June 2023 – What Does This Mean?

Sunday School: Bread from Heaven

Encore Post: Once the people of Israel were safe on the other side of the Red Sea and the joy of freedom faded, the realized that they had to provide for themselves. They grumbled at Mara that they were thirsty and God provided water to drink. Once they reached the Wilderness of Sin, they grumbled that they had nothing to eat. God told Moses that he would provide bread in the morning and quail at night to eat.

When the people saw the bread God provided, it looked so strange to them they said, “What is it?” They called it Manna, which means, “what is it” in Hebrew. Moses answered that it was bread God provided for them. God provided this food six days, doubling the amount on the sixth day. On the Sabbath, Manna did not come.

From the time that people began to plant crops until this very day, bread has been a basic food for people. God fed His people in the wilderness with manna to teach them to trust their Heavenly Father for daily bread.

God would do other miracles with bread. The Prophet Elijah would feed the widow and her son with bread flour and oil that did not run out. Elisha would feed one hundred men with a few loaves. Later Satan would tempt Jesus to make stones into bread rather than trust Him. Jesus quoted what Moses said to Israel about Manna: man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.. (Deuteronomy 8:3). Jesus would feed crowds in the desert with a few loaves and fishes. The crowds knew what it meant Jesus was the Messiah and like Moses and Elijah.

Jesus also used bread in another way. During His Last Supper, He took bread, broke it, blessed it and gave His body for them to eat. To this day, when we gather for communion, Jesus feeds us with His body * the true Bread from Heaven. When we receive this bread, we are given strength for our journey through this life to life everlasting.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Sunday School: The Exodus

Encore Post: The night of the first Passover, the people of Israel prepared for the darkest of the plagues God sent to Egypt to free them from slavery. The killed a perfect lamb for the feast. They spread the blood on their doorposts to mark their homes. The prepared dinner quickly, prepared to leave Egypt in haste. They made their bread without leaven. They wore traveling clothes.

That night God himself visited every home in Egypt and took the life of every firstborn in Egyptian households. He did this through the destroying angel. Many theologians believe this angel is the Angel of the Lord — the second person of the Holy Trinity. The outcry was great and Pharaoh finally let God’s people go and told them to go quickly.

God led the people out of Egypt to the shore of the Red Sea where they camped. He did so with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. In this pillar, the Angel of the Lord was present to lead them. Soon Pharaoh changed his mind and pursued Israel with his armies. The pillar moved from before the people to stand between them and the Egyptians.

God directed Moses to hold his staff over the Red Sea. Winds blew for hours to part the sea. God then had Moses lead the people through the sea on dry land. Once they were on the other side, the pillar of the cloud of God’s presence moved from between Israel and the Egyptians to the front of the people. The Egyptian army charged into the sea, where the wheels of their chariots bogged down. God then had Moses put down his staff. The sea closed over the Egyptian forces drowning them. The people of Israel were now free and safe.

When Jesus was transfigured, Moses and Elijah appeared with Him and spoke about Christ’s coming Exodus (a word that gets lost in translation. Most English versions use “departure” for its meaning). By His death and resurrection, He would lead all God’s people through death to life. St. Paul tells us that the cloud and the Red Sea were a kind of Baptism (1 Corinthians 10:1-2), which points to the Sacrament of Baptism. In Baptism, our sinful nature is drowned and we are free to serve God as His redeemed people.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Sunday School: The First Passover

Encore Post: Nine times God sent plagues on Egypt to show Pharaoh and his people that their gods did not have the powers claimed for them. Nine times, Pharaoh had agreed to let the people of Israel go to worship God. Nine times God brought the plague to an end and Pharaoh went back on his word. Now the last and greatest plague would be sent. Every first born male in the land of Egypt other than those of the Hebrews would die. This was the reverse of what a previous Pharaoh had tried to do by ordering the first born male babies to be killed. Now one that had escaped, ironically at the hand of a daughter of Pharaoh, would pronounced God’s answer to that outrage.

God marked the day by establishing a feast. A young lamb would be killed for each family of the Hebrews. The blood of that lamb would be spread on the door frame of each of their homes. The lamb itself would be the entree of a feast called Passover because on that night the Angel of Death passed over every house marked in this way. The death of Pharaoh’s heir and every firstborn in Egypt was finally enough. Pharaoh let them go and their Egyptian neighbors gave riches to the people of Israel so they would leave quickly.

Every year since that first Passover, Jewish families remember that day of freedom. The Passover is a kind of Old Testament sacrament, bringing union with the God Who saves. Luther believed that the Passover, sacrifices and circumcision drew their power to forgive from the cross, which was yet to come, just as our sacraments draw their power to forgive from the cross, where the Lamb of God, Jesus, was sacrificed for us.

By choosing to institute the sacrament of Holy Communion during the Passover, Jesus used all of its symbols to point to what He was to do for us. Now He offers His Body and Blood to us with Bread and Wine, bringing with it freedom from slavery to sin and the power of the devil.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Sunday School: Moses, Pharaoh and the Plagues

Encore Post: The Pharaohs of Egypt thought of themselves as gods, the sons of Osiris. They were thought to be the intermediaries between the gods and people. The people would turn to them for the rains and the floods that caused crops to grow, for fertility and other good things. They would, in turn, approach the gods for these things. To free the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, the true God would do battle with the gods of the superpower of the ancient world.

Having been raised in Pharaoh’s household, Moses was familiar with this. Moses and Aaron would function like a pharaoh of the God of Israel in the view of the Egyptians. Moses confronted Pharaoh and demand that Pharaoh release the Israelites to worship him. When Pharaoh did not comply, God used disasters or plagues, to demonstrate that He is more powerful as the gods of Egypt.

The serpent represented the god of wisdom, fertility and healing to the Egyptians. When Moses’ snake swallowed those of the magicians, God showed himself superior to them. The Nile River fed Egypt and the ancient world. The Lord showed power over the god that controlled it when He turned it into blood. The Egyptians saw frogs as symbols of the goddess of childbirth. They also worshipped flies and beetles. The earlier plagues showed Yahweh’s power over them.

The rest of the plagues attacked the food supply the gods were supposed to supply through Pharaoh. While they convinced many of the Egyptian people that the God of the Hebrews was almighty, Pharaoh did not, since it did not touch him personally. He was trying to haggle with God to get the best deal possible for him and his people. When God took the pressure off, he backed down. Eventually, the plagues got to the place where even the advisors of Pharaoh advised he relent. Pharaoh did not let them go. This lead to God unleashing the Angel of Death, the last and greatest plague of all.

Sunday School: Moses and the Burning Bush

Encore Post: Just like David, whom God chose to be King, Moses served many years as a shepherd before God called him to lead His people to freedom. Even though Moses did not think so, he was perfectly suited for the task at hand. Raised by his mother in the household of Pharaoh, Moses was fluent in both Hebrew and Egyptian, possessing the best education available in the world of his time. He was humbled by years as a shepherd and fully familiar with living in the desert of Sinai. He was the son-in-law of a tribal chief and so had resources available to him during the forty years of desert travel to come. Not confident in himself, Moses was able to trust God, Who alone could free the people from slavery. In the end, it is not Moses who saves Israel, but God.

Moses had left his old life behind. One day, while he was leading his flock near Mount Sinai, he saw a strange sight — a bush was on fire but not burning up. When he went to take a closer look, He saw the Angel of the Lord, the Son of God before he became a man in the womb of the Virgin Mary. The Angel (the word means: Messenger) appeared to him in the burning bush. He identified himself as the God of his fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and told him to take off his sandals and not come closer. Abraham was afraid to look at the Angel, but he need not. The Son of God is the person of the Trinity that can been seen by mortals and the mortals will no die.

God told Moses that he had heard the cries of his people and would send Moses to free them from slavery and bring them to the Holy Land which God would give them. Moses was not at all comfortable with the task and so tried to stall and make excuses. Each time God had mercy on him and provided for him. God revealed his personal name, Yahweh. He gave Moses two miraculous signs — turning his staff into a snake and his hand leprous and healthy — so they would believe Moses. He provided Aaron as his spokesman. Finally, God promised to go with Moses — and he did.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Happy birthday, Lutheran Church!

Encore Post: Most people think of October 31st, 1517 as the anniversary of the Lutheran Church. However, Martin Luther and most Lutheran historians disagree. On the day that Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses, he was very much a Catholic. In fact, Luther on this day was upset that people did not have to suffer enough for their sins, and were being let off the hook way too easy. You could say he was more Catholic than the Pope. Considering the nature of Pope Leo X, he was.

On the first Reformation day, the Reformation was just beginning. We only first begin to recognize Luther’s complete theology in his writings in 1520. And it really wasn’t until 1529 that the reformers and their princes began to think of the Lutheran tradition as a separate faith.

Emperor Charles V had many problems in 1529. The Turkish Empire of Suleiman the Great had invaded Austria and laid siege to Vienna. France and the Pope were constantly challenging his Authority in southern Europe. He very badly wanted to unify his German territories under Roman Catholic control. So he called all the territories together at Augsburg for a meeting of the Holy Roman Empire.

Elector John of Saxony, Luther’s Prince, commissioned Luther and his friends to create a unified statement of the disputes between the Pope and the Lutheran territories. The result was a document called the Augsburg confession. All of the Lutheran princes who attended the diet of Augsburg sign the document as their own faith.

On June 25th 1530, the Augsburg confession was presented to Charles V by the Lutheran princes. To this day, June 25th is known as the birthday of Lutheran Church.

As Time passed, the Augsburg Confession gained acceptance by Lutheran territories and theologians. It became the standard for what we believe and confess and remained so. Today, every Lutheran Pastor pledges to teach according to the Augsburg Confession and the other documents contained in the book of Concord 1580.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Sunday School: Baby Moses Adopted by Pharaoh’s Daughter

Encore Post: After Joseph died, the descendents of Israel remained in Egypt and prospered. They eventually grew into a small nation — large enough to seem to threaten Pharaoh. The Egyptian king enslaved them, hoping hard work would reduce their numbers. It did not. So he tried to get midwives to kill any male child born. They did not. So he commanded everyone to kill them anyway. This was especially cruel given the way both Jews and Egyptians felt about children.

Family and children were important to both the Egyptians and the Hebrews. Egyptians were especially fond of their children. If a couple couldn’t have a baby, they would often adopt children — frequently from among their slaves. The adopted child was treated exactly the same as if he or she had been born into the family. The upper classes of Egypt often used nurses, who would move in with the adoptive family. The custom of leaving unwanted children in places where someone would find them was common everywhere but in Egypt.

Moses’ mother very cleverly left Moses where the princess bathed, counting on her horror and pity to give Moses a chance. It worked. Through these events, God Prepared Moses to be at home both with both Egyptians and Hebrews, making him, his brother and sister prepared to lead God’s people.

The Scriptures see in the rescue of Moses from the reeds a theme that began with the flood. God had Noah build an ark in which he saved Noah, his family and the animal species in creation. Moses’ mother put him in an ark of reeds, which kept him safe until delivered by Pharaoh’s daughter. Later God would use Moses to part the Red Sea through which he saved the people of Israel through the sea.

St. Paul points out that we are God’s adopted children, treated the same way as if we had been born into His family. So we own everything in the universe with Jesus. (Ephesians. 1:3-6, Romans 8:15-17) In Holy Baptism, God also carries us to safety, through death to life eternal.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Sunday School: Joseph Forgives His Brothers

Encore Post: Joseph wasted no time as viceroy of Egypt to prepare the land for famine. He stored grain up and enacted other measures to prepare the people. When famine came, the Egyptians were able not only to feed their people, but sell grain to neighboring peoples. Among these were Joseph’s brothers.

Joseph arranged for a series of tests to see if his brothers had learned from their sin over the years. The final test, when Joseph demanded his brother Benjamin as a slave as punishment for the crimes he trumped up against them, Judah offered himself in Benjamin’s place. Since Joseph now knew that his brothers were truly repentant of what they did to him, he revealed himself to them.

Joseph forgave his brothers. He realized that what they “intended for evil, God meant for good, to save many lives.” He provided for them from his own wealth and settle them, Israel and his whole household in Egypt, It took some convincing, but Joseph repeatedly reminded them that he was not in the place of God, As God had provided for him and showed him mercy, so he would provide for them the rest of his days.

The Greek word for forgiveness literally means to let go, to release. When God forgives us, He lets go of our sins, not holding them against us. He does this because His Son, Jesus, paid the price for our sins. His sufferings and death satisfied God’s justice and canceled the charges against us in God’s court. God ordered us to be released because our sentence was completed.

Jesus wants us to release our neighbors from the evil they had done against us. This is not always easy to do, because we remember the pain and betrayal we feel when others hurt us, not only when they hurt us physically, but also when they hurt us emotionally and spiritually. The problem is that often the bitter feelings that we nurse when we hold onto them can ruin our lives more than the evil itself. When we let go of these sins against us, we can live at peace. This is why God offers us help to forgive others. The next time you pray the Lord’s Prayer, ask God to help you forgive others and receive the forgiveness He offers you

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Blog Post Series | Hymn on Forgiveness: “Remember Christ our Savior”

Sunday School: Joseph Serves in Egypt

Encore Post: People in ancient times believed that dreams predicted the future. Kings and other important people hired magicians, astrologers and other wise men skill in interpreting dreams. Because of this, God used dreams from time to time to send messages to kings and to his prophets. God sent dreams to Joseph’s father, Jacob. God sent dreams to Joseph to predict his future as the second in command of Egypt. It was this dream the angered Joseph’s brothers enough that they sold him into slavery in Egypt.

Joseph was sold to Potiphar, the Captain of the Palace Guard for Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Joseph worked hard for his master, who discovered the semitic slave had a talent for administration and so put him in charge of his household staff. The captain’s wife tried to seduce Joseph, grabbing his robe as he fled from her. In revenge, the woman accused him of raping her. So Potiphar threw Joseph in prison.

The warden of the jail discovered the same skills in Joseph, so he ended up in charge of the jail. It was there that he met Pharaoh’s butler and baker. Both of these servants had dreams that Joseph correctly interpreted. Eventually, he interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh himself. From the kings perspective, all of his wise men, the best in the world at the time, couldn’t explain his dreams. But Joseph could. So he concluded that Joseph was the wisest of them all. So Pharaoh appointed him to rule Egypt under his command. God had fulfilled the dreams he had given Joseph.

God used Joseph, then, to prepare for famine in Egypt and then feed the world. 1500 years later, another Joseph had a dream. God told that Joseph not to be afraid to marry Mary, because God was the father of the child she carried. He did and became the stepfather of Jesus, who would save the world from sin.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Sunday School: Joseph and His Brothers

Encore Post: Israel had not learned his lesson. Like his grandfather and parents. He had favored one of his wives over another and he now doubled-down and favored Rachael’s children over the children of Leah, her female servant and Rachael’s female servants. When God revealed to Moses later with the Ten Commandments that sins travel to the third or fourth generation, he was not kidding!

Israel loved Joseph more than all his other sons, because he was born in the patriarch’s old age — and was Rachael’s sons. It did not escape Joseph’s brothers that their father loved him more than any of them — especially when Israel made Joseph a fancy robe (the Hebrew for the phrase “coat of many colors” is uncertain in meaning. It is translated in the Septuagint as “robe with long sleeves”). It didn’t help when God revealed to Joseph in two dreams that he would rule over his family — and used it to torment them.

Eventually, his brothers had enough. The seized him, took his robe and threw him into a cistern. When a caravan came by, they sold Joseph into slavery. Then they tore Joseph’s robe, dipped it in goat’s blood and showed it to Israel. The deceit worked and Israel thought his favorite son dead, killed by a wild beast. He mourned Joseph greatly.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

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