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The Gospel Observer
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the
nations...teaching them to observe all that I commanded you,
and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age"
(Matt. 28:19,20).
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March 13, 2016
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Contents:
1) Evidences of Faith: A Prophet Like Moses (Jim Robson)
2) News & Notes
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-1-
Evidences of Faith:
A Prophet Like Moses
Jim Robson
The book of Deuteronomy, which was written somewhere around 1450 BC,
records the final words of Moses to the nation of Israel, before
their long-awaited entry into the promised land of Canaan. One of
the things Moses told the people was this:
"The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your
midst, from your brethren" (Deuteronomy 18:15).
At first blush, this may not seem very exceptional; throughout the
long history of the Israelites, God sent many prophets to them.
However, God did not send many prophets like Moses.
On the contrary, God Himself made a distinction between Moses and
all of the other prophets:
"Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord,
make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream. Not
so with My servant Moses; he is faithful in all My house. I speak
with him plainly, and not in dark sayings; and he sees the form of
the Lord" (Numbers 12:6-8).
Even among the prophets, Moses was exceptional. God spoke of him in
a way that set him, as it were, in a class by himself. So, when
Moses indicated that God would at some point raise up another
prophet like him, he was saying something truly extraordinary.
And, when we consider Moses' life as a whole, it was indeed most
extraordinary. At his birth, Moses narrowly escaped death: the
Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, and Pharaoh had ordered all of
the male Hebrew babies killed (Exodus 1:15-22). Moses' mother hid
her newborn son as long as she could, then placed him in a
waterproofed basket in the reeds at the bank of the river, where
Pharaoh's own daughter found him, had compassion on him, and raised
him as her own son (Exodus 2:1-10). Thus, the baby Moses was saved
from the king's decree.
Later in his life, Moses was sent by God to lead His people out of
their Egyptian slavery (Exodus 3:9-10). After the people were out of
the land of Egypt, they became trapped between the Egyptian army and
the Red Sea:
"Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused
the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made
the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided" (Exodus 14:21).
Thus, God effectively gave Moses power over the sea. Moreover, Moses
freed the people from their enslavement to the Egyptians: for the
Egyptians were driven back into the sea, and Moses closed it on
them, drowning every man (Exodus 14:27-28).
To commemorate the people's deliverance from bondage, Moses
established the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread:
"So you shall observe the feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this
same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt.
Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as
an everlasting ordinance" (Exodus 12:17).
This feast would serve as a reminder of how the people were in
bondage in Egypt and were freed by God through Moses. It reminded
them how they went from being slaves, to being God's chosen people.
As we noted earlier, God spoke to Moses, giving him laws to deliver
to the people. Moses then told the people all the words of the Lord
and all His judgments (Exodus 24:3). Moses spoke whatever God told
him to say (Exodus 4:12). But when Moses was on Mount Sinai, and God
was speaking to him, he did something else impressive:
"So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he
neither ate bread nor drank water..." (Exodus 34:28).
Forty days is a long time to go without food or drink. And that is
still not all; as a result of his meetings with God, Moses'
appearance changed:
"Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two
tablets of the Testimony were in Moses' hand when he came down from
the mountain), that the skin of his face shone while he talked with
Him. So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold,
the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him"
(Exodus 34:29-30).
As a result of the meeting with God on the mountain, Moses' face
glowed. No wonder the people feared him!
Because of the people's continual complaining, Moses came to realize
that the responsibility of leading them was too much for him to
handle on his own. So, like all men of faith, he brought his
concerns to God in prayer:
So the Lord said to Moses: "Gather to Me seventy men of the elders
of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers
over them; bring them to the tabernacle of meeting, that they may
stand there with you" (Numbers 11:16).
God answered Moses' prayer by providing him with seventy men who
could help him accomplish his mission.
One of the most impressive things about Moses' character is that, in
spite of the repeated complaints and rebellions of the people, he
never stopped caring for them. In fact, Moses continually interceded
for the people with God:
"Yet now, if You will forgive their sin -- but if not, I pray, blot
me out of Your book which You have written" (Exodus 32:32).
In his prayer, Moses reveals a deep concern for the people, that he
cared for them every bit as much as he cared for himself: even to
the point of being willing to suffer the condemnation they incurred
with their sins.
At this point, you may begin to think of someone else in the Bible
who was willing to suffer for the sins of His people. You may think
of Jesus, "who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree,
that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness..."
(I Peter 2:24). Interestingly, on the night He was betrayed, Jesus
even prayed for His people in such a way that revealed His deep
concern for them:
"Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me
where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me;
for You loved Me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24).
Jesus prayed that His people share in His rightful place in heaven,
thus showing that He cared for them every bit as much as He did for
Himself.
It is also interesting to note that, during His ministry on earth,
Jesus had seventy men to work with Him:
"After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent
them two by two before His face into every city and place where He
Himself was about to go" (Luke 10:1).
You will recall that this is the same as the number of elders who
were appointed to help Moses in his work.
You will also recall that Moses' face glowed while he was on the
mountain with God:
"Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother,
led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was
transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His
clothes became as white as the light" (Matthew 17:1-2).
Nor was Moses the only one to fast for forty days:
"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be
tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty
nights, afterward He became hungry" (Matthew 4:1-2).
Nor indeed was Moses the only one to speak what God told him:
"For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent
Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And
I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I
speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak" (John 12:49-50).
Thus Jesus related the commands of God the Father to His people,
just as Moses had done for the Israelites.
Moreover, Moses was not the only one who was involved in freeing
slaves. As Jesus said, "...whoever commits sin is a slave of sin"
(John 8:34). By giving Himself on the cross, Jesus paid the price
for sins, thus setting His people -- His disciples -- free (John
8:31-36). Not only that, He provided them with a way to remember the
event that brought them from slavery to freedom:
"And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them,
saying, 'This is My body which is given for you; do this in
remembrance of Me'" (Luke 22:19).
Jesus established this memorial at His last meal with the apostles
before His crucifixion. This meal was a Passover meal (Luke 22:7),
and so there would be no bread available except unleavened bread.
Thus the commemoration established by Jesus, like the one
established by Moses, was a feast of unleavened bread.
And, of course, we all remember what happened when Jesus and His
disciples were at sea, and a storm arose that threatened the boat
and their lives:
"Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, 'Peace, be
still!' And the wind ceased and there was a great calm" (Mark 4:39).
Jesus evidently had inherent authority over the sea and the wind,
whereas Moses could not have parted the Red Sea without God's direct
intervention. And no doubt, Jesus freed His people from a spiritual
bondage that has eternal consequences, whereas the deliverance
accomplished by Moses was physical and temporal. And while Moses
expressed a willingness to die with his people, Jesus actually died
for His. In short, Jesus was, in point after point, greater than
Moses. Nonetheless, the parallels are striking.
We have yet one more parallel to mention. When Moses was born,
Pharaoh had ordered all the male Hebrew babies to be killed, as a
security measure. When Jesus was born, it was King Herod's turn:
"Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was
exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male
children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two
years old and under, according to the time which he had determined
from the wise men" (Matthew 2:16).
Of course, Herod did not succeed in killing the newborn King,
because Joseph had been warned by an angel to flee to Egypt. Thus
both Jesus and Moses narrowly escaped death as babies.
Having considered all of these things, it is important to remember
that at the time of Jesus' transfiguration on the mountain, two of
the greatest prophets of all time appeared with Him: Moses and
Elijah. When Peter wanted to erect tabernacles for the three of
them, God said:
"This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!"
(Matthew 17:5)
When the apostles opened their eyes, Jesus was the only one of the
three still there. Thus God spoke of Jesus in such a way as to
separate Him from all other prophets, as He had once done for Moses.
Jesus is indeed in a class by Himself.
Not surprisingly, in Acts 3:22-26, the apostle Peter identifies
Jesus as the Prophet whom God had promised, the Prophet like Moses.
When we consider that Moses had so many points in common with Jesus,
it is difficult to regard them all as nothing more than
coincidences. Moreover, Moses was by no means the only foreshadow of
Christ in the Old Testament: there are many of them. The various
foreshadows do not appear very similar to each other, and yet each
and every one points to Jesus. It is simply not within the realm of
reason to take all of these as mere coincidence. The Bible is the
product of One who cannot only foresee the future, but who can even
orchestrate events in such a way as to illustrate what is going to
happen hundreds or even thousands of years later. He is a truly
mighty God.
-- Via The Watchman Magazine, October 1, 1988
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-2-
News & Notes
Let those of us who are Christians be remembering the following in
prayer:
Easton Cox (son of Mark and Emily Abbott Cox) is only 14
months old, but recently had his left kidney removed, due to a
malignant Wilms tumor that was attached to it. A port was also
implanted under his skin for the 16 weeks of chemo that he will be
receiving. Some lymph nodes were also removed for
testing. And here is something that seems providential: The
reason why Easton was first taken to the hospital was not because of
the tumor, which they knew not about at that time; but because of
blood in his urine that was caused by a kidney infection, which was
non-related to the tumor. His great grandmother mentioned that
a doctor might have simply prescribed some antibiotics for Easton
and then send him home. But Easton's doctor also had an ultra
sound done that led to this very important finding, which is now
being taken care of!
Joyce Mooney's daughter Mandy has been diagnosed with a mass
on her brain and breast.
Carol Drain will begin her chemo treatments March 18.
There will be 6 of them, 21 days apart.
Penny Medlock had to return to Saint Simons, due to her
medication needing to be adjusted again. She had been having
some difficult days.
Remember, too, our Gospel Meeting March 18-20 (Friday
- Sunday) with Ron Edwards (from Jonesboro, Georgia)
preaching. The following shows the lessons and times for each
service:
Friday 7:30 P.M.: "Who Am I?"
Saturday 7:30 P.M: "What is My Greatest Danger?"
Sunday 9 A.M.: "How Should I Read Genesis 1-11?"
Sunday 10 A.M.: "What Do I Want On My Tombstone?"
Sunday 3 P.M.: "What is in a Name?"
If you are going to be in our area, we would love to have you come
join us for any or all of these services!
The WordPress Version of this week's bulletin:
https://thegospelobserver.wordpress.com/2016/03/18/the-gospel-observer-march-13-2016/
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The Steps That Lead to Eternal Salvation
1) Hear the gospel, for that is how faith
comes (Rom. 10:17; John 20:30,31).
2) Believe in the deity of Christ (John
8:24; John 3:18).
3) Repent of sins (Luke 13:5; Acts 17:30).
4) Confess faith in Christ (Rom. 10:9,10;
Acts 8:36-38).
5) Be baptized in water for the
remission of sins (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16; Rom. 6:3,4;
Gal. 3:26,27; 1 Pet. 3:21).
6) Continue in the faith; for, if not,
salvation can be lost (Heb. 10:36-39; Rev. 2:10; 2 Pet.
2:20-22).
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Tebeau Street
CHURCH OF CHRIST
1402 Tebeau Street, Waycross, GA 31501
Sunday services: 9:00 AM (Bible class); 10 AM
& 5 PM (worship)
Tuesday: 7 PM (Ladies' Bible class)
Wednesday: 7 PM (Bible class)
evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (912) 614-8593
Tom@ThomasTEdwards.com
http://ThomasTEdwards.com/go
(Gospel Observer website)
https://thegospelobserver.wordpress.com/
http://ThomasTEdwards.com/audioser.html
(audio sermons)