The Road to Moriah: Obedience
The forty days coordinate to several “40’s” in Israelite history and Jesus’ ministry. The Israelites came out of Egypt and marched toward the promised land that God was giving them, but on the edge of the promised land they sinned. They sent 12 spies into the land flowing with milk and honey to scope out the land and bring back a report. They brought back a report, but it was not a good one!
Numbers 13:28-33 — “The people who live there are strong, and the cities have walls and are very large…we can’t attack those people! They’re too strong for us!…the land we explored is one that devours those who live there. All the people we saw there are very tall…we felt as small as grasshoppers, and that’s how we must have looked to them.”
They did not follow God’s instruction and did not trust God, so God punished them by not allowing any of those who were alive at the time to enter the promised land. Instead, they marched in the wilderness for 40 years until all those who had rebelled with these false spies passed away. God wanted them to learn obedience, but they came out of those 40 years in the wilderness, and they continued to sin. Even though God had proven to them repeatedly that he was their God and would care for them.
They came out of the wilderness and sinned. Jesus, immediately after his baptism which marks the beginning of his ministry, is led by the spirit into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights. He is fasting in preparation for the beginning of his earthly ministry and when he comes out of the desert, he is hungry, but the devil tempts him. Jesus rebukes the devil proving that while God’s people went into the desert to learn obedience but came out and sinned, Jesus will go into the desert and come out and remain obedient.
In many ways, Lent is about obedience, but not our obedience. We can never fully achieve that. Lent is about Jesus’ obedience. Jesus achieves what we cannot achieve. This Sunday, we are going to see the obedience of Abraham has he takes Isaac to Mount Moriah to sacrifice him there in response to God’s command. While Abraham is obedient, his obedience is really meant to point us to the obedience of Christ. Join us this Sunday as we learn about obedience.
-Pastor Ken Harste