1. Moses preserved
Moses was a special child, a “fine child”, one through whom all the indications are that the Lord will act to save his people and, so, to bring blessing to the world.
But who is Moses for such a task? And look where he is – adopted as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. There’s very little chance now that he will ever be what he could have been. He’s been under the influence of Pharaoh’s lot, learning their ways, being “educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” and, under their tutelage, he had grown to be “powerful in speech and action” (Acts 7:22).
So that’ll be the end of him then. With that kind of life he’ll be Egyptian through and through. He won’t remember his early days as a Hebrew, let alone want to be known as one. That’s what happens when people get abandoned to a godless system.
Or is it? In v.11 we’re told that when he was older (and Acts 7:23 tells us he was 40 at this point), he decides to go out to where his own people are and sees them at their hard labour. Twice in this verse the Hebrews are described as “his people” and his action in defending the Hebrew being beaten shows that this is how he sees things – they are his people.
However it has happened, the Lord has preserved Moses through those long years, has preserved within him a sense of identity with the Lord’s people. That’s quite remarkable.
Jesus has purposely left us in the world. He knows how dangerous a place it is; he knows how strong and subtle our spiritual foe is. Yet he is confident that we can and will be kept by the power of God. That isn’t making light of the dangers but it is recognising that what really counts is the Lord’s ability to keep us.
We may not be able to change the situation – for ourselves or our children – but we can have confidence that the Lord will keep us. It will no doubt mean, on our part, hard work to take every thought captive and to learn the ways of the Lord but he is able to help us.
2. Moses prepared
But although he has been preserved during those long years in the palace, many long years of preparation for his work as the leader of his people still lie in front of him. Moses already has a clear sense of justice; he is already marked-out as someone who acts to rescue others, but those traits need honing.
That preparation takes many forms but, before we look at the details, notice that this is often how it is with us in our walk with the Lord and our service for him. He takes and uses what we go through to refine us, to mature us and to equip us to be more useful in his service.
Precisely how that might be worked-out for us won’t necessarily be immediately obvious; we need to trust the Lord, since he knows what he’s doing. In his wisdom, he will cause all things to work together for our good, for the blessing of his people and his work in the world.
i) Conflict with Egypt – Moses has been kept by God down the long years of childhood, adolescence and into full adulthood. He knows whose he is, who his people are and takes his stand for them.
But the very act of taking that stand puts him on a collision course with the royal family of Egypt with whom he has had such close acquaintance over the years. Moses kills an Egyptian who was ill-treating a Hebrew and, in return, the Pharaoh seeks to take his life, presumably because Moses’ act has shown whose side he is on.
This is an early indication of the struggle that Moses will go through with the Egyptians. The same pattern emerges in the life of Jesus, the true Saviour to whom Moses points. From his birth, our Lord was opposed and his life under threat. But he came “to destroy the devil’s work” (1 Jn 3:8). It was not a battle that he was going to shun; rather, he was ready for our sakes to take his stand.
We may not be called to significant positions of leadership but taking your stand for the Lord will impact your life by bringing you into the struggle between good and evil, between the Lord and Satan. It is never wrong to take that stand but it must be taken with our eyes open. And it is worth remembering that early battles often set the tone for what is to come, helping to prepare us for it.
ii) Rejection by his people – The next aspect of Moses’ preparation probably came as a real shock to him. Having saved a Hebrew, he intervenes in a fight between two Hebrews but his leadership is not welcomed. The short exchange in v.14 prepares both Moses and us for the rejection he was often to suffer at the hands of his own people. His leadership of them, although ordained by God, was not going to be without its difficulties.
How much we see that in the life and ministry of Jesus. John tells us that he came to his own but his own did not receive him. The Saviour of the world was despised and rejected by the very people who ought to be waiting for him.
This alerts us to a fact that we may know very well: life within the family of God is not necessarily going to run smoothly. But even the bumps in our relationships can work good things in us – Num. 12:3 tells us that “Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth”. How did he come to possess such humility? No doubt in part through such experiences as this in Ex. 2:13f.
In God’s hands, hard times within the family of God can lead to real spiritual fruit, but only if we submit ourselves to the Lord.
iii) Suffering & Sympathy – Notice also how Moses seems to embody in his own experience what Israel is going through and will also later experience. He is in conflict with Egypt, as we’ve seen; he flees to Midian and is like an alien in a strange land, much as Israel is in Egypt; he will encounter God in the desert and is there for 40 years.
Moses is being prepared by the Lord to be a faithful and sympathetic leader. Such suitability is not achieved overnight. There is great wisdom in the Lord’s preparation of Moses.
And even more is that seen in the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus. The writer of Hebrews tells us that he learned obedience through suffering and in that way was equipped to be merciful and faithful high priest. In God’s hands, the same became true for Paul (2 Cor 1) and can also be true of us.
3. God remembers
Moses has been preserved and is being prepared to be the Lord’s servant in the rescue of Israel. Things are not hopeless for the people but the grounds for that hope are not mere inferences from the text; in vv.23-25 we are directly told why there is hope for Israel – “God heard their groaning and remembered his covenant”.
These are tremendously important words, not just for Israel but for the whole world in every age. The God who called Abraham and promised to make him a blessing to the nations, who has promised to be the God of his people and to be in intimate relationship with them, has not forgotten them. Judged by sight alone, it might be thought that he has forgotten them but that is far from the case.
His promises and purposes stand and stand for all time, however dark the situation. He is the God of compassion, of genuine, loving concern. His people’s distress matters deeply to him and he will act to deal with it; his desire to rescue the world is so deep and profound that he will let nothing stand in its way.
Just as Moses has been prepared for his future service, so these verses prepare us for the Lord to take centre stage and act. Thus far, he has been working things out from behind the scene; in ch.3 his presence will be made known to Moses in the most dramatic way.
But as well as preparing us for that, these verses give us much to mull over in terms of our own experience as his people. His promises stand and so we can take our stand upon them. Our suffering is not hidden from him; he is not too busy to care, nor too distant to see.
And he remembers not only the covenant he made with Abraham, Isaac and with Jacob but he ever has before him the new covenant made in and through his own Son and sealed by his blood on the cross. Can the Lord fail to help us? Can he forget his church? Can he refuse to hear our cries? Only if he can ignore the shed blood of his Son – which he cannot and will not ever do. Whether our tears flow easily in public or whether our distress is profoundly personal and private, the Lord sees and cares. We can, therefore, commit all our way to him, with great hope and in eager expectation.
Tuesday, 23 May 2006
Sermon on Exodus 2:1-10
At the end of Romans 11, Paul declares,
God’s ways are full of mystery and glory. Here in Exodus 2 we see something of that. His people, Israel, are oppressed in Egypt. The Lord has staked the future of his creation on his plans to save through them but they are in deep trouble: the new king is working them ruthlessly, has tried to make sure their male children don’t survive (and been thwarted by the Hebrew midwives) and, finally, orders that all male children be thrown into the Nile.
The scene demands that we ask, ‘What will the Lord do now?’ Are his plans to save and heal his creation going to drown in the Nile?
1. The LORD will save through a special child
The beginning of ch.2 suggests that the Lord is not finished yet. A child is born to a Levite family and is straightaway marked out as a potential deliverer of the people, in at least 2 ways.
i) His mother sees that he is a “fine child”. But doesn’t every mother think her baby is lovely? This is something more. The phrase “she saw he was a fine child” is very reminiscent of the statements in Genesis 1 that the Lord saw that it was good (fine = good).
ii) And that point is further stressed when we’re told that his mother hides him in a pitch covered basket and puts into the Nile. What is very significant here is that the word translated ‘basket’ only occurs elsewhere in Genesis 6-9 where it is usually translated as ‘ark’.
The link back to Noah is very clear and deliberate and says to us that this child is destined to be rescued from the water and, just as with Noah’s deliverance, it will have significance for all humanity.
But that significance will only ultimately be realised in and through another special child marked-out by God as the deliverer, as the saviour of the world. Noah and Moses were never really capable of taking on sin and evil and overcoming them; Jesus could and did.
2. The strange ways of the LORD
This child is marked-out as a potential deliverer of his people. How will the Lord preserve him? Where will he be hidden until his time arrives? Who will train him in God’s ways, ready for that role?
The great irony is that Moses is drawn from the water by Pharaoh’s daughter and is given back, for a time, to his mother. But then, when he is older, he is taken into Pharaoh’s household and grows up there as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter
Not only is this deeply ironic but it seems intensely fragile, too. What if Moses is discovered to be a Hebrew? He’s in Pharaoh’s palace, right at the centre of the evil opposition to the Lord’s purposes of mercy and grace. You can’t get much more vulnerable than that.
Here is the Lord who works in surprising ways, whose ways are higher than ours, whose plans often seem to be at risk and yet whose power is made perfect in weakness (remember the cross).
How much the church must always remember this – her situation is often very weak (even when it seems strong). On the margins, lacking strength, in a hostile world – but the Lord knows what he is doing. He can be trusted, as he works all things together for good for his people and for his plans of salvation.
3. The Real Deal
Moses’ situation seems unique but, in terms of literature, it isn’t. As more discoveries of other literature from the Ancient Near East have been made, it’s been noticed that there are many stories of children being born and exposed to the elements - take, for instance, The Legend of Sargon:
Now, if there were other well-known stories of this type and if those stories were known to be legends and myths, why is the Lord doing this with Moses? Why not cause him to be delivered in a way that doesn’t resemble those myths?
The fact that this story has similarities with other accounts doesn’t detract from its power and relevance. In fact, it heightens it. You see, the Lord is showing that he is the real deal and makes that point in ways that people can readily connect with and in ways that directly challenge their thinking about the world.
Paul does something similar in his preaching in Acts, as he sees what is around him and what stories the people tell and how they see the world. He uses it to tell the real story of God and his Son.
And, of course, we see this most wonderfully in the incarnation of Jesus – the Lord coming to where we are, living our lives, speaking our language (as it were), sharing in all our joys and sorrows.
The challenge for us as the church is to learn from the ways of the Lord. He is the real deal and we need to be able to show that in ways that are readily accessible to those we speak to. That means being attentive to their lives and the stories they tell about the world and its meaning. That’s a demanding but necessary task because it involves what John Stott has called ‘double listening’ – to the world (to understand it) and to Scripture (to confront the world).
4. People in God’s place
I’ve been speaking about what the Lord is doing here through the birth and deliverance of Moses but it might be fairly asked, where is the Lord? He gets no name-checks in these verses, not until 2:23 in fact; so how can we speak of his work here?
Firstly, he is at work through Moses’ mother. She gives birth and because she sees he is “a fine child” she decides to hide him and then to put him aboard his mini-ark. Moses’ mother is being reported as acting in the place of the Lord, doing his will, furthering his plans for the whole creation (yet without actually being conscious of that).
The second person through whom the Lord is at work is Pharaoh’s daughter. In vv.5,6 she comes down to the Nile, sees the baby, hears his cries and takes pity on him. Fast forward to 2:23-25 and 3:7,8 and it becomes clear that she is acting just as the Lord does with his people. Her actions regarding Moses are paralleled by the Lord in his actions for Israel.
The Lord who could have chosen to act in some spectacular and supernatural way to rescue his people Israel is, instead, remaining behind the scenes for now and acting through Moses’ two mothers (birth and adoptive).
This is something that happens consistently through the Bible and is equally as true today. The Lord acts to further his purposes of blessing through people like us. We may not at times realise it but just knowing that he works in that way invests the whole of life with the deepest significance. As Paul tells us, our work for the Lord is not in vain because Jesus was raised from the dead.
Briefly, there are two other points that flow from these observations.
5. Women in God’s service
Up to this point in Exodus, all the Lord’s work has been carried out through women – first the midwives, then Moses’ mother and sister and then Pharaoh’s daughter. That is significant.
Some people read the Bible as being very negative in its view of women and their place in God’s service. Others say that Jesus improved the situation but that the OT was dreadful. Yet all the way through the Bible the Lord shows the highest regard for women and all along uses them in profound ways to further his saving purposes.
It is true that the Bible identifies different roles in the home and in the church but in no way are those differences of role intended to suggest that women are lesser subjects in God’s kingdom or that they have a minor role to play in his saving purposes for the world. That simply is not so and passages like this show us how deeply valued by and valuable to the Lord women are.
6. Pagans in God’s service
But notice something else about one of these helpers. Not only is Pharaoh’s daughter a woman (obviously!) but she is also a pagan, a worshipper of false gods. And yet she is capable of acting with genuine compassion, taking her stand against the evil designs of her father (and how risky that must have been) and is singularly used by the Lord to further his work through rescuing Moses.
What does all this tell us? It reminds us that the Lord is sovereign in who he chooses to use to further his plans and it also reminds us that the Lord’s people do not have a monopoly on good behaviour. Pharaoh’s daughter is not acting out of love for the God of Israel but the very fact that she acts in line with his will shows that he is at work in her life in what is termed common grace.
That is a valuable lesson for us to learn as we live in a world that is hostile to God and frequently to us also. Not all people will be so; they may even be used by God both to help us and to challenge us in terms of our own compassion (or lack of it). Listen to how one writer puts this point:
As much as we need to take to heart that we’re in a battle, we need also to take to heart this point and learn to see the world and our life in it through the multi-faceted lens of Biblical revelation.
God’s ways – surprising, yet wise and powerful. He is worthy of our love, our trust and our service
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
"Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?"
"Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?"
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33-36; TNIV)
God’s ways are full of mystery and glory. Here in Exodus 2 we see something of that. His people, Israel, are oppressed in Egypt. The Lord has staked the future of his creation on his plans to save through them but they are in deep trouble: the new king is working them ruthlessly, has tried to make sure their male children don’t survive (and been thwarted by the Hebrew midwives) and, finally, orders that all male children be thrown into the Nile.
The scene demands that we ask, ‘What will the Lord do now?’ Are his plans to save and heal his creation going to drown in the Nile?
1. The LORD will save through a special child
The beginning of ch.2 suggests that the Lord is not finished yet. A child is born to a Levite family and is straightaway marked out as a potential deliverer of the people, in at least 2 ways.
i) His mother sees that he is a “fine child”. But doesn’t every mother think her baby is lovely? This is something more. The phrase “she saw he was a fine child” is very reminiscent of the statements in Genesis 1 that the Lord saw that it was good (fine = good).
ii) And that point is further stressed when we’re told that his mother hides him in a pitch covered basket and puts into the Nile. What is very significant here is that the word translated ‘basket’ only occurs elsewhere in Genesis 6-9 where it is usually translated as ‘ark’.
The link back to Noah is very clear and deliberate and says to us that this child is destined to be rescued from the water and, just as with Noah’s deliverance, it will have significance for all humanity.
But that significance will only ultimately be realised in and through another special child marked-out by God as the deliverer, as the saviour of the world. Noah and Moses were never really capable of taking on sin and evil and overcoming them; Jesus could and did.
2. The strange ways of the LORD
This child is marked-out as a potential deliverer of his people. How will the Lord preserve him? Where will he be hidden until his time arrives? Who will train him in God’s ways, ready for that role?
The great irony is that Moses is drawn from the water by Pharaoh’s daughter and is given back, for a time, to his mother. But then, when he is older, he is taken into Pharaoh’s household and grows up there as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter
Not only is this deeply ironic but it seems intensely fragile, too. What if Moses is discovered to be a Hebrew? He’s in Pharaoh’s palace, right at the centre of the evil opposition to the Lord’s purposes of mercy and grace. You can’t get much more vulnerable than that.
Here is the Lord who works in surprising ways, whose ways are higher than ours, whose plans often seem to be at risk and yet whose power is made perfect in weakness (remember the cross).
How much the church must always remember this – her situation is often very weak (even when it seems strong). On the margins, lacking strength, in a hostile world – but the Lord knows what he is doing. He can be trusted, as he works all things together for good for his people and for his plans of salvation.
3. The Real Deal
Moses’ situation seems unique but, in terms of literature, it isn’t. As more discoveries of other literature from the Ancient Near East have been made, it’s been noticed that there are many stories of children being born and exposed to the elements - take, for instance, The Legend of Sargon:
Sargon, the mighty king, king of Agade, am I.
MY mother was a changeling, my father I knew not.
The brother(s) of my father loved the hills.
My city is Azupiranu, which is situated on the banks of the Euphrates.
My changeling mother conceived me, in secret she bore me.
She set me in a basket of rushes, with bitumen she sealed my lid.
She cast me into the river which rose not (over) me,
The river bore me up and carried me to Akki, the drawer of water.
Akki, the drawer of water lifted me out as he dipped his e[w]er.
Akki, the drawer of water, [took me] as his son and) reared me.
(from The Legend of Sargon (c.2300BC)
Now, if there were other well-known stories of this type and if those stories were known to be legends and myths, why is the Lord doing this with Moses? Why not cause him to be delivered in a way that doesn’t resemble those myths?
The fact that this story has similarities with other accounts doesn’t detract from its power and relevance. In fact, it heightens it. You see, the Lord is showing that he is the real deal and makes that point in ways that people can readily connect with and in ways that directly challenge their thinking about the world.
Paul does something similar in his preaching in Acts, as he sees what is around him and what stories the people tell and how they see the world. He uses it to tell the real story of God and his Son.
And, of course, we see this most wonderfully in the incarnation of Jesus – the Lord coming to where we are, living our lives, speaking our language (as it were), sharing in all our joys and sorrows.
The challenge for us as the church is to learn from the ways of the Lord. He is the real deal and we need to be able to show that in ways that are readily accessible to those we speak to. That means being attentive to their lives and the stories they tell about the world and its meaning. That’s a demanding but necessary task because it involves what John Stott has called ‘double listening’ – to the world (to understand it) and to Scripture (to confront the world).
4. People in God’s place
I’ve been speaking about what the Lord is doing here through the birth and deliverance of Moses but it might be fairly asked, where is the Lord? He gets no name-checks in these verses, not until 2:23 in fact; so how can we speak of his work here?
Firstly, he is at work through Moses’ mother. She gives birth and because she sees he is “a fine child” she decides to hide him and then to put him aboard his mini-ark. Moses’ mother is being reported as acting in the place of the Lord, doing his will, furthering his plans for the whole creation (yet without actually being conscious of that).
The second person through whom the Lord is at work is Pharaoh’s daughter. In vv.5,6 she comes down to the Nile, sees the baby, hears his cries and takes pity on him. Fast forward to 2:23-25 and 3:7,8 and it becomes clear that she is acting just as the Lord does with his people. Her actions regarding Moses are paralleled by the Lord in his actions for Israel.
The Lord who could have chosen to act in some spectacular and supernatural way to rescue his people Israel is, instead, remaining behind the scenes for now and acting through Moses’ two mothers (birth and adoptive).
This is something that happens consistently through the Bible and is equally as true today. The Lord acts to further his purposes of blessing through people like us. We may not at times realise it but just knowing that he works in that way invests the whole of life with the deepest significance. As Paul tells us, our work for the Lord is not in vain because Jesus was raised from the dead.
Briefly, there are two other points that flow from these observations.
5. Women in God’s service
Up to this point in Exodus, all the Lord’s work has been carried out through women – first the midwives, then Moses’ mother and sister and then Pharaoh’s daughter. That is significant.
Some people read the Bible as being very negative in its view of women and their place in God’s service. Others say that Jesus improved the situation but that the OT was dreadful. Yet all the way through the Bible the Lord shows the highest regard for women and all along uses them in profound ways to further his saving purposes.
It is true that the Bible identifies different roles in the home and in the church but in no way are those differences of role intended to suggest that women are lesser subjects in God’s kingdom or that they have a minor role to play in his saving purposes for the world. That simply is not so and passages like this show us how deeply valued by and valuable to the Lord women are.
6. Pagans in God’s service
But notice something else about one of these helpers. Not only is Pharaoh’s daughter a woman (obviously!) but she is also a pagan, a worshipper of false gods. And yet she is capable of acting with genuine compassion, taking her stand against the evil designs of her father (and how risky that must have been) and is singularly used by the Lord to further his work through rescuing Moses.
What does all this tell us? It reminds us that the Lord is sovereign in who he chooses to use to further his plans and it also reminds us that the Lord’s people do not have a monopoly on good behaviour. Pharaoh’s daughter is not acting out of love for the God of Israel but the very fact that she acts in line with his will shows that he is at work in her life in what is termed common grace.
That is a valuable lesson for us to learn as we live in a world that is hostile to God and frequently to us also. Not all people will be so; they may even be used by God both to help us and to challenge us in terms of our own compassion (or lack of it). Listen to how one writer puts this point:
What is our proper posture toward an unbeliever? There is more than one biblical model. The model of "opposition" is certainly well known and has ample biblical precedent. This model, however, is not deserving of universal application. We share with others the love of Christ, who was a friend to sinners. In doing so, we bring the good news to them in many different ways, which is something that God's people are called to do. But do not be surprised if in the process the Lord uses these same people to change you. Our neighbors, coworkers, and relatives are not so much projects to be won, notches on our salvation belt, but people who are created in God's image and whose lives are in God's hands. They, too, may be his instruments for purposes we cannot fathom. It is his will to employ many facets of his creation for his sake and for his glory. (Peter Enns, Exodus, NIVAC, p.76)
As much as we need to take to heart that we’re in a battle, we need also to take to heart this point and learn to see the world and our life in it through the multi-faceted lens of Biblical revelation.
God’s ways – surprising, yet wise and powerful. He is worthy of our love, our trust and our service
Sermon on Exodus 1:8-22
The Lord’s great project to rescue his fallen creation from the baneful effects of sin did not cease with Joseph and his brothers. Ex. 1:1-7 has shown us that the Lord was with the people of Israel in creational blessing in order to achieve his saving purposes for the whole world.
But nothing is ever quite so straightforward. Everything looks to be in place for the deepening and widening of that blessing and for the liberation of the creation from its bondage to decay but, hold on, not so fast. There’s a great problem looming in v.8.
1. The cosmic conflict
A new king is on the throne, “who did not know Joseph”, which also means he did not know the Lord and was not in tune with the Lord’s purposes. The Pharaoh of Joseph’s day welcomed his whole family and knew, to some degree, that God’s blessing centred on this people. But this new king knows nothing of that and the upshot of his ignorance is going to be trouble.
Sin and evil are not going to be overcome without a great struggle. And whether his new king is aware of it or not, that struggle is of cosmic proportions and is going to be centred, in earthly terms, right under his nose in Egypt.
The Lord has blessed his people and is determined to make them a blessing to the whole world. But sin is not going to go quietly; Satan is not going to lie down and be a good boy. The very reason why there is a need for redemption – the presence of sin and evil in God’s good creation – will mean the most intense battle and a great burden of pain and suffering.
In just a few words, the opening of this book has set the scene for the rest of the Bible story. We’re dealing with a broken creation that is under the power of sin and death. To loosen that grip and rescue the creation is going to mean the LORD God doing battle with all the forces of evil and chaos.
And it is at the point where that clash takes place that the church ever finds itself. We need to understand that the battle has come a long way since those days in Egypt; in fact, the most decisive victory has been won by Jesus on the cross and nothing has ever been the same since. But until his return in glory, the war will continue; the outcome is not in doubt but still there is a fight to be fought and a race to be run.
We said last time that this opening chapter raises the issue of identity for us and here it is again. As the Lord’s people we are engaged in a holy war, in a cosmic struggle to see his good and gracious purposes for the world enacted. That means an approach to life that is ready to engage, appropriately, in the struggle.
2. Cursing those who are blessed
So, because he did not know Joseph, the new king feared the people of Israel and began to oppress them, enlisting the help of his own people against them. The battle lines have been drawn.
In vv.11-14, life got very uncomfortable for the people of Israel. They found themselves at the eye of the storm in the cosmic battle and suffered as a consequence. It is not possible to be the Lord’s agents of blessing in the world and not be called upon to suffer in order to take forward those gracious purposes.
Israel discovered that and were often reluctant to shoulder the burden. But the greatest pain was born by our Lord Jesus and not unwillingly. It was in him that the pain reached its most intense expression, it was in his life and ministry that the conflict came to be seen most clearly (just look at the number of demons he encounters).
Yet the calling to be agents of blessing in the world does not end with Jesus: “as the Father sent me, so I am sending you” he tells his disciples. And in his ministry Paul is conscious that he is filling up in his body what was lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body (Col. 1:24). We shouldn’t be surprised, then, to find the same being true in our own experience.
As the Lord blesses us as his people and seeks to further his purposes both in and through us we will find that trouble seeks us out, because the world, like this new king, does not know the Lord and does not know his people (as John tells us in 1 John 3:1).
But this trouble for Israel doesn’t thwart the Lord’s purposes back there in Egypt. Their almost miraculous growth in numbers was both the sign of his blessing on them and a signal for the battle to commence. And when the heat came down, he continued to bless them – “the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread” (1:12).
Trouble will not cause the Lord to leave the field or go soft on his purposes. As Israel was oppressed, so she grew. How often that has been seen in church history and can be expected to be seen in our own day, too.
3. Delivered by midwives!
But, as you might expect, the continued blessing of God on the people of Israel leads the new king to ‘up the ante’. He goes to the Hebrew midwives and orders them to kill the boys they deliver but to spare the girls. Again, the nature of this threat to life shows us that this is a conflict that has at its heart the very future of the creation and God’s purposes for it.
No doubt the new king made his point to the midwives with all the eloquence of power and intimidation, but they were not cowed. We aren’t dealing here with skilled politicians and diplomats but normal everyday women – but women of faith. When the Lord’s purposes are being challenged, it doesn’t necessarily require a national leader to sort things out; what counts more than anything is faith in God. That’s what we need to have.
Well, these valiant ladies refused to obey the king and allowed the boys to live. When the king demanded to know why they told him that the Hebrew women were so strong they’d got it all sorted before they could get there (they were lying, of course).
So, the battle is plain for all to see and so, too, are the tactics the Lord’s people are to use: deception. Really? Well, the Lord certainly blessed Shiphrah and Puah, giving them families of their own.
No doubt there are many who would want to take issue with what I’ve just said. Surely lying has no part to play in furthering the Lord’s purposes in the world? Are we to lie to potential converts and tell them that following Jesus is a pain-free experience?
What are we to say about this incident? Isn’t lying wrong? Shouldn’t they simply have told the truth and trusted the Lord to save them? I think there are a number of things to bear in mind here. This is what we might call a no-win situation for the midwives and they choose to do the lesser of two evils. The reason they do so is out of reverence for life, which is a reverence for the Lord of life.
They weren’t told by the Lord to lie but, in this complex and highly pressured situation, it was, in its own way, an expression of their faith in the Lord. The same would later be true of Rahab when she lied about the spies and was commended for her faith.
It’s all too easy at this distance and in our safe and cosy environment to debate the rights and wrong of this sort of behaviour but there are times when life is very complex, when we are faced with less than attractive options on all hands. What we must not fail to see in these women is their genuine commitment to life because of a genuine commitment to the Lord. The fight is sometimes very messy and we may as well acknowledge it.
But there’s only so much these women can do; the battle is far bigger, far more intense. Although we can see that the Lord has been active in blessing his people, so far he has stayed firmly behind the scenes. The question could fairly be asked, where is the Lord? And that becomes even more urgent when in v.22 Pharaoh orders that “every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile”.
What will become of his people now? The stage is nicely set for a deliverer to arise and for the Lord to show himself clearly in the lives of his people. Just as in the fullness of time, he sent forth his son to be born of a woman...
But nothing is ever quite so straightforward. Everything looks to be in place for the deepening and widening of that blessing and for the liberation of the creation from its bondage to decay but, hold on, not so fast. There’s a great problem looming in v.8.
1. The cosmic conflict
A new king is on the throne, “who did not know Joseph”, which also means he did not know the Lord and was not in tune with the Lord’s purposes. The Pharaoh of Joseph’s day welcomed his whole family and knew, to some degree, that God’s blessing centred on this people. But this new king knows nothing of that and the upshot of his ignorance is going to be trouble.
Sin and evil are not going to be overcome without a great struggle. And whether his new king is aware of it or not, that struggle is of cosmic proportions and is going to be centred, in earthly terms, right under his nose in Egypt.
The Lord has blessed his people and is determined to make them a blessing to the whole world. But sin is not going to go quietly; Satan is not going to lie down and be a good boy. The very reason why there is a need for redemption – the presence of sin and evil in God’s good creation – will mean the most intense battle and a great burden of pain and suffering.
In just a few words, the opening of this book has set the scene for the rest of the Bible story. We’re dealing with a broken creation that is under the power of sin and death. To loosen that grip and rescue the creation is going to mean the LORD God doing battle with all the forces of evil and chaos.
And it is at the point where that clash takes place that the church ever finds itself. We need to understand that the battle has come a long way since those days in Egypt; in fact, the most decisive victory has been won by Jesus on the cross and nothing has ever been the same since. But until his return in glory, the war will continue; the outcome is not in doubt but still there is a fight to be fought and a race to be run.
We said last time that this opening chapter raises the issue of identity for us and here it is again. As the Lord’s people we are engaged in a holy war, in a cosmic struggle to see his good and gracious purposes for the world enacted. That means an approach to life that is ready to engage, appropriately, in the struggle.
2. Cursing those who are blessed
So, because he did not know Joseph, the new king feared the people of Israel and began to oppress them, enlisting the help of his own people against them. The battle lines have been drawn.
In vv.11-14, life got very uncomfortable for the people of Israel. They found themselves at the eye of the storm in the cosmic battle and suffered as a consequence. It is not possible to be the Lord’s agents of blessing in the world and not be called upon to suffer in order to take forward those gracious purposes.
Israel discovered that and were often reluctant to shoulder the burden. But the greatest pain was born by our Lord Jesus and not unwillingly. It was in him that the pain reached its most intense expression, it was in his life and ministry that the conflict came to be seen most clearly (just look at the number of demons he encounters).
Yet the calling to be agents of blessing in the world does not end with Jesus: “as the Father sent me, so I am sending you” he tells his disciples. And in his ministry Paul is conscious that he is filling up in his body what was lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body (Col. 1:24). We shouldn’t be surprised, then, to find the same being true in our own experience.
As the Lord blesses us as his people and seeks to further his purposes both in and through us we will find that trouble seeks us out, because the world, like this new king, does not know the Lord and does not know his people (as John tells us in 1 John 3:1).
But this trouble for Israel doesn’t thwart the Lord’s purposes back there in Egypt. Their almost miraculous growth in numbers was both the sign of his blessing on them and a signal for the battle to commence. And when the heat came down, he continued to bless them – “the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread” (1:12).
Trouble will not cause the Lord to leave the field or go soft on his purposes. As Israel was oppressed, so she grew. How often that has been seen in church history and can be expected to be seen in our own day, too.
3. Delivered by midwives!
But, as you might expect, the continued blessing of God on the people of Israel leads the new king to ‘up the ante’. He goes to the Hebrew midwives and orders them to kill the boys they deliver but to spare the girls. Again, the nature of this threat to life shows us that this is a conflict that has at its heart the very future of the creation and God’s purposes for it.
No doubt the new king made his point to the midwives with all the eloquence of power and intimidation, but they were not cowed. We aren’t dealing here with skilled politicians and diplomats but normal everyday women – but women of faith. When the Lord’s purposes are being challenged, it doesn’t necessarily require a national leader to sort things out; what counts more than anything is faith in God. That’s what we need to have.
Well, these valiant ladies refused to obey the king and allowed the boys to live. When the king demanded to know why they told him that the Hebrew women were so strong they’d got it all sorted before they could get there (they were lying, of course).
So, the battle is plain for all to see and so, too, are the tactics the Lord’s people are to use: deception. Really? Well, the Lord certainly blessed Shiphrah and Puah, giving them families of their own.
No doubt there are many who would want to take issue with what I’ve just said. Surely lying has no part to play in furthering the Lord’s purposes in the world? Are we to lie to potential converts and tell them that following Jesus is a pain-free experience?
What are we to say about this incident? Isn’t lying wrong? Shouldn’t they simply have told the truth and trusted the Lord to save them? I think there are a number of things to bear in mind here. This is what we might call a no-win situation for the midwives and they choose to do the lesser of two evils. The reason they do so is out of reverence for life, which is a reverence for the Lord of life.
They weren’t told by the Lord to lie but, in this complex and highly pressured situation, it was, in its own way, an expression of their faith in the Lord. The same would later be true of Rahab when she lied about the spies and was commended for her faith.
It’s all too easy at this distance and in our safe and cosy environment to debate the rights and wrong of this sort of behaviour but there are times when life is very complex, when we are faced with less than attractive options on all hands. What we must not fail to see in these women is their genuine commitment to life because of a genuine commitment to the Lord. The fight is sometimes very messy and we may as well acknowledge it.
But there’s only so much these women can do; the battle is far bigger, far more intense. Although we can see that the Lord has been active in blessing his people, so far he has stayed firmly behind the scenes. The question could fairly be asked, where is the Lord? And that becomes even more urgent when in v.22 Pharaoh orders that “every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile”.
What will become of his people now? The stage is nicely set for a deliverer to arise and for the Lord to show himself clearly in the lives of his people. Just as in the fullness of time, he sent forth his son to be born of a woman...
Sermon on Exodus 1:1-7
We’re beginning to study the book of Exodus together this morning. It is a very significant book, both in terms of the OT and also the NT. Not only is it the book in which we discover many famous stories but many key biblical themes emerge in the course of it – the redemption of God’s people, the forming of the nation, the nature of God, the worship of God, the place of the law and so on.
Any decent Bible dictionary will give you a whole list of such themes. It’s a long book, complex in some ways, with much that needs to be pondered carefully. We begin today by taking the first 7 verses.
1. Back to the future
The opening of the book of Exodus forms a very deliberate link to what has gone in Genesis. In Hebrew, the book opens with the word ’and’, showing that it’s a continuing narrative that we have here, another chapter in the story rather than a completely new one. And that point is made even more strongly in the opening words which are a direct copy of Gen. 46:8.
A book that has a great story to tell, and is always moving forwards, starts with a backward look. It reminds us how Israel got to be in Egypt but, more than that, it raises issues of identity and purpose.
One of the great advances in technology in our day has been the ability to remain connected wherever you are. The opening of this great book teaches us that we live connected lives, that the story of God’s plan with this world is single, not multiple.
They were not – and neither are we – the first generation of God’s people. They were not – and nor are we – a discrete generation, unrelated to the past and disconnected in the present. There is a much larger picture to see and to live within. Exodus is one part of a larger story and so are our lives.
We must, therefore, learn to both think and pray in terms of that larger reality. It would be all too easy to simply see our Christian experience as something that makes us happy, helps us to get through life and guarantees us a home in heaven come the end.
But the opening of this book, and the Bible as a whole, condemn that kind of approach to life as a Christian. Our thinking, living and praying must not be parochial. We need to see the larger picture – by which I don’t just mean what God is doing now in other places but rather the whole sweep of Bible history as it unfolds God’s purposes.
Does that figure in how you approach life as a Christian? Is that how you see your life and the life of the church? Does it show in your praying?
This is the point Jesus makes when he tells us to make God’s kingdom our first concern and not to worry unduly about life’s necessities, to let him give us what we need as we need it.
So, remember your connection to the larger picture and begin to understand your life and the life of the church in that light.
2. Connected to the God of creation
That Exodus continues the story begun in Genesis is quite clear and these opening verses make that point in no uncertain terms. But the connection with Genesis is more explicitly a connection with the God of Genesis who is the great creator. And that point is made here too, again with great clarity.
Look at vv.6,7 – Joseph and all his brothers died (a bit like the reports back in Gen. 5) but that wasn’t the end of the Israelites in Egypt – far from it. In an almost miraculous way, they increased and “became exceedingly numerous”.
The terms for population growth compete for space in verse 7, there’s just so many of them. And what is especially notable is that those terms directly relate back to what we read in Genesis – check out 1:28; 9:1 and 1:21; 8:17 (for ‘swarm’).
What is this meant to convey to us?
i) Blessed by the creator – This note about the amazing growth of the people of Israel in Egypt is clearly meant to say that the Lord was with them and was blessing them.
His blessing was not limited to the former generation who we learn had died, nor was it limited by their location in the pagan land of Egypt. Egypt had its fertility gods but true fertility is seen to come from the LORD alone.
The people of Israel belong to the Lord who made both heaven and earth. That is a key point in the whole Bible storyline that, sadly, we often neglect and fail to do justice to. If you check out the main statements of faith of evangelical churches, there is very little about creation. That’s a great shame because everything flows from that starting point. We can talk in great detail about what the Lord has done to save but who is the Lord that saves? The great Creator God!
The whole thing starts with creation and ends with new creation; the God who saves is the God who made everything in the first place. And he was clearly present in power and blessing with his people in Egypt.
Their story is the story of the Creator God promising to bless them and to make them increase in number – that certainly is coming true in these verses. But the promises also included land which is yet to be fulfilled and so the stage is set in these verses for the exodus from Egypt and the journey to the promised land.
ii) Purpose – But this connection with God’s purposes in creation that these words deliberately echo also says something else to us. It makes the point that “what God is doing with Israel’s descendants has meaning for the whole family of humankind.” That is a vital note to grasp.
I heard someone speak not so long ago on a part of the Joseph story where Joseph was managing the food crisis in Egypt. The speaker made the point that Joseph was placed there for the sake of Israel, which is exactly what Joseph himself said (Gen. 45:5-8). But the speaker went on to say that God didn’t care about Egypt, he was only interested in Israel, that the Lord’s great concern in this world is with his elect people.
Now, I’m a great fan of the biblical doctrine of election – I don’t think it’s anything to be shy about – but I do question those statements.
Election has at its heart being chosen in order to engage in mission (do a study of the biblical material and you’ll see what I mean). Did God care for Egypt? Yes, most certainly – check out what God says through Isaiah at 19:16ff – it’s a remarkable statement of intent and of genuine care and concern.
And this passage before us makes the point that God’s purposes for all creation are going to be fulfilled through his people Israel (which ultimately is what happens in and through Jesus). Why was Abraham chosen? To be a blessing for the whole world. And here are Abraham’s descendents in Egypt, swarming over the land in creational blessing.
At this time, there is going to be a great struggle and the need for a great deliverance from Egypt but, ultimately, that redemption is going to result in Egypt, too, sharing in the Lord’s mercy.
The Lord who we will see redeeming his people from Egypt in this great and profound book is the Creator of heaven and earth. One writer expressed this point very helpfully: “Because God is a God of life and blessing [as seen in creation] God will do redemptive work should those gifts ever be endangered or diminished.” And so, “Israel is God’s starting-point for realising the divine intentions for all.”
We need to see that as our purpose, too. We’re in the world for the sake of the world, a light for the nations, a city set on a hill – not to thumb our noses at the nations but to invite them to come under the shade of the Lord’s shelter. That’s why you’re in your family, in your workplace, in your neighbourhood.
This grasp of our identity and purpose as the Lord’s people must shape and sharpen our thinking and praying.
May the Lord bless us and make us a blessing to others.
Any decent Bible dictionary will give you a whole list of such themes. It’s a long book, complex in some ways, with much that needs to be pondered carefully. We begin today by taking the first 7 verses.
1. Back to the future
The opening of the book of Exodus forms a very deliberate link to what has gone in Genesis. In Hebrew, the book opens with the word ’and’, showing that it’s a continuing narrative that we have here, another chapter in the story rather than a completely new one. And that point is made even more strongly in the opening words which are a direct copy of Gen. 46:8.
A book that has a great story to tell, and is always moving forwards, starts with a backward look. It reminds us how Israel got to be in Egypt but, more than that, it raises issues of identity and purpose.
One of the great advances in technology in our day has been the ability to remain connected wherever you are. The opening of this great book teaches us that we live connected lives, that the story of God’s plan with this world is single, not multiple.
They were not – and neither are we – the first generation of God’s people. They were not – and nor are we – a discrete generation, unrelated to the past and disconnected in the present. There is a much larger picture to see and to live within. Exodus is one part of a larger story and so are our lives.
We must, therefore, learn to both think and pray in terms of that larger reality. It would be all too easy to simply see our Christian experience as something that makes us happy, helps us to get through life and guarantees us a home in heaven come the end.
But the opening of this book, and the Bible as a whole, condemn that kind of approach to life as a Christian. Our thinking, living and praying must not be parochial. We need to see the larger picture – by which I don’t just mean what God is doing now in other places but rather the whole sweep of Bible history as it unfolds God’s purposes.
Does that figure in how you approach life as a Christian? Is that how you see your life and the life of the church? Does it show in your praying?
This is the point Jesus makes when he tells us to make God’s kingdom our first concern and not to worry unduly about life’s necessities, to let him give us what we need as we need it.
So, remember your connection to the larger picture and begin to understand your life and the life of the church in that light.
2. Connected to the God of creation
That Exodus continues the story begun in Genesis is quite clear and these opening verses make that point in no uncertain terms. But the connection with Genesis is more explicitly a connection with the God of Genesis who is the great creator. And that point is made here too, again with great clarity.
Look at vv.6,7 – Joseph and all his brothers died (a bit like the reports back in Gen. 5) but that wasn’t the end of the Israelites in Egypt – far from it. In an almost miraculous way, they increased and “became exceedingly numerous”.
The terms for population growth compete for space in verse 7, there’s just so many of them. And what is especially notable is that those terms directly relate back to what we read in Genesis – check out 1:28; 9:1 and 1:21; 8:17 (for ‘swarm’).
What is this meant to convey to us?
i) Blessed by the creator – This note about the amazing growth of the people of Israel in Egypt is clearly meant to say that the Lord was with them and was blessing them.
His blessing was not limited to the former generation who we learn had died, nor was it limited by their location in the pagan land of Egypt. Egypt had its fertility gods but true fertility is seen to come from the LORD alone.
The people of Israel belong to the Lord who made both heaven and earth. That is a key point in the whole Bible storyline that, sadly, we often neglect and fail to do justice to. If you check out the main statements of faith of evangelical churches, there is very little about creation. That’s a great shame because everything flows from that starting point. We can talk in great detail about what the Lord has done to save but who is the Lord that saves? The great Creator God!
The whole thing starts with creation and ends with new creation; the God who saves is the God who made everything in the first place. And he was clearly present in power and blessing with his people in Egypt.
Their story is the story of the Creator God promising to bless them and to make them increase in number – that certainly is coming true in these verses. But the promises also included land which is yet to be fulfilled and so the stage is set in these verses for the exodus from Egypt and the journey to the promised land.
ii) Purpose – But this connection with God’s purposes in creation that these words deliberately echo also says something else to us. It makes the point that “what God is doing with Israel’s descendants has meaning for the whole family of humankind.” That is a vital note to grasp.
I heard someone speak not so long ago on a part of the Joseph story where Joseph was managing the food crisis in Egypt. The speaker made the point that Joseph was placed there for the sake of Israel, which is exactly what Joseph himself said (Gen. 45:5-8). But the speaker went on to say that God didn’t care about Egypt, he was only interested in Israel, that the Lord’s great concern in this world is with his elect people.
Now, I’m a great fan of the biblical doctrine of election – I don’t think it’s anything to be shy about – but I do question those statements.
Election has at its heart being chosen in order to engage in mission (do a study of the biblical material and you’ll see what I mean). Did God care for Egypt? Yes, most certainly – check out what God says through Isaiah at 19:16ff – it’s a remarkable statement of intent and of genuine care and concern.
And this passage before us makes the point that God’s purposes for all creation are going to be fulfilled through his people Israel (which ultimately is what happens in and through Jesus). Why was Abraham chosen? To be a blessing for the whole world. And here are Abraham’s descendents in Egypt, swarming over the land in creational blessing.
At this time, there is going to be a great struggle and the need for a great deliverance from Egypt but, ultimately, that redemption is going to result in Egypt, too, sharing in the Lord’s mercy.
The Lord who we will see redeeming his people from Egypt in this great and profound book is the Creator of heaven and earth. One writer expressed this point very helpfully: “Because God is a God of life and blessing [as seen in creation] God will do redemptive work should those gifts ever be endangered or diminished.” And so, “Israel is God’s starting-point for realising the divine intentions for all.”
We need to see that as our purpose, too. We’re in the world for the sake of the world, a light for the nations, a city set on a hill – not to thumb our noses at the nations but to invite them to come under the shade of the Lord’s shelter. That’s why you’re in your family, in your workplace, in your neighbourhood.
This grasp of our identity and purpose as the Lord’s people must shape and sharpen our thinking and praying.
May the Lord bless us and make us a blessing to others.
Wednesday, 17 May 2006
The LORD is Righteous
Is God's righteousness an ethical quality or his faithfulness to his covenant? That question is at the heart of a considerable debate. Without wishing to engage that debate in all its contours, it strikes me that Psalm 129 is of some merit.
The psalm laments the fact in vv.1-3 that, since their youth, Israel has been persecuted by the nations. Yet, as v.4 makes plain, they have not been abandoned:
Notice that it is YHWH who is declared to be righteous and that in the context of rescuing his people, Israel. Whilst the term 'covenant' fails to put in an appearance here, the whole context is so clearly covenantal. And YHWH's righteousness is seen in his acting to rescue his people as the outworking of that covenant.
Is he also being ethically righteous in rescuing the oppressed? Without doubt; but the emphasis, in terms of salvation-history, is on covenant faithfulness. Righteous is what righteous does - and YHWH in righeousness delivers his own, for the sake of the world.
The psalm laments the fact in vv.1-3 that, since their youth, Israel has been persecuted by the nations. Yet, as v.4 makes plain, they have not been abandoned:
But the LORD is righteous;
he has cut me free from the cords of the wicked.
Notice that it is YHWH who is declared to be righteous and that in the context of rescuing his people, Israel. Whilst the term 'covenant' fails to put in an appearance here, the whole context is so clearly covenantal. And YHWH's righteousness is seen in his acting to rescue his people as the outworking of that covenant.
Is he also being ethically righteous in rescuing the oppressed? Without doubt; but the emphasis, in terms of salvation-history, is on covenant faithfulness. Righteous is what righteous does - and YHWH in righeousness delivers his own, for the sake of the world.
Tuesday, 16 May 2006
Checking Out; Cheering On
There are passages in Acts dealing with the early church sending various people into other situations that are worth comparing.
In Acts 8 we learn that
Presumably this sending was in order to authenticate the work going on in Samaria, to give this expansion the apostolic imprimatur. Then, in Acts 11, when the gospel is breaking new ground among the Greeks in Antioch we learn that
Why send Barnabus? Not to authenticate the work but to encourage the church. For
What great vision the church in Jerusalem showed at this point. Having worked-through the reality that the Lord was indeed saving Gentiles (notice how this follows so closely the incident with Peter and Cornelius and the church's consideration of that) they felt no need to send people to check out the work but rather chose someone they knew would cheer on those involved in it.
No doubt there is much for us all to learn from their example.
In Acts 8 we learn that
When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria.
Presumably this sending was in order to authenticate the work going on in Samaria, to give this expansion the apostolic imprimatur. Then, in Acts 11, when the gospel is breaking new ground among the Greeks in Antioch we learn that
News of this reached the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.
Why send Barnabus? Not to authenticate the work but to encourage the church. For
He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.
What great vision the church in Jerusalem showed at this point. Having worked-through the reality that the Lord was indeed saving Gentiles (notice how this follows so closely the incident with Peter and Cornelius and the church's consideration of that) they felt no need to send people to check out the work but rather chose someone they knew would cheer on those involved in it.
No doubt there is much for us all to learn from their example.
Thursday, 11 May 2006
Wise words
Commenting on the interplay of divine sovereignty and human responsibility in Exodus 4:18ff, Peter Enns makes the following salient points:
(1) We must remember that election, or sovereignty, is never an abstract notion. Common arguments against election that I have heard include, 'I guess God predestined what kind of tie I would put on today,' or, 'Are you trying to tell me that God predestined that crack in the sidewalk and that I would trip over that crack!?' As the old joke goes: What did the Calvinist say after he fell down the stairs? 'I'm glad that's over with!' Of course, most of these objections are not meant to be taken wholly seriously, but the basic thrust remains: How does God's sovereignty actually, practically, play out in the details of our lives?
This is a question that the Bible does not address. The Bible is not concerned to reveal fully the mysteries of God's dealings with his creation. The notion of God's sovereignty in the Bible is always connected specifically to one issue: the deliverance of God's people. Although this raises a host of other concerns (e.g., are we saved by God's choice without any input on our own?), understanding the salvation context of sovereignty at least puts us on the proper starting point for discussing the issue and how it might affect our lives. Burdening our hearts and minds with abstract implications of sovereignty, something the Bible itself does not entertain, will unnecessarily detract us from the focus the Bible gives to the issue.
(2) However uncomfortable we all feel from time to time with election and its implications, we must remember that the biblical writers do not seem to share that feeling of discomfort. Though the issue is mysterious, it is not presented as a burden in the Bible. This is not to say that it is easily accepted. Paul's protracted argument in Romans 9 may indicate that not only his readers but perhaps Paul himself felt the need to engage the issue more closely. For Paul, the end result of any such internal struggle with sovereignty results in praise (11:33-36). For Job, it ends in humility (Job 42:1-6). Sovereignty is a blessing rather than a hindrance. I am not saying that understanding how sovereignty works is a blessing, but that it is a blessing regardless of how little we understand.
The Lord holds us in his arms. He is the truly loving Father who cares for us, his children in Christ. Can we really hope for anything better than this? What recourse do we have? Partial sovereignty? It is good to be under the Lord's care. What such an understanding of sovereignty engenders in us is actually a sense of freedom, the knowledge that we are God's children and that we are somehow under his sovereign gaze - no matter what. Sovereignty means that in our everyday lives, we can go forth and act boldly without fear that our constant missteps or imperfections will catch the Lord by surprise and tear us away from him.
(3) However much we try to make sense of sovereignty and incorporate it into our theological systems (as I have just tried to do!), we must remember that it is ultimately a great and humbling mystery. To understand how it works is to peer into the heart of God. I remember so little of my college years, which is no one's fault but my own, but one conversation stands out in my mind. An older classmate and I were discussing the issue of sovereignty and free will and I said, "At the very least we have to accept the basic notion that either one or the other is true. Both cannot be right." My wiser friend responded, "Why?" I blurted out a comment or two about God needing to be logically consistent, or something like that, but that response seemed as shallow then as it does now. We should not forget the tension that Exodus and other portions of Scripture set up. We should not assume that God conforms to our ways of thinking.
Is this not a recurring theme in the Bible that God's ways are not our ways? Perhaps part of the value of the tension between predestination and free will is not found in solving the problem, as if it is a riddle God put in Scripture to occupy our intellectual energy, but in our standing back in awe of a God who is so much greater than we can understand. The hope is that we would go forth with this knowledge (or better, lack of knowledge) and live humble lives, trusting in the Lord all the more because of the depth of the riches of his wisdom and knowledge.
(Peter Enns, Exodus, NIVAC, p.148f)
Thursday, 4 May 2006
So who's to blame?
When Israel sent 12 leaders to spy out the land, 2 brought back a favourable report; 10 did not. The upshot was that Israel refused to try to enter the land and incurred God's wrath. So who was to blame?
Clearly, the 10 who talked up the issues involved with entering the land and making it their own -
Leaders within the church have a solemn duty to exercise faith and to encourage faith in others. It is so easy to discourage, to dampen and to damage. And it is no refuge to say 'I'm a natural pessimist and it's just how I am'; unbelief needs to be named for what it is.
But the account in Deuteronomy shows that the people as a whole were also at fault for listening to the bad report and refusing to act on the advice of Joshua and Caleb, for failing to believe God:
Interestingly, it had been their idea in the first place to send the spies, a suggestion that Moses recognised as God-given (cf. Dt. 1:22f & Num 13:1). But, sadly, that doesn't guarantee a faithful response.
The community needs to evaluate what it hears and follow advice that is both wise and faithful.
Clearly, the 10 who talked up the issues involved with entering the land and making it their own -
But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them. (Numbers 13:31ff; TNIV)
Leaders within the church have a solemn duty to exercise faith and to encourage faith in others. It is so easy to discourage, to dampen and to damage. And it is no refuge to say 'I'm a natural pessimist and it's just how I am'; unbelief needs to be named for what it is.
But the account in Deuteronomy shows that the people as a whole were also at fault for listening to the bad report and refusing to act on the advice of Joshua and Caleb, for failing to believe God:
But you were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You grumbled in your tents and said, "The LORD hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go? Our brothers have made our hearts melt in fear. They say, 'The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.' " (Deuteronomy 1:26ff; TNIV)
Interestingly, it had been their idea in the first place to send the spies, a suggestion that Moses recognised as God-given (cf. Dt. 1:22f & Num 13:1). But, sadly, that doesn't guarantee a faithful response.
The community needs to evaluate what it hears and follow advice that is both wise and faithful.
Thursday, 30 March 2006
Mid-stream
Psalm 78 is a recital of the history of Israel and their yo-yo relationship with YHWH. Some days they were up, some days they were down; and when they were down, they were almost out. Their obedience was flimsy and their love vapid. Yet the Lord persevered with them, alternately disciplining them through their enemies then rescuing them from their enemies.
The psalm ends on a positive note:
So, all's well that ends well. Except it doesn't. The psalm only goes so far; it cuts off the history mid-stream. Knowing the rest of the story makes for depressing reading: even David was mired in sin and shame. Is there no answer? Is there no deliverer? Is the story destined to always remain the same? Is there no hope?
The psalm ends on a positive note:
He chose David his servant...to be the shepherd of his people Jacob...And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skilful hands he led them. (v.71f; TNIV)
So, all's well that ends well. Except it doesn't. The psalm only goes so far; it cuts off the history mid-stream. Knowing the rest of the story makes for depressing reading: even David was mired in sin and shame. Is there no answer? Is there no deliverer? Is the story destined to always remain the same? Is there no hope?
Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Rom. 7:25 TNIV)
Tuesday, 28 February 2006
Pharaoh's daughter
Commenting on the role played by Pharaoh's daughter in the raising and forming of Moses (and, so, in the redemption of Israel) Peter Enns writes,
What is our proper posture toward an unbeliever? There is more than one biblical model. The model of "opposition" is certainly well known and has ample biblical precedent. This model, however, is not deserving of universal application. We share with others the love of Christ, who was a friend to sinners. In doing so, we bring the good news to them in many different ways, which is something that God's people are called to do. But do not be surprised if in the process the Lord uses these same people to change you. Our neighbors, coworkers, and relatives are not so much projects to be won, notches on our salvation belt, but people who are created in God's image and whose lives are in God's hands. They, too, may be his instruments for purposes we cannot fathom. It is his will to employ many facets of his creation for his sake and for his glory. (Exodus, NIVAC, p.76)
Thursday, 23 February 2006
truth in timbre
Their conversation is like a gently wicked dance: sound meets sound, curtsies, shimmies, and retires. Another sound enters but is upstaged by still another: the two circle each other and stop. Sometimes their words move in lofty spirals; other times they take strident leaps, and all of it is punctuated with warm-pulsed laughter— like the throb of a heart made of jelly. The edge, the curl, the thrust of their emotions is always clear to Frieda and me. We do not, cannot, know the meanings of all their words, for we are nine and ten years old. So we watch their faces, their hands, their feet, and listen for truth in timbre.
[Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye]
Saturday, 11 February 2006
Ready to forgive
The perspective of Joseph on his sufferings at the hands of his brothers is quite stunning. When he reveals himself to them they are - well, gobsmacked might not be too much of a paraphrase. And terrified. But Jospeh immediately says to them,
And, again, a moment or two later, he again affirms,
After all the years in which bitterness could have made his heart an acrid, barren place, Joseph displays a breathtaking grasp of God's sovereign ways and a humble willingness to embrace God's purposes through his suffering and so to embrace his brothers in forgiving grace. And his readiness to forgive carved out for his brothers an opportunity to demonstrate repentance and so to receive that forgiveness.
All of which leads us, of course and with great power, to see afresh the glory of the submission and humility of our Lord Jesus on the cross. How deeply and joyously glad we can be for the words of Jesus, "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing."
Make me, too, O Lord, a channel of your peace.
"Do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you." (Gen. 45:5)
And, again, a moment or two later, he again affirms,
"God sent me ahead of you to preserve a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So, then, it was not you who sent me here, but God." (Gen. 45:7-8)
After all the years in which bitterness could have made his heart an acrid, barren place, Joseph displays a breathtaking grasp of God's sovereign ways and a humble willingness to embrace God's purposes through his suffering and so to embrace his brothers in forgiving grace. And his readiness to forgive carved out for his brothers an opportunity to demonstrate repentance and so to receive that forgiveness.
All of which leads us, of course and with great power, to see afresh the glory of the submission and humility of our Lord Jesus on the cross. How deeply and joyously glad we can be for the words of Jesus, "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing."
Make me, too, O Lord, a channel of your peace.
Where's Dan gone?
The sons of Jacob/Israel were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Jospeh and Benjamin. In Rev. 7:5-8 the same tribes are noted except that Dan is replaced by Manasseh, one of Joseph's sons. Significant? I don't suppose so. Interesting? Maybe.
Tuesday, 7 February 2006
learning how to receive
Slow down. Hold still.
It's not as if it's a matter of will.
Someone's circling. Someone's moving
a little lower than the angels.
And it's got nothing to do with me.
The wind blows through the trees,
but if I look for it, it won't come.
I tense up. My mind goes numb.
There's nothing harder than learning how to receive.
Calm down. Be still.
We've got plenty of time to kill.
No hand writing on the wall:
just the voice that's in us all.
And you're whispering to me,
time to get up off my hands and knees,
'cause if I beg for it, it won't come.
I find nothing but table crumbs.
My hands are empty. God I've been naive.
All I need is everything.
Inside, outside, feel new skin.
All I need is everything.
Feel the slip and the grip of grace again.
Slow down. Hold still.
It's not as if it's a matter of will.
Someone's circling. Someone's moving
a little lower than the angels.
This voice calling me to you:
it's just barely coming through.
Still, I clearly hear my name.
I've been fingering the flame
like tomorrow's martyr.
It gets harder to believe.
All I need is everything.
Inside, outside, feel new skin.
All I need is everything.
Feel the slip and the grip of grace again.
So from now till kingdom come,
taste the words on the tip of my tongue.
'Cause we can't run truth out of town,
only force it underground.
The roots grow deeper
in ways we can't conceive.
All I need is everything.
Inside, outside feel new skin.
All I need is everything.
Feel the slip and the grip of grace again.
All I need is all I need.
(All I Need Is Everything) - Over The Rhine
It's not as if it's a matter of will.
Someone's circling. Someone's moving
a little lower than the angels.
And it's got nothing to do with me.
The wind blows through the trees,
but if I look for it, it won't come.
I tense up. My mind goes numb.
There's nothing harder than learning how to receive.
Calm down. Be still.
We've got plenty of time to kill.
No hand writing on the wall:
just the voice that's in us all.
And you're whispering to me,
time to get up off my hands and knees,
'cause if I beg for it, it won't come.
I find nothing but table crumbs.
My hands are empty. God I've been naive.
All I need is everything.
Inside, outside, feel new skin.
All I need is everything.
Feel the slip and the grip of grace again.
Slow down. Hold still.
It's not as if it's a matter of will.
Someone's circling. Someone's moving
a little lower than the angels.
This voice calling me to you:
it's just barely coming through.
Still, I clearly hear my name.
I've been fingering the flame
like tomorrow's martyr.
It gets harder to believe.
All I need is everything.
Inside, outside, feel new skin.
All I need is everything.
Feel the slip and the grip of grace again.
So from now till kingdom come,
taste the words on the tip of my tongue.
'Cause we can't run truth out of town,
only force it underground.
The roots grow deeper
in ways we can't conceive.
All I need is everything.
Inside, outside feel new skin.
All I need is everything.
Feel the slip and the grip of grace again.
All I need is all I need.
(All I Need Is Everything) - Over The Rhine
Wednesday, 25 January 2006
The biggest barriers
to effective evangelism according to the prayer of Jesus are not so much outdated methods, or inadequate presentations of the gospel, as realities like gossip, insensitivity, negative criticism, jealousy, backbiting, an unforgiving spirit, a 'root of bitterness', failure to appreciate others, self-preoccupation, greed, selfishness and every other form of lovelessness. These are the squalid enemies of effective evangelism which render the gospel fruitless and send countless thousands into eternity without a Saviour. 'The glorious gospel of the blessed God', which is committed to our trust, is being openly contradicted and veiled by the sinful relationships within the community which is commissioned to communicate it. We need look no further to understand why the church's impact on the community is frequently so minimal in spite of the greatness of our message. We are fighting with only one hand!
(Bruce Milne, The Message of John, IVP, pp.250,251)
(Bruce Milne, The Message of John, IVP, pp.250,251)
Thursday, 12 January 2006
The Church as Ordinary
Extracts from Against Christianity by Peter J. Leithart (Canon Press, 2003, pp.16-18)
Christian community...is not an extra "religious" layer on social life. The Church is not a club for religious people. The Church is a way of living together before God, a new way of being human together. What Jesus and the apostles proclaimed was not a new ideology or a new religion, in our attenuated modern sense. What they proclaimed was salvation, and that meant a new human world, a new social and political reality.
They proclaimed that God had established the eschatological order of human life in the midst of history, not perfectly but truly. The Church anticipates the form of the human race as it will be when it comes to maturity; she is the "already" of the new humanity that will be perfected in the "not yet" of the last day. Conversion thus means turning from one way of life, one culture, to another. Conversion is the beginning of a "resocialization," induction into an alternative paideia, and "inculturation" into the way of life practiced by the eschatological humanity.
In the New Testament, we do not find an essentially private gospel being applied to the public sphere, as if the public implications of the gospel were a second story built on the private ground floor. The gospel is the announcement of the Father's formation through His Son and the Spirit, of a new city the city of God...
We have made the Church strange and alien to the world, as if she were of a completely different order than the institutions of common social and political life. Paradoxically, the result of this estrangement has been to reshape the Church into the image of the world.
The Church is strange: she is the creation of the Father through Word and Spirit, the community of those who have been united by the Spirit with the Son, and therefore brought into the eternal community of the Trinity. She is a city whose town square is in heaven. She is a city without walls or boundary lines, a polity without sword or shield. Of no other society can that be said.
But she is ordinary: the Church is made up of human beings, with features that identify her as a culture among the cultures of the world. God did not enter a world of books with blurks; He did not intervene in a world of rituals and meals with spatuals and gleals; He did not call His people to live according to specific quormal principles or to promote a particular uphos.
Rather, God created a world of stories, symbols, rituals, and community rules. Into this world of stories, God introduced a rival story; into a world of books, God came with His own library; in a world of symbols and rituals and sacrificial meals, the Church was organized by a ritual bath and a feast of bread and wine; in the midst of cultures with their own ethos and moral atmosphere, God gathered a community to produce the aroma of Christ in their life together.
Only by insisting on the Church's ordinariness can we simultaneously grasp her strangeness.
The Church can cut across the grain of existing human social and cultural life only if she bears some likeness to existing societies. If she is a completely different sort of thing, then societies and nations and empires can go on their merry way ignoring the Church, or, equally deadly, find some murky alleyway to push her into.
But if the Church is God's society among human societies, a heavenly city invading the earthly city, then a territorial conflict is inevitable...
Christian community...is not an extra "religious" layer on social life. The Church is not a club for religious people. The Church is a way of living together before God, a new way of being human together. What Jesus and the apostles proclaimed was not a new ideology or a new religion, in our attenuated modern sense. What they proclaimed was salvation, and that meant a new human world, a new social and political reality.
They proclaimed that God had established the eschatological order of human life in the midst of history, not perfectly but truly. The Church anticipates the form of the human race as it will be when it comes to maturity; she is the "already" of the new humanity that will be perfected in the "not yet" of the last day. Conversion thus means turning from one way of life, one culture, to another. Conversion is the beginning of a "resocialization," induction into an alternative paideia, and "inculturation" into the way of life practiced by the eschatological humanity.
In the New Testament, we do not find an essentially private gospel being applied to the public sphere, as if the public implications of the gospel were a second story built on the private ground floor. The gospel is the announcement of the Father's formation through His Son and the Spirit, of a new city the city of God...
We have made the Church strange and alien to the world, as if she were of a completely different order than the institutions of common social and political life. Paradoxically, the result of this estrangement has been to reshape the Church into the image of the world.
The Church is strange: she is the creation of the Father through Word and Spirit, the community of those who have been united by the Spirit with the Son, and therefore brought into the eternal community of the Trinity. She is a city whose town square is in heaven. She is a city without walls or boundary lines, a polity without sword or shield. Of no other society can that be said.
But she is ordinary: the Church is made up of human beings, with features that identify her as a culture among the cultures of the world. God did not enter a world of books with blurks; He did not intervene in a world of rituals and meals with spatuals and gleals; He did not call His people to live according to specific quormal principles or to promote a particular uphos.
Rather, God created a world of stories, symbols, rituals, and community rules. Into this world of stories, God introduced a rival story; into a world of books, God came with His own library; in a world of symbols and rituals and sacrificial meals, the Church was organized by a ritual bath and a feast of bread and wine; in the midst of cultures with their own ethos and moral atmosphere, God gathered a community to produce the aroma of Christ in their life together.
Only by insisting on the Church's ordinariness can we simultaneously grasp her strangeness.
The Church can cut across the grain of existing human social and cultural life only if she bears some likeness to existing societies. If she is a completely different sort of thing, then societies and nations and empires can go on their merry way ignoring the Church, or, equally deadly, find some murky alleyway to push her into.
But if the Church is God's society among human societies, a heavenly city invading the earthly city, then a territorial conflict is inevitable...
Sunday, 8 January 2006
The Ultimate Detox
Mark 7:14-30
Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside you can defile you by going into you. Rather, it is what comes out of you that defiles you."
After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. "Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters you from the outside can defile you? For it doesn't go into your heart but into your stomach, and then out of your body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
He went on: "What comes out of you is what defiles you. For from within, out of your hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile you."
Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
"First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs."
"Lord," she replied, "even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."
Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter."
She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
(TNIV)
Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside you can defile you by going into you. Rather, it is what comes out of you that defiles you."
After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. "Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters you from the outside can defile you? For it doesn't go into your heart but into your stomach, and then out of your body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
He went on: "What comes out of you is what defiles you. For from within, out of your hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile you."
Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
"First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs."
"Lord," she replied, "even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."
Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter."
She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
(TNIV)
Friday, 6 January 2006
Why Jesus wants his people to be sanctified
It would seem an obvious point: Jesus wants his people to be sanctified, to be holy. Yes, quite so. In fact, he prays for just that in his great prayer in John 17:
But what does Jesus have in mind?
He links the setting apart (sanctification) of his disciples with his own act of being set apart. So he made himself holy so that we too could be holy? I think the emphasis in these verses is working in a slightly different direction. Jesus set himself apart for the work of God in order to see people redeemed and reconciled to God. And he expressly states here that just as he had been sent into the world by the Father on that mission and responded by sanctifying himself, so too he is sending them into the world.
So why is Jesus praying that his people be set apart for God? In order that they might be enabled and equipped to fulfil their calling to go into all the world with the good news. Set apart and sent out; that's us.
And notice too the crucial role played by God's Word in that whole process. What is the work that scripture is to do in our lives? To make us more like Jesus? Yes, but not simply in terms of moral rectitude, integrity of character and so forth; rather, along with those, to be more like Jesus in our commitment to, and sacrificial outworking of, the great mission of God.
If Jesus prayed for that, it would be good if we did too.
Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. (John 17:17-19;TNIV)
But what does Jesus have in mind?
He links the setting apart (sanctification) of his disciples with his own act of being set apart. So he made himself holy so that we too could be holy? I think the emphasis in these verses is working in a slightly different direction. Jesus set himself apart for the work of God in order to see people redeemed and reconciled to God. And he expressly states here that just as he had been sent into the world by the Father on that mission and responded by sanctifying himself, so too he is sending them into the world.
So why is Jesus praying that his people be set apart for God? In order that they might be enabled and equipped to fulfil their calling to go into all the world with the good news. Set apart and sent out; that's us.
And notice too the crucial role played by God's Word in that whole process. What is the work that scripture is to do in our lives? To make us more like Jesus? Yes, but not simply in terms of moral rectitude, integrity of character and so forth; rather, along with those, to be more like Jesus in our commitment to, and sacrificial outworking of, the great mission of God.
If Jesus prayed for that, it would be good if we did too.
Thursday, 5 January 2006
indeed
if nothing else by Over The Rhine
i'm so tired in the mornings
i try to go back
i try to remember
the light appearing
without warning
tying up my hands
like i'm good for nothing
if nothing else i can dream
i can dream
i'll never tell never tell
all i've seen
right in front of me
like the ghost of every thing that i could be
for the night sky is an ocean
black distant sea
washing up to my window
all the stray dog night owl junkies
orphans vagabonds
angels who lost their halos
if nothing else i can dream
i can dream
i'll never tell never tell
all i've seen
right in front of me,
like the ghost of every thing that i could be
in the cool and callous grip of reality
words in my head
like misfits after midnight
begging for a light
words left unsaid
they may never see the light of day
and that may be okay
if nothing else i can dream
i'm so tired in the mornings
i try to go back
i try to remember
the light appearing
without warning
tying up my hands
like i'm good for nothing
if nothing else i can dream
i can dream
i'll never tell never tell
all i've seen
right in front of me
like the ghost of every thing that i could be
for the night sky is an ocean
black distant sea
washing up to my window
all the stray dog night owl junkies
orphans vagabonds
angels who lost their halos
if nothing else i can dream
i can dream
i'll never tell never tell
all i've seen
right in front of me,
like the ghost of every thing that i could be
in the cool and callous grip of reality
words in my head
like misfits after midnight
begging for a light
words left unsaid
they may never see the light of day
and that may be okay
if nothing else i can dream
There are times
...when time has a way of catching-up on you, dropping hints that cannot aspire to subtlety, affirming what you suspected all along but were too scared to admit and too fragile to admire. Catch your breath, boy, this train is ready to leave.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)