22 March 2012

22 March 2012



"Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people."


The LORD certainly does not forget us.  Yet in his wisdom he often waits for us to remind him of the promises he made in the past.  He waits until we remind him of his own kindness, compassion, and mercy.  


"Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel,
and how you swore to them by your own self, saying,
'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky;
and all this land that I promised,
I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.'"


It isn't as though he's forgotten.  Yet this causes the people to be spared. Moses reminds the LORD how he swore by his own self.  He reminds him how he took the initiative fully upon himself to see the promise through.  


"Then he spoke of exterminating them,
but Moses, his chosen one,
Withstood him in the breach
to turn back his destructive wrath."


It must mean that he wants our hearts to be willing to plead for his people even when they don't seem to deserve it.  Ultimately he wants us to have a heart like him that can love regardless of circumstance.  That is why we remind him of his mercy and love as we seek it from him.  He may withhold it directly so that it can be manifest in and through us as we plead with him.


Moses himself is ultimately pointing toward Jesus.  Moses standing in the breach for his people is an imperfect image of what Jesus does for us.  Yet neither one "comes in his own name" and seeking his own glory.  This makes them harder to accept because they aren't simply our equals.  We expose ourselves and make ourselves vulnerable when we accept their words.  Mercy and compassion can't come from our own efforts.  They can't come from a simply trade with an equal party.  They are in God alone, but we do not want to come to him to have life.


Let us trust in Jesus.  Let us rejoice in his light and hear the testimony his Father gives.
Let us search the Scriptures and hear them when they speak of him.  Then his word will 
remain in us and we will not forget the God who saves.