Mr. Grumble (Ex 16-18)

I have to confess that I am Mr Grumble. Just about every chance I get, it seems I'm grumbling about something. Not so much a quarreler, but definitely a grumbler, most of the time under just my breath. If it isn't that there isn't enough food in the house, its that there isn't the right kind of food. Or, maybe its because I want to watch the latest episode of V (yep, I'm that guy) and Michelle is busy watching the Nate Berkus show. Sometimes, I think I grumble for no reason at all, but other times... I have, at least in my own opinion, a darn good reason. 

We all grumble... its just part of the human condition. I think its deeply connected to our sense of time. We were made to live in the present, each moment, each breath is a gift. But, how often do we live in the past? Or, maybe we spend so much time stewing over the future that we miss what God is doing right in front of us. Our problem is we forget. We forget what God has done for us, or we try to explain it away. That erodes our ability to be grateful. Our capacity to live in gratitude is deeply connected to our ability to live in wholeness. 

We all quarrel too. For some it may be the passive aggressive sarcastic remark that waits just under our tongue. For others of us it may be the eruption waiting to unleash on those closest to us or maybe even those who serve us like waiters or checkers at the grocery store. Complaint is a language of our culture.

All of this, I believe, is rooted in our uncanny ability to block out memories that lead to gratitude while amplifying our memories that lead to complaint. I heard once that bad news travels ten times faster than good news. For example, my internet home page is cnn.com and the headline news is almost always bad. Today, on the very bottom of the page was a brief article about Bruno Serato of the White House Restaurant in Anaheim. There he feeds over 200 hotel children each day. A ray of good news in a spectrum of bad. 

So, I decided to pause in from my grumbling... I emailed the info address at Bruno's restaurant and asked how our church could help. He responded personally within the hour from  Italy where he is being interviewed for TV about his work here. We will get together when he returns in April. Its amazing what a ray of good news and a choice to embrace an opportunity can do.  I realized in the process what a great deal of grumbling I have been doing lately, grumbling that has been keeping me from what God wants me to be up to, like helping Bruno or connecting people with Liveten24 in Niger. 

But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

Then Moses cried out to the LORD, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

Exodus 17:3-4

When I read the scriptures, I realize that I am in good company... All may favorite bible characters were cowards and complainers. The entire people of Israel had just witnessed the most drastic jailbreak in the history of the universe! Set free, given wealth beyond belief, having walked through the Sea of Reeds (Sorry it wasn't the Red Sea, bad translation) and what is the first thing they do? Grumble and quarrel with Moses and God about their conditions! Moses even named the place where they rested Massah and Meribah... grumble and quarrel! What a short memory the people had. But don't we do the same thing? 

I am prompted to think about my family, and the all the miraculous things God did in bringing our children into the world, and preserving Michelle when she could have died. Or about how God brought me to my church and built something amazing out of nothing. And what is the first thing I do when I'm hit with a big tax bill, and a lean bank account?... grumble and quarrel. "Oh LORD why have you brought us out here to starve?" God brought us this far, shouldn't I trust him to cover any need? (Disclaimer: we are still responsible for good planning and faithful stewardship) It took the generosity of a good friend, who gifted us a tithe of our bill, to remind me that God is not worried and I shouldn't be grumbling. The test for us is always one of memory; will we remember and rely upon a history of God's faithful provision, or will we grumble and quarrel in a world of negativity. 

What opportunity is waiting for you today? What good in the world is calling you out of grumbling and quarreling? May Jesus' love be radiant in and through your life.

In Jesus' Name

Amen

A Lot With A Little (Ex 10-15)

"I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.”
Exodus 14:4


All throughout the scriptures God seems to be doing a great deal with little means. If he isn't multiplying the oil of a widow (2 Kings 4), he is feeding 5000 with a young boys lunch (John 6, Matt 14, Luke 9, Mark 6). He does the same thing with people. From an old man with no hope of a future he builds a great nation (Gen 12). From a jewish school drop-out, working the family fishing business he makes a great leader of the Church (Peter in Acts 10-11, 15). God loves to do a lot with a little. Moses had just enough faith to say yes when God called, though he threw every excuse in the book at him, and the people of Israel were freed.


God isn't limited to positive examples in this multiplication table. God can also do a great deal with a little self-centerdness. I have been troubled by the amount of times Exodus 4-15 mentions that God was hardening Pharaoh's heart. This has been an age-old question and harsh debate which I doubt will be settled with a modest daily devotional, far greater minds than my own have tried and failed.
Now the regular argument goes something like this...


Problem: If God hardened Pharaoh's heart, doesn't that mean pharaoh had no free will?
but #1: "yeah but, it also says Pharaoh's heart was hardened.. and that pharaoh hardened his own heard too." Drop a little 1 Samuel 6 in the mix.
Response:  "Don't skirt this issue, it says several times, even from God's own mouth, that he hardened pharaoh's heart." Throw Romans 9 on the table as a trump card.
...and so on and so forth until everyone is angry and confused. 


As I see it, this is just one more example of God doing a lot with a little. To do so, we have to go back to the language this part of the bible was written in. In Exodus 4:21 God says for the first time that he will "harden" Pharaoh's heart. This word in Hebrew, Chazaq, carries many meanings most coming back to some form of "rootedness or strengthening". In other words God is saying, quite literally, that he will strengthen Pharaoh's resolve. This is God doing a lot with a little. The resolve of man caves quickly, but when God has a point to make for all of history, he reenforces that preexisting resolve to meet its end. Isn't that what hell basically is? God says, "fine have it your way." Romans 1 roughly makes this same argument, there comes a point at which God leaves us to our choices and/or even uses them to build his kingdom in other ways. 


The simplest answer... God strengthened Pharaoh's already hardened heart and resolve in order to bring about victory for his people and prepare the way for the entire world to receive the saving message of his promise to Abraham through Jesus. 


Now we haven't gotten to the good news yet. God can do a great deal with just a little softening too. Think about Nicodemus (John 3), or Zacchaeus (luke 19), or anyone else that hung around with Jesus for that matter. The point is simple, Jesus can do a lot with a little in our lives. This counts in any area we might be struggling with. Just today a good friend who has been praying with me regarding a circumstance in my life gave me a little good news. That news shifted my whole outlook as it reminded me that God is with us in all of our circumstances, doing a lot with a little. 


What little do you have for God to multiply? Where might be some hardened areas of our hearts God wants to soften? Join with me and Moses, and countless others in bringing our little to God... see what happens.


In Jesus' Name,
Amen

     

Jealousy (Ex 4-9)

"I could have stretched forth My hand and stricken you [Pharaoh] and your people with pestilence, and you would have been effaced from the earth. Nevertheless I have spared you for this purpose: in order to show you My power and in order that My fame may resound throughout the world."
Exodus 9:15-16


Did you know that God is Jealous? The scripture talks all the time about the jealousy of God. I always wrestled with this idea mostly because I have always thought of jealousy as a insecure emotion. When have you experienced Jealousy? I remember when I was in high school and, to borrow a line from Rocky Raccoon, a friend had "stolen the girl of my fancy." My experience of jealousy was terrible. I was angry and self-centered, burning up on the inside. I felt slighted and passed over. 


As I read the bible, I couldn't understand how God could experience the same emotion. Much later, I discovered that the key difference between my jealousy and God's jealousy is the object of that emotion. Oddly, both my jealousy and God's jealousy focus on me. I experience Jealousy in my self-centered concern. I wanted to be the center of another's attention for my benefit. God wants to be the center of our attention for OUR benefit. God knows that it is not good for us to be distracted in our devotion. It is toxic for us to devote ourselves solely to our stuff, our jobs, our relationships, other gods, etc etc... Jesus said that he came to bring abundant life and later that he is the only way to know the Father. God is Jealous because he loves us and wants the best for us. God would do, and has done, anything to bring us out of ourselves and to him. 


Pharaoh represented a political, economic, social, and religious system that had captured and oppressed God's people. He believed himself to be a god, and that it was right for him to rule over the Israelites. In these 400ish years the family that had known God's favor and comfort, had come to feel a sense of abandonment. God's anger and jealousy burn on behalf of his people... Enough was enough. He could have wiped out Pharaoh and the Egyptians all at once. Why didn't he? Grace. He wanted to show the world that he was in control, that the gods of the "superpower" were false, and that you don't mess with his infant nation of Israel. Each of the plagues upon Egypt were not just assaults in the socio-political system, they were pointed statements about the gods of Egypt... 

1. Water to Blood - Hapi , god of the Nile

2. Frogs - Heket (depicted with a frog's head), goddess of fertility, water, renewal

3. Lice or gnats from the earth -  Geb, god of the dust of the earth

4. Swarms of Flies on Egyptians - Khepri (depicted with fly's head) , god of creation, movement of the sun, rebirth

5. Epidemic on Egyptian livestock - Hathor (depicted with cow's head), goddess of love and protection

6. Ashes turn to boils in Egyptians - Isis, goddess of medicine and peace

7. Hail on the Egyptians who didn't head Moses' warning - Nut, goddess of the sky

8. Locusts from the sky on the Egyptians - Seth, god of storms and disorder

9. Darkness for thee days on Egyptians - Ra, god of the sun and worshiped second only to pharaoh

10. Death of the firstborn in Egypt - Pharaoh, the power, leadership, and future of Egypt

God's plan was to bring the savior of the entire world, even Egypt, through the nation of Israel. God fiercely protected Israel and his plan for the world just as a parent protects their defenseless baby. His jealousy burned and still burns for our sake. What might God be jealous of in our lives? What would he be willing to strike down in order to protect us? May we offer freely to God the whole of our lives, so that we might be free from toxic devotions and distractions and the world might see Jesus through us.  

In Jesus' Name,

Amen

Reading Plan

Week 7

March 23rd - Exodus 10-12

March 24th - Exodus 13--15

March 25th - Exodus 16-18

March 26th - Exodus 19-20