Sherri and I are reading through Exodus now after supper, and last night we read Exodus 7. This is how the chapter begins:
I was struck by this verse--a verse I have definitely read and/or heard before, but never thought longer on. It struck me last night as a programmatic verse for God's interaction with his people. Here we have God revealing how he speaks to his people in the Old Testament: it is mediated through prophets, through officially (divinely) sanctioned spokespersons (mostly men, but including some very notable women). God does not speak directly to his people, he speaks through a intermediary. The only time that God speaks directly to the people of Israel is when he gives them his law at Sinai, and the people are so terrified that they ask Moses to speak to God for them, and to them for God.
I was left wondering why God chose this way to speak to his people, and I think it has to do with God leading his people to fuller knowledge of him by steps. God does not reveal himself totally and completely right away. In his wisdom he eases his people into it. He slowly leads Israel away from worshipping other gods, away from the practices of the nations, into a place where they can be his people, and he will be totally their God. Of course, we know that this did not happen because of the people's sin.
It is only much later that God reveals himself in an unmediated way: in Jesus Christ. But even this (although unmediated) is still not totally clear--Jesus Christ is God, and so is God revealing himself directly to his people, but it happens in a way that is unclear at the time (even the disciples had trouble with this until after Pentecost).
And then we read this in Hebrews 1:1-2
God's revelation is no longer mediated, it is direct, as long as we know Jesus Christ as he truly is. God has closed the gap, he has made sure there is no distance between him and us. In Christ, God truly is Immanuel, God with us. But it took the person of Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Trinity, for this to be made known, and to be directly revealed to us.
Of course, God always was nearby, but now we have him speaking directly to us, through his Spirit who dwells in our hearts.
Jeremiah 31:33-34
Then the LORD said to Moses, "See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet." (NIV)
I was struck by this verse--a verse I have definitely read and/or heard before, but never thought longer on. It struck me last night as a programmatic verse for God's interaction with his people. Here we have God revealing how he speaks to his people in the Old Testament: it is mediated through prophets, through officially (divinely) sanctioned spokespersons (mostly men, but including some very notable women). God does not speak directly to his people, he speaks through a intermediary. The only time that God speaks directly to the people of Israel is when he gives them his law at Sinai, and the people are so terrified that they ask Moses to speak to God for them, and to them for God.
I was left wondering why God chose this way to speak to his people, and I think it has to do with God leading his people to fuller knowledge of him by steps. God does not reveal himself totally and completely right away. In his wisdom he eases his people into it. He slowly leads Israel away from worshipping other gods, away from the practices of the nations, into a place where they can be his people, and he will be totally their God. Of course, we know that this did not happen because of the people's sin.
It is only much later that God reveals himself in an unmediated way: in Jesus Christ. But even this (although unmediated) is still not totally clear--Jesus Christ is God, and so is God revealing himself directly to his people, but it happens in a way that is unclear at the time (even the disciples had trouble with this until after Pentecost).
And then we read this in Hebrews 1:1-2
"In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe." (NIV)
God's revelation is no longer mediated, it is direct, as long as we know Jesus Christ as he truly is. God has closed the gap, he has made sure there is no distance between him and us. In Christ, God truly is Immanuel, God with us. But it took the person of Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Trinity, for this to be made known, and to be directly revealed to us.
Of course, God always was nearby, but now we have him speaking directly to us, through his Spirit who dwells in our hearts.
Jeremiah 31:33-34
“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (NIV)
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