Looking Ahead

Acts 7:30–36

“After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the LORD say: ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look. “Then the LORD said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I have indeed seen the oppression of My people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’ “This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness.”

The Living Life writer notes that the Apostle Stephen draws a parallel from the life of Moses and our LORD Jesus; “Stephen is setting up his discourse to reveal that just as the Israelites rejected Moses, these religious leaders have rejected Jesus, who was sent by God to be the Savior of the world… Like Moses, Jesus spent time in the wilderness, descended from a place of privilege and comfort to be with His own people, and came to set His people free from bondage.” Let us thank God for this constant grace to us, from history, we see His hand always outstretched and in our time, on our side of Christ’s resurrection, we have been liberated indeed by His ultimate plan of redemption! There are still those who do not believe, exactly like St. Stephen’s audience we see the faces of our friends and family incredulous, apathetic, and maybe even scornful of the Good News, their hearts are darkened as was ours, and the Jews and the teachers of the Law at the time of the apostles. The LORD expected this, He did say to them, “I have come in My Father's name, and you do not accept Me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God? “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say (John 5:43–46)?” Our accuser would be that which we ground our morality on, that which we base our ‘human rights’ on, and the rituals and practices, the very laws themselves that rein in our collective human nature, for these testify in favour  of God as its solid and transcendent foundation. In the case particularly of the Jews, it is the Mosaic Law that acts like a mirror, they can go and see the broken image of God, but cannot completely restore it unless they accept Christ. And Moses did tell them of Christ, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to Him (Deut 18:15).” It is Christ, to whom Moses himself and the prophets attended to: “After six days Jesus took with Him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus (Matt 17:1–3).” St. Stephen exhorted the Jews to let the faithful of their shared history and traditions speak for themselves as a testament to Jesus Christ, and so does the writer of Hebrews: “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be ill-treated 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. (Heb 11:24–26).” Like Moses, like Stephen, we live, we share, we intercede for the sake of Christ. Let us look ahead to our reward in Him and His glorious presence this week and all the days of our lives.