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 could 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 be 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 Pastor Emeritus Fort Wayne, Indiana
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 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 Pastor Emertitus Fort Wayne, Indiana
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 to 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 for 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 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’sjustice 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 on to 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 Pastor Emeritus Fort Wayne, Indiana
Encore Post: People in ancient times believed dreams predicted the future. Kings and other important people hired magicians, astrologers and other wise men skilled 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, the 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 servants had dreams that Joseph correctly interpreted. Eventually, he interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh himself. From the king’s 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 Joseph was the wisest of them all. 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 Pastor Emeritus Fort Wayne, Indiana
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. They 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 was dead, killed by a wild beast. He mourned Joseph greatly.
Some people do share your opinion. I understand the motivation to a certain degree. There are many wonderful things about The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941 (TLH). Unlike the scriptures, the canon of the hymnody can never be closed. Like preaching, there is always something new and useful to say regarding God’s Word to His people. Like preaching, the older things should not be thrown away. And they’re not. 340 of TLH hymns are preserved in the Lutheran Service Book (LSB). That’s greater than 50% of its hymnody (h/t Rev. Dr. Paul Grime). TLH is still in print today. There are also congregations that retain the use of both TLH & LSB, and even TLH exclusively.
There are some historical failures of the church, leading to the notion that TLH is the only right hymnal. Emotions, which are a poor standard of decision making in most contexts, notwithstanding, poor timing is among the chief concerns.
There were theological errors in the Lutheran Book of Worship, 1978 (LBW), causing a stir at a time when a new hymnal was needed and desired. Our (LCMS) participation with the other Lutheran groups produced a hymnal, whose use we could not encourage. We had to back out of the project, but retained copyright usage authority over the materials produced.
This led to a hasty publication of the Lutheran Worship, 1982 (LW). That was a bad move. Simply stripping-out and correcting theological errors didn’t produce a good hymnal. In fact, it produced a fairly poor hymnal. It was not well received. At LW’s peak, it was in use in just over half of LCMS congregations. As evidence of that, the old LWs are even difficult to give away.
Among the complaints about LW are these: the defaced common service, organ arrangements, and altered text. By “Common Service,” I mean TLH p. 5/15, LW Divine Service I, and LSB Divine Service, Setting Three. The TLH and LSB settings are quite similar. The LW setting updated the Jacobean English and stripped the chorale harmonies from the pew edition. Further, LW has also removed and/or rewritten common chorale harmonies to several hymns. These were not well received.
All of this failure has encouraged the notion that TLH might be the only good hymnal. Even the great TLH contains some noticeable weaknesses. Some translations of the German hymns are theologically sketchy, leading to some of the revised wording more recently. A more subtle, but more significant, error comes from the sequencing of the services. The Order of Morning Service without communion on page 5 for use on Sunday is followed by The Order of the Holy Communion on page 15 are a two-fold failure. Prior to TLH there was no printed chief service for Sunday without the Lord’s Supper. TLH not only introduced an innovation but also gave it priority by placing it first in the book. This may have been an editorial oversight. However, it leaves the impression that not only is Sunday without communion normal, it may be preferable.
At a time when the frequency of the celebration of the Lord’s supper may have been at an historic low, TLH inadvertently or deliberately reinforced the same. For LCMS congregations that celebrated as infrequently as once a month, once a quarter, twice a year, or once a year, TLH gave at least a nod to encourage the practice. Ask some of your own elderly members. You’ll likely hear about how infrequent it was. You may even hear like I have, “Well, p. 5 comes first. That’s the one we used most.”
LSB is also not a perfect hymnal. It is a good hymnal. A harsh reality at its publication was division in hymnal usage throughout the LCMS. In 1999, 35% of LCMS congregations retained TLH only, 60% had adopted LW, and scant number had even adopted LBW (h/t Rev. Dr. Paul Grime). There was no hope of returning to TLH more broadly. LW had demonstrated the peak of its acceptance. LSB achieved its goal of unifying a greater number of LCMS congregations under a single, common service book. By returning to the TLH, page 15 liturgy (LSB DS 3), as well as the LW Divine Service II: settings one & two (LSB DS 1 & 2), LSB struck a balance. LSB also restored the original settings and text of many of the TLH hymns with a few translation corrections.
LSB enjoys greater than 70% adoption among LCMS congregations. It’s not perfect by any means. It does, however, improve the likelihood of lifelong Lutherans like us and new converts finding a familiar hymnal in use, when they travel or move their families.
That’s good for the synod as a whole.
Rev. Jason M. Kaspar Sole Pastor Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool La Grange, TX
Encore Post: God blessed Isaac and Rebekah a lot. He gave them a good land to live in, riches, servants, flocks and twin boys. God promised to make their family to grow to become a nation. The Messiah would come from their descendants.
Yet the family of Abraham was dysfunctional from the very start. Abraham loved Isaac more than Ishmael. Isaac loved Esau more than Jacob, and Rebekah loved Jacob more than Esau. Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah and Rachel’s children, especially Joseph, more than all his other children. That really did not work well for them.
God told Rebekah that Jacob would be the family’sleader when Isaac died. But normally, the older son had this blessing. So Isaac didn’t listen to God and intended to give that blessing to Esau. Rebekah was afraid that God would not keep His promise and helped Jacob to trick Isaac. Esau didn’t think his father’s blessing was very important, so he sold it to Jacob for a good meal. Jacob didn’t want to wait for God to give the blessing to him, so he tried to get it himself by tricking his brother and father out of it. The story did not end well. Esau was very angry and Jacob ran away to his uncle Laban with only the clothes on his back.
Still, God forgave them. He continued to bless Isaac, Rebekah and Esau. He gave Jacob two wives, Leah and Rachel, many flocks of sheep and riches. When he came back home, afraid that Esau would still be angry with him. To remind Jacob that he was still with him, God came to Jacob at night in the person of the Son of God and wrestled with him all night. When the night was over, God renamed Jacob (which means “heel”) Israel (“he struggles with God”)
Soon, Israel discovered his brother loved him still and forgave the mean things Israel did to him years before. So they lived together as a family from that time on. Yet it appears that Israel didn’t learn much through experience, as we will discover in later posts.
Encore Post: The story of Isaac and Rebekah sounds very strange to us in America of the Twenty-First century. In our culture, people search for their own spouses — if they get married at all. The thought that a parent would find a wife for their son, much less trust a servant to search for her, negotiate the marriage as a business deal seems all wrong. And yet, for most of human history and in many cultures today, arranged marriages were the way that marriages are done. Many of these marriages developed into very close, loving relationships.
Abraham knew that he was getting old. He had buried his wife three years earlier. He knew that a wife from the unbelieving world around him would not be God-pleasing or helpful in producing a family from which the messiah would be born two thousand years later. He also knew he couldn’t make the trip back to Haran to seek a wife for his son among those who believed in God. So, Abraham trusts his servant, who would inherit everything if Isaac didn’t have children. His servant makes the search his own, devoting himself to prayer and seeking a bride with a servant heart. While he was praying for wisdom at a well near his destination, Rebekah came up to offer him and his camels water, which she did not have to do. Recognizing a selfless, serving heart in her, the servant sought to arrange a marriage between her and Isaac.
Rebekah’s family shows faith in God and love of Abraham in sending Rebekah to Isaac. When the servant told his story, they also recognized God’s hand in the marriage. Yet they still asked Rebekah’s consent, who agreed. Isaac was praying when the servant and Rebekah arrived in Canaan. He receives her as his wife and loved her from the start. Because of these acts of love and trust, Jesus would one day be born, descended from Rebekah and Isaac.
Encore Post: The sacrifice of the Son of God and the sacrifice of Isaac are closely related. Isaac is Abraham‘s son, His only son, whom he loves. Jesus is God’s Son, His only Son, Whom He loves.
When God told Abraham to go to Mount Moriah, He picked the place that Solomon would choose to build the temple. On this spot, Abraham was ready to sacrifice his son. God had promised that it would be through Isaac that Abraham’s descendants would become more numerous than the sand on the seashore and the stars in the sky. Abraham did not know how God would keep His promise. He thought perhaps God would raise Isaac from the dead (Hebrews 11:17-18).
When Abraham was ready to perform the sacrifice, the Angel of the Lord appeared and stopped the sacrifice. Christian theologians believe this figure is the Son of God Himself, appearing before His birth. So, God spared Abraham’s son, but He did not spare His Son, His only Son, Whom He loved, but provided Him as the sacrifice that ends all sacrifice. Two thousand years after this event, Jesus would be condemned to death on the very same spot. God indeed provided the Lamb for the sacrifice for our sins.
Encore Post: In ancient times, names were very important. People thought names told you something about the person who had them. When something important happened in a person’s life, sometimes they changed their name as well.
In the Bible, a name is often given with its meaning. When Adam gave his wife the name Eve, because she would be the mother of all living. (Genesis 3:20) — The word Eve sounds like the word for life giver in Hebrew. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham because “I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.” (Genesis 17:5) Abraham means father of a multitude in Hebrew. God also changed Sarai’s name to Sarah, which means “princess.” (Genesis 17:15) When both Abraham and Sarah laughed at God’s promise to give them a son, God told them to name that son, Isaac, which means “laughed.” (Genesis 17:19) Later, God would tell Mary and Joseph to name their son, Jesus, because he would save His people from their sins. In Hebrew, the name Jesus means God saves or God is salvation.
For nearly a lifetime, Abraham lived a life of faith. He trusted God to keep his promises. God told him to become a nomadic herdsman and take his family to the land of Canaan, which God promised to give to his descendants. He promised to give him and Sarah a son and through that son make him the ancestor of many nations. Yet, year after year, they did not have children. So, then, they decided maybe they were to have a child through a surrogate — Sarah’s slave Hagar. Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, whom God revealed would not be Abraham’s heir. When Abraham and Sarah sent them away, God provided for them. Ishmael would be the ancestor of the Arab peoples.
So God came to visit Abraham to renew his promise. He came as three men, for whom Abraham threw a feast. They promised a son to Abraham and Sarah within a year. It was then that the couple laughed — since they were barren and long past the age to have children. When finally Isaac — Laughed — was born, Sarah laughed again. She said the laugh was at her, since she doubted to power of God to keep his word.
