A little late today. Guess that's what happens on Friday sometimes!
I heard something the other day that caught my ear. We're all coming out of Egypt, aren't we? Think about it -- Egypt is a place of slavery and death. It's where Pharaoh exercises true dominion, even believing that he has power over life and death when he orders Israelite children to be thrown into the Nile, but Pharaoh's not really in charge, as he'll eventually find out. But for a time, it sure seems like Pharaoh is in charge.
It's not so different for us, right?
Here we are, in 21st century America, and it sure can seem like the forces of darkness are in charge, right? You don't have to look very hard to see a world without much hope, between famine in Yemen and Afghanistan and war in Ukraine and Cameroon and violence in Buffalo and Orange County.
But we know that evil's day is limited, and just as God heard the cries of the people in Egypt, God hears our cries, too, and God will act with finality one day, just as God acted in Egypt.
It's interesting that the people, once they had left Egypt behind, would complain to Moses about how they wanted to go back to Egypt, where it was at least certain that they'd eat. In the wilderness, on the way to the Promised Land surrounded by desolation, they were afraid of scarcity, even though they had the promises of God in front of them.
In the same way, we often can be uncertain when thinking of the promises of God. We look backwards, just as Lot's wife did, just as the Egyptians did, and wonder if the certainty offered is better than the uncertainty and challenge of discipleship that is in front of us. Should we go back?
Jesus maybe had the same temptation as he ascended the cross. We know he prayed in the Garden for another path to open up. When he realized the depth of the despair he was in front of, it was a dark moment. But Jesus went forward -- he didn't go around the hard parts, but he went through, and because of that, we can face what's before us, knowing that Jesus has taken the worst so that we don't have to, because we could never endure what he endured.
So let us not turn back to what is behind, but instead press on, leaving Egypt behind for what lies ahead.
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