Moses

Yeah.

And in this ethics, so this Mishnah actually begins with Moses receives the Torah from Mount Sinai.

For sure.

So that's literally the, the very first one.

Okay.

Uh, it, this includes the Zohar, which we've talked about before, which is, uh, the radiance or brightness or splendor.

The foundational text of Kabbalah, which was likely authored by Rabbi Moses de León, uh, in the late 13th century.

It was then reinterpreted during the Jewish mystical renaissance in the 16th century Ottoman Palestine.

After all, the vast majority [chuckles] wanted exactly that.

Then He perhaps, like the Maccabees of old when they drove out the Assyrian oppressors, or perhaps He would be the greater Moses delivering Israel from slavery, not to Egypt, but to Rome.

And given all the miracles He'd done, surely He could rain plagues down on Rome until Rome was brought to her knees.

Israel would be redeemed, meaning Israel would be rescued from her bondage and her slavery, and then the kingdom would be established forever.

So let's look at that text today.

Jesus is speaking, and I'm reading Luke 24:25-27.

"And He said to them, 'O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ would suffer these things and enter into His glory?' And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." The last time we noticed the word all, all that the prophets had spoken, as opposed to only some of the things that the prophets had spoken.

Now, I won't go over that again.

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Do you see that? Now, with that in mind, go down to, uh, verse 24 and look at it.

"By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter: choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." Now, Moses could have had f- fathomless wealth.

He could have had luxurious, uh, lifestyle.

He could have dabbled in every sinful, worldly pleasure that this world offered.

Now, verse 31.

He called for Moses and Aaron by night and said, Rise up, get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel, and go serve the Lord as ye have said.

Also take your flocks, your herds, as ye have said, and be gone and bless me also.

Poor old Pharaoh.

And so Pharaoh and the people said, we want you out of here because we're afraid what will come next.

And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their knead troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.

And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses, and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and raiment.

This matter of borrowing is they're collecting back dues.

Think back to the promulgation of the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai.

God said to Moses, remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.

Six days shalt thou do labor and shalt do all thy works.

But on the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.

This is Chris with the Communion of Saints, and today is Monday, September 14, 2026, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

In today's Gospel from John 3, Jesus says that the Son of Man must be lifted up, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert.

Our prayer intention today is that we may look to the cross with faith, receive the life Christ won for us, and let his love reshape the way we live.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the mystery of the cross.

Jesus said, Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.

Lord Jesus, you were lifted up for our salvation.

It's a turning away from God's goodness.

The narrative even says the people sinned in complaining against God and Moses.

It's kind of a graphic representation of Romans 6, 23.

The wages of sin is death.

And so the solution that God proposes through Moses is to erect this seraph serpent on a pole made of bronze.

And those who look at the snake, those who are made aware of the seriousness of their sin and the healing grace of God, find healing in him.

In our gospel today from John 3, verses 13 through 17, Jesus says the same of his own crucifixion as he's speaking to Nicodemus.

The true Christian believes as much as any Jew believes it that Jehovah our God is one God.

Moses proclaims it in Deuteronomy, Here, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah, and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

It has been argued that because this verse begins, Here, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah, that this excludes the doctrine of the Trinity.

The word for one is echad, and it means not one in isolation as much as it means one in unity.

Now, this verse, the verse that begins it, the Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love, is the verse of the Old Testament that is most often quoted in the Old Testament.

It comes from the book of Exodus, and it has to do with that time when Moses asked to see the glory of God.

He wanted to see the face of God, and God replied to him, Nobody can see my face and live.

You can't do that.

But God said, I'll do the next best thing.

I'll reveal myself to you in a special way.

And so God hid Moses in a cleft of the rock.

He covered him with his hand, and then he passed by.