One of the places I serve is with the 10th grade boys on Sunday. I mostly show up and support the leader. I am probably not the most helpful helper, but sometimes I come in handy. This past week I stepped in when the leader had to be away, and I led the lesson.
The first time I led this group, I prepared a lesson like I always had in the past, and while they may have learned something, it was not very engaging for them. The second time I did not prepare at all, and although it was engaging, I am not sure they learned anything. This time, I think I found a happy medium.
Our pastor is leading the church through a study of Revelation. It is a marvelous book, but it can be a little overwhelming. I remember teaching a class while we went through Revelation and I really enjoyed the studying and preparing. But after it was over, I wanted to make sure that the class knew the main two points about the book: Yes, Jesus wins, but the interpretations that have an early rapture of the church are not certain, and one’s faith cannot hinge on an early rapture. I thought about this as we studied Moses this week.
We studied Exodus and God speaking to Moses at the burning bush. God was calling Moses “biblically” soon after he had murdered an Egyptian. Moses had apparently never met God before and was a little overwhelmed by someone who could make a bush burn without burning up, who could make a staff a snake, and vice versa, and could make a hand leprous and heal then it.
Moses eventually had faith in God and became the first leader the Jews had since Israel himself. One of the Prophets who dies and comes back to life (at the point we were studying in church this week) was reportedly Moses as the representative of the law that God gave the Jews. Every miracle Moses did, the Pharaoh’s priests duplicated. The Pharaoh was certainly not convinced of God by Moses’s works. AS the end times witness, Moses was not believed even after he arose frmo the dead. As we see, from the time of Moses’s life to the his final appearance, seeing a miracle does not produce faith in everyone.
We had a discussion in our group about how the Jews killed Jesus. The Jewish leaders understood that anyone who claimed to be equal to God was to be killed. Jesus claimed to be equal to God and the Jews killed Him. He was Jesus. Those who lived with Him were convinced He was God. But not everyone put their faith in Him and not everyone believed. Judas certainly did not. Even his own brothers did not.
The only miracle that could prove one was God was coming back from the dead (on your own). The only way one could come back from the dead was to die. God had a plan, Jesus followed it, and we are saved by this set of circumstances.
But people rejected Christ and His resurrection just as those in the future will reject God in the end times. The good news is that Christ died for our sins. And the great thing is all we have to do is accept. That is the best miracle.