Exodus 8:16-19

Exodus 8:16-19

English Standard Version

  The plagues are always fascinating to me due to their terrible range.  From turning a river to blood to boils to frogs to gnats, they demonstrate God's complete control over all of creation.  The Egyptians have enslaved the Israelites for 400 years, and the people are groaning for freedom.  Pharaoh believes that he is a god, and Moses and Aaron are the instruments through which God is pointing out that there is only one true God.  From the gnats to the stars, all of creation will obey its Creator.

  We, too, struggle with the idea that we're not in control, that we're not in charge.  We want to be in control.  We need to be in control -- we so often read world news and it breaks our hearts and stirs our anxieties.  We feel so small, so helpless, that we need some thing, no matter how small, to be in control of, so that we feel like all is not lost.

  God tells us to cling to God.  God tells us that are safe in God's hands, and that the eternal Kingdom of God is a place where we don't need to be in control, because we can trust the one who is.  It's hard to trust in something that we cannot see, and yet that is how we are called to train our hearts -- looking forward, beyond the chaos, to the hope that shines on the horizon.  Then we're called to invite others to rejoice in what we can trust, to hold fast to hope and love and peace and joy, and walk forward as a community, carrying those who cannot walk on their own, and letting our hearts rest in the blessed assurance of grace.

Exodus 8:8-10

Exodus 8:8-10 

English Standard Version 

  Pharaoh is a fascinating study in dealing with things in the moment.  In the midst of the plagues, Pharaoh will promise anything, but once the frogs are gone, then he changes his mind.  The crisis has passed, and he'll submit to no one when his freedom is regained.  It makes me think of the old saying that there are no atheists in foxholes... but when the moment passes, are the promises that were made to God in the moment of crisis still valid?  Or were they simply words tossed out to gain freedom from under oppression?

  It's amazing to me in the Psalms when it talks about how well God knows us.  In Psalm 139, we hear about how God has searched us and known us, hemmed us in, and such knowledge is too wonderful to us.  God knows us fully, more fully than we can be known on this earth, and God still chooses to love us.  Despite our failing to live up to promises we've made in the past, despite fickle hearts that blow with the winds, God chooses to love us, chooses to redeem us, chooses to send the Holy Spirit to send words of affirmation to us and remind us that we belong to God.  

  So rather than promises, let us make choices, consistently, to make time to worship God each day, confessing our shortcomings but more importantly praising God for God's love and patience.  May we lead our hearts to praise.

Exodus 8:1-6

Exodus 8:1-6

English Standard Version 

  How committed to your path do you have to be that frogs in your bed don't change your mind?  I'm not sure that I'm that committed to anything.  I don't know exactly where I'd draw the line, but somewhere before frogs started jumping into my bed.  

  Pharaoh was not to be discouraged lightly.  Or heavily.

  Sometimes, our opponents are committed to their course of action.  We'd like to change their minds.  We pray for wisdom to know how to deal with it.  We talk to trusted loved ones, hoping for some guidance on how to persuade them.

  At times, it doesn't matter.  All we can do is trust in God, stay faithful to our calling, and endure the hardship.  The Israelites were not to be freed by the Nile turning to blood, nor by frogs in Pharaoh's bed.  It would take far more than that.  But they would be freed, because God is victorious.  

  May we find the courage to trust God in all things, no matter what, even when the light of hope is shining so dimly that we have to look twice to see it.  It is there, because God is present and at work.  

  

Exodus 7:14-19

Exodus 7:14-19 

English Standard Version 

  Like so many things in Scripture and in life, it comes full circle.  Moses was meant to be hurled into the Nile as an infant to die, but instead he floats in an Ark until he is saved by someone from Pharaoh's household.  Now, as an adult, he goes back to the Nile to meet Pharaoh, where he tells Pharaoh that the Nile, the source of life in Egypt, will turn to blood.  It didn't turn to blood due to the violence Pharaoh meted out to all those Israelite children, but now it will turn to blood to show Pharaoh that he is not in charge of the world.  Pharaoh had probably given little thought to all of this, but we see the bigger picture when we are patient to see what God has in store.

  I would never promise you that things always wrap up in such neat little packages exactly when we want them to in life.  Plenty of Israelites were waiting for this day their entire lives, never to see Pharaoh humbled.  The Israelites were in slavery for 400 years -- how many prayers seemed to go unanswered?  God was there, but planning in a completely different time scale than most of the people would have imagined.  

  One of the hardest things about being a Christian is accepting that there is a time greater than the one we know.  True life, as it is known in God, extends beyond the life that we know in the here and now.  We can't see it or touch it, and so we struggle to trust it, but the Bible tells us about it, and Jesus shows us the path to it through his own death and resurrection.  

  May that reality, the one we cannot see, teach us to trust in God to resolve injustice, and may it encourage us to work for peace in the time that we do have.

Exodus 7:8-13

Exodus 7:8-13 

English Standard Version 

  If you're Moses and Aaron, you're watching your staff turn into a serpent and feeling pretty good about things.  Surely, you think, this will convince Pharaoh that God is with you and the rest will be easy.

  But no, then Pharaoh's wise men figure out how to do the same thing.  Which I've never fully understood -- why is it that just anybody can throw their staff down and have it turn into a serpent?  Have we lost this capability?  Can I try this?  Am I simply doing it wrong?

  Moses and Aaron are disappointed for a moment, but then their serpent eats the other serpents, and you're back on top of the world, sticking your chest out, feeling good about life... until Pharaoh still says no.

  Some things are bigger than us.  No matter what we do, we get swallowed up in them.  I think of kids in the midst of violent conflicts and wars... they're small and innocent, with no power to influence things, and yet there they are, damaged by it all.  It's so hard to trust in times like this.  It's so hard to continue to believe.  

  And yet God can still be at work.  We can still trust in God for the bigger picture.  God's plans are not derailed by our setbacks.  

  Trust and believe.

Exodus 7:6-7

Exodus 7:6-7 

English Standard Version 

  

  Ever think you're too old to be useful to God's church?

  Moses was 87, and this was at a time when 87 was even older than it is today.  He'd spent decades tending sheep, not a profession that makes one younger.  Aaron, his key assistant, was 83.  These were not young men, but they were charged with leading the Israelites out of Egypt, and God called and equipped them.  

  And so they went. 

  They succeeded not because of their strength.

  They succeeded because God was at work.

Exodus 6:10-13

Exodus 6:10-13 

English Standard Version 

  All of Moses' questions are valid.  Moses goes to God with crucial details, wondering if God is missing a few important details.  Is God paying attention to what's going on outside?  Moses feels like maybe God is out of touch a bit.

  We know this feeling.  We often go out into the world and wonder about the call to discipleship.  We sometimes wonder if God is paying attention.  We think that God should be doing this or that, and perhaps God is missing a few key details.  

  God knows.  God heard the Israelites, and God knows the details.  God knows every hair on your head and every wish and heartache of God's people.  God has a solution, even if it's not immediately evident to the people or the community.  It may take more time than we think to play itself out.  We need to be patient.  But God is present, and God is watching.

Exodus 6:2-9

Exodus 6:2-9 

English Standard Version 

  When God talks to Moses, God doesn't bring some new relationship or solution.  God links everything back to a historic relationship that has endured for centuries.  God isn't choosing something new -- God is being consistent with the faith of Abraham that started in the wilderness.  It's been a journey, and God has been present throughout the long and uncertain days and weeks.

  When Jesus Christ comes to the people in the 1st century A.D., Jesus doesn't come to radically break away from the past.  Jesus comes to reform religious practice, pointing backwards to the centuries of relationship and basing his ministry on that.  Jesus is doing a new thing, but it's rooted in history.

  In the same way, God isn't calling us away from the past.  God is calling us as a new chapter in the same book, rooted in history, branching forward.  We are one church, with believers in every time and place, and we stand together with our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the centuries to rely on what God is doing today, linked to history and looking forward as one community.

Exodus 6:1

Exodus 6:1 

English Standard Version 

  The pages of Scripture echo with this promise -- we will see what God can do.

  Over and over again, the people are waiting, and God eventually demonstrates God's glory and grace.  Imagine the disciples after Jesus was crucified -- this was the promise they needed to cling to.  They would see what God can do.  The same promise was made to the early church, a promise that we still cling to -- we will see what God can do.

  May our lives hang on this promise -- that we wait with eager anticipation to see what God can do.  God has promised great things, and God is a promise-keeper.  I trust God with my life, with my everything, and will live like someone waiting for the best that is yet to come.

Exodus 5:19-23

Exodus 5:19-23 

English Standard Version 

  At this point in his journey, Moses cannot see why God is acting the way God is acting.  Moses sees things getting worse, and he despairs.  He cannot hold onto hope, for the people are turning against him, Pharaoh is opposing him, and Moses doesn't know what the next step of the journey is.  

  Have you ever felt this way?

  We've all been there.  I remember when I was 18 and the world was falling apart, I went and sat in an empty sanctuary by myself and wondered where God was.  I didn't have any answers at the point.  I didn't hear anything from God, either.  To be completely honest, there are prayers that I prayed this day that I'm still waiting on answers for.  I'm guessing you know this feeling.  

  What's admirable is that Moses doesn't simply turn and walk away.  He goes to God with an honest prayer.  He prays through his questions and anger and despair.  He doesn't dress up a prayer to make it presentable to God.  He simply tells God what he is thinking.

  The Psalms are filled with prayers like this.  Scripture is filled with prayers like this.  Our lives can be, too -- when you despair, take it to God and set it before God.  Don't hide it and pretend that all is well.  God can handle it.  God's solution may be far longer-term than we want, and the answer to many of our prayers may be no.  But it's a good relationship practice to be honest and open with God, that we may pour ourselves out and trust God with everything.

Exodus 5:10-14

Exodus 5:10-14 

English Standard Version 

  I saw a picture the other day of two young girls sitting next to each other on the doomed American Airlines flight.  There was an amazing future in front of them... and then...  it's not fair.  I am haunted by that picture, because it's so not fair.  

  We are made in the image of God, and we are made for eternity.  Sin and death have stolen us away, lured our hearts far from God with promises of ease and pleasure.  We are confused and deceived.  Where the promise of Eden, walking in the cool of the evening with God once was a reality, now there is brokenness and tears.

  Thanks be to God that we worship a Savior who plans to set all things right.  We mourn for what we have lost, for what we continue to lose.  We were not made for despair and for pain, which is why it hurts so much when beauty and love is ripped from us.  We ache because this is not the way things are supposed to be.  Little girls should be allowed to grow up into the people God made them to be.  Planes should take off and land as intended.  People should dwell in peace.

  Until Christ returns, it will ache as we see the evidence of sin's discord woven into our lives.  May we look with hope to the one who comes to sew things together and restore community the way it was created.

Exodus 5:3-9

Exodus 5:3-9 

English Standard Version 

  You want to worship God. 

  The world wants to keep you from worshiping God.  

  This has been true since the time of Moses.

  It will be true until the return of Christ.

  Think of all the things in your life that distract you.  You may intend to worship, to spend time in prayer, to focus on devotionals... and life interferes.  This is not by accident.  We were made to worship, and the world finds substitutes to pull our attention away from Christ.

  The only thing to do is double down, to continue to intentionally make time, to focus.  Turn your phone off.  Put it in a different room.  Turn off the computer.  Set aside time every day.  It won't happen on its own.  You will not find the time -- it only happens when we make the time.  Heavier work will find a way to you.  May we be persistent and steadfast in our commitment to worshiping God.

Exodus 5:1-2

Exodus 5:1-2 

English Standard Version 

  We run into barriers all the time.  Some of them are financial, others are physical.  Some are there for our own protection -- I remember Rachel and I driving on a road in the Turks and Caicos years ago that had a little wooden barrier right where the road ran into the ocean.  Barriers like this are welcome.  Other barriers pen us in and prevent us from doing what we'd like.  Physical distance is a barrier that separates us from seeing people as often.  

  Pharaoh thought he operated without any barriers.  He thought that being Pharaoh meant he was God and answered to no one.  He had no regard for any rival, and so he would not answer to Moses and Aaron when they demanded something.

  We can live like we are our own gods, and ignore the reality of barriers, or we can acknowledge that God alone is Lord and King, and make our choices based on the reality of submitting to God's perfect will.  There will be things that we cannot do.  But God promises us far more than we can ask or imagine in return for pledging ourselves to God.  What we gain is far more than we give up.