A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Deuteronomy 18:14-22. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

Dive In!

1. If you could know the absolute truth about one future event in your life, what would you want to know? Why or why not?
2. What is the strangest superstition or method of "predicting luck" you've ever heard of or seen? Do we ever treat prayer like a way to "twist God's arm" rather than a way to know Him?
3. Have we lost our sense of "healthy fear" or awe regarding God? If so, what should we do?
4. Does our culture have "false prophets"? (think about promises of happiness through money, politics, or self-help). How do we use Scripture to test those messages?
5. Practically speaking, what makes it hard for to listen to Jesus during a busy week? What is one specific noise or distraction you need to turn down this week to hear Him better?
6. For the next 24 hours, pay attention to the "voices" you listen to (podcasts, news, social media, friends). Ask yourself: Does this voice align with the Prophet Jesus, or is it trying to sell me a different version of the future?

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

In The Message, we find this paraphrase,

"The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish."

In the Old Testament, there are stories of God visiting humans: Adam and Eve, Moses, Elijah. God came and he kept coming. Through the centuries, he appeared among his people. Two things were often part of those visits: his glory was revealed, and he called his people back to holiness.

These things come to fullness in the story of Christ's birth: Immanuel – God with us, come to save his people from their sins. Matthew tells it most plainly. Eugene Peterson writes concerning John 1, "the Word (that Creative and Powerful force by which the cosmos was formed and fashioned) became flesh and blood and moved into the neighbourhood."

Hebrews picks up these themes and spends considerable time punctuating the fact that Jesus is the final and grandest Word of God, THE Immanuel. He is God with us, forever. End of story! This is the glory and beauty Christ's arrival.

When we Christians talk about dwelling with God and seeing his glory, we often think about life after physical death. We like to say that when a Christian dies, she enters glory. This is alright after a fashion. However, it can cause us to miss one of the truths of Immanuel. What did John say, "we have beheld the glory of God." Jesus reveals the glory of God. And before he left his disciples, he promised to send them his Spirit.

Let me say this plainly, the Spirit connects us to God's glory, now, today. This is Paul's teaching in 2 Corinthians 3 which ends with, "And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (18).

Dwelling in the glory of God is not reserved for after death. It begins now. It's true that "For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face" (1 Cor. 13:12). So yes, there is a difference between then and now, but only one of decree.

Sometimes we see the glory in the gathering of God's people at worship; sometimes we see it in the face of a fellow Christian; sometimes we see it in someone that we serve or someone who serves us. But see it we do, if we have eyes to see. Look for him. Look for his glory.

Jesus is Immanuel. He is God with us. He is here with us now.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May your day end with rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you. May you rest in his provision as he brings night, and then new dawn.

Our Scripture is Exodus 3:7-8a

The Lord said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So, I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians… (Exodus 3:7-8a).

When Elijah traveled to Mount Horeb, he discovered that "the Lord was not in the fire." Years earlier, Moses also traveled to Mount Horeb, and that's exactly where God was!

It was on Mt. Horeb, this mountain of God, that Moses encountered the burning bush—ever aflame, but never consumed. It's out of that bush, which stood in the wilderness, on a deserted desert mountain, that Moses first met the God of his ancestors.

God had been active in Moses' life, but there is no record of Moses paying any attention to him. He certainly had not experienced standing in God's presence. But now in the wilderness, Moses had his sandals off and his face hidden, because God had shown up!

But God was not there for Moses. He had come because of the misery and the suffering of his people. They were crying out to God, and he was concerned for them. He set out to rescue them from their slavery. God stopped Moses in his tracks because Moses was God's chosen agent to bring his people out of Egypt. Thus, God in the fire.

This story is echoed in Romans 8. When Paul writes that "we cry Abba, Father" he's echoing the cries of God's enslaved people in Egypt. And as Moses discovered in the desert: those are cries that God listens to; cries that he responds to when, like a good Father, he comes down and scoops us up in his arms to comfort us in our suffering.

Noticing Israel's suffering was not a chance moment for God. Jesus launches him ministry with these words, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour" (Luke 4:18-19).

There is much suffering around us, locally and globally. Its easy for us to become immune to it. As such, we may think God becomes immune to it as well. But that would not be true. It is for the suffering ones that Jesus came and comes. We must cry out, "Abba, Father".

It's in wilderness places that God suddenly shows up in a burning bush to say: "I've seen the misery of my people and heard their cries, so I have come…" Jesus is present in our suffering even when we are not aware of it.

Paul takes this a step farther. God comforts us so that we can comfort others. As Jesus is present with us, he wants us to be present with other sufferers. Which sufferer will you approach?

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May your day end with rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you. May you rest in his provision as he brings night, and then new dawn.