Sermon Audio
February 1, 2015
Putting God to the Test!
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts
be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer. AMEN.
Since Sarah is
in Kindergarten, I thought that she would attend school for her first official
year, learn how to play well with other kids, start mastering her numbers and
letters and maybe even begin to learn to read.
When we received her first report card, I was in for a shock. It wasn’t that she had gotten bad grades or
been sent to the principals office. The
standards of learning that are used presently require the use of a four letter
word, ‘test’. Kids these days like Sarah
take a test in order to determine how well they know their colors, their
numbers, how well they write with a pencil or cut with scissors and even if
they can count to 100 by 10’s. But
still, a test for a standard could be a good thing, but for the Israelite
people from our lesson this morning, ‘Putting God to the test’ isn’t as
positive as one might think.
God creator of
the Universe, giver of the Israelites very life, Who had a vision of what would
occur in the future was being put to the test by them. Consider the Israelite people had been
enslaved in Egypt by Pharoah. Moses had
been born and God had used Moses to rescue them and deliver them from bondage. These same people had experienced the plagues
that God had sent including, water into blood, frogs, flies, boils, locusts and
even hail. Then the first celebration of
Passover, where the Angel of Death took the first born child of every home that
did not place blood on the door post.
And the people of God had escaped into the Wilderness.
Now after all
of the miracles God had performed through Moses, because they didn’t have water
to drink or to bathe in or give their animals, they were complaining. Was it a thirst of their body, or a lack of
faith they had that God would provide for them?
Probably all of the above, for the Israelite people asked a simple, but
profound question, “Is the Lord among us, or not?” They were putting God to the test and testing
God and His resolve to help them.
How often do we
do the same thing? How often do we pray,
“God if you will only…”? More than
likely this occurs daily, if not every hour of every day by a lot of people. Whether it is the tests that we took when we
were in elementary or high school, the wrestling matches or basketball games we
played, or even in our relationships.
When we saw the pretty girl who worked in the next room or we saw
walking down the street. Even in the
Ultimate Life, the story line revolves around an encounter by Red Stevens and
his asking the girl out that he had seen walking down the main street of town.
But what
happens, when we don’t get the response, the outcome or what our heart desires
from our ‘test of God’. Whether of
grades, the crop we planted and tended all winter or summer or even the match
with an opponent. We quickly judge God and
blame God and doubt God even cares for or about us. We doubt God, because He is the easy
target. God is the one Who we can hurl
insults, innuendo and anger at verbally and try even physically but even in our
mind, heart and spirit by our doubt of His existence.
Clearly we are
no different than the Israelite people.
For the Israelite people, they had a challenge that we cannot claim
today. If you read carefully, our text
is from the Book of Exodus. Though they
had experienced God in clear and unmistakable ways, they did not have any
written ‘laws’, except what was on their heart.
For the 10 Commandments had not been carved on the stone on top of the mountain
as of yet. But we who gather here today are
not only separated by 3500 years, but we have laws, including, the Ten
Commandments and even a text we call the Holy Bible. But we still like the people of Israel, ‘put
God to the test’! We doubt God, because
unlike the Israelite people who had personally experienced God’s miracles and
salvation from the Egyptians and Pharaoh, we have not had a clear and tangible
experience with God. Or have we?
When the
Israelite people ‘tested God’, they had experienced God through the work of
Moses. Moses was clearly the
intermediary between God and Man, but clearly, Moses was just a man. But for we who gather here at Emmanuel today,
we have a greater intermediary. It is
Jesus Christ.
Today as we
gather around the table of our Lord, we receive not only the gift of grace and
mercy of Jesus Christ precious Body and Blood, but especially the forgiveness
of sins, life and salvation. It is in,
through and by our receipt of the gift of Jesus Christ precious Body and Blood
around the altar that we have the most profound and tangible experience with
Jesus Christ, short of our being in heaven.
Yes, it isn’t like being hugged by our parents or children. It isn’t like our going on a cruise or
learning how to make cabinets. But what
we receive from the altar this morning in, with and under the bread and wine,
of the True Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, clearly and radically changes everyone
who receives it.
No longer do we
have to question or discern whether God is doing what He promised to do or put
God to the test like the Israelite people.
Because as the saying goes, the proof is in the pudding. In the meal we receive today we proclaim that
God ultimately sacrificed His Son, Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary in
order that we might be set free. We no
longer are bound by this world and the human desire to question and put God to
the test. When we receive the Sacrament
of Holy Communion, we proclaim, Jesus fulfilled the promises of God for all
time.
What we then have the opportunity to do is not
just believe that the promise is fulfilled, but we can live that. And this is exactly what will drive Satan
crazy. Unlike the Israelite people who
questioned God at every move, every opportunity and every twist and turn in the
path that led to Israel, we who gather here today can go on faith and trust in
the fulfillment found in Jesus Christ. For
Jesus Christ is not only the Rock that our church is built upon, but Jesus
Christ is the Rock of our Salvation that holds us up and will never let us
down. The Israelite people didn’t have a
book to follow, a story of a Savior, nor a building to go in and worship their
God. But we do!
God wants us to worship Him, trust Him and not
put Him to the test. For God has been
faithful and fulfilled His promise of His Son Jesus Christ. And God passed the ultimate test with and by His
offering His Son Jesus Christ, not for a select few, but for all of mankind,
including all of us saints gathered here at Emmanuel this morning. AMEN.
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