The Collect
St. Bartholomew the Apostle
O
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ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who didst give to thine Apostle Bartholomew grace
truly to believe and preach thy Word; Grant, we beseech thee, unto thy Church,
to love that Word which he believed, and both to preach and receive the same;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
23 By
faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because
they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's
commandment. 24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be
called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; 25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 26 Esteeming
the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had
respect unto the recompence of the reward. 27 By faith he forsook Egypt,
not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is
invisible. 28 Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of
blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. (Heb 11:23-28)
Behold,
the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take
the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I
bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. 14 When
he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into
Egypt: 15 And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be
fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt
have I called my son. (Matt 2:13-15)
To
observe briefly from today's Collect for remembrance of Saint Bartholomew, we
are reminded therein of the nature of Apostolic Succession in its proper
bounds. St. Bartholomew did, indeed, not only believe the Gospel,
but also preached that same Gospel with faithful diligence. We are
counseled in the Collect: Grant, we beseech thee, unto thy Church, to love
that Word which he believed, and both to preach and receive the
same. If the modern Church will be successors to that Church of the
Apostles, we must receive and believe that which
the Apostles received, believed, and preached.
There is no Apostolic Succession without the attending Doctrinal
Succession of that Gospel taught by our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know
of any modern churches who have not compromised, in many respects, that Gospel?
Do they preach a message against abortion and homosexuality (the salient sins
of the modern day)? Do they preach a sterile and watered-down Gospel? Do they
hide behind a false concept of `prohibition against judging� even the most
cardinal of sins? Flee from such a church. Better to sit in the security of
one's home with the Holy Bible than to give audience at an apostate church.
Reading from the Caesarean News-Dispatch this morning, I
came across an article announcing that the murderous King Herod died a painful
death, and Caesar himself also had died � some two-thousand years ago!
However, the object of their hatred lives on in Eternity, the Lord
Jesus Christ! Well, I admit that I did not read that news article this
morning from that paper, but I DID read the account in a far more timely and
truthful source, the Holy Bible! Every weapon fashioned against the Lord and
His people shall lie covered by the desert sands as that supposed unforgettable
character memorialized by Shelley, Ozymandias (or Ramesses of Egypt)! No
weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall
rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the
servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.
(Isaiah 54:17)
Moses (from the Hebrew MOSHEH meaning drawing out of the water, or drawn out of
it) was a man born into a land of sin, unlike Christ who was eternal and was
sinless. But the parents of Moses were forced to seek the safety for their son
under Pharoah's protection just as the parents of Christ found it necessary, by
the counsel of an Angel of the Lord, to flee into the land of Egypt in order to
save their Son from the wrath of Herod. Moses came to the Pharoah's daughter in
an ark of reeds ; Christ came into the world in a wooden manger. Moses left
the land of Egypt for a long period before his return to lead the people from
the land of sin and slavery. (Egypt symbolically means sin and bondage) And
their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually
is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. (Rev
11:8) Christ has also departed this world but shall return to gather His people
so that they may be finally liberated from the hurt and bondage of this world.
The
first-born of every household died during the dreadful Passover in Egypt whose
door facings and lintels were not covered by the blood of the innocent lamb.
Many innocents died at the sword of Herod's army in Bethlehem in an attempt to
murder the baby Jesus. Jesus is the Lamb of God which that innocent little lamb
in Egypt foreshadowed. The firstborn of Israel were given life due to that Lamb.
In Bethlehem, many innocents died in the stead of the Lamb of God as Herod
sought to kill Him.
Both
Moses and Christ were appointed by God to lead their people out of sin and
bondage. While Moses led the Children of Israel to the Promised Land of Canaan,
Christ led the whole House of Israel to Canaan's anti-type, Heaven. Moses
gave his people the Law from the Hand of God. Christ gave the Law of the Gospel
of Grace from the Hand of His Father. Moses performed many miracles at the Hand
of God. Jesus performed many miracles and wonders by His own Hand. Moses
instituted the observance of the Passover by God's counsel. Jesus Christ BECAME
that Passover. Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a
new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for
us: (1 Cor 5:7) Of course, leaven represents sin; therefore, we
use unleavened bread in the Holy Communion service so that the symbol may
accurately represent that being symbolized, for Christ was sinless.
Moses,
ere delivering the Law to the people, was engulfed by a cloud on Sinai for
forty days and forty nights. And Moses went into the midst of the cloud,
and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty
nights. (Ex 24:18) So was Christ, ere delivering the Gospel, in the
Wilderness fasting for forty days and forty nights. Then was Jesus
led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And
when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
(Matt 4:1-2) Moses made the waters of Marah sweet by casting a tree into them.
Christ made salvation and grace sweet for us by dying on that tree at Calvary.
Just as Moses' face was transfigured on Sinai so that its brightness was
brilliant as the sun, so was Christ transfigured on the Mount and became
glittering white in raiment and appearance. Moses met with God on Sinai, and he
met with God (Jesus Christ) once more on the Mount of Transfiguration. This
Mount of Transfiguration is considered by some to be Mt. Tabor, but this is not
likely due to the geography and time of Christ's travel to Caesarea Philippi.
The mountain was more likely Mount Hermon, Israel's highest peak at more than
9,000 feet, and close by the route Christ was travelling at the moment.
I
used to read of poor Moses being deprived, after forty years of leading an
obstinate and murmuring people in the wilderness, of entering the Promised
Land. He died on the slopes of Pisgah and God buried Moses. How sad! But the
next time we see Moses, he is on that same Mount of Transfiguration with
Christ. So what think you, did Moses not go to a much more delightful Land
of Promise? Christ, too, after suffering death, burial and resurrection in the
Garden ascended to a far greater Paradise than this world can comprehend.
These are simply some of the more profound similarities
between Christ and Moses. There are many, many more that time does not permit
in the scope of a devotion, but I encourage each Reader to read again the
account of Moses and to be amazed at the Finger of God, pointing through Moses,
to that glorious and perfect Savior who was to come, and HAS come! Do you KNOW
Him?
heavenly treasure; through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.
