Today's readings are Exodus 18.5-27 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Ex.+18.5-27 ) and Hebrews 12.1-24 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Heb.+12.1-24 ).
I confess to having a life and career which are often tiring. Like Moses, sometimes I wonder why all these stubborn stiff-necked people in my work, local church, neighborhood, and family won't quite bugging me with their needs and desires. I expect we all feel that way, especially when we're tired or would rather be doing something other than what we are doing at the moment. Just think how much you love being called on the phone right when you are about to drink your tea, eat your ice cream, or see your favorite basketball team win a championship.
Like all the people who are reading this blog, or ever will, or the other people who don't read it, I live in a world full of sin and trouble. On the rare occasions when I have some wisdom and could make a difference in the world, it seems there are so many things tugging at me in every direction that I can't make much headway. I think about Moses and his various layers of helpers. While this is a great plan, and one that bears a lot of good fruit when implemented not only within the body of Christ but within business, education, and all the rest of society, we still have to wonder how frustrating it must have been for Moses to lead a large nation in this manner. I'm sure he was constantly interrupted, dragged in different directions, and frustrated in his attempts to proclaim God's riches to Israel. "Why can't they just do what they should?"
When we realize we are in such a world, leading some parts of it and causing trouble for people in other parts of it, let's be thankful for what we read right at the end of our passage in Hebrews. We don't go to the mountain where God gives his commandments. We go to the fulfillment of that mountain. We are citizens in God's city, along with the angels. And it's the time of a festival. Our God is out to make things pleasant for us. He's lavishing us with food and drink. We are invited into the ruling assembly, and it's the assembly led by and conformed into the image of Jesus. We don't bear the responsibility for judging, and we ultimately are delivered from sin and the fruits of sin ourselves since we are in the very presence of God. But the picture gets better yet. We have come "to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant" (v. 24a, ESV), who has borne our sin for us and received the penalty for our sin. His blood shed before God speaks deliverance, unlike Abel's which spoke condemnation. Ultimately, our hope in Christ is hope in his perfect redemption, his perfect righteousness, and God's perfectly righteous judgment.
It doesn't matter who interrupts me. I am at the festival of my God. May he graciously grant that I draw the person who interrupts me next into the very presence of the living God, the ruler of the festal assembly, through Christ's blood shed on my behalf.
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