Worldly
people create problems (Exodus 17:3). Moses asks, ‘What shall I do...?’
(Exodus 17:4). Indecision asks, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’ (Exodus
17:7). He gives victory (Exodus 17:8-9, 13). Joshua is being equipped
for special service - ‘in the ears of Joshua’ (Exodus 17:14). God’s
great concern is that His people move forward together. The work is not
to be left to the few (18:18). God is looking to faithful servants who
will ‘bear the burden’ together (18:21-22). There is much to be done,
but we must never forget this: ‘prayer and the ministry of the Word’
(Acts 6:1-4). You may not be a Moses or a Joshua, but you can play your
part. We rejoice in who God is and what He has done for us. Assured of
His presence with us, let us worship Him: ‘Blessed be the Lord...’
(18:10-11).
We are to worship the Lord with joyful thanksgiving.
‘Come,
let us sing for joy to the Lord... Let us come before Him with
thanksgiving... Come, let us bow down in worship...’ (Psalm 95:1-2, 6).
We are to worship the Lord with joyful thanksgiving. We rejoice in the
Lord. We give thanks for His love. He is ‘the great God’. He is ‘our
God’. He is the God of creation - ‘In His hand are the depths of the
earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him. The sea is His, for He made
it, and His hands formed the dry land’. He is the God of salvation -
‘We are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care’ (Psalm
95:3-5, 7). If we are to learn to worship the Lord with joyful
thanksgiving, we must open our hearts to Him: ‘Today, if you hear His
voice, do not harden your hearts’ (Psalm 95:7-8). When we hear the call
to worship, we must open our hearts to the Spirit of worship.
In our worship, we are being prepared for God’s heavenly and eternal glory.
God
has great things in store for His people! (a) ‘Much more’ (Romans
5:9-10): ‘Justified by Christ’s blood’, ‘reconciled to God’, ‘We shall
be saved by Christ from the wrath of God’, ‘saved by His life’. (b)
‘Much more’ (Romans 5:15, 17): ‘The grace of God’ has ‘abounded for
many’. In Christ, we have ‘received the abundance of grace and the free
gift of righteousness’. Through Him, we shall ‘reign in life’. (c) ‘More
than that’ (Romans 5:3): Our pathway to eternal glory will not be easy.
There will be ‘suffering’. God has given us a glimpse of our eternal
destiny: ‘grace reigning through righteousness to eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord’ (Romans 5:21). ‘We rejoice in our hope of sharing
the glory of God’ (Romans 5:2). Having caught sight of the heavenly and
eternal glory, we see our ‘suffering’ in a new light, the light of
‘God’s love’ (Romans 5:3-5).
In our worship, we are equipped for sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Here,
we see Jesus’ ministry of love. He brings the Samaritan woman out of
her bondage to sin and into the joy of His salvation. Jesus comes to the
woman in love. His love overcomes cultural divisions. His love breaks
down cultural barriers (John 4:9). This is not simply the story of one
woman. It is the story of ‘many Samaritans’ coming to faith in Christ
(John 4:39). There are two ‘stages’ in their coming to faith. First,
they ’believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony’ (John 4:39).
Second, ‘they believed because of His Word’ (John 4:41). The Samaritans
came to trust Jesus as ‘the Saviour of the world’ (John 4:42). The woman
said that ‘salvation is of the Jews’ (John 4:22). It is also ‘to the
Greek’ (Romans 1:16). The Gospel is for all. Pray that the human word
will be empowered by the divine Word (1 Thessalonians 1:5; 2:13).
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