EXODUS

EXODUS Today, I'm in Lexington, KY.  I will be catching a flight home this afternoon.  I spoke in college chapel yesterday and will again today at Commonwealth Baptist College.  I have had the privilege of speaking in many fine Baptist Colleges across America.  All of them are doing a great job.  I especially enjoyed spending time with Dr. Jim Jorgensen, who has been a friend for many years, and Paul and Amy Jorgensen last evening who used to work for us at Grand View Baptist Church and are doing a great job here in Kentucky.    In reading in Exodus this morning, I have just a few thoughts to share with you.  Here they are:   1) TAKING THE BONES- In Exodus 13:19, it says:  "And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him:"  Remember in Gen. 50:25 it says: "And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence."  So, in verse 26 it said: "So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt."  Now, in Exodus 13, as they leave Egypt, they pick up Joseph's coffin and carry it towards the Promised Land.  Keep in mind…. Joseph died 359 years earlier!!  They will carry his coffin across the Red Sea, to the Promised Land, back through the wilderness for 40 more years, and then finally into the land of Canaan.  Wow!!  Don't you see, Joseph wanted to be identified with God's People, not the Egyptians.  Who do you want to be identified with? Isn't that why we go to church?  Isn't that why we associate with other Christians?  Yes it is!  Don't wait to died and hope we carry your bones around…. Meet with us in church while we are alive and can enjoy your presence.   2) THERE IS A PATTERN- In Exodus 25:9, it says: "According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it."  God showed Moses the pattern for these things while Moses was up on Mt. Sinai.  In Solomon's day, again God tells him to build the temple according to the pattern that God showed him.  In the New Testament, the word "pattern" is exchanged for the word "example".  We are told that Jesus is our example and then we are told that we are to be an example.  May I say, that we are only a good example as we follow our example!  A pattern of a pattern is still good as long as it was cut from the same pattern.  All these 2,000 years since Christ, we can still be a good pattern because our Pattern (Jesus Christ) has not changed one bit!  Neither should we!  I'm afraid that we live in a day where our patterns are not matching up with our master pattern, Jesus Christ!  But remember this:  There is a Pattern!!   3) WHERE GOD MEETS WITH US- In Exodus 30:6 it says: "And thou shalt put it before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee."  God met with the high priest over the mercy seat.  The mercy seat sat upon the Ark of the Covenant.  It was this golden lid where the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled to atone for the sins of the people.  The atonement for sin, allowed God to meet with man!  The mercy seat was the place of atonement.  In the New Testament we see not a place of atonement, but a person of atonement…. Jesus Christ!  1 John 2:2  "And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."   The word "propitiation" is the word for "mercy seat".  It means that Jesus is our atonement, and that because of the person of Jesus Christ, God the Father meets with us.  When we trusted Christ as our Savior, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for our sins became our "propitiation" (atonement, mercy seat), then He indwelt us so that this "propitiation" is carried around with us in the person of Christ who indwells us, and NOW… God the Father can meet with us not in a place, but every place we should ever go, because Christ goes with us everywhere!  WOW!!!  It's God's truth wonderful?  This is great!  Hope it blesses your heart as it does mine.   Lord, thank you for this day.  Thank you for your presence and your propitiation.  Thank you for being my God.  I love you Lord.  I know you are watching to see if I'm watching you at work in my life.  Lord, my ears are open to hear Your voice and my eyes are open to see You at work today in my life.  Tune my ears to hear Thee more clearly and give me clear sight to see Thee more clearly.  Thank you Jesus…. Thank you!  Amen. Pastor Mike Mutchler