Moses, The Rock and Christ's Exodus

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church.

Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota.

We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the ninth chapter.

Now about eight days after these sayings, Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and they went up on the mountain to pray.

And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, his clothing became dazzling white and behold, two men were

talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he

was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory

and the two men who stood with him.

And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good that we are here.

Let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah, not knowing what he said.

And as he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them and they were afraid as they entered the cloud

and a voice came out of the cloud saying, this is my son, my chosen one.

Listen to him.

And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone and they kept silent and told no

one in those days anything of what they had seen.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

All right.

One of my earliest memories is me being in my mom's Duster.

Do you all remember these cars, Dusters?

Dodge put them out.

It was an old Mopar.

So it was a horrible car, by the way.

It always was breaking down.

But one of the things I would always remember is my mom had particular songs she liked listening to on the radio.

She was really into, well, kind of folk music kind of stuff, you know.

I think of, you know, love is a rose, but you better not pick.

You know what I'm talking about, right?

And there was this one song that I would hear on the radio as my mom would play it, and I can't remember anything else except for

these words.

Do you know the way to San Jose?

And that's all I know, right?

Now all of this is to make a point, and that is that my question for you is not do you know the way to

San Jose, but do you know the way to the promised land, and do you know who is supposed to take you into it?

Kind of an important question we need to ask here.

And we're going to note something here about Moses, is that Moses, the one who brought us the

law, the one whom God gave us the Ten Commandments through, he falls

short of the finish line really badly, too.

I mean, it's really quite a mess.

And so when we talk about law and gospel, sin, grace, there's an aspect to the law that we have to come

to grips with.

And the fancy term that the theologians like to use is they use this phrase, lex semper

accusa.

You say, ah, throwing some Latin in here makes me sound like I'm smart.

But here's the idea behind lex semper accusa.

The law always accuses.

Now it doesn't only accuse, but man, it always accuses.

And that's the purpose of the law.

And so you'll note, then, the one who was given the Torah, who was given the Ten Commandments, who was given the law,

it ended up accusing him and coming right back at him and found him painfully

guilty.

And so Moses doesn't get to lead the people of Israel into the promised land.

You see, that is reserved for somebody whom the law cannot accuse.

And I'll explain that as we go.

We're going to work through some of the great themes of our gospel text.

And I'm taking liberty, and you'll see why when we get to our gospel text, what's going on now.

A little bit of a note here.

We're going to go back into the Old Testament, which I like to do, and we're going to pick up some of the pieces of the Exodus.

So the children of Israel, the Passover has already taken place.

They've crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, as God parted the waters.

And of course, when Pharaoh and his armies came to do the same thing, God just shut the Red Sea on them and destroyed,

decimated the entire army of Egypt, Pharaoh, and them all drowned rightfully.

So then the children of Israel, across now the Red Sea, begin their wilderness

wanderings, if you would.

First stop on the way are the springs of Elim, where the 70 palm trees were.

And then from there, they begin to head out towards Mount Sinai.

And this is going to take them a little bit of time.

And we're going to see the faithlessness of the children of Israel in a

particular portion of this text in Exodus 17.

But it's important for me to remind you about a little bit of info that we've got to get from the New Testament

before we do that.

And that's Paul in 1 Corinthians 10, verses 1 through 5, says this about a rock

that is following the children of Israel.

There's a rock following Israel?

Let me explain.

I'll let Paul kind of do the work for us here.

Here's what he says, I don't want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud.

See, that's kind of an important piece too.

Remember the purpose of that cloud?

You see, they were being led by God to the promised land, pillar of cloud by day,

pillar of fire by night.

By the way, that cloud shows up in our gospel text.

It's important that we pay attention to that.

So all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all

ate the same spiritual food, all drank from the same spiritual drink, for they

drank from the spiritual rock that followed them.

And the rock was Christ.

Huh?

Take me to the rock that is higher than I.

Jesus is a rock.

Well, yeah, according to Paul here, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is

a rock.

And we'll note two instances where this rock, Christ, shows up.

The one, well, works out well for Moses.

The second one causes his stumbling.

And we'll explain that.

So Exodus 17, they're on their way now to Mount Sinai.

They've crossed the Red Sea and all the congregation of the people of Israel.

They moved on from the wilderness of sin by stages, according to the commandment of Yahweh, and

they camped at Rephidim.

But there was no water for the people to drink.

Therefore, the people quarreled with Moses and said, give us water to drink.

Now, that's kind of weird.

Let me explain.

You know, when I visit Gene, I go to his house, right now, Gene's a great host when I visit him,

and he's always got little cakes and things like that.

It's like I always have to show up hungry, right?

But if Gene, if I ever went to your house and I was thirsty and if I needed water, all I would have to say is, hey, Gene,

do you mind if I have a glass of water?

And Gene would say, well, of course not.

And he would go right into his kitchen and he would pour me a glass of water.

It's kind of that simple.

When you have a need, you ask.

That's kind of the point of having a God, is it not?

We are his creatures.

We are dependent upon him.

If we need water, we need food, we need clothing, we need money, we need all these things, right?

So rather than grumbling to God and saying, why don't you give me these things?

What do you think you're doing?

Why are you making me suffer in this way?

Why don't you instead say, oh, dear Lord Jesus.

Oh, Lord God, heavenly father.

I am in great need.

I need some water.

Would you please, as my God, meet my need?

It makes sense, right?

It's just good, common courtesy and practice.

Well, here's what they do.

They quarrel with Moses, give us water to drink.

And Moses said to them, why do you quarrel with me?

Why do you test the Lord?

Why do you test Yahweh?

But the people thirsted there for water and the people grumbled against Moses and said, why did you

bring us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?

Oh, this is getting really goofy, right?

So Moses cried to the Lord, Yahweh, what shall I do with this people?

They're almost ready to stone me.

And Yahweh said to Moses, so I'll pass on before the people taking with you some of the elders of Israel

and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile.

A little bit of a note here.

Remember this.

When Moses took his staff and he struck the Nile with it, what happened to the Nile?

Turned to blood and important little piece there.

All right.

So he struck the Nile and take that one that you struck the Nile with and you go behold, I'll stand before you there

on the rock at Horeb and you shall strike the rock and water

shall come out of it and the people will drink.

So Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel, he took his staff and he

struck the rock.

And what happened?

That thing split in half and out gushed just ginormous amounts of water so that all

of the people can drink.

And he sit there and go, you know, that kind of sounds like when Jesus's corpse was hanging on the

cross and that Roman soldier took his spear and thrust it and struck Christ and

out of him flowed water and blood.

The very things by which the church is created.

Remember, Paul said the rock was Christ.

Well, if that the rock is Christ, well, that Old Testament is type and shadow and

symbol that's pointing to where Christ is struck for us.

Now, Christ is crucified once for all for our sins.

He cannot suffer twice, which is why we come to our second

accounting of the appearance of this rock.

And we notice what ends up happening to poor Moses, poor Moses, that law that was given through

him ends up coming right back on him.

And we'll see what happens to him.

Numbers chapter 20, now the people of Israel have left Mount Sinai, they spent a couple of

years there and they had already made their first track towards the promised land.

They sent the tens, the 12 spies in to spy out Canaan.

Of course, 10 came back with a bad report.

And so now they're going to suffer the consequences of their

faithlessness and not trusting God for the good things that he has promised to give them.

And so God sends them on a trek, one lap around the Saudi Arabian Peninsula

for their wilderness wanderings are heading south away from the promised land.

And here's what happens.

There was no water for the congregation.

OK, so they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.

And the people quarreled with Moses and said, oh, would that we had perished when our brothers perished before Yahweh.

Why have you brought the assembly of Yahweh into this wilderness that we should die here, both

we and our cattle?

What a slanderous question.

Do you really think for a second that God and Moses had brought the children of Israel into

the wilderness so that they would die of thirst?

Notice the slander in the statement and the question.

So why have you made us to come out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place?

This is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates.

There's no water to drink.

So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces

and the glory of Yahweh appeared to them.

The glory of Yahweh appeared to them and Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, take the staff,

assemble the congregation, you and Aaron, your brother, and speak

to the rock before their eyes so that it will yield its water.

In other words, pray to the rock.

You see, remember, the rock is Christ.

It doesn't make any sense.

Nobody talks to rocks like this unless they have rocks for brains.

Right.

But here, because the rock is Christ, the Lord is saying, speak to the rock and it will yield its

water to you.

So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.

And so Moses took the staff from before Yahweh as he commanded him.

And then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock.

And he said to them, here now, you rebels, shall we bring water out for

you out of this rock?

Now, Moses had rightly pronounced that the people of Israel were rebels.

They were rebelling against God.

But remember, that law, those 10 commandments, those commands of God, they're always

accusing.

And do you think for a second that he's an innocent man?

Remember, if you haven't heard, he was a murderer.

Yeah, Moses was a murderer.

He was on.

He was literally out in exile trying to evade arrest for 40 years.

This guy isn't exactly a good guy in that sense.

So keep that in mind.

So here you rebels, we're going to bring water out of this rock.

And so Moses lifted up his staff and he struck with his staff.

Crack.

Nothing.

You can't strike Christ twice.

He can't bleed and die for you a second time.

Nothing happens.

So Moses does it again.

Smack.

And this time, the second time the water begins to flow.

So the people of Israel, they drank their livestock and everyone else had water.

But Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, because you did not believe in me.

Oh.

To uphold me as holy in the eyes of the of the people of Israel.

Therefore, you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.

These are the waters of Meribah, of quarreling, where the people of Israel quarreled

with Yahweh and through them showed himself holy.

Moses, the greatest prophet of the Old Testament.

Failed.

He sinned.

The law found him guilty.

He was not permitted to go into the promised land.

And here's the thing.

We are all like Moses.

We're all like that assembly.

We have sinned grievously against God.

When Moses said, you rebels, he was speaking to us because each and every one of us have rebelled

horribly against God.

Now, in chapter 27, then God gives him the consequences of this sin.

He says, go up into this mountain of Abarim and see the land that I have given to the people of Israel.

And when you've seen it, also you shall be gathered to your people, which is a kind way of saying you're going to die.

As your brother Aaron was, because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness.

Oh, whoa.

Did you hear that pronouncement of God?

God numbered Moses with the rebels.

God numbered him among the sinners.

And can a sinner, can a rebel lead you or me into the promised land?

No, that's not possible.

So you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin when the congregation quarreled, failing to

uphold me as holy at the waters before their eyes.

So Moses now speaks to the Lord and he prays, saying, Lord,

let Yahweh, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation

who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out of the wilderness.

Come out and bring them in so that the congregation of Yahweh may not be a sheep that have

no shepherd.

And so Moses now is praying, I can't.

I've been disqualified.

I have rebelled against God.

I cannot be the man to lead the people of Israel into the promised land.

So please, Lord, appoint a man so that your people are not like sheep without a shepherd.

God answered Moses's prayer.

And it's not quite what you would think.

We know how the story goes.

Joshua, Yeshua.

Follows Moses.

And boy, it is not a coincidence that the name of the man who led the people into Israel, into the

promised land, that's the exact same name that Jesus's name is in Hebrew.

When his mom would call him for dinner, when Jesus was out playing with his friends.

In the city of Nazareth, she would say, Yeshua, Yeshua, dinner's ready, come and

eat, Yeshua.

You see, that's his name, Yeshua, Yahweh saves.

And so it was Yeshua who led the people of Israel into the promised land.

And now we come to our gospel text.

And this gets really interesting.

Luke 9, 28.

About eight days after these sayings.

Eight days.

New creation stuff.

It's weird how these numbers work, right?

Eight days after these sayings, he took with him Peter, John, and James.

Two witnesses are required to establish a thing.

Jesus takes an extra, a third along for good measure.

And they went up on the mountain to pray.

And you're going to notice this about the apostles and the disciples.

They're kind of like us.

They're not the best prayers in the world.

Have you ever, like, said, I'm going to do some time praying, right?

Now, as I've gotten older, weird things happen like this.

I'll begin praying.

And then I'll wake up and my face is wet because of this drool, all right?

Where was I?

Right?

As it may be, it's just me.

Okay.

But the idea here is that oftentimes we don't put a lot of energy into praying.

And praying becomes the precursor for us falling asleep.

I feel comforted to know that this is the exact same problem that the disciples had.

We'll see that in this text.

So as Jesus was praying, boom, the appearance of his face was altered.

His clothing became dazzling white.

There's his glory, Jesus Christ, both God and man.

Now his glory, the glory of God shines out.

Behold, two men were now talking with Jesus, Moses, Moshe,

and Elijah.

A little bit of a note here.

Elijah's name in Hebrew, the way you pronounce it, is Yeshayahu.

It's a lot like Joshua.

It's a lot.

It's a derivative of it.

It's Yeshayahu.

So there's Moses and Yeshayahu who appeared in glory and they spoke of his, and

here's the Greek word.

Are you ready for this?

Exodus.

They were speaking to Jesus about his exodus.

You see, Moses' exodus ended in total failure.

He was not able to bring the children of Israel into the promised land, and he

died in the wilderness.

Like all those whom God struck down, who sinned against God in all kinds of grievous ways,

grumbling against him, quarreling with him, committing sexual immorality and idolatry,

Moses' carcass also falls short just before the finish line.

And if we were in that rabble too, we would have also fallen short.

Don't think you wouldn't.

You would have because you already have.

And that's the point.

Moses can't bring you into the promised land.

The law cannot save you.

Oh, it can accuse you.

And so Moses has numbered them with the rebels and he dies.

But here he appears with Christ, and they are speaking to Jesus about his exodus, and

Jesus' exodus isn't going to fail.

He's not going to fall short and not be able to cross the Jordan.

And he's not going to fall short and fail to bring you and I in to the promised land.

Where Moses and the law fails, Christ succeeds, because he's going to accomplish his

exodus in Jerusalem by taking all of your rebel sins

upon himself so that you can be forgiven.

One of the things that I love to study is the American Civil War.

And recently, in fact, in preparation of the sermon, I read Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's, the guy

who was the hero of Gettysburg on the little round top of the 20th of

Maine, was his regiment.

And he was there when General Lee surrendered at Appomattox.

In fact, it was his brigade, his detachment that was sent by Grant

to cut off the rebels, the Confederates from actually continuing

on.

And they were able to stop them at Appomattox and the gig was up.

And he writes this wonderful prose about the surrender of Lee and the surrender of

the men who were the ones who gunned down their friends and their

brothers.

In arms.

And one moment, they were enemies.

And then in the next.

They were fellow citizens again.

When they lay down their battle flags.

When they surrendered their arms.

And when they did so, they received from the soldiers of the Union.

A manly soldier salute.

You see, we were all rebels.

We were all Confederates.

And Christ in his exodus now cuts us off from continuing to hell.

And through his cross forgives us so that we can

be restored to full citizenship.

No strings attached.

No strings attached.

No worry of having to face a court -martial for war crimes.

Or being tried as somebody who raised up arms against the Union.

No, none of that.

That all goes away.

It's all because he accomplished his exodus.

So they spoke to him about his exodus, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

And Peter and those who were with him, heavy with sleep.

Of course, they must have been praying.

I know what this is like.

But when they became fully awake, they saw Jesus's glory.

And the two men who stood with him.

And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, Master, it's good that we're here.

So let us make three tents.

One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.

And Luke says he didn't know what he was saying.

He clearly missed the point.

And as he was saying these things, the cloud from exodus.

That led the children of Israel through the wilderness to the promised land.

Now appears on the top of this mountain.

That cloud now appears and came and overshadowed them.

Just the same way it overshadowed the children of Israel in the wilderness.

And they were afraid as they entered the cloud.

And then a voice came out of the cloud saying, this is my son.

My chosen one.

The one I've chosen to lead you into the promised land.

Listen to him.

Remember, the purpose of that cloud is to lead the people to the promised land.

And so now that cloud reappears and says, you want to know the way?

Not to San Jose, but to the promised land.

This cloud will show you the way.

And it shows you by telling you, listen to Jesus.

Repent of your rebellion.

Lay down your battle flags in your arms.

Confess that you have woefully fallen short.

And he has offered you a full and complete pardon.

Listen to him.

And so when the voice had spoken, Jesus alone was found.

And they kept silent and told no one in those days of anything of what they had seen.

Poor Moses didn't make it.

But that's kind of the point of our epistle text in Hebrews.

The inspired author of Hebrews writes, holy brothers, and you who share in a heavenly calling,

consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who is

faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses was also faithful in all of God's house.

And see, God appointed him, this Jesus, to be the man to lead us into life

eternal, a world without end.

For this Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses.

Indeed, as much more glory as the builder of a house has more glory than the house itself.

Hinting at Jesus is God.

He's the creator.

You're his creation.

For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.

Now, Moses was faithful in all of God's house as a servant, as a slave, to testify to the things that were

to be spoken later.

In fact, Moses was pointing us the way to the one who would lead us, the one whom God had chosen.

And that's who Jesus is.

But you see, Christ, he's faithful over God's house as a son.

And we are his house.

If indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting and hope.

So brothers and sisters, do not weep for Moses.

His body is still in the wilderness, never made it to the promised land.

And to make sure that it never would, God himself hid it.

No one knows where it is to this day.

And his dead carcass, unfound, is a sign to us that you cannot get

into the promised land by keeping the commandments.

That's not the point of them.

They are to show you that you are a sinner.

And so be numbered with the rebels because you are one.

And there's no point in denying it.

And ask for forgiveness and mercy from this one who so richly loves you that he

completed his exodus by laying down his life and demonstrating his love so that

you can live.

And soon enough, soon enough, the war will be over and

we will all be able to lay down our arms and turn our swords into plowshares

in a new heaven, in a new earth, in a world without end, a world without conflict, a

world without rebels, life everlasting, all of us perfectly reflecting back

the righteousness of Christ that we are already clothed in by grace through faith.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.