Christmas Karaoke

A series on the story of redemption
The story of Moses: Part II
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Exodus 12:1-30 

[Everybody has a story. Even God has one. His is a story about love and redemption and faithfulness. In this series we are going to take a closer look at God’s story through the lives of the people that He touched. How their story became His story of redemption. And how your story is also a part of it.]

  

Twenty years ago, after our Christmas Eve service, we decided to drive around and look at the Christmas lights. Afterwards, we were hungry, but because it was Christmas Eve the only restaurants that were open were Chinese.

 

We finally found a place called Lee Garden. It was a family style restaurant nestled in a small strip mall on a side street. The food was good and reasonably priced. Plus, they played Christmas karaoke music!

 

Ever since then, when we’re home for Christmas Eve, we’ve eaten at a Chinese restaurant. It’s become a Christmas family tradition, minus the karaoke music.

 

Israel has a tradition that was started when Moses led them out of slavery in Egypt. It also included a meal. Truthfully though, it has a much deeper meaning than a spur of the moment family tradition.

 

Following his call at the burning bush, Moses returned to Egypt to tell Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go into the wilderness to worship the Lord. Of course, Pharaoh said no. In fact, despite devastating plagues that the Lord sent on Egypt, he said no ten times. Finally, he relinquished when the plague was for every first-born son to die.

 

Except the Israelites were saved from this heart-breaking loss when the Lord gave them instructions for the first Passover. They were to smear the blood of a goat or lamb on the top and sides of the doorpost of their house.

 

^{12 "}On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn son and firstborn male animal in the land of Egypt. I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the Lord! ¹³ But the blood on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the houses where you are staying. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. This plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt."      NLT

 

The Lord instructed Moses to have Israel continue the Passover permanently, making it a tradition. The Passover is how Israel remembers the Lord delivering them out of slavery and into the Promised Land.

           

Traditions can be born out of many circumstances. For us, our Christmas Eve tradition was the result of being hungry. For the Israelites, it was the fulfillment of a generational covenant.

 

Now… fast forward to the first century when Jesus returned to Jerusalem for Passover. Like the blood of a lamb smeared over the doorpost during the first Passover, the blood of the Lamb of God was shed to save us from death. Not the death of a plague, but the death that results from our own sinful nature.

 

²⁹ The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!          NIV   John 1

 

God’s plan of redemption continues today.

 

^{13b "}When I see the blood, I will pass over you."     NLT

 

Copyright 2023 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

“The Ten Commandments”

A series on the story of redemption
The story of Moses.
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Exodus 3 

[Everybody has a story. Even God has one. His is a story about love and redemption and faithfulness. In this series we are going to take a closer look at God’s story through the lives of the people that He touched. How their story became His story of redemption. And how your story is also a part of it.]

In the 1956 classic movie “The Ten Commandments”, Charlton Heston played Moses in a larger-than-life portrayal. With the main points of the storyline taken from the Bible, it was basically the story of Moses’ life.

 

Biblically, there were three life changing events for Moses. If it wasn’t for these three events, he wouldn’t have been in the right place at the right time. They were pivotal in Moses’ story. And they were also pivotal in God’s story.

 

The first was when he was just a baby. In order to save his life, his mother placed him into a basket in the Nile River. Ironically, Pharaoh’s daughter discovered him, and she raised him as her own son with all the privileges of a prince.

 

The second event happened when he was a grown man. He witnessed an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave. In retaliation, Moses killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. However, when Pharaoh learned what had happened, he set out to kill him. So Moses became a fugitive and fled to Midian.

 

The third event occurred at a well when he rescued the daughters of Jethro, a Midianite priest. Jethro’s hospitality to Moses ultimately led to him staying with Jethro, marrying one of his daughters and starting a family.

 

Here’s the confluence of these three events. One day as Moses was tending Jethro’s sheep on Horeb, the mountain of God, he saw a burning bush. Although it was on fire, it wasn’t burning up. As he drew closer, God spoke to him through the bush.

 

⁷ The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. ⁸ So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey…. ¹⁰ So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”     NIV

 

God may not speak to you through a burning bush. But he can speak to you through the story of Moses. There is much that we can learn about the Lord from his story. Not only how he worked in Moses’ life, but also how he works in ours.

 

For instance, God worked through Moses’ circumstances to bring him to the burning bush. He also works through our circumstances. But he doesn’t always do it in the way that we expect him to. Just like Moses certainly wasn’t expecting the Lord to call him to lead Israel out of Egypt.

 

Moses had many doubts about obeying God’s call. So the Lord promised Moses that he would be with him. That same promise is true for us today.

 

The Lord is faithful. In fact, his faithfulness can be seen through his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and continued through Moses. That same covenant was fulfilled through the life, death and resurrection of his one and only son, Jesus.

 

The title of the movie was “The Ten Commandments”. But a more apropos title would have been, “Great is Thy Faithfulness”. Not quite as catchy, but more descriptive of the story of Moses’ life. It’s also true for your story and mine.

 

Copyright 2023 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

Stairway to Heaven

A series on the story of redemption
The story of Jacob.
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Genesis 28:10-22 

[Everybody has a story. Even God has one. His is a story about love and redemption and faithfulness. In this series we are going to take a closer look at God’s story through the lives of the people that He touched. How their story became His story of redemption. And how your story is also a part of it.]

  

“Stairway to Heaven” is an iconic rock song released in 1971 by the English band Led Zeppelin. Even though it was never released as a single, many believe it is the greatest rock song of all time.

 

The song is about a woman who accumulates money, only to find out the hard way that her life has no meaning and will not get her into heaven. For the most part though, the lyrics are vague. But the music is memorable and classic.

 

In the memorable and classic story of Jacob, he confronts his own “stairway to heaven”. However, it’s the result of a circuitous journey that began with a sibling rivalry with his twin brother Esau. Even at birth, the rivalry had already begun as Jacob grasped the heel of his older brother Esau.

 

It was made worse by the fact that their father Isaac loved Esau more, and their mother Rebekah loved Jacob more. The rivalry escalated when Esau impulsively sold his birthright for a bowl of stew to the shrewd Jacob. Later, Jacob schemed with his mother to steal the older son’s blessing.

 

Finally, the sibling rivalry came to a boil when Esau made plans to murder Jacob once their father had passed away. Learning of his plans, their mother schemed with Jacob, sending him away to live with her brother Laban.

 

During this trip, Jacob had a dream one night where the Lord confirmed his covenant.

 

¹² He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³ There above the stairs stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. ^14b …All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.           NIV

 

The stairs in Jacob’s dream, would bring to mind those found in a Mesopotamian religious structure called a Ziggurat. It was a tower constructed for the purpose of worshipping a local god making it possible for worshippers to reach their god.

 

However, Jacob’s Ziggurat could be a metaphor with dual meanings highlighting God’s story of redemption. First, it could be God’s covenant with the nation of Israel. Second, it could be his one and only son Jesus who truly is the “stairway to heaven”.

 

⁵¹ Then Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.”                John 1            NLT

 

The Lord worked through an intense sibling rivalry between Jacob and Esau to bring his plan of redemption into the world. It was his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that continued through his one and only son, Jesus.

 

Jacob’s story was God’s story. It’s our story too. It’s the ancient story of redemption that continues today. It’s as new as your story and mine.

 

Copyright 2023 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com