Moses asked God for two things.
He received neither in full.
God's glory.
The land beyond Jordan.
Then Moses died.
Centuries later, Moses appeared in glory beside Christ.
Put Exodus, Deuteronomy, and the Gospels side by side.
Moses asked God to show him His glory. God hid him in a cleft. Moses saw His back parts. Not His face. (Exodus 33:18-23)
Moses asked to cross Jordan and see the good land. God sent him up Pisgah. Moses saw it. But he did not cross. (Deuteronomy 3:25-27)
Then Moses died in Moab.
The story looks finished.
Matthew 17 opens it again.
Christ takes Peter, James, and John up a high mountain.
His face shines as the sun.
Then this:
"And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him." (Matthew 17:3)
Luke adds that Moses appeared in glory. He spoke with Christ about the decease Christ would accomplish at Jerusalem.
The text does not promise that every no becomes a yes later.
It shows something better.
The lawgiver is there.
The prophet is there.
But heaven points to the Son.
Moses is not the ending.
Christ is.
The Bible begins and ends with weddings in places of paradise: Adam and Eve in Eden and Christ and the church in the New Jerusalem.
The entire history of the world is the journey from the first wedding to the last.
It’s an entirely different view of history, isn’t it?
We are steadily moving toward a party, a feast.
When you think of the end of this world, therefore, lift up your head and smile. Our Bridegroom comes.
He will embrace his church, his Bride, and we will enter with joy into “the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:9).
Ever get lost trying to line up all the kings, prophets, and books of the Bible? This chart gives a bird’s-eye view of how it all fits together... and ultimately pointing to the true King, Prophet, and Priest - Jesus Christ.
There’s an amazing contrast found between Genesis 11 (Tower of Babel) and Genesis 12 (The Call of Abraham).
In short, there are two ways of living:
1. Creating our own story and trying to build our own name.
2. Finding ourselves in God’s story and letting God name us.
You know Jonah, the guy swallowed by a whale?
Well, that’s the least interesting part of his story — what happens next is far more intriguing.
The Book of Jonah will turn your entire conception of God on its head… (thread) 🧵
He could have washed his hands of his fiancée, divorced her, and left her and her baby to fend for themselves. He could have saved his own skin and hightailed it all alone when Herod’s soldiers came to Bethlehem with unsheathed swords. He could have bailed on them in Egypt and playboyed himself into a new bed with a new wife.
He could have done many things. Instead, Joseph chose to be a faithful man, a husband to Mary, and to help raise the boy who had brought so many problems into their life.
Scripture records not a single syllable of Joseph. But his deeds speak volumes. In his vocation of husband to Mary and “Abba” to Jesus, Joseph is a mask of God. The God who doesn’t wash his hands of us. Doesn’t divorce his church. Doesn’t hightail it when the going gets tough. Instead, like Joseph, our God stands with us in all dangers and protects us from all evil.
As we remember and thank God for Joseph, we also remember the Abba whom he served, and who daily devotes himself to us, his beloved children in Jesus Christ.
Moses spent forty years thinking he was somebody; forty years learning he was nobody; and forty years discovering what God can do with a nobody.
Dwight L. Moody