Seder 57 Sermon: Important Questions

 In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on February 15, 2025, Kyle Kettering observed that a number of questions are posed in Exodus 16-17, as well as in Jesus' related Passover discourse in John 6.  

Questions serve a number of purposes.  We ask them, Kyle noted, 

1. to learn something
2. to teach something
3. to expose something (e.g., God's question, "Who told you that you were naked?")
4. to emphasize something.

In Exodus 16:28, God asked the children of Israel an important question:  "How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?"  This suggests a big question for us as well:  Why do we sometimes find it so difficult to be obedient?

The Israelites ask a key question in Exodus 17:7:  "Is the LORD among us or not?"  During the difficult days of the Exodus, they had to learn what it would be like to walk with God.  Similarly, we have to learn what it is like to follow Jesus.  

Jesus' Passover discourse in John 6 raises some vital questions for Christians.  There Jesus identified himself as the true Bread of Life,  He is the lifegiver, and we need him just as much as we need food and water.  Kyle posed some vital questions:

Has Jesus become as essential to us as food and water?  Is our relationship with Jesus life-sustaining?

Seder 113: Sermon----A Question of Timing

In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on August 20, 2022, Kyle Kettering examined the "how long?" motif in the Bible.  He observed that the question has different meanings depending upon who is asking it.  

When God asks the question, it often means, "Where is trust?  How long will it be before my people trust me?"  That is the meaning of the question in Num 14 and in Exodus 16:28.  When Jesus asks the question is Luke 9:41, he is wondering how long it will take his disciples to be fully trained and able to take the Gospel to the world.  

On the other hand, when the question is asked by people---e.g., in Ps 13:1-2; 74:10---it often means, "Where is justice?  When will you punish the wicked?"  

These questions are two sides of the same coin, Kyle said.  God acts more slowly than we might like because he is patient with us.  He wants as many as possible to come to repentance so that they will not have to be judged (2 Peter 3:9).  Fortunately for us, his mercy outweighs his justice (Ex 34:6-7).  

For us, the important "how long" question is the one that God and Jesus are asking.  How long will we put off the spiritual work that needs to be done?

Seder 61: The Sabbath in the Book of Exodus

 The Sabbath commandment is mentioned six times in the book of Exodus.  Different messages about the significance of the Sabbath are communicated in these various passages.

In the Decalogue (Exod 20:8-11), the Sabbath is presented as a memorial of creation, so it is a time to acknowledge God as the creator and owner of everything.  All of the things that we have working on are gifts from him.  In keeping the Sabbath, we follow God's example.  On the 7th day of the creation week, he entered into a rest, not of inactivity, but of shalom---peace and well-being.  He invites us to join him, each week and forever.

As we read in Exodus 16, God used manna to teach Israel an important lesson (vv 22-26).  The manna from Sunday through Thursday did not keep overnight, but the manna from Friday did.  The Israelites could gather twice as much on Friday, and then they did not have to gather manna on the Sabbath.  Israel learned through the manna to rely on God for their daily provision.  Similarly, we learn through the Sabbath that we do not have to work every day.  We can rely on God to take care of us. 

I see a similar lesson in Exodus 34:21, which says that the Sabbath should be kept even when time-sensitive tasks lie ahead.

Exodus 23:12 says, "Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed."

This verse says that all God's creatures deserve a rest, and no one should enslaved.  

In Exodus 31:12-17 we see the Sabbath as a sign of the Mosaic covenant.  It was a time for the Israelites to remember who they were.  The Sabbath is not a sign of the Christian renewed covenant, but it is still important for us to regularly remember who we are and to draw closer to God  

In Exodus 35:2 the Sabbath is mentioned again, just before the description of the building of the tabernacle.  Building the tabernacle was an important project.  This was a place where God would dwell in the midst of the nation.  But work on the tabernacle still stopped every Sabbath.  As Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, the Sabbath can be viewed as a "sanctuary in time," a temporal space in which to enjoy God's presence. 

The book of Exodus contains a number of valuable lessons about the Sabbath, whatever our weekly practice might be.

Seder 56: Exodus 15-16---Lessons for the Israelites

 In the early weeks of the Exodus the Israelites were in a challenging "in-between" position, what social scientists call a "liminal space."  They had been uprooted from everything that was familiar to them and were without a home.  They were on their way to Sinai, where they would learn about their new identity.  (For further discussion, see chapter 1 of Bearing God's Name:  Why Sinai Still Matters by Carmen Joy Imes.)

During this period God was very patient with his people and taught them many lessons on their journey.  Three days after the sea crossing, he miraculously provided clean water at Marah, in effect reversing the first plague of the Exodus.  He let the Israelites know that they would not be receiving plagues if they followed him faithfully (Exod 15:22-27).  

Then he began sending daily rations of manna, a marvelous food (Exod 16).  On Sunday through Thursday the Israelites were to pick up enough of the manna for that day.  And however much each family gathered, each family had enough to eat.  But if they tried to set any aside overnight, it would spoil. 

On Friday, on the other hand, they were to gather twice as much as on other days.  The Friday manna did not spoil when they saved it overnight, and they could then rest on Saturday with no need to gather manna that day.  

With the manna God taught the Israelites to trust in him to provide their "daily bread." With that trust they would not have to worry where their next meal was coming from, and they could rest every week on the Sabbath.  

They also learned to just pick up what they needed, so that everyone would have enough (v 18).  Paul quotes this verse in 2 Cor 8:15 in an exhortation for Christians to provide for those in need.