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Acts 10
Why is the story of Cornelius so important to spread of the gospel? Why do you think God interrupted Peter to pour out the Spirit? Cornelius was given quite the honor, being chosen as God’s gateway for bringing His Holy Spirit to the Gentiles. I can only imagine how it must have felt to have an angel of God stand before me and say, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.” (Acts 10:4b). What a compliment! Ironically, it is not the kind of compliment you receive because you are trying for it. If Cornelius had been doing those acts in an effort to honor himself, they would not have been counted as a memorial offering before God. That’s how we know that his heart was sincere and in the right place.
Cornelius already believed in and served the One True God. But, as a Gentile, he had not yet entered into God’s covenant promise for our redemption into His eternal blessing. Jesus is God’s new covenant, one that is for ALL people, not just for the Jews. And the Holy Spirit is the sign and seal of that covenant, as it is God’s Spirit that circumcises, or removes the flesh, from our hearts. The Holly Spirit came on Cornelius and his family to show that they had received God’s message through Peter. They accepted God’s covenant through Jesus and received forgiveness of their sins. And because of Cornelius’ obedient heart, I am able to do the same.
Ex. 17-18
Why do you think God told Moses to use his staff in both these situations? I think the staff was an important symbol so that nobody could say that Moses did any of the miraculous works by his own hand. I say it was a symbol because there was no power in the staff itself. The power was from God, worked through Moses by way of that staff. We are really no different than that staff. Apart from God we, too, are powerless. But I suspect that truth is a little more obvious of a stick than it is of a man.
Summarize Jethro’s advice to Moses. How can you put this into practice? Why is it that some of us have such a hard time asking for help? We have a variety of reasons for it, I’m sure, but I’m thinking that, though often unintentional, pride is somewhere at the heart of the issue. Maybe you don’t want to receive help because you don’t want to feel like you owe anybody anything. Pride. Perhaps you don’t want to trouble anybody, or somehow don’t think you are worthy of anybody’s time and effort. While a little less obvious, thinking you don’t matter still stems from pride. Or maybe you just don’t trust anybody else to do the job right. You have some mistaken idea that you are the only one who can handle it. Again – pride.
In Moses’ case, I think the situation just sort of crept up on him. He didn’t really realize what he was doing until Jethro pointed it out. Moses could have easily responded per my third scenario above. He was God’s chosen one, after all. He was the one with the direct path to the wisdom and discernment of God. How could he entrust such an important task to others? But he didn’t. He humbled himself to receive Jethro’s advice – his help. Then he further humbled himself to put that advice into practice, accepting help from others in carrying his God-given load. If we are not humble enough to ask for and receive help from those around us, are we really humble enough to ask for and receive the help we need from God?