Oh Yeah?

Exodus 7:8-13

It is my understanding that in the days of Jesus there were wonder-workers who did many of the same sorts of things he did. I hasten to add, however, that the things Jesus did were of an entirely different order (e.g. observation in John 9:30-33). Moreover, I believe that Jesus was recognized as one with authority and from God in a unique way because of the way his words and actions, each remarkable in themselves, worked together. John’s Gospel refers to Jesus' miracles as ‘signs’; They indicate the character of the kingdom of God for those with eyes to see. That’s part of the interplay of meaning between the response of the man given sight in John 9 and the religious leaders, who, though highly learned, saw nothing.

Rewind the Bible story to Exodus 7, and we find Pharaoh’s magicians performing the same wonder as Aaron. The one-step-better move of Aaron’s staff swallowing the magicians’ staffs should not lead us to overlook the disconcerting fact that the ‘pagan’ magicians were able to do equally well what the Lord instructed Aaron to do. This wasn’t just a trick of Aaron that the Egyptian dudes figured out how to replicate. This was a miracle given from the LORD, the father Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who would be the I AM with them and who would overpower these same Egyptians. Maybe the answer is that this just makes the fact that Aaron’s staff swallowed their staff all the more significant. It points in a broader sense to our assurance that although there are powerful forces as work in the world that would seem to equal or overwhelm divine purposes, the promise of deliverance is to be trusted.

Ultimately, as will be seen in the ministry of Jesus in such a way that people recognized his authority, God’s word and action are one. That character of the Lord will be prescribed for translation into the life and character of his people in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, where it is made clear that no matter what impressive kind of stuff we do, stuff that others may be able to do just as well, what makes it different and worthy is the Christ love in it.

Prayer:
Examine my heart, O Lord, to see that what I do is truly for you and others. That will be miracle enough. Through Christ. Amen.

Inexhaustible

Exodus 7:1-7

In 6:6 there was the pronouncement of the name of God that embodies character and purpose. That was to be a matter of assurance to Moses, Aaron and their people. The Egyptians will now experience the flip side of the same thing. It is a reminder that the power of the name as it applies to this situation (Israel in Egypt) hardly encompasses the power available. The impending deliverance fully expresses God’s power without fully expending it. It is my understanding, further, that in Christ we experience the fullness of God; but of course that doesn’t mean he fully expends himself on us. God is neither an introvert nor extrovert. Being an introvert, I need time to recharge after being with people. My wife Melissa is an extrovert and gets charged being with people. We both love people; they just have different effects on us. God is neither. He doesn’t need charging because he has all power and is power. But neither do we drain him of power no matter how much he gives us. We can ask him whatever we want without fear of burning him out, even though he did seem to get exasperated with Moses, as I’m sure he does from time to time with me and with you. And how did I get to this observation from reading about impending plagues?

Prayer:
El Shaddai, God Almighty, and also Yahweh, with us in your power and purpose: help us to see and know your power and purpose as you are revealed in your working through our lives, like etchings on discoloured stone. Through Christ. Amen.

The Name in Action

Exodus: 6:14-30

I find the genealogy here a bit disruptive, like getting a commercial at a critical point in a TV movie. But this is not a movie, and the genealogy is not a commercial. Its significance is suggested by what comes on the heels of it. We are led right back into the action with Moses and Aaron. We are reminded that they are part of a larger time frame, and that they have a very specific role in the larger narrative that is set in motion and carried along by God’s initiative.

The re-stating of God’s name (6:6) prior to the genealogy has the effect of showing that God’s character, expressed in the name, is translated into down-to-earth human history, honouring his creatures by making them, warts and all (verse 30), instrumental in the fulfilling of that story. Moses’ weakness here is not most significantly his speech impediment, but that he is forgetting that the Lord has already given him assurance and help in this regard, by making Aaron and him a team.

Prayer:
I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
your handmade sky-jewelry,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why do you bother with us?
Why take a second look our way?
Yet we've so narrowly missed being gods,
bright with Eden's dawn light.
You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,
repeated to us your Genesis-charge.
- Psalm 8:3-6 The Message (c) Eugene Peterson

As If

Exodus 6:1-13

We have just witnessed complete hostility from Pharaoh. It seems to the Israelites that God has abandoned them and the fine plans they were to follow. God speaks to Moses again. He identifies himself as the God who had appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as God Almighty (El Shaddai). Now he appears by the new name we have seen the LORD (Yahweh). So God identifies himself as the one who had begun his promise with the forefathers. They had not experienced the fulfillment of that promise – of a land and progeny. Now he appears with a new name that itself renews the promise and indicates the power of its fulfillment: “I Am Who I Am” or “I Will Be Who I Will Be”, or perhaps an expanded form would be, ‘I am the one you will know as you experience my saving presence.’

At present, however, the people are experiencing a huge discrepancy between what the name indicates and their present circumstances (verse 9). Nevertheless, the Lord says to Moses to go tell the Pharaoh to let the people go, and repeats the command after Moses’ now familiar objection concerning his speech.

We get this kind of experience in personal trials. Then faith may mean, as Philip Yancey says, going on as if we have that faith.

Prayer:
When you seem distant, Lord, let us experience one another in such a way that we are led back to your presence that has never left. In Christ. Amen.

Little Christs

Exodus 5

Years ago I trained under a chaplain in a large hospital. The main process was to see some patients and then sit and write “verbatims” of the visits that the chaplain would then review, rigorously, with me. I remember one man who, without any prompting from me on the subject, kept repeating over and over that he couldn’t find God at all in his misery. And the chaplain/supervisor told me, “You have to be Christ for him.” I was shocked at this. But then, isn’t that what “Christian” means – “little Christs”?

After all the promise and assurances, things just were getting more miserable all the time for the Israelites. They didn’t just not find God; they blamed him. Or actually, they blamed Moses and Aaron, who in turn blamed God. Moses and Aaron were the closest thing to God at hand that they could blame. And sometimes being “little Christs” means we take on ourselves the anger others might have with the God they say they can’t find. Being God’s representative means you allow people to give expression to the God they otherwise just say isn’t there.

Just enlarge that a bit and you have the church as the Body of Christ in a world of people who deny or ignore God in Christ as a personal being for them (most people say there is a God). Stop what you’re doing and pray over the implications of that for church folks.

Meanwhile back in Egypt, the chapter ends bleakly. There is a response from God to begin the next chapter. Some editors make no paragraph break between chapters 5 and 6 to move right on to the Lord’s response. But I think we’ll stop here and wait for the response, just because that so often is our real experience: No answer to our questions or cries for a long time. But we do have one another as “little Christs.”

Prayer:
God, let me be Christ for someone today. In Him. Amen.

Leadership and Interdependence

Exodus 4:18-31

If you find much of this passage confusing, you have lots of company. Verses 24-26 are especially perplexing. Why would the Lord attack Moses, whom he has just gone to great lengths to commission? The best sense of these verses seems to come in seeing the incident as preserved to underscore the importance of circumcision – probably as a matter of identity and survival amidst other people, a practice apparently already well established in Israel. Moses’ offense was one of omission concerning his son. Zipporah corrected the situation and saved Moses. That’s the best sense that seems to be made of it.

Then Aaron enters the picture. His role has been anticipated in the call to Moses and Moses’ excuses. Once Aaron and Moses meet, the action accelerates. There is a meeting of elders, a giving of signs in the desert – curiously enough, performed by Aaron along with the speaking, going beyond the role we were given to anticipate. The result was that the people believed and worshiped.

Prayer:
God, if one we look to as a a great leader had so many people helping him and with whom he had such interdependence, what does that say about my receptiveness to others in my life and work and those I will meet up with this day? In Christ. Amen.

Excuse Slayer

Exodus 4:1-17

After all that anticipating of obstacles and how the Lord will overcome them, Moses goes right back to the start and asks, “What if they don’t believe me?” After some demonstration of the power that will be with him (verses 2-9), and even help to speak (verses 11-12), this after God’s demonstration of intervening power in the burning bush and commitment to be with him, Moses asks God to get someone else. The seriousness of this (even though we can relate to it) is that he is not just saying he (Moses) isn’t up to it; he is effectively saying that God isn’t up to it. So the divine exasperation that comes isn’t really all that surprising. And the Lord says, look, you don’t even have to talk. Take Aaron to talk for you.

Moses has run out of excuses. It’s time for action.

Prayer:
God, forgive us for wavering when your will is clear. We worry over what will happen about this and how so-and-so will react to that; when we can’t see the future anyway. But your purpose is clear. Your direction is unavoidable. Your church’s mandate is unequivocal. In following this is real love. Moses’ life was not his, his voice was not his, his power was not his; and none of those things in us are ours either. Let us be directed by your Word and Spirit, let our conversation centre around and be fuelled by them; let us leave all personal and power games behind which impede us; that your power and purpose may flow freely through your willing and humble servants. Through Christ. Amen.

What's Ahead

Exodus 3:16-22

The Lord anticipates every problem Moses will face, and provides an answer in advance. He tells Moses what to tell the people, assuring him that the elders of the people will listen to him. They will accompany him to the pharaoh. And although the pharaoh will not let the people go willingly, a mighty hand will force the issue, and people among the Egyptians will actually help them.

God knows for each of us what is ahead, and already has an answer for every problem we will face. And yet our answer to that – if and when we aware of such grace – is more often than not like the answer of Moses that will start tomorrow’s reading.

Prayer:
Lord, help me see every problem and challenge as a means for growth. Remind me of this when I worry about what will become of my kids, or some other loved one. Remind of this when I worry about material provision. Remind of this when I think of possible health issues. Remind us of this when we see a world in turmoil. When will we listen? Through Christ. Amen.

The God of Real Answers

Exodus 3:13-15

The question in verse 13 is one we might be inclined to see as one Moses grasps at in a series of frantic objections to doing what he is asked to do. Does he really think the people will ask this? God, whatever might be happening in Moses’ mind and heart, takes the question seriously.

God first gives an answer that is directly for Moses, saying, “I will be who I will be” (‘ehyeh-yahweh’). This is God’s way of declining to be pinned down. But it really is an answer. God does not talk in circles. God says he will be known along the way. The answer also indicates that the character to be found in God will be consistent with the present revelation, in the burning bush: He will always be miraculously available; i.e., he will always enable breaking from a restrictive past in order to make possible a redemptive future.

God in his grace then provides, in the second half of verse 14, an answer that really is to be given to the people: tell them “I AM has sent me to you.” This enfolds together the promise of God’s empowering presence together with the agency of Moses. For his part, Moses can only do what he is empowered by God to do, but it is God who empowers him because of God’s purpose worked out through his humanity.

Prayer:
God, the next time someone asks what I think is a stupid question, remind me of your own gracious, creative, people-building way of responding to anything. Through Christ, who was pretty good at that too. Amen.

And Yet Not Consumed

Exodus 3:1-12

Moses is shepherding the flock of his father-in-law as usual. What started out as a day doing the same old same old turned out to be something extraordinary.

The experience of the burning bush must not be reduced to psychological phenomenon. God heard and intervened in a decisive way, working through an individual to break a whole people from their past, with a new birth in mind. In keeping with calls to prophets to come, however, Moses is not merely a mouthpiece. God will both use and transform his person and character in the course of working through him. We should note this process for ourselves, since he still works the same way, even if the cause is not so spectacular for each of us.

Note also that God takes each objection Moses makes seriously. Beyond that is a promise and a sign (verse 12). The promise is that God will be with them, and that the people will worship him where the present sign, the burning bush that is not consumed, is given: a great wonder indicating the holiness and enduring presence of God (also providing the logo for the Presbyterian Church in Canada).

Prayer:
The purpose and power are from you, but you honour us by using the way you have made us for your purposes and extending your power. And where individually we are lacking you provide us with others with those gifts so we will work together. Make us watchful for your intervention in our time and place, so that in a personal way we can break from some painful, restrictive way we may have been experiencing, to new freedom and power for living in you. Through Christ. Amen.

Justice Training

Exodus 2:11-25

Moses found his effectiveness to do good (stop a fight between two Hebrews) compromised by his own action in murdering – by stealth – an Egyptian. As Moses feared, his offense was known. He fled.

In a new setting Moses once again witnesses an injustice. This time his reaction to correct this does not get out of hand, apparently, although we are not told the details of the event by the well.

In the first setting Moses is acting as a Hebrew against an Egyptian. Then there is the incident with the fellow Hebrews, although they probably don’t see him as fully one of them. Now Moses is perceived as an Egyptian and is involved with people who are neither Egyptian nor Hebrew. What I find especially intriguing in all this is that he has to flee from the setting where, like Joseph before him, he has a kind of dual citizenship. Then that is all flipped: In the region where he has no family or national ties he finds a home. Tying it together is his concern for justice.

Especially with the comments that then come in verses 23-25 about the change in king, God noticing the cries of the people and remembering his promise to the fathers of Israel, you get the sense a stage is being set for something big coming.

Prayer:
God, you work even through our imperfections and outright rebellion. But what is wrong is not made good by your bringing good through it. Conform me more and more to your good in the first place, so you can work all the more through me. Through Christ. Amen.

Grass Roots Grace

Exodus 2:1-10

The role of the sister is especially touching. We can’t be certain what the specific hope was in placing the baby in the basket, but the concern for his well-being was certainly expressed in and through his sister. Then she appears at the side of the princess, suggesting for the baby a Hebrew nurse, who just happens to turn out to be the mother. The mother will even get paid to look after her own son! How sweet is that?

The gracious disposition of the Egyptian princess, the love of the family, the actions of the sister; they all add up to grace and love in the midst of official suspicion and oppression.

Prayer:
Lord, may we experience and notice, in this day, something of the grace that is to be found at the bulrushes-roots level, in the midst of a surrounding environment of seemingly overwhelming powers. Through Christ. Amen.

Not So Shrewd

Exodus 1

The opening of Exodus includes very quickly a transition from a shift of focus from the promise of God through a family (Genesis) to the promise of God through a nation (verse 7). That sets the stage for the pitting of a people called by God against the power of empire. That this becomes a matter of conflict stems entirely from the empire side. There is no threat to Egypt from the Hebrews except in the mind of the Pharaoh. All that Pharaoh indicates as danger from the Hebrews is hypothetical: “What if?” When he solicits those around him to join together in dealing “shrewdly” with them, it would seem laughable if the measures then taken did not have such tragic effect. Such is obsession with power, control, and what the mind does when those things are perceived to be threatened. The Pharaoh looks even more foolish when he swallows the story of the midwives as to why the males are surviving birth. But then he just gets bolder and nastier.

A hint that God’s plan for good for and through his people will prevail through all that is to come is given in the real reason why the males survived birth in spite of the Pharaoh’s first plan: “The midwives, however, feared God …” (verse 17).

Prayer:
Lord, we confess that in our lives, work, relationships, organizations: scheming is everywhere. Most of it probably comes from imagined threats to authority that isn’t ours anyway; it’s all yours. Make us secure in you. Your plans will prevail with or without what we arrange. Let us do things your way, and know real hope. Through Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Amen.