During the forty days following His resurrection, Jesus appeared to many people on many different occasions. At the end of that period, he told his followers that they would receive power by the Holy Spirit’s coming upon them and that they would be His witnesses throughout the world. Luke then writes,

“And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9, see also Luke 24:50–51).

The understatement of that report is stunning: no drama, no theatricals, just... he went. He returned to the Father, carrying into heaven the human body he had been born with—in the glorified form it bore when he came through death victorious. As the “first-born from the dead” (Col 1:18), Jesus is also the first to take into heaven the resurrected body that all who die in him will have in the life to come. “He opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.”

Christ’s ascension is the full realization of his kingship, for he now sits at God’s right hand. Most of our singing this Sunday honors his majestic rule, including praise-and-worship songs such as “We will glorify the King of kings,” “We bow down,” and “All hail King Jesus,” but also the hymns: #268, “The head that once was crowned with thorns,” and #266, “At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow.”

On the Trail

For the scripture readings and sermon, we’re staying with our series from the Red Sea to Sinai; last week’s FPCMail contained a summary of those stories up to the present. This week’s reading is Exodus 18, a longish story about the first event after the people have made their encampment at Mt. Sinai. (Click here for a map of the long journey from Egypt to the promised land.)

Besides Moses, the main person in the story is Jethro, his father-in-law. He was priest of a bedouin group—non-Israelite—where Moses found refuge when he was forced to leave Egypt (see Ex 2:11–22). The story is in two parts.

In the first part, Jethro arrives at the Israelite encampment, bringing with him his daughter Zipporah, Moses’ wife, and their two sons, Gershom and Eliezer. The Bible does not tell us why Moses had sent them to Jethro—perhaps for their protection and safety while he went back to Egypt to lead out the Israelites. When they arrive at the Sinai encampment, Moses brings Jethro up to date on God’s great deliverance of his people (vs 1–9).

Jethro then confesses his faith in Israel’s God as “greater than all gods” and leads in a sacrificial offering. Aaron and the elders of Israel join him in a sacramental meal (vs 10–12).

Thus, the first part of this story shows the re-forming of the family of Moses and the conversion of Jethro to Israel’s God. These are strong scenes of family and religious unity.

In the second part of the story, Moses both counsels and instructs the people. Jethro observes him as he resolves disputes among them and teaches them God’s revealed ways (vs 13–16). The crowd of people is huge, and Moses must sit for hours to hear their cases. Jethro proposes organizing the people in groups of ten, which would also be gathered into larger groupings of fifty, a hundred, and a thousand; Moses would select heads for each group (vs 17–23).

In this arrangement, Moses represents the people before God (v 19) but has the assistance of able people who can hear the routine cases. The difficult and unusual they bring to him. Thus, as certain of God’s people share the burden of counsel and instruction with Moses, the process moves swiftly and smoothly, and Moses bears up in his role as leader.

Here, it’s clear that there is work for the leader that no one else can do (vs 19–20):

• Moses represents the people before God,
• he seeks God’s guidance for their needs,
• calls them to keep God’s laws and teachings, and
• declares the way they are to go and the practices they shall follow.

At the same time, there is assistance for the leader from among God’s people. These assistants shall be

• capable people
• who fear God
• trustworthy
• who refuse ill-gotten gain (v 21)

The re-forming of Moses’ family, with which the chapter opens, leads into the forming of God’s people. It is also a family, but its organization is more complex, and there are formal arrangements for Moses’ assistance.

Summary of On the Trail

After two stories in which Moses leads the people alone (Marah 15:22–27, Manna 16:1–36), we now have three in which God’s people surface to help him in various ways. We’ve been thinking about these narratives as pictures of what we need in order to be God’s people and now about the role of God’s people in the church.

• Water from the Rock (17:1–7): Here, mature and experienced people stand between Moses and those who would quarrel with him. They give personal support and assistance during times of tension.
• Amalek (17:8–16): Here, the leader has double help: Selected people fight Israel’s battle, while those close to him assist him in intercession. There is work only the people can do, while, even in prayer for them, the leader needs assistance. Without it, the leader’s prayer will fail, and without that prayer, the people’s work will fail.
• Jethro (18:1–37): The pastor prays for the congregation, seeks God’s will in their difficulties, proclaims God’s word, and calls them to faithful obedience. The pastor is a leader but not a CEO. Selected assistants work with the people in routine organization and guidance. The reformed churches take up this vision in the ordination of people as elders and deacons. These are those who make up our Session and Board of Deacons.

In all these stories, it’s so clear that the church stands under divine revelation and is called to obedience and faithfulness to it. The mission is God’s; some of the people don’t even want to be along, but the narratives presuppose a basic agreement among the people on the main goals of the movement: to become a people and get to a place where they’ll have a land of their own. This larger mission is a given, and it doesn’t come from us but from God’s initiative and design.

May God give us a clear sense of the church’s overarching goals:

to be, under the lordship of Christ, the people of the covenant,
gathered in worship around his risen life;
obedient to the Word of God living, written, and preached;
“making disciples” (Mt 28:19) for him at home and around the world;
seeking to display his Person and character in our own lives; and
following him in compassionate and generous service to all in need.