Page 16 - Living Light Autumn 23

Friday September 15 - A brother and support Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. Exodus 4:30
It wasn’t only Moses that God was making ready for the great task of rescue. Knowing that Moses would struggle to express God’s message to Pharaoh, God provided a helper with different talents: his elder brother Aaron.
Aaron is overlooked today, except that his name is more popular than Moses for new- borns! He’s often remembered chiefly for his infamous role in the making of the golden calf as an alternative god for Israel. Yet God in his grace chose him to be the first High Priest, as later chapters tell. And before that was his calling to be his brother’s spokesman, the one whose God-given gifts would complement Moses’ and enable God’s word to be communicated to Pharaoh. In these early times Aaron was like a prophet of God.
The brothers would have their disagreements, as siblings do. Aaron could be jealous and sometimes cause Moses to despair. But he would stand shoulder to shoulder with Moses through their often-acrimonious encounters with Pharaoh, and on the whole carried out his work as prophet and priest faithfully.
A supporting role is not easy. “It takes more grace than I can tell, to play the second fiddle well”, said the great preacher Charles Spurgeon. He was speaking of Barnabas, Paul’s companion in the New Testament, but Aaron played it pretty well to Moses too.
God calls us all at some time to be a supporting player. Do it with grace, without grudge.
Father, please help me to be a support, loving another in that way. Amen.
Sat Sept 16 - Changing the atmosphere with worship
When they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshipped. Exodus 4:31
“My mother-in-law”, the man groaned, “attends church when she needs to see somebody!” I nodded, but recognised that we can all have faulty priorities! It’s easy to engage in ‘horizontal church’ and forget ‘vertical worship’ – of God above, who alone is worthy to be worshipped (Revelation 5:13-14).
The reason God ordered Pharaoh to let Israel go was that they “may worship me” (v 23). He wanted to be their only God (Exodus 20:2-5). And in anticipation of this desired relationship, when Moses and Aaron reached Egypt and told his people that God knew about their plight and was concerned and minded to act, ‘they bowed down and worshipped.’
I rejoice to see someone kneeling in prayer and worship. It’s rarer today, because often our ‘worship’ is ‘horizontal’ – our centre of attention is something in the world, something going on, rather than the One above who deserves to be bowed to and reverenced. We can easily become a ‘Flat Earth Society’ instead of an ‘Our Father in Heaven Community’, focused on God who has freed us to be his children.
I was impressed by a prayer request from Christians in Ukraine preparing to take aid and the gospel to war-torn areas. Their aim was to ‘change the spiritual atmosphere with worship.’ The answer to misery, like the answer to the Israelites’ misery, is God himself, the One who sees, is concerned and minded to act. So let’s be ‘vertical worshippers’!
God our Father, bowing down yet looking up, we worship you! Amen.
PRAYER FOR TODAY
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PRAYER FOR TODAY