Category: Inspiration

We Need Each Other

On By Bp. Justin ElwellIn Applied Theology, InspirationLeave a comment

When called by God, there is a risk that we may believe we are autonomous in vocation, this is a dangerous disposition indeed.

The Torah portion וָאֵרָא/Va’era, meaning “I appeared,” provides an interesting lesson in growth and leadership. Moses, as we know from the Torah, the Apostolic Scriptures and Jewish tradition is highly respected, and rightly so. Yet, often overlooked is the importance of his relationship with his brother, Aaron.

In Exodus 7:1 the Lord says to Moses:

וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל-מֹשֶׁה, רְאֵה נְתַתִּיךָ אֱלֹהִים לְפַרְעֹה

וְאַהֲרֹן אָחִיךָ, יִהְיֶה נְבִיאֶךָ

“And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Look, I am appointing you as a man of authority before pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your spokesman.’”

When Moses was called by God, he did not have a very good opinion of himself. In fact, he used this perception as the basis for his argument to disqualify himself from service to the Lord. When Moses says, “I am not eloquent … I am slow of speech and of tongue …” (Ex. 4:10), the Lord says, “Who has made mans mouth?”

Still, knowing that Moses was yet fragile, he calls someone to come alongside Moses to be his voice: Aaron. Yet, Aaron is not just a mouthpiece, he is a support that allows Moses to grow into his calling. Even though Moses was called to lead Israel at age 80, he was effectively discipled into this position by his older brother Aaron. Read to the words of the Lord:

“Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs” (Ex. 4:14-17).

When Aaron saw Moses, his heart was glad. He would become a support for Moses. Aaron would speak the words Moses was told, and the Lord would “teach you both what to do.” Aaron became a facilitator for Moses, but not to his own detriment. As Moses fulfilled his calling, in the unfolding history of Israel, Aaron would also be fulfilled in his calling.

With Aaron’s support, even mentoring, Moses was enabled to become who God called him to be: the real Moses, not the disqualified Moses. Still, as much as Moses needed Aaron’s help, Aaron needed Moses as well.

In Exodus 6, the Torah records the genealogy of Moses and Aaron, concluding with “These are the Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, “Bring out the people of Israel from the land of Egypt by their hosts” (Ex. 6:26). Here Aaron is listed first, but then in Exodus 6:27 we read, “It was they who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing out the people of Israel from Egypt, this Moses and this Aaron.” The rabbis find this to be an indication of their equality, as one was not greater than the other.

By the end of their lives Moses and Aaron would be the men God called them to be: the real Moses and the real Aaron. Moses, having benefited from the support of Aaron, would then support Aaron as he was called to serve as the anointed High Priest of Israel. Moses the “slow of speech” prophet and leader of Israel, by his brothers support, would anoint Aaron, the compromising sculpture of the Golden Calf, to be the uncompromising High Priest of God’s righteous standard before the Brazen Altar.

What facilitated this change? They were supported in their time of growth by someone that God had sent into their life.

I do not often insert myself into these devotional writings, but for the sake of my point, I will. As a “pastoring teacher” or rabbi, (Eph. 4:11) my job description is simple, but continuous, as Paul writes regarding the gift ministries that Messiah gave to His congregation; they are: “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Messiah, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Messiah, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Eph. 4:12-14; cf. 4:15-16).

How am I able to do this, as inept as I am, O Lord? The Lord sent older brothers into my life, as pastors and teachers, fathers in the faith, to come alongside and support me as the Lord matured, and continues to mature, me. Men like Dr. John Looper, Dr. Karl Coke, Dr. Michael Lake, the late Bishop Daniel Herzog, and the elders of Messiah Congregation. As the Lord has sent me to support and edify those He has entrusted to my care as a bishop in their lives, He has provided the same for me, just as He had done for those who mentored me.

Why is this important? The saints of God in Messiah have been commissioned as part of the Great Commission. We all have shortcomings that we magnify in our minds, but as God told Moses, paraphrased, “Who made you?” As we grow in faith, matured by study, prayer and process in tribulation, we have support, principally from the promised Holy Spirit, but then visibly by our Aaron, or by our Moses.

Dear reader, you are not disqualified because you are “slow of speech.” He knows your limp, and He is the support for your limp; and He sends brothers and sisters into your life to help you limp and live by faith in the One Who is conforming you to the image of Messiah (Ro. 8:28-29), as you walk in your calling.

We do, in fact, need each other.

Be well. Shalom.

Name Above All Names

On By Bp. Justin ElwellIn Applied Theology, Inspiration2 Comments

The Gospel of Exodus opens with the portion of Shemot, meaning names. As it says:

וְאֵלֶּה שְׁמוֹת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל הַבָּאִים מִצְרָיְמָה אֵת יַעֲקֹב אִישׁ וּבֵיתוֹ בָּאוּ

“And these are the names of the children of Israel which entered Egypt with Jacob, each man with his household” (Ex. 1:1).

The portion of Names also records the birth of the future leader and deliverer of the people of Israel, Moses; but there is something unusual in his brother announcement:

“Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months” (Ex. 2:1-2).

What is unusual? Neither Moses, nor his parents are named. Moses is named by Pharaohs daughter only a few verses later, and the Torah later provides the names of the parents of Aaron, Miriam, and Moses: Amram and Jochebed (Ex. 6:20). Why are they absent here?

In the eyes of the Pharaoh and his court, Israel is a nameless, faceless hoard. Perhaps this was how the Egyptians themselves related to them: a mass of people who have overrun their country. It is not until the daughter of Pharaoh adopts Moses that he is given a name: מֹשֶׁה/Moses, from the verb, to pull or draw out.

What do we learn from this?

Moses was not chosen because he was born to the most important tribe, as the Levites were yet attached to the Tabernacle. He was not born of a great house. He was not wealthy and free; rather, he was born under and then hidden from a death decree. He only survived because his mother was willing to send him down the Nile in a bulrush basket. She let him go, and the Lord lifted him up.

To serve the Lord you need not be born of a great house, family name or of prominent parents. Too many today disqualify themselves because of past sin or present circumstance. Yet, in Christ you are born-again into the greatest house, into His name, and now you call the Lord of heaven, Abba, Father, by the Spirit of Adoption (Ro. 8:15).

Moses faced the challenge of his upbringing as well. Yes, he was born nameless, faceless, and in peril; but, he was raised in the house of the Pharaoh. When the Lord called Moses, and ultimately established him as the leader of Israel, do we think there would not have been whispers about Moses? This “Hebrew” Egyptian “now leading us”? We see this now for the second time, as an earlier deliverer, Joseph, the one the Pharaoh of Exodus 1 forgot, was also a Hebrew “Egyptian.”

The Lord used the experience of both Joseph and Moses to rescue His people, but not in their own name.

When Moses went into the court of Pharaoh, he did so in the name of the Lord: the Name above all names. It was not the name of Moses or even Joseph that rescued, but the name of the Lord God.

When Paul is correcting the Corinthians about the divisions among them, he says so powerfully:

“For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Cor. 1:11-13).

Baptized and then resurrected in the name of Messiah Yeshua/Jesus. Not that of any earl they house or position. Why does this matter? You, dear reader, are not called to serve, go out, or even build up your own name, but His.

Just as Joseph and Moses were raised to the house of Pharaoh, you may graduate from the most prominent university or from the school of hard knocks, but that matters not. What matters is the calling in His name. For it is by His name that we are saved, sent out, and ultimately harvested into His glorious presence.

Do not focus on your apparent lack, but on the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Moses was a nobody of a dying house, but in God’s name, he is remembered as a man of God.

Hear Paul’s doxology:

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:5-11).

The Name above all names has called you by a new name, one from His House. Remember who you are in Him, and He will position you according to His will.

Be well. Shalom. And Happy New Year.

The Limping Prophet

On By Bp. Justin ElwellIn Applied Theology, InspirationLeave a comment

Jacob has lived in Egypt for seventeen years, and the Lord was with him. As his days become few, he begins to speak into the lives of his sons. The Torah says:

וַיִּקְרָא יַעֲקֹב אֶל־בָּנָיו וַיֹּאמֶר הֵאָסְפוּ וְאַגִּידָה לָכֶם אֵת אֲשֶׁר־יִקְרָא אֶתְכֶם בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים

“Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come” (Gen. 49:1).

The words translated above, “in days to come,” means, “in the last days.” There is a rabbinic teaching that says the Lord showed Jacob all that would befall his sons, and how He would fulfill His covenant with Israel. Jacob desired to share this, but was restrained. He shared what he could see in part, but not in full (1 Cor. 13.9-10).

What did Jacob, this limping prophet, accomplish by sharing in part? In Genesis 48 we find Jacob blessing Joseph by demonstrating the “spirit of adoption” (Ro. 8:15). Manasseh and Ephraim were not sons of Jacob, but through the spirit of adoption, they became as his sons, equal to Joseph’s brothers. And by this adoption, Jacob set the fruitfulness (Ephraim) over the forgetfulness (Manasseh). Granting them rights of inheritance in the Promised Land.

But what of Jacob’s sons? The words found in Genesis 49 are prophetic, they are part of the whole. Jacob knew the deep valleys his family would traverse, but to share the fullness of that may leave them hopeless. So the Lord, by His grace, spoke through Jacob in part. And what was the end result?

They have a future.

At times we become so caught up in finding the meaning of a prophetic text, that we miss the obvious: there is a future.

While they are away from the Promised Land, under the protective covering of Joseph, it may seem that Israel’s end is in Egypt. No. As Jacob saw, Israel’s end is with God, but not lost among the nations, but with the nations before the Throne and the Lamb (Rev. 7:9).

Jacob’s words, as opaque as they are, relay life, hope, and covenant fulfillment. As Jacob prepares to rest, he prepares his sons for life without him, while safely in the care of the covenant Lord.

How deep and dark the valleys of life can be (Ps. 23:4)? But what is the promise attached to Psalm 23:4? “I will fear no evil. For You, the Lord, are with me.” You, Lord are with us: Emmanuel.

At times it can see that we are lingering in Egypt, a foreign land, separated from the promises of God. But in those times, we need to remember that, as with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we, as they, may graduate “in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (Heb. 11:13). If this be our end, is He unfaithful? Heaven forbid! We are caught up in a greater promise, and a greater end.

This limping prophet, Jacob, died in a foreign land, but rested in the promise as he spoke God’s promises into his son’s lives. And as Joseph himself would prophesy at the end of His life, “Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here” (Gen. 50:25).

“God will surely visit you,” and take you from this land, as He promised Abraham (Gen. 15), and when He does, take me with you. Did they? Yes: “As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph” (Josh. 24:32).

This limping prophet spoke life when life was far from perfect. All of us who have done some God wrestling limp after He touches us. What do we do with the limp? We rely on Him, and speak life into others. The slowness of the walk and the reliance on His Word causes us to see life, past, present and future, differently. We see it in light of Him. The finish is yet ahead, but we speak life to those along the way to it.

Being a limping prophet isn’t disqualifying, as a matter of biblical fact: it is the sign of qualification in living relationship with Him. How then do we walk? Leaning on the everlasting arms of the Yeshua/Jesus, Who is with us “even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20), even as He was in Egypt with Jacob as he spoke of: “the last days.”

Be well. Shalom.