Angel of Death

Oh somber night filled with grief and desperate sadness. Who can be saved?

How could any nation withstand this blow? The sting of death is everywhere.

In despair the Egyptians rise in the night, fully aware of their utter powerlessness against this force. Reluctantly they acknowledge the one true God through their pain and heartbreak

A stubborn war has been lost. The vanquished consider not only their dead, but the futility of further resistance. They succumb and their singular hope is that the culling is finished.

This is the depth of the war between purpose and selfishness, between love and indifference, between promise and hopelessness. The transcendence of authentic community ripped from the clutches of synthetic social contract.

Put your faith in the Lord and never be disappointed.

Remember

It is unusual in my experience to enter into an event knowing that it is of such import that it should be commemorated in a particular way. It’s perhaps like a bride determining prior to the wedding the manner in which every anniversary should be celebrated.

Yet this is the way of Passover. It’s an anniversary celebration that has been determined prior to the event itself taking place.

What’s more common is the admonition, usually by someone more experienced in life, to savor deeply some event that is about to happen. Perhaps a day of competition, or the completion of some training, the conferring of a degree of accomplishment or the purchasing of a first home: we are reminded to remember.

“This too I get to experience”… an author once wrote. The good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, the truth and the mistaken; they all combine to form the story, and even the meaning, of my life – if I remember

Celebration of Unity

God has reset the clock. It’s a new beginning. And this is celebrated with a highly structured feast.

The right anticipation for the children of Israel is that everything will be new after the Passover of the Lord. The calendar will be reset. Their oppressors will be slain. Their liberation from slavery will begin. Everything will be changed.

Encountering God is like that. Liberation from slavery celebrated with a sober, reflective, yet joyous meal. The first step toward the true freedom of service to the community.

“How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity”

Moses’ Anger

The Egyptians are clearly out of sync with their leader. They gladly give to their Israelite neighbors. In awe, they esteem Moses and wonder at the power of their God.

But Pharaoh will have none of it. And so the first born of Egypt will be sacrificed for the cause of Pharaoh’s determination to prevail over Moses.

Thousands of years later, it is all so easy to see that we wonder at Pharaoh’s blindness.

How could he be so blind?

“For judgement I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” John 9:39

Grasshopper Negotiations

The negotiations are over. Pharaoh’s position has moved from intransigence to manipulation.

Always, he sees Moses. But God is becoming known to His chosen people as a person. A fearfully powerful person – but a person no less.

The world’s favor to want-to-be believers is that its powers cannot overcome this person, this God of creation.

Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Caesar, skepticism, stoicism, Manicheism, the Enlightenment and even the Beatles, with clenched teeth and a raised fist have all indeliberately helped to show the enduring power of a personal God.

Praise and honor to you Lord Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

 

 

Pharaoh’s Compromise

Pharaoh sees through the ostensive plan. He knows that if he lets them go that they will run.

Moses isn’t bringing a moral argument. He isn’t even claiming to want liberty for the people. Is it because he knows that would be rebuffed?

Pharaoh’s compromise is rejected by Moses – making Pharaoh’s suspicions even more acute. Deadlock.

The saying goes, “the things I own have a way of owning me”. I am a non-deliberate servant to my stuff. Ownership of things constrains my liberty and defines what I value.

The utter objectification that allows one human being to claim ownership over another is like this. This is why Pharaoh’s heart was hard. I’m post-modern. I don’t make a claim of ownership – I just act like I own other people. This is why my heart is hard.

Let go this claim before it’s too late. Late go this claim.

Egypt Mocked

Pharaoh still doesn’t see God, only Moses.

This is the problem when I refuse the transcendent will. God’s project is still about authentic community. It is about goodness and love manifest in community.

This force will not be countered. This effect cannot be prevented.

I will give my all for this purpose. Anything else that I may attempt to withhold for personal benefit will be wasted. Chaff.

I will be broken on this stone or else this stone will crush me.

Oh Pharaoh, is it too late to repent?

Stuck on Moses

It’s not real. “We’ve had enough of God’s thunder and hail”, he says. But what Pharaoh really sees is Moses. His repentance isn’t genuine.

In his eyes, Moses has somehow become the greatest magician anyone has ever encountered. Therefore the challenge remains with Moses.  Despite the carnage, Pharaoh suspects that it is Moses and Moses’ secret agenda that is driving the action. And it is this to which he cannot yield.

Is it too simple to say that the failure of every want-to-be believing heart is revealed in Pharaoh’s suspicion? If I saw visibly the hand of God moving through the ordinary circumstances of my life, would this remove the doubt or would I fail anyway?

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” Heb 11:1

Blistering Sores

I am a giant in the absence of giants. But when exposed to real power, the existential problem always seems to show up. Will I survive?

I feel this when at the zoo and a tiger stalks my smallest child through a thick plate of glass. If the glass were to break – my power is limited.

Not surprising, I prefer to be around others whose power is also limited. There is a kind of balance in this.

But who could stand in the day of the Lord? In my own strength, I would cower with craven fear. It would be too much. It would overwhelm.

Boils and all plagues. This was never a contest, it was a demonstration of power designed to reorient thinking.  This morning I’m reminded that it is an extraordinary mercy that the Lord God demonstrates His power incrementally.

One day at a time Lord Jesus.

Pestilence

Pestilence on livestock! This isn’t like the present times. Livestock isn’t merely food or a source of recreation, both of which are critical in their way, but the very infrastructure of the nation.

Horses and donkeys and camels are about the ability to manufacture and conduct trade. With this plague, the social contract is under increased pressure.

Pharaoh is playing for high stakes.

This is an illustration of how much we all value using other people as objects – as a means for our own ends.

It runs pretty deep.