Proper 17
Preaching
Preaching and Reading the Old Testament Lessons
With an Eye to the New
Object:
Moses, who was raised in the palace of the Pharaoh, has had to flee Egypt, because it has become known that he killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. He takes flight to Midianite territory in the northwestern section of the Arabian peninsula and takes up residence there with the family of Jethro, a priest of Midian. Content to remain in Jethro's camp, he marries Jethro's daughter, Zipporah, and has a son by her (2:11-22). And he becomes one of the herdsmen of that nomadic tribe, pasturing the flocks near the site of Mount Horeb or Sinai. It is a very ordinary peaceful existence. But Moses' life is not to be ordinary or peaceful. God encounters him through the medium of a bush that is aflame but not consumed. In simple naivete, Moses turns aside to see what has caused such a phenomenon.
Some commentators would like to turn the bush's flame into a normal happening, maintaining that it possesses a natural flame-like foliage, or that it has a resin that sometimes ignites in the heat. But the point of the story is that nothing here is "natural" and earthly. God is on the scene, and God is not encompassed within the sphere of this world. Moses must remove his shoes, because where God is, there is the supernatural realm of holiness, with all its power, and there Moses must not even look, for no man can see the glory of God and live.
God uses the burning bush to get Moses' attention, but it is with his Word that God communicates with the shepherd, just as it is finally by his Word, speaking through scripture and sermon, that God communicates with us. And the central message of God's Word is always that of mercy. God sees the affliction of his enslaved people, God hears their cry for help from whatever corner, God knows their suffering, and God will come down to deliver them (vv. 7-8; cf. 2:24-25). Is that not always the love of God that is poured out upon us -- that our Lord sees and hears and knows our lives of enslavement to sin and death; that he hears our prayers for deliverance; and that he comes down in his Son to share our suffering and even our death? The love of God is manifested toward his people from the very beginning here in the Old Testament, and this story foreshadows our lives and our deliverance by our Lord Jesus Christ.
For Israel, the God of love and mercy selects this ordinary shepherd Moses to return to Egypt and to bring his people out of slavery. Moses knows his own capacities and his ordinary station, and not only here, but repeatedly in the accounts that follow, Moses tries to reject the leadership role. The truth is, however, that Moses does not have to rely on himself. "I will be with you," God assures him, "and will lead my delivered people back to this mountain" (v. 12).
Moses, however, has no previous acquaintance with this God who has confronted him, and neither do his enslaved people. The Lord has told him that the One who speaks to him is the same God who spoke to his father and grandfather and great-grandfather before him. His forbears knew this God, but the present generation of Israelites do not. How do they know they can trust his Word? -- a question that always arises when we have no acquaintance with God. If Moses can learn the God's name, then he can summon the deity to come to their aid. So Moses asks God's name.
There have been various scholarly translations of what the Lord replies. In Hebrew, he says 'ehyeh 'asher 'ehyeh. Popularly, that has been rendered, "I am who I am." But a lot of linguistic evidence points to the fact that what the name means is "I will indeed be with you," a promise encompassed in "Yahweh," the Hebrew name for the Lord. God has assured Moses that he will be with him, in verse 12. But that hasn't been enough for Moses. He wants a guarantee by learning God's name, in order to be able to command God to his side. The Lord God of hosts is not commanded, however, by any human being. And so, when asked his name, God repeats his promise, "I will indeed be with you." And ever after, Israel is to call God by the name of "He who is indeed with you." With that promise alone, Moses is to return to Egypt and confront the ruler of the Egyptian Empire. Moses' faith is to consist in clinging to God's promise.
Is that not also the one assurance given to us as we struggle through life? Jesus Christ promises us, "Lo, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). We have no other guarantee than that. We are required to walk by faith and not by sight, to cling to that promise and to believe it when all the evidence seems to contradict it. But the Lord who makes that promise to us delivered us from our slavery to sin and death, and made us children of God, and showed us by an empty tomb that he is the victor over all of life's ills and even death. The Lord is with us. He is faithful. And in the power of his Spirit, we can stand, come what may.
Lutheran Option: Jeremiah 15:15-21
We know more about the inner life of the prophet Jeremiah than about any other prophet of the Old Testament, because we have this passage and others like it, called "Jeremiah's Confessions" (cf. 17:14-18; 20:7-12, 14-18). They come from the end of the seventh century B.C., when Jeremiah's prophecies of judgment on Judah have not yet been fulfilled.
Jeremiah has preached and preached that disaster is coming upon his sinful people, as the Lord has given him utterance, and nothing has happened. His words haven't come to pass. As a result, he has become a laughing stock among his compatriots (cf. 20:7) and is daily persecuted by them (15:15). In his situation of distress, he therefore becomes blasphemous toward God, accusing God of being to him a "deceitful brook" (v. 18), of being like one of those wadis in the desert that run with water after the spring rains, but that quickly dry up and yield nothing.
Jeremiah cannot understand what God has done to him. God gave him his words. They certainly came from the Lord, from outside of the prophet and not from his own mind or musings or conscience -- such is the meaning of "Thy words were found, and I ate them" (v. 16). And those words were a source of joy to the prophet, because God paid him the honor of being a servant and prophet of his Lord. Despite Jeremiah's initial hatred of the task, he had found satisfaction in being called by God's name and by entering into intimate communion with his Lord.
His role, however, had been a hard one from the first. Jeremiah had to become a "sign," a sign that God was withdrawing his grace from Judah, and so Jeremiah was allowed no manifestations of the grace of God. He couldn't marry; he couldn't attend a party; he could not even go to a funeral, because all of those were gifts of God's grace. So, he says, "I sat alone, because thy hand was upon me" (v. 17). God had deceived him, he thought, and he cries out in our text in anger and anguish.
Usually such laments are followed in the Old Testament by assurances of God's comfort and salvation, but not here. Instead, God rebukes his prophet. Jeremiah had been unfaithful. He had spoken words that were "worthless" and that were not God's words. He needed to repent and return to the Lord (v. 19). If he would do so, God would be with him and enable him to stand against all his persecutors. God would deliver Jeremiah, but Jeremiah had to be faithful (vv. 19-21).
You and I are not prophets of the Lord, but certainly when we are confronted by the struggles and sufferings of life, we, too, cry out, "How could God do this to me?" or "God has deserted me!" But perhaps we need to ask ourselves first of all, "Have I deserted God?" The Lord promises always to be with us, but we know joy and comfort and assurance from that fact only when we have not forgotten his presence, but have turned in every circumstance faithfully to him.
Some commentators would like to turn the bush's flame into a normal happening, maintaining that it possesses a natural flame-like foliage, or that it has a resin that sometimes ignites in the heat. But the point of the story is that nothing here is "natural" and earthly. God is on the scene, and God is not encompassed within the sphere of this world. Moses must remove his shoes, because where God is, there is the supernatural realm of holiness, with all its power, and there Moses must not even look, for no man can see the glory of God and live.
God uses the burning bush to get Moses' attention, but it is with his Word that God communicates with the shepherd, just as it is finally by his Word, speaking through scripture and sermon, that God communicates with us. And the central message of God's Word is always that of mercy. God sees the affliction of his enslaved people, God hears their cry for help from whatever corner, God knows their suffering, and God will come down to deliver them (vv. 7-8; cf. 2:24-25). Is that not always the love of God that is poured out upon us -- that our Lord sees and hears and knows our lives of enslavement to sin and death; that he hears our prayers for deliverance; and that he comes down in his Son to share our suffering and even our death? The love of God is manifested toward his people from the very beginning here in the Old Testament, and this story foreshadows our lives and our deliverance by our Lord Jesus Christ.
For Israel, the God of love and mercy selects this ordinary shepherd Moses to return to Egypt and to bring his people out of slavery. Moses knows his own capacities and his ordinary station, and not only here, but repeatedly in the accounts that follow, Moses tries to reject the leadership role. The truth is, however, that Moses does not have to rely on himself. "I will be with you," God assures him, "and will lead my delivered people back to this mountain" (v. 12).
Moses, however, has no previous acquaintance with this God who has confronted him, and neither do his enslaved people. The Lord has told him that the One who speaks to him is the same God who spoke to his father and grandfather and great-grandfather before him. His forbears knew this God, but the present generation of Israelites do not. How do they know they can trust his Word? -- a question that always arises when we have no acquaintance with God. If Moses can learn the God's name, then he can summon the deity to come to their aid. So Moses asks God's name.
There have been various scholarly translations of what the Lord replies. In Hebrew, he says 'ehyeh 'asher 'ehyeh. Popularly, that has been rendered, "I am who I am." But a lot of linguistic evidence points to the fact that what the name means is "I will indeed be with you," a promise encompassed in "Yahweh," the Hebrew name for the Lord. God has assured Moses that he will be with him, in verse 12. But that hasn't been enough for Moses. He wants a guarantee by learning God's name, in order to be able to command God to his side. The Lord God of hosts is not commanded, however, by any human being. And so, when asked his name, God repeats his promise, "I will indeed be with you." And ever after, Israel is to call God by the name of "He who is indeed with you." With that promise alone, Moses is to return to Egypt and confront the ruler of the Egyptian Empire. Moses' faith is to consist in clinging to God's promise.
Is that not also the one assurance given to us as we struggle through life? Jesus Christ promises us, "Lo, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). We have no other guarantee than that. We are required to walk by faith and not by sight, to cling to that promise and to believe it when all the evidence seems to contradict it. But the Lord who makes that promise to us delivered us from our slavery to sin and death, and made us children of God, and showed us by an empty tomb that he is the victor over all of life's ills and even death. The Lord is with us. He is faithful. And in the power of his Spirit, we can stand, come what may.
Lutheran Option: Jeremiah 15:15-21
We know more about the inner life of the prophet Jeremiah than about any other prophet of the Old Testament, because we have this passage and others like it, called "Jeremiah's Confessions" (cf. 17:14-18; 20:7-12, 14-18). They come from the end of the seventh century B.C., when Jeremiah's prophecies of judgment on Judah have not yet been fulfilled.
Jeremiah has preached and preached that disaster is coming upon his sinful people, as the Lord has given him utterance, and nothing has happened. His words haven't come to pass. As a result, he has become a laughing stock among his compatriots (cf. 20:7) and is daily persecuted by them (15:15). In his situation of distress, he therefore becomes blasphemous toward God, accusing God of being to him a "deceitful brook" (v. 18), of being like one of those wadis in the desert that run with water after the spring rains, but that quickly dry up and yield nothing.
Jeremiah cannot understand what God has done to him. God gave him his words. They certainly came from the Lord, from outside of the prophet and not from his own mind or musings or conscience -- such is the meaning of "Thy words were found, and I ate them" (v. 16). And those words were a source of joy to the prophet, because God paid him the honor of being a servant and prophet of his Lord. Despite Jeremiah's initial hatred of the task, he had found satisfaction in being called by God's name and by entering into intimate communion with his Lord.
His role, however, had been a hard one from the first. Jeremiah had to become a "sign," a sign that God was withdrawing his grace from Judah, and so Jeremiah was allowed no manifestations of the grace of God. He couldn't marry; he couldn't attend a party; he could not even go to a funeral, because all of those were gifts of God's grace. So, he says, "I sat alone, because thy hand was upon me" (v. 17). God had deceived him, he thought, and he cries out in our text in anger and anguish.
Usually such laments are followed in the Old Testament by assurances of God's comfort and salvation, but not here. Instead, God rebukes his prophet. Jeremiah had been unfaithful. He had spoken words that were "worthless" and that were not God's words. He needed to repent and return to the Lord (v. 19). If he would do so, God would be with him and enable him to stand against all his persecutors. God would deliver Jeremiah, but Jeremiah had to be faithful (vv. 19-21).
You and I are not prophets of the Lord, but certainly when we are confronted by the struggles and sufferings of life, we, too, cry out, "How could God do this to me?" or "God has deserted me!" But perhaps we need to ask ourselves first of all, "Have I deserted God?" The Lord promises always to be with us, but we know joy and comfort and assurance from that fact only when we have not forgotten his presence, but have turned in every circumstance faithfully to him.
