemed humanity.”⁹ Have you been a spectator or a participant in learning God’s Word?

2. We have the gift of prayer too. Do you love to talk to God? Do you listen to Him speak to you? The Lord’s Prayer is a beautiful way to direct our desires to what God desires for us. It reminds us the priority of worship, seeking Him to meet our needs and how important forgiveness is to maintaining all our relationships.

3. Are you part of a community of faith where you can find godly good counsel to help know the will of God? Wise friends, spiritual direction It’s in Christian community, in the church, that we find a place to form our thoughts & actions together, to see what God desires of His people.

Truth: Knowing what God desires and doing it is key to our influence. God is honored and can use us when we are obedient. Maybe God desires you to put away some behavior, stop doing it, cut it out of your life. Maybe he wants you to start doing something that glorifies him. It may have seemed a small thing to Moses and Zipporah, but God showed how much it meant to Him to be faithful to His covenant. God desires the same for us.

VI. Conclusion And Review

A Woman of Influence: a woman that affects her world for good for God. I want to be that person, don’t you?

These 5 significant women of influence each one had an essential role of saving the life of Moses so God could mightily use him. Each woman had influence for good in her world. Each one can teach us what that means today.

The Midwives Truth: Know the difference between right and wrong and choose right.
Jochebed Truth: Let it go and trust God
Miriam Truth: Live in your Forgiveness
Zipporah Truth: Know what God desires and do it

When it comes to a woman’s influence in the world the sky is the limit. However, such an influence will never abandon who she is by God’s design and what pleases the Lord. The level of value of her influence in society is not defined by positions of prominence (though it may include that), but by her faithfulness. She may influence society by faithful prayer, excellent work, training up faithful children and/or serving overseas as a faithful missionary (eg. Amy Carmichael and Mary Slessor). Her actions may be private or prominent and yet can still have great influence (cf. Rahab and Esther).

The importance and influence of a godly woman is priceless.¹⁰

¹ http://www.usnews.com/news/religion/articles/2008/01/25/zipporah-may-be-obscure-but-the-wife-of-moses-mattered

² Beth Brophy in “Zipporah may be obscure, but the wife of Moses mattered," http://www.usnews.com/news/religion/articles/2008/01/25/zipporah-may-be-obscure-but-the-wife-of-moses-mattered. News and World Report (January 25, 2008).

³ Dorothy Patterson, 89.

⁴ Jewish Study Bible, 113.

⁵ R. Alan Cole, 78.

⁶ The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 333.

⁷ F.B. Meyer, Devotional Commentary on Exodus, 80.

⁸ Beth Brophy

⁹ Phillip Jones

¹⁰ Andrew Courtis on 19/06/2013 (blog) Pastor of Hills Bible Church

Women of Influence Surrounding the Life of Moses

Related Media

Women’s Retreat October 10-12, 2014

This series focuses on influence. Originally it was shared at a Women's retreat, and is provided as a full resource with audio, text, handouts for notes, small group questions, and even a couple of morning devotions (within the retreat PDF).

Are you a woman of influence? Do others see you as a woman of influence?

In our world, people of influence get attention.

Influential people get our attention and they can change our lives.

Influence is about affecting, changing, swaying people’s thoughts/opinions, or their actions for either good or bad. I desire to be someone who influences others for good, don’t you?

Related Topics: Christian Life, Curriculum, Messages, Women, Women's Articles

The Star of Bethlehem

Article contributed by Probe Ministries
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What was the Star of Bethlehem? Some people suggest is was an astronomical conjunction of planets and stars. But Probe's Dr. Ray Bohlin suggests it might have been the Shekinah Glory, a physical manifestation of God's presence on earth.

The Magi and the Star of Bethlehem

O, Star of wonder, star of night
Star of royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect light.

This familiar and haunting chorus from the Christmas carol, "We Three Kings of Orient Are," introduces us to what seems to be the only ubiquitous biblical symbol during the Christmas season, the star of Bethlehem.

This Christmas, as you look over the Christmas cards in the stores or in your own burgeoning collection from family and friends, you will see one very constant element. Whether the scene depicts the nativity, a backyard nature scene, a Christmas tree, or just Santa making deliveries, if the nighttime sky is included, somewhere in the picture, eliciting warm and happy emotions, is a star. The star dominates the nighttime sky with its size and brightness and its long tail pointing to the earth. The star has almost become the signature which says, "This scene reflects a Christmas theme."

At first, this may seem quite unusual for something which doesn't even get mentioned in Luke 2, the more familiar account of our Lord's birth. The star is featured only in Matthew's brief description of the visit by the magi shortly after Jesus' birth. I think the prevalence of the star stems from its mysteriousness. For example, what kind of star convinces a group of Gentile wise men to search for the new King of the Jews and actually leads them to Him? Before we explore this puzzle, let's look at Matthew's account beginning in Chapter 2 verse 1:

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east, and have come to worship Him" (Matt. 2:1-2, NASB).

A couple of things to note: first, these events take place after Jesus' birth; second, this was in the days of Herod the king; third, the magi arrived from an area east of Jerusalem (probably in the vicinity of Babylon or Persia); fourth, they already knew they were looking for the newborn King of the Jews, but the exact location eluded them; and fifth, it was viewing His star from their home in the east that led them on this journey.

After consulting with King Herod and finding out from chief priests and teachers that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, the magi set out for the 5 mile trip south to Bethlehem. We pick up Matthew's narrative in verse 9:

And having heard the king, they went their way; and lo, the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them, until it came and stood over where the Child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And they came into the house and saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell down and worshiped Him; and opening their treasures they presented to Him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh (Matt. 2:9-11, NASB).

Here we see that Matthew appears to describe the star as moving, as leading the magi to Jesus. There is clearly more than one magi, but only tradition holds that there were three--presumably because of the three gifts. These Gentile wise men worship the King whom the star has led them to. In the rest of this essay, we will explore the nature of this strange star and what it could have been.

What Was the Star of Bethlehem?

The Gospel of Matthew states that the star informed the magi of the birth of the King of the Jews and actually led them to Bethlehem once they had arrived in Jerusalem. The star of Bethlehem has been the subject of scholarly discussion ever since the first centuries after Jesus' birth. Some believed it was a supernova explosion, others a comet or a conjunction of planets associated with specific constellations that would herald the birth of a king in Israel. Some have suggested that none of these astronomical events can adequately account for all that Matthew tells us within the context of his worldview. In this discussion, I will be investigating the more common explanations to see if we can come to some understanding as to just what the magi saw 2,000 years ago.

When Matthew quotes the magi as telling Herod that they observed the new King's star rising in the east, this can be interpreted as a new star, something never observed before. This has led some scholars to believe that the star of Bethlehem was a nova or supernova. A nova is a white dwarf star that literally explodes. The explosion may increase the brightness of the star a thousand to a million times its previous brightness, making a previously invisible star, visible. A nova, however, does not last very long. The initial blast of the explosion may only be observed for a few months before the star shrinks to a remnant of its previous brightness and disappears altogether.

There are numerous problems with this view. First, although there was a "new star" recorded by the Chinese in the constellation Capricorn in March-April of 5 B.C. that lasted only 70 days, there is nothing to connect this event with the birth of a King in Israel. Second, and perhaps most troublesome, nova do not move.

This leads to a discussion of a different astronomical event that may be associated with the "new star" (a comet) recorded by the Chinese in 5 B.C. The Chinese would not have distinguished a comet from a nova since all they recorded was something new in the sky that was temporary. A comet has the advantage of a tail that can appear to be pointing in a direction which may have guided the magi. In addition, a comet moves! A comet can even disappear as it moves behind the sun and reappear as it comes out from behind the sun. A major objection is that the Chinese make no mention of the "new star" moving. Another problem is that comets are cyclical with a predictable periodicity. For instance, Halley's comet appears every 76 years. If the star of Bethlehem were a comet, we would most likely have observed it again and been able to extrapolate back to the time of Christ to see if there is a match. Unfortunately, the only one to come close is Halley's comet which appeared in 12 B.C., a date that is impossibly early.

One could always claim that the comet was one with a very long periodicity or one that has since disappeared from our solar system. This is certainly possible, but it does not really help the discussion. One might as well appeal to a purely supernatural occurrence that cannot be verified scientifically. There is no difference. And though comets were usually interpreted as heralding sweeping changes, the changes were usually for the worse and there is no way, once again, to connect these events to the birth of a king in Israel. Next, I will look at planetary conjunction, the most popular suggestion at planetarium shows during the Christmas season.

Did the Star of Bethlehem Result from a Triple Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter?

The bright star usually seen hovering over Nativity scenes depicted on numerous Christmas cards actually dominates nearly every nighttime Christmas panorama. As I stated earlier, the Star of Bethlehem is just about the only ubiquitous biblical symbol associated with Christmas. The reason probably has to do with the mystery surrounding what this star was. Earlier, I showed the unreasonableness of the star being a comet or supernova explosion. If you were to attend a planetarium show concerning the star of Bethlehem, they would most likely present the idea that the star was a triple conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn in the year 7 B.C. followed by a massing of Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars in 6 B.C. Realizing that planetarium shows view Scripture as something less than historically accurate, it is still necessary to ask if this indeed could have been the Star of Bethlehem.

In the early 17th century the great astronomer and Christian, Johannes Kepler, calculated that a triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn had occurred in 7 B.C. While Kepler did not believe this to be the actual Star of Bethlehem, it may have alerted the magi to the coming star. 7-4 B.C. have become the usual dates for fixing the birth of Christ since Herod the Great's death, the Herod mentioned by both Matthew and Luke in their birth narratives, is well established in 4 B.C. Therefore, Jesus had to have been born in the few years prior to 4 B.C. since He started his three-year public ministry around the age of 30 (Luke 3:23) and His death is usually fixed between 27-30 A.D.

So just what is a triple conjunction, and why would it be significant to the birth of a King in Israel? A planetary conjunction is what happens when two planets come in close proximity to one another. A triple conjunction refers to when three separate conjunctions of the same two planets occur within a one year period. Triple conjunctions can be predicted, but they do not occur with regularity. There have been only 11 such triple conjunctions since 7 B.C. and the interval between them varies between 40 and 338 years.

The triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 7 B.C. was seen in the constellation Pisces in the months of May, September, and December. This provides sufficient time for the magi to see the first conjunction, begin their trip west to Judea, visit Herod by the second conjunction or at least soon afterwards, and perhaps not reach Bethlehem until the third conjunction when it is said to have appeared in the southern sky, and Bethlehem is just south of Jerusalem. Remember how the magi rejoiced to see the star again as they departed Jerusalem for Bethlehem. Ancient astrologers associated Jupiter with royalty or even a ruler of the universe. Saturn was associated with Palestine or even with the deity who protected Israel. And Pisces was associated with the nation of Israel. Later a massing of Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn occurred again in Pisces in 6 B.C. It seems feasible then that this triple conjunction followed by the massing of the three planets in Pisces could indicate to the magi that a King of Israel and a Ruler of the Universe was about to be born in Israel.

While this seems to wrap things up rather nicely, there are significant problems. First, Jupiter and Saturn never were close enough to be confused as a single object. Matthew definitely describes a singular star. Perhaps more importantly, the use of astrology is necessary to interpret these astronomical signs properly. The Old Testament, particularly, mocks astrologers in Isaiah 47:13-15 and several times in Daniel (1:20, 2:27, 4:7, and 5:7). Jeremiah 10:1-2 seems to forbid astrology outright. The use of astrology is clearly outside the worldview of Matthew as he penned his gospel. It seems woefully inconsistent for the Lord to use astrology to herald the incarnation and birth of His Son into the world.

Was the Star of Bethlehem the Planet Jupiter?

In this discussion, I have considered a nova, a comet, and a triple conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn as the Star of Bethlehem between 7 and 4 B.C., and none have seemed to be satisfactory. In 1991, Ernest Martin published a book titled, The Star That Astonished the World. His major thesis is that Herod died in 1 B.C. and not 4 B.C. If 4 B.C. is the wrong date for Herod's death, then everything must be reevaluated.

While there are many lines of evidence that Martin uses to make his point, a critical issue is a lunar eclipse that occurred just prior to Herod's death. According to the Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, on the night of a lunar eclipse, Herod executed two rabbis. Herod himself died soon afterwards, just before Passover. Martin points out that the lunar eclipse of March 13, 4 B.C., was only a 40% partial eclipse and barely visible. Also he reconstructs the events between the eclipse and Herod's death, about 4 weeks, and determines there was not enough time for all these things to take place. However, Martin has located a total lunar eclipse on January 10, 1 B.C., twelve and a half weeks prior to Passover.

If we assume that Martin's date for the death of Herod is correct, then the years 3 and 2 B.C. can be added to the search parameters for the Star of Bethlehem. Martin points out that the planet Jupiter passes through a series of conjunctions over the course of these two years indicating that Jupiter is the star of Bethlehem.

Remember that Jupiter is considered the royal star. Well, in 3 B.C., Jupiter came into conjunction with Regulus, the star of kingship, the brightest star in the constellation of Leo, the first of several such conjunctions over the next year. Leo was the constellation of kings, and it was also closely associated by some with the Lion of Judah. This is beginning to look interesting. "The royal planet approached the royal star in the royal constellation representing Israel."(1) In addition, on September 11, 3 B.C., Jupiter was not only very close to Regulus, but the sun was in the constellation Virgo. Hmmm, the royal planet in conjunction with the royal star while the sun is in a virgin. September 11, 3 B.C., is also the beginning of the Jewish New Year. There seems to be an awful lot coming together here.

But what about the star appearing to stop over Bethlehem? Planets will actually appear to do just that as they reach the opposite point in the sky from the sun as they travel east across the sky. They will stop, reverse directions for a few weeks, stop again, and head east once again. It's called a retrograde loop. Jupiter performed a retrograde loop in 2 B.C. and was stationary on December 25, during Hanukkah, the season of giving presents.

Just in case you are ready to proclaim the mystery of the Star of Bethlehem solved, remember that this whole scenario rests on Herod dying in 1 B.C. rather than in 4 B.C. The majority of historians and biblical historians can't accept this critical revision. If Herod indeed died in 4 B.C., all of these coincidences I just reviewed are just that, coincidences. Also, as I mentioned earlier, the use of astrological meanings is contrary to the worldview of Matthew. There is another option that has become very popular, and I'll discuss it next.

The Shekinah Glory as the Star of Bethlehem

So far in this essay, I have discussed several naturalistic explanations for the Star of Bethlehem: a nova or exploding star, a comet, a triple conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn in 7 B.C., and the planet Jupiter as it traveled in the constellation Leo in 3-2 B.C. Each of these astronomical events represents a natural occurrence that God used to announce the birth of His Son. One of the major problems has been that in order to interpret any of these signs, one would have to use astrological meanings for these events and their locations in the night sky to reach the conclusion that a new King of the Jews has been born--something that is foreign to the biblical worldview. Perhaps there was a physical "star" that gave off real light but indeed was new but not reflected by any astronomical event.

Remember that Jesus' birth was the ultimate coming of the presence of God in the midst of His people. How was God's presence manifested elsewhere in the Bible? Moses saw a burning bush that was not consumed and God spoke to him from the bush. Again in Exodus, Moses was allowed to see God's backside and afterwards his face shone with light so bright that the other Israelites could not look on his face. The Israelites were led through the desert by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. When Jesus was transfigured He shone with a light as bright as the sun. When Jesus appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus, Saul was blinded by the light which the others with him saw as well. When God was imminently present, a bright light was associated with His presence.

The Shekinah Glory denotes the visible presence of God. This presence was real, and the physical manifestation was real. Remember that Saul was blinded by the light. The Lord often announces His presence by a very physical manifestation of bright light. What better way to announce the coming of Jesus, God's Son, the second Person of the Trinity than by a special light that is not some mere improbable astronomical event, rather an expression of the Shekinah glory, God's divine presence among men?

Astronomer Sherm Kanagy and theologian Ken Boa advance this thesis in their as yet unpublished manuscript, Star of the Magi. One of their strong emphases is the necessity to try to interpret the text of Matthew from first century Jewish perspective. They reject the idea that any astrological meaning could have been on Matthew's mind concerning this star. It is certainly fair to wonder, therefore, what this star was and how the magi interpreted it as a star signifying the birth of the King of the Jews. Kanagy and Boa reveal that Kepler concluded that the star was not some astronomical event and was a light that appeared in the lower atmosphere and therefore was not visible to everyone. But how did the magi interpret the star? This admittedly is the weakest part of the interpretation. The text gives no real hints. Magi were simply wise men of the east, not necessarily astrologers. They were Gentiles whose presence in the context of Matthew's Messianic gospel hints at the eventual spread of the gospel beyond the Jews. But how did they know what the star meant? We can only assume there was selective revelation. Only Paul understood the voice from the light, though all who were with him saw the light. Only Moses was allowed up on Mt. Sinai to receive the Law. Only Peter, James, and John were present at the transfiguration, and they were told to keep it to themselves until Jesus rose from the dead. Manifestations of God's presence with men often were accompanied by selective revelation. Perhaps the meaning of the "star" was only revealed to the magi though others could actually see the "star."

Well, what was it, an astronomical event or the Shekinah Glory, manifesting God's presence among men? In my mind the mystery remains. Perhaps that is how God intends it to be.

The original version of this article is found at https://www.probe.org/the-star-of-bethlehem/. Articles and answers on lots of topics at Probe.org.

Jesus: The Divine Xerox

Article contributed by Probe Ministries
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The founder of Probe Ministries, Jimmy Williams, offers several lines of evidence for the belief that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.

You know, today when you walk across the campus and begin to talk about the New Testament, the claims of Christ, and how He is relevant to high school or college life, often you get this expression of amazement, as if you have committed intellectual suicide, because you actually believe His claims. Some tell us that becoming a Christian involves a blind leap with little or no evidence to support it. In fact, the blinder the leap and the more lacking the evidence, the more noble the faith. It is certainly true that any philosophy or belief cannot be proved; I would not try and insult anyone's intellect by saying I could prove to him that Jesus Christ is God. However, I think when we look into the history of this unique person, we see some things that have to grasp the mind of any thinking man and impress upon him the strong consideration that Jesus may be who He claimed to be...namely, God incarnate in human flesh.

Now whatever we may say about Jesus Christ, most everyone would agree that in the person of Christ we view one of the most unique personalities of all the centuries—whether He is God or not. The unbeliever, atheist, Moslem, Hindu and Buddhist alike all generally agree on this one central fact, that Jesus Christ is indeed a unique personality.

Here was a man born of a peasant woman in an obscure village. He grew up in another obscure military camp town where He worked as a carpenter's son. He never wrote a book; He possessed neither wealth nor influence. He never ran for political office; He never went more than 200 miles from His home town; He never even entered a big city. In infancy He startled a king; in childhood He puzzled doctors; in manhood He ruled the course of nature and hushed the sea to sleep. During the last three years of His life He became an itinerant preacher, roaming the land of His birth, healing the sick and comforting the poor. At the end of this three years of ministry the tide of public opinion began to turn against Him. He was betrayed by one of His closest friends and arrested for disturbing the status quo. All of His followers deserted Him; one denied Him three times. He went through six trials, each of which was a mockery of jurisprudence. Prior to one of the trials He was beaten to the point of death with leather strips imbedded with studs of iron. A crown of thorns was then rammed down upon His head, tearing the flesh so that blood poured down the side of His face. The Roman procurator officiating at His trial was nervous. The uniqueness of this man made Pilate want to wash his hands of the whole affair. But the crowds cried for His death.

As the Roman procurator brought this insignificant, now mutilated and beaten carpenter's son before the crowds, he hurled a challenge to them which has resounded across twenty centuries: he said, "Behold the man." Pilate was impressed. He had never before seen such quiet dignity, intrepid courage, noble majesty. Never had any other who had stood before his bar carried himself as this One. The Roman was deeply impressed, and avowed his captor's uniqueness. But the mob shouted, "Crucify Him." So He was taken outside the gates of the city and nailed to a cross to die the death of a common criminal.

Yet the story doesn't end here. For something happened after that strange, dark day that has changed the entire course of human history. He came forth from the tomb in resurrection power. His greatness has never been paralleled. He never wrote a book, yet all the libraries of the country could not hold the books that have been written about Him. He never wrote a song, and yet He has furnished the theme for more songs that all the songwriters combined. He never founded a college, but all the schools put together cannot boast of having as many students. Every seventh day the wheels of commerce cease their turning and multitudes wind their way to worshiping assemblies to pay homage and respect to Him. The names of the past proud statesmen of Greece and Rome have come and gone. The names of the past scientists, philosophers, and theologians have come and gone, but the name of this man abounds more and more. Though over 1900 years lie between the people of this generation and the time of His crucifixion, He still lives. Herod could not destroy Him, and the grave could not hold Him. He stands forth upon the highest pinnacle of heavenly glory.

Still today He is the cornerstone of history, the center of human progress. I would be well within the mark when I say that all the armies that have ever marched, all the navies that have ever sailed, all the parliaments that have ever sat, and all of the kings that have ever reigned, put together, have not influenced the course of man's life on this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life, Jesus of Nazareth. History has been called His story. He split time: B.C., before Christ; A.D., Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord.¹

When, some 20 centuries ago, Pontius Pilate said, "Behold the man," I doubt that he had any idea of who it was that stood before him. He certainly wouldn't have dreamed that this humble peasant would launch a movement (indeed, already had) that would change the course of Western civilization. In view of the claims that He made and the impact He had upon history, it behooves us to "Behold the man." Who was He? Those who knew Him best were convinced that He was God. What do you say? I am convinced that the only reasonable conclusion that can be drawn from a fair examination of the evidence is that He was and is, indeed, God, the Saviour of the world. Let's consider some of these evidences together.

I would like to consider several lines of historical evidence that suggest that Jesus Christ is God. The first line of evidence is:

Because the Hypothesis Fits the Facts.

Now what I would like to do in terms of presenting the first line of evidence for His claim that He is God is to ask the question, "What would God be like, if God became a man?" If the facts about Jesus Christ fit the answers to the above question—pre-eminently so, uniquely so, we will have offered evidence, that He may be who He claimed to be. So I would like to suggest four things that I think we would all agree would characterize God if God became a man.

If God were a man, we would expect His words to be the greatest words ever spoken.

What is great literature or great oratory? The masterpieces of one generation often appear stilted and artificial to another. The words which endure are the words which have something to say about that which is universal in human experience, that which doesn't change with time.

Statistically speaking, the Gospels are the greatest literature ever written. They are read by more people, quoted by more authors, translated into more tongues, represented in more art, set to more music, than any other book or books written by any man in any century in any land. But the words of Christ are not great on the grounds that they have such a statistical edge over anybody else's words. They are read more, quoted more, loved more, believed more, and translated more because they are the greatest words ever spoken. And where is their greatness? Their greatness lies in the pure, lucid spirituality in dealing clearly, definitively, and authoritatively with the greatest problems that throb in the human breast; namely, Who is God? Does history have meaning? Does He love me? Does He care for me? What should I do to please Him? How does He look at my sin? How can I be forgiven? Where will I go when I die? How must I treat others?

This amazing purity of the words of Christ became more real to me in a forceful way while I was studying the Greek language in graduate school. The New Testament is written in Greek. I was taking a course called Rapid Greek Reading in which we did nothing but read the Greek New Testament and recite in class. We read about eight pages of Greek a week or about the equivalent timewise of 600 pages of English. We struggled night and day while reading the Gospels in order to be able to read them out loud in class directly from the Greek text to our professor. It was sometimes humorous to hear one another struggle with the text of Matthew or Luke. The interesting thing was that when reading one of the Gospels aloud, we would stumble and toil with the sections where Matthew was simply recounting narrative, but as soon as Matthew began to quote the words of Christ the struggle ceased. His words were the easiest to translate. They were so simple and yet profound. To labor with the narrative portions and then come to the words of Christ was like moving from the intensity of the hurricane to the calm serenity of the eye of the storm. It was the difference between sailing on rough tempestuous seas and on a glassy lake at eventide.

Certainly, no mere man could impregnate such simple words with such sublime thoughts. Consider the volumes of truth stored up in the phrase, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"², and "Whosoever would find his life, must lose it"³. Libraries could be filled with works which simply develop those concepts.

No other man's words have the appeal of Jesus’ words. They are the kind of words we would expect God to utter if God were a man.

The second line of evidence is:

If God were a man, we would expect Him to exert a profound power over human personality.

One of the greatest impacts among human beings is the impact of personality upon personality. Most human beings are rather ordinary in their impact upon other human beings. I can't think of anyone in my life whose personality has made an impact upon me; strong influence, yes, but impact, no. Periodically in history a Churchill, Hitler, or a Caesar comes along and impact is made. Certainly, if God were a man, His personality would be so dynamic it would have unprecedented impact on His contemporaries. Is this the case with Jesus of Nazareth? We find most emphatically that it is. Whether Jesus be man or God, whether the Gospels be mainly fiction or fancy, certainly a historic person named Jesus made such an impact on a small band of men as to be unequaled by far in the entire annals of the human race. Consider for a moment the historic nucleus from which Christianity sprang: Peter, a weak-willed fisherman; John, a gentle dreamer; Thomas, who had a question mark for a brain; Matthew, a taxcollector; a few peasants and a small cluster of emotional women. Now I don't want to minimize the character of these men, but seriously, does this rather heterogeneous group of simple folk look like the driving force that could turn the Roman Empire upside down, so that by 312 A.D., Christianity was the official religion of the Empire? Frankly they do not. The impact of the personality of Christ upon these people turned them into flaming revolutionaries who launched a movement that has changed the history of Western Civilization.

The amazing thing is that these men were the very ones who ate with Him, slept with Him, and lived with Him for over three years and still concluded that He was God. How could a person live with someone for that period of time and come to that conclusion unless it were a valid conclusion? You could spend less than an hour with the greatest saint mankind has ever produced and be thoroughly convinced that he was not God. How could you spend three years with a mere man and become absolutely convinced that He was God, in fact, be so convinced that you would be willing to die a martyr's death to punctuate your belief? Listen for a moment to the traditional deaths of the apostles: Matthew, martyred by the sword in Ethiopia; Mark, dragged through the streets of Alexandria until dead; Luke, hanged on an olive tree in Greece; John, put in a caldron of boiling oil but escaped death and died in exile on the island of Patmos; Peter, crucified upside down (he said he wasn't worthy to be crucified in the same manner as His Lord); James, beheaded in Jerusalem; Philip, hanged against a pillar in Phrygia; James the Less, thrown from the pinnacle of the temple and beaten to death down below; Bartholomew, flayed alive; Andrew, bound to a cross where he preached to his persecutors till he died; Thomas, run through by a spear in India; Jude, shot to death with arrows; Barnabas, stoned to death by Jews in Salonica; and Paul, beheaded at Rome by Nero. Even more incredible is the fact that James and Jude, our Lord's own brothers, believed that He was God. You may for a time, be able to pull the wool over the eyes of those outside your own family, but certainly your own brothers would not swallow such an unbelievable claim unless there were unimpeachable reasons to do so.

Christ's personality had a tremendous impact upon these men. And after nearly two thousand years the impact is not at all spent. Daily there are people who have tremendous revolutionary experiences which they attribute to personal encounters with Jesus Christ.

The personality of Jesus, then, is without parallel. It is unique and incomparable. Wherever He is, He is the Master. When surrounded by hungry multitudes or by hating Pharisees, when questioned by clever theologians or besought by stricken sinners, whether examined by stupid disciples or by a Roman governor, He is the Master.

If God were robed in human flesh, then He would possess a personality that would have revolutionary impact, indeed, unique impact, upon His contemporaries. Like no other man in history, Jesus made that kind of unique and revolutionary impact.

If God were a man, we would expect supernatural acts.

If God were a man, not only would we expect His words to be the greatest ever spoken, and the impact of His personality to be unique, but we would also expect that His life would be characterized by wonderful deeds. We would expect Him to do the things that only God could do. Now obviously the very act of God becoming a man involves something supernatural. But if God became a man, it makes sense that He was going to convince men that He was indeed who He claimed to be, that men deserved to see Him do things that only God could do—namely miracles, suspensions of natural law. Everything about the life of Jesus Christ confronts us with the miraculous. At the outset of His ministry He appeared at a wedding feast and turned water into wine. He demonstrated His power over disease by healing the nobleman's son and the lame man at the pool of Bethsaida and many more. He fed 5000 people and said, "I am the bread of life." He walked on the water. He claimed to be the light of the world; then He healed a man who had been blind since birth. Once of His most startling claims was made to the despondent sister of Lazarus (Lazarus had been dead for four days) when He said, "I am the resurrection and the life." Then He said, "Lazarus, come forth," and the dead man came out of the tomb. Someone has noted it was a good thing Jesus called Lazarus by name or all the dead since the dawn of time would have come forth. When Christ made these astounding claims, more than ordinary means were necessary to impress men with their truthfulness.

Now there's a funny kind of thinking going on today concerning miracles. It all started with a fellow by the name of Hume. Paradoxically, this may surprise you, Hume was an orthodox Christian. But, Hume said some things about miracles that have been used as an attack on miracles. Hume argued that miracles are the most improbable of all events. Ever since Hume's essay, it has been believed that historical statements about miracles are the most intrinsically improbable of all historical statements. Now, what then is the basis of probability? What makes a miracle a more probable or a less probable event? Hume says, and so do other secular critics today, that probability rests upon what may be called the majority vote of our past experiences. The more often a thing is known to happen, the more probable it is that it should happen again; and the less often, the less probable. He goes on to say, the majority vote of our past experience is firmly against miracles. There is in fact, "uniform experience" against miracles. A miracle is, therefore, the most improbable of all events. It is always more probable that the witnesses were lying or mistaken than that a miracle occurred.

Now here is the foolishness in Hume's whole argument. We must agree with Hume that if there is absolutely "uniform experience" against miracles, if they have never occurred, then there is no such thing as a miracle. But, that is exactly the point in question. Is there absolute uniform experience against miracles? We only know that the majority vote of past experience is against miracles if we know that all reports of miracles are false. And, we can know all the reports to be false only if we know already that miracles have never occurred. This is a circular argument. Let me repeat it again. The critic of miracles today says with Hume, "We know that all historical reports of miracles are false because miracles never happen, and we know that miracles never happen because all historical reports of them are false." Get that? We know that miracles have never happened, because all reported instances of them are false, and we know that all reported instances of them are false (such as the Bible) because we know that miracles never happen.

Very frequently today we hear or get the impression that brilliant scholars, after examining all the evidence, have scientifically proven that miracles never happen. This is totally untrue. The rejection of the miraculous is not their conclusion; it is their starting point, their presupposition. It's interesting to note that as you study the literature of the first and second century, even some of the literature of the critics of Christianity grant the miracles. In fact, it was not until the 19th century that the major attacks against the miracles began when the omniscient modern critics got on the scene and began to look back 2,000 years and say miracles never happened. But, the attackers of the first century generally grant them. In Jesus and His Story by Ethelbert Stauffer, a professor of New Testament at the University of Erlangen—and not an evangelical scholar—cites the following: "In 95 A.D. Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus of Lydda speaks of Jesus' magic arts."⁴ "In 100 A.D.—Jewish ritual denunciation—'Jesus practiced magic and led Israel astray."'⁵

In the second century (according to F. F. Bruce) Celsus, a philosophic critic of Christianity, acknowledged his miracles but attributed them to sorcery.⁶

Josephus, a first century Jewish historian, also acknowledges the fact that Jesus performed miracles in his Antiquities of the Jews. A basic principle of evaluation of evidence states that when enemies agree on a common point, it may be regarded as certain that the point is commonly accepted. Stauffer states this with clarity in Jesus and His Story:

The sharper the clash, the wider the gulf, the more vital does this alteration of testimony and counter-testimony become to the historical investigator. For if a confrontation of witnesses yields statements that agree on some points, then these points must represent facts accepted by both sides.⁷

In addition to the testimony of the secular historians, we have in the four gospel documents themselves, the personal testimony of hundreds of eyewitnesses that the miracles of Christ are true events. All of the evidence we have indicates that He is indeed God manifest in the flesh.

If God were a man, we would expect Him to be sinless and incomparably holy and divine.

Here lies, perhaps, one of the most convincing evidences for the deity of Christ. No man has ever lived such a noble, pure, and sinless life. Those who knew Him for three years, said "He was without sin."⁸ The Roman centurion commented as Christ hung on the cross, "Surely, this was the Son of God.”⁹ Paul, the brilliant intellect of the first century, perceived, "He knew no sin."¹⁰ Pilate called Him, "that just man," and said, "I find no fault in Him."¹¹ He Himself claimed to be sinless and challenged the religious leaders of His day to find fault in Him.¹²

There is no comparison between the person of Christ and the most saintly of the saints of the human race. To them confession of sin and painfully laborious efforts toward saintliness were daily fare. In fact, the closer they came to God, the more vivid became their consciousness of their sinfulness.

But Jesus never appears to us as One who struggled to obtain saintliness. He never felt the need to confess a sin, and yet He pointed out the sin in others and urged them to confess. Christ never admitted a need of repentance. We can't even imagine Him dying the death of saintly Augustine of daily confession and repentance. Jesus possessed perfect sinlessness and purity, not by struggle, privation, asceticism, or pilgrimage. It was by His birth and nature.

The greatest saints of other religions are not even in the same category as Christ. Mohammed, for instance, was apparently a neurotic. Gandhi, whom many have acclaimed as the most saintly man of the century, does not even compare with Jesus Christ. Gandhi himself claimed that he didn't even know God and that the reason for it was his own sinfulness. He said, "It is a constant source of sorrow to me that I am so far separated from the one whom I know to be my very life and being; and it is my own wretchedness and sin that separates me from him."¹³ How different this is from the words of Jesus, "I and the Father are one,"¹⁴ or "He who has seen me has seen the Father,"¹⁵ or even more direct, "All men should honour me, even as they honour the Father. He that does not honour me does not honour the Father which sent me."¹⁶ Can you even imagine Calvin, Luther, Paul, or any other great saint making a claim such as this? Frankly, I cannot.

Jesus Christ is not a great man among great men. He is uniquely the greatest man of all history. His divine quality of life can be verified from the mouth of the atheist, infidel, and unbeliever, not to mention the enormous testimony from the Christian Church. Thinking men the world over who have examined the evidence will all agree that Jesus of Nazareth is the greatest personality of the centuries. He is the greatest teacher, leader, and influence for good in the history of the human race.

Rousseau, the French Deist said of him,

If the life and death of Socrates were those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus were those of a God. Shall we say the Gospel history is mere invention. My friend, it is not such that men invent. And the facts concerning Socrates, of which no one entertains any doubt, are less attested than those concerning Jesus Christ.¹⁷

He goes on to say a little later that "the facts concerning Jesus of Nazareth are so striking, so amazing, so utterly inimitable, that the invention of them would be more astonishing than the hero."¹⁸

Byron, the profligate poet, whose philosophy of life was eat, drink, and be merry said, "If ever a man were God, or God were man, Jesus was both.”¹⁹

Renan, the skeptic, Who wrote a classic life of Christ in which he tried to prove the myth of the Gospels, nevertheless concluded with this last line: "Whatever surprises the future may bring, one thing is certain, Jesus will never be surpassed."²⁰

When exiled on the lonely isle of St. Helena, the emperor Napoleon was once discussing Christ with General Bertrand, a faithful officer who had followed him into banishment and who did not believe in the deity of Jesus. Napoleon said,

I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and whatever other religions, the distance of infinity. Everything in Christ astonishes me. His spirit overawes me, and His will confounds me. Between Him and whoever else in the world, there is no possible term of comparison. He is truly a being by Himself.²¹

If God were a man, we would expect Him to be sinless and incomparably Holy and Divine. We see that the hypothesis fits the facts of the life of Jesus Christ. Should we now conclude something other than Jesus is God? The Apostle John said, "No man has ever seen God, but the only begotten Son, who is at the Father's side, has made Him known."²² Jesus is the Divine Xerox of the invisible God. The Original is invisible, but His earthly Reproduction is visible for all to behold in the unprecedented life of Jesus of Nazareth.

Notes

1. Author unknown, although a portion of this essay is attributed to Dr. James Allan Francis.
2. Matt. 7:12.
3. Luke 9:24.
4. Ethelbert Stauffer, Jesus and His Story (New York: Alfred P. Knopf, 1959), p. 9.
5. Ibid., p. 10.
6. F.F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents; Are They Reliable? (5th ed. rev.; Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1960), p. 68.
7. Stauffer, p.x.
8. 1 Pet. 2:22.
9. Matt. 27:54.
10. 2 Cor. 5:21.
11. Luke 23:14.
12. John 8:45-47; 10:37-39.
13. Fritz Ridenour, So What's the Difference? (Glendale, California: G.L. Publications, 1967).
14. John 10:30.
15. John 14:9.
16. John 5:23.
17. John Ballard, The Miracles of Unbelief (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1908), p. 251.
18. Ibid.
19. Lord Byron.
20. Renan, The Life of Jesus (New York: Carolton Publishers, 1863).
21. Frank Mead, Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations (Westwood: Fleming H. Revelle, 1965), p. 56.
22. John 1:18.

The original version of this article is found at www.probe.org/jesus-the-divine-xerox/. Articles and answers on lots of topics at Probe.org.

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Lesson 107: The King on the Cross (Luke 23:26-49)

1. The cross displays the awfulness of human sin.

2. The cross displays God’s dreadful judgment against sin.

3. The cross displays God’s amazing love toward sinners.

4. The cross reveals God’s amazing Savior for sinners.

Conclusion

Discussion Questions

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8. Amor Eterno – A História de Oseias e Gômer

Vamos conversar sobre isso

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2. Jochebed (Exodus 2:1-10)

I. Introduction

II. Jochebed

1. Married

2. Moses’ Mother

1. Birth

2. Basket Plan

III. Pharaoh’s Daughter

IV. Letting Go Again: Jochebed Did Get Moses Back…

Application: Does this speak to you, where you are today?

Application: So what about you? Where are you in this story?

Prayer

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1. Introduction and Midwives (Exodus 1:1:15-21)

I. Introduction: This weekend we are going to be talking about influence.

1. Since we’re going to be talking about influence this weekend let’s first define it.

2. I’ve been living with these women for months, thinking about their lives, studying them, reading commentaries and journal articles about them.

II. Review of Historical Times and Brief look at the life of Moses

1. “Exodus” is the title of the biblical text where we find the stories of our women and our introduction to Moses.

2. We need to ask, “How did they get there?” The book of Genesis tells that story.

3. Moses was born right into this difficult world of slavery.

III. The Midwives (Exodus 1:15-21)

A. Command

B. Choice.

C. Consequences

1. Confrontation with Pharaoh (v. 18)

2. Blessed by God (v. 20-21)

Application

Prayer

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3. Miriam (Numbers 12:1-15)

I. Introduction

II. Miriam

III. Her Failure (Numbers 12)

1. This is the gospel.

2. Keeping short accounts with God

3. Forgiving others

Application

Prayer

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Resource Download Page: Women of Influence surrounding the Life of Moses

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4. Zipporah (Exodus 4:24-26)

I. Introduction

II. Zipporah Biography (Exodus 2:16-22)

III. Her Bold Act (Exodus 4:24-26)

IV. Circumcision

V. Application Do You Know What God Desires For You? And Do You Do It? Or Is There Something You Really Need To Do But Have “Put Off”?

VI. Conclusion And Review

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Women of Influence Surrounding the Life of Moses

The Star of Bethlehem

The Magi and the Star of Bethlehem

What Was the Star of Bethlehem?

Did the Star of Bethlehem Result from a Triple Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter?

Was the Star of Bethlehem the Planet Jupiter?

The Shekinah Glory as the Star of Bethlehem

Jesus: The Divine Xerox