Commemoration of Moses
September 4, 2015
The Lord be with you
September 4 is reserved for the Old Testament saint, Moses,
on our church calendar. In this we follow the liturgical calendar of the
Byzantine Church and the calendar developed by Wilhelm Löhe back in the 19th
century.
Moses was born in Egypt several generations after Joseph brought
his father, Jacob, and his brothers there to escape a famine in the land of
Canaan. The descendants of Jacob had been enslaved by the Egyptians and were
ordered to kill all their male children. When Moses was born, his mother put
him in a basket and set it afloat in the Nile River. He was found by Pharaoh’s
daughter and raised as her son (Exodus 2:1-10). At age forty, Moses killed an
Egyptian taskmaster and fled to the land of Midian, where he worked as a shepherd
for forty years. Then the Lord called him to return to Egypt and tell Pharaoh, “Let
My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness” (Exodus 5:1).
Eventually Pharaoh gave in, and after the Israelites celebrated the first
Passover, Moses led them out. At the Red Sea the Egyptian army was destroyed,
and the Israelites passed to safety on dry land (Exodus 12-15). At Mount Sinai,
they were given the Law and erected the tabernacle (Exodus 19-40). But because
of disobedience, they had to wander in the wilderness for forty years. Moses
himself was not allowed to enter the Promised Land, though God allowed him to
view it (Deuteronomy 34). In the New Testament Moses is referred to as a
lawgiver and prophet. He, along with Elijah, appeared with Jesus at our Lord’s
transfiguration (Matthew 17; Mark 9; Luke 9). The first five books of the Bible
are attributed to him. One often overlooked feature of these books is that over
25% of them deal with the worship life of the Israelites (even the reason Moses
gave Pharaoh to release the Hebrews was so that they could go and worship him).
This reflects the impotence God puts on corporate worship. Quite a few have
noted the parallels between Moses and Jesus: persecuted as a child; time in
Egypt; deliverer; and so on.
Prayer: Lord God, heavenly Father, through the prophet
Moses, You began the prophetic pattern of teaching Your people the true faith
and demonstrating through miracles Your presence in creation to heal it of its
brokenness. Grant that Your Church may see in Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
the final end-times prophet whose teaching and miracles continue in Your Church
through the healing medicine of the Gospel and the Sacraments; through Jesus
Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Blessings in Christ,
Pastor Rickert
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