Tag Exodus

We’re All Little Pharaohs

Todd R 4 Comments

Anyone who knows the story of the Exodus knows who the bad guy is: Pharaoh.  As the leader of Egypt, he is primarily to blame for the enslavement of Israel.  Eventually, through Moses and Aaron, God tells Pharaoh to free the Israelites from slavery, and time and again Pharaoh refuses.  Clearly, Pharaoh is God’s enemy.  However, in his resistance to God, I think Pharaoh fell into some habits any of us could fall into.

First, Pharaoh admitted his need for God only when things were going wrong but shut God out when things were going well.  In Exodus 8:8, Pharaoh asked Moses to “Plead with the LORD to take away the frogs from me and from my people” but once the frogs were gone, Exodus 8:15 tells us that “when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart” and refused to do God’s will.  The same thing happens in chapter 9, during the plague of the hail.  Seeing the destruction caused by the hail, Pharaoh says “Plead with the LORD, for there has been enough of God’s thunder and hail” in verse 28, but in verse 34, “when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart.”

Photo by Alex Azabache on Unsplash

Next, Pharaoh repeatedly negotiated with God to define the scope of His influence.  Faced with the plague of flies, Pharoah said to Moses and Aaron “Go, sacrifice to your God within the land.”[1]  But staying “in the land” was not what God wanted His people to do.  In response to the plague of locusts, Pharoah said “the men among you” could leave and worship God, but he wouldn’t let the “little ones”[2] go.  Also, after the plague of darkness, Pharoah said “Go, serve the LORD; your little ones also may go with you; only let your flocks and your herds remain behind.”[3]  In these 3 responses, Pharaoh insisted on limits to where the people should worship, which people should worship, and what they could (and couldn’t) use in worship.

Third, Pharaoh also tried to limit the scope of his own sin, and which sins he would be accountable to God for.  In Exodus 9:27, Pharaoh said, “this time I have sinned” and in 10:17 said “forgive my sin, please, only this once.”  In reality Pharaoh was sinning every time he refused to listen to God, but he wasn’t willing to admit that.  He only admitted a minority of the times he disobeyed.

If you’re like me, this all might sound familiar.  Often our prayers are more fervent and sincere when we need help than they are when we have something to praise God for, or when times are good.  Often, we allow God to govern some parts of our life, but we keep other parts for ourselves, to do what we want with.  Also, we often only admit some of our sins and choose which ones to care about.  We’re all a bit like Pharaoh, the bad guy in the Exodus story.

Fortunately for us, we have something else in common with Pharaoh: the true, Almighty God will defeat all of the “gods” we follow.  Every single one.  Behind the battle between Moses and Pharaoh was a contest between our God and Pharaoh’s gods.  As the Life Application Study Bible notes: “As each gloomy plague descended upon the land, the Egyptian people realized how powerless their own gods were to stop it. Hapi, the god of the Nile River, could not prevent the waters from turning to blood. Hathor, the crafty cow-goddess, was helpless as Egyptian livestock died in droves. Amon-Re, the sun-god and chief of the Egyptian gods, could not stop an eerie darkness from covering the land for three full days.”

When we choose not to obey God, we harden our hearts against Him and follow the “gods” we choose for ourselves, but God will ultimately defeat them all.  God’s purpose in saving us is to deliver us from all other gods, as He delivered Israel from Egypt.  He will deliver us from our slavery to every sin that binds us and make us not follow Him wholeheartedly.

We may be more like Pharaoh than we’d like to admit, but the Pharaoh in us has been killed, nailed to the cross with Jesus. When we reach heaven, all of our other “gods” will be gone and we will be perfected in our obedience to the one, true God, for our good and for His glory!

That’s a deliverance worth looking forward to and praising God for!

Amen.

[1] Exodus 8:25
[2] Exodus 10:10-11
[3] Exodus 10:24

The Exodus of Jesus

Todd R 2 Comments

Bible translators have a tough job, otherwise one English translation would be all we have or need.  Translation isn’t a straight-forward process. There are many trade-offs, including between ease of reading in contemporary settings, and depth of meaning in the original context, but sometimes I wish different choices were made.

One example is Luke 9:30-31, which says: “And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem” (from ESV, emphasis mine). This happened during an event known as the Transfiguration, when Jesus took His disciples Peter, James, and John up a mountain for a vision of His future glory.  Matthew records in his gospel that Jesus “was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.”[1]

While on that mountain, the 3 lucky disciples also witnessed a conversation about something: Jesus’ “departure.”  In a recent sermon I learned that the word translated “departure” is “exodos” in the original Greek.  For ease of reading purposes, “departure” is a more familiar word and makes a lot of sense to a modern reader, because Jesus was soon to depart the world temporarily through death, then more permanently after His resurrection.  On the other hand, “exodos” literally means an exit, or figuratively a death, but to the original audience and those familiar with Old Testament history, the word “exodos” carries other meanings as well.

So, why would Moses and Elijah be talking to Jesus about His “exodos”?  Because they both had history with such “departures.”

As told in the Old Testament book of Exodus, Moses was called by God while the descendants of Israel (Jacob) were slaves in Egypt.  After performing many miracles in God’s power, Moses led the new nation of Israel on an exodus out of literal slavery in Egypt.

Elijah performed many miracles, and prophesied that the nation of Israel, unless they repent of their disobedience, would be taken back into exile, but later be freed from Assyrian rule in that generation’s exodus.

Again, why would Moses and Elijah be talking to Jesus about His “exodos”?  Because Jesus was going to lead spiritual Israel out of slavery to sin around the entire world, from each nation, in every generation’s Exodus.  Moses, Elijah, and Jesus would have had a lot to talk about.

“And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodos, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”

[1] Matthew 17:2

Attention to God’s Details

Todd R 1 Comment

“Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half was its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height.” – Exodus 37:1

The ark in miniature. Photo by Igor Rodrigues on Unsplash

Most of Exodus chapters 36-40 cover the many, many details of the construction of the tabernacle and all of its utensils and other parts.  We may tire of reading chapters of details, but the point is that Bezalel and others put a massive amount of care (and obedience) into the implementation of God’s pattern for the tabernacle, as shown to Moses on the mountain.

What does it mean for us now?  That we should put as much care into learning what God wants of us and put it into action in our lives.

“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.  May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  – Romans 15:4-6

When Rights Collide

Todd R 2 Comments

For a time, Moses was the sole judge over Israel, deciding right and wrong in countless cases brought by the people.  This was a massive burden and brought him to exhaustion, until his father-in-law Jethro urged Moses to delegate some of the responsibility.  Jethro tells Moses to find some able, trustworthy men, and in Exodus 18:22, he says “And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you.”  Moses was to act essentially as a court of appeal for hard cases.  What kind of “great matter” might Moses get?

Deuteronomy 17:8 might be one example: “if any case arises requiring decision between one kind of homicide and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another, any case within your towns that is too difficult for you, then you shall arise and go up to the place that the LORD your God will choose.”

What the Bible recognizes here is that the right solution isn’t always obvious.  The Bible recognizes that things can get messy.  Life isn’t always as black-and-white, right-versus-wrong as we might think.  There are complex situations where rights conflict with rights, rather than a simple right versus wrong.  Each side of the case – the plaintiff and the defendant – might be at fault.

For example, suppose one person assaulted another without provocation, but in return the other retaliated in an unjustified way.  Should both complaints cancel each other out, and no judgement declared either way?  Or should the judge enforce the penalty for both crimes independent of each other?  If one penalty is greater than the other, should a judge subtract one penalty from the other and enforce the difference on the person with the greater crime?  Would that be justice for either person?

Sometimes there aren’t easy answers, even based on God’s perfect, revealed law.  All of us are sinful and justice requires we be punished for the times we have violated some kind of legal right, committed come kind of assault, or harmed someone in another way.  What solution can untangle all of these competing claims for justice?

The only viable answer is forgiveness, but forgiveness doesn’t come free, or cheap.  For our violations against God, the cost of forgiveness was Jesus’ suffering and dying on the cross.  For our sins against each other, God demands that we forgive others as we have been forgiven by Him.  We are to bear the cross of not only our sins, but the sins of others.  Forgiveness is hard because it sometimes means not demanding that our rights be respected.  Sometimes it means our sense of justice might be violated.  Yet forgiveness is what our Lord demands.

As Jesus said in Matthew 6:14-15, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Moses may have been able to be the court of appeal for Israel, to bear the burden of every “great matter” of the time, but only Jesus could bear the burden of every matter for all time.  He asks us to follow His example, even when we think we have the right to do otherwise.

Waiting on God’s Timely Deliverance

Todd R Leave a comment

Fellow Travelers,

There are times in our lives where God seems to be distant and uninvolved.  In these times we may feel like crying out with the Psalmist:

“Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?
            Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
Why do you hide your face?
            Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?”[1]

The nation of Israel faced times like these, and one example comes from Exodus chapter 5.  The story is during Israel’s slavery in Egypt, while Moses was pleading with Pharaoh to let Israel go to worship God.  Pharaoh was stubborn because Israel was a vast (and free) workforce for him.  Instead of letting Israel go, he decided to punish them.  Pharaoh commanded his taskmasters: “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves.  But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.”[2]

With their jobs suddenly much harder, the people of Israel complained to Moses: “The LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”[3]  Even Moses became discouraged and frustrated, as we see in the next verses: “Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me?  For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”[4]

It seemed like God was “sleeping.”  Like He had forgotten His people’s “affliction and oppression.”

However, we know that earlier God told Moses: “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.”[5]

God was not sleeping; He has “surely seen” what was happening.  He also had not forgotten; He had a plan “to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians,” even if it wasn’t apparent to Moses and the people.  Their frustration grew because time had passed since God made His promises, and they still hadn’t been delivered.

Do we often feel the same frustration?  Do we often feel His deliverance should come sooner?  We know in our minds that God sees the effect of sin on the world, and on each one of us.  We also know that He has promised to return and deliver us from our sin.  But time keeps passing.

From our point of view, we have information Moses and the people didn’t have.  We know that Israel did eventually enter the “broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”  It took time, but it happened when God determined it was the right time.  When His people were truly ready.  Therefore, we know that God will also deliver us when He determines it is the right time.  When His people are ready.  Not because we see certain signs or our interpretations of prophecy have been fulfilled.  We have the gospel “as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”[6]  When the time is right, according to God (not according to us), all will be aligned under His plan.  Things we currently know and see, and things not yet revealed.  Only God knows.

In the meantime, do we give God the right to determine the method and timing of our deliverance?  Or do we impatiently insist on our own way and timing?  Would we have chosen this world as the path to heaven, or would we have designed a different way, if given the choice?  Because this is the world we have, we know God chose this way, and we must trust Him, for only Jesus is “the way, and the truth, and the life.”[7]

Sometimes things look to us like we should cry out to God, “you have not delivered your people at all,” but He delivered Israel from Egypt in His time, and He will deliver us in His time.  He guarantees it.

[1] Psalm 44:23-24
[2] Exodus 5:7-8
[3] Exodus 5:21b
[4] Exodus 5:22-23
[5] Exodus 3: 7b-8
[6] Ephesians 1:10
[7] John 14:6