March 21, 2021
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Deuteronomy 31:1-8
This week we’re inspired by the song, “I’ll Stand By You” by the Pretenders.
Does knowing that you have a friend that will stand by you help you face the difficulties and uncertainties of life? Maybe you’re facing a difficult situation or an uncertain future today? Maybe there’s someone here who’s facing a surgery. The outcome is uncertain. It causes fear and anxiety. Someone else is starting a new job. Fear of the unknown, fear of failure beset you. Someone is planning to move to this area. Feelings of loneliness and uncertainty about the changes worry you. Someone is getting married, the date is set, the dress and the tuxes are ordered, but are you sure doing the right thing?
In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses told the Israelites that could face the future without fear knowing the Lord Himself would always stand by them. We can face the future without fear knowing that the Lord always stands by us.
April 7, 2020
THE LAW LEADS BUT ONLY GRACE SAVES Moses was 120 years old when he passed the reins of leadership to Joshua. He was forty years a prince of Egypt, forty years a shepherd of Midian and forty years leading Israel out of Egypt and through the wilderness. Now his job was finished. Moses, the Levite
April 7, 2017
Moses was 120 years old when he passed the reins of leadership to Joshua. He was forty years a prince of Egypt, forty years a shepherd of Midian and forty years leading Israel out of Egypt and through the wilderness. Now his job was finished. Moses, the Lawgiver and the Levite, had led Israel to the Promised Land, but Joshua, the faithful servant of Moses, from the tribe of Judah, was the one to lead them into it.
Two spiritual types are seen in these two men. Moses represents God’s law. And Joshua, whose name means, “Jehovah’s salvation,” represents Jesus (essentially the same name in Hebrew: Joshua – “Yehoshua” and Jesus – “Yeshua”). The law can only lead one to salvation, but is powerless to save. Whereas, Jesus saves.
The apostle Paul described this relationship between law and Christ (i.e. “grace”). He said that the law was like a “tutor” leading us to our need for Christ (Gal. 3:24), but was “powerless” to save us. Therefore, God sent Jesus.
“For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering” (Rom. 8:3).