Seder 58 Sermon: A God for Everyone

 At a sermon at Church of the Messiah on February 22, 2025, Kyle Kettering's text was Isaiah 33:13:  "Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and you who are near, acknowledge my might."  

Kyle noted that "far and near" can be understood in several possible senses.  This expression can be a merism, a way of saying "everywhere."  The expression can also be understood geographically, in terms of distance from Jerusalem, as in Psalm 97:1 and Isaiah 24:15.  On the other hand, it can be understood in a spiritual sense, as in Isaiah 29:13.  It also can be understood chronometrically, in reference to different eras; or culturally.  Certainly there's a great cultural gap between the ancient Near East and today's United States.  

In whatever sense we understand Isaiah 33:13, God is avaialble to all who are willing to submit to him and obey him--verses 14-16.  People from both Israel and the nations are brought together into one holy temple, as Ephesians 2 explains.

Seder 58: Isaiah 33---The True King Will Prevail

 The miracles of the Exodus sent a powerful message to the Egyptians, the Israelites, and all the people in the region.  Moses' father-in-law Jethro affirmed, "Blessed be the LORD, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.  Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people" (Ex 18:10-11).  

But not everyone got the message, and so God gave periodic reminders.  In the late 8th century BC, the haughty Assyrian Empire conquered the Kingdom of Israel and threatened to overrun the kingdom of Judah.  Through the prophet Isaiah, God warned the Assyrians---and all other evil human empires---that there was a day of reckoning in their future.  The destroyer would one day be destroyed (Isa 33:1), for the God of Israel is the true king (verse 5).  When things seemed hopeless for Judah (vv 7-9), God would arise (verse 10), and the plans of the nations would come to nothing (vv 11-12).  All the world would witness this (v 13).  

Isaiah's message to Judah was to place trust in God, not in political alliances with nations in the region.  To succeed, the people needed to submit to God's rule and live according to his ways (vv 14-16).  Then they would live in peace, troubled by no foreign powers (vv 17-24).  

Seder 136: Deuteronomy 3:23-29---Moses Pleads with God

 After reminding the Israelites of events from the recent past, Moses revealed that even though God had told him he would not be leading them into Canaan, he continued to pray that God would change his mind.  Moses said that he "pleaded with the Lord at that time."  The Hebrew word for "pleaded," chanan, is a word for both asking for, and bestowing, grace or mercy.  Moses knew God's merciful character, and so he continued to pray for mercy on this matter until God let him know that he should stop.  

Moses was someone who had repeatedly received what he asked for from God.  In a sermonette at Church of the Messiah on February 25, 2023, Frank Fenton noted that one  Jewish tradition, based on using gematria with va'etchanan, the Hebew for "and I pleaded" in verse 23, said that Moses prayed 515 times  before God told him to stop.  According to this tradition, he said that he would be willing to go into the land as an animal if he could not do it as a human being.  Joseph's bones were going to be carried into the land.  Why couldn't Moses go too?  Frank urged us to keep praying as well, acknowledging that we are completely in God's hands.    

There are a number of examples of such prayers in the Bible (e,g, Psalm 123; Isa 33:2).  Jesus' parable of the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-8) urges us to keep praying.  At Gethsemane Jesus prayed one last time that his mission could be accomplished by some other means than the crucifixiom (Lk 22:41-42), even though he had come to Jerusalem for that purpose.  In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on February 25, 2023, Kyle Kettering also urged us to plead for God's grace, even for things that seem impossible.  

Seder 58: Exodus 18---Jethro and Moses

 In the Exodus God sent a message to all the people in that region.  It received a range of reactions.  Two kinds of reactions are contrasted in Exodus 17 and 18.  (Reactions from 40 years later are covered in the book of Joshua.)

The Amalekites launched an attack against Israel, and by implication, an attack on God's plan to bless the nations.  

On the other hand, Moses' father-in-law Jethro confessed his faith in Yahweh as the supreme God (Exod 18:8-12) when he heard about all that had happened.  

In his positive response to the Exodus, Jethro was influenced by his respect for Moses.  In Exodus 18 we also see the mutual respect of Moses and Jethro, as well as Moses' characteristic humility.  When Jethro passed along some wise advice about sharing authority and delegating responsibility, Moses quickly embraced it. 

In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on June 5, 2021, Kyle Kettering emphasized that God's plan brings together those who are "near" and those who are "far off" (Isa 33:13-22; Jer 23:23).  In Jesus he has brought together those who are near (Israel) with those who are far off (the nations) into one people united by one Spirit (Eph 2:11-22).