If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. – Exodus 21:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 31, 2018): Exodus 21

Abraham Lincoln said that “Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves.” If we cannot allow others to be free, then how do we ever think that we will be free. Slavery still exists in even the most advanced corners of the world; it just sometimes looks very different from the way it looked in antiquity. Advanced nations who do not take care of the most vulnerable among them, or who exhibit a wide gap between the rich and poor, are still involved in slavery. When we refuse to take care of the health needs of the people because of the cost, then slavery abounds. Whenever one group of people is put down at the expense of another, we have slavery.

And sometimes the groups are not noticeable. While race struggles still exist, the truth is that in the cultural west, often our slaves are of the same race as the slave owners. Derogatory labels often highlight the slaves within our own people groups. Money is the overriding factor, and from money, we will not be moved.

Often, we blame the Bible for its stand on slavery, and yet that blame is misplaced. No, the Bible does not prohibit owning a slave. But slavery existed long before Moses, and what the Bible does do is set limitations on slavery. The Bible is clear; slaves are to be treated like people, and not property. And for Hebrew slaves, lifelong slavery was not permitted.

In Hebrew culture, there was essentially four ways to become a slave. The first was extreme poverty; you could sell yourself into slavery and direct the money you received for whatever purpose you required. Second, a father might sell his daughter into slavery with the hope that she would eventually marry into the family. Third, in the case of a bankruptcy, a person may become a slave of the ones to whom he owed money to pay off the debt. And lastly, a criminal (mainly a thief) might be placed in slavery if he had no other way to make restitution to the ones from whom he had stolen.

But no matter how you got into slavery, if you were a Hebrew inside of Hebrew society, then your slavery had an expiry date. You could re-up if you wanted, but your slavery could only last six years.

Every once in a while we hear great stories about those who have made it inside of our society. But the truth is that very few get to live the “American Dream” of going from rags to riches; few get to move from their slavery to being a member of the ownership class. For most people in our culture, slavery is a lifelong occupation and not one with a six-year limit. People are born into poverty and live in poverty for the rest of their lives. And ultimately, the only way we can end slavery is by finding a way to close the gap between the rich and the poor. And if we can’t, then ultimately we may find that we don’t deserve the freedom (and money) that we crave, and our society will fail.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 22

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. – Exodus 20:8

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 30, 2018): Exodus 20

I go to church on Sundays. It has always been that way. Sometimes, when I am on vacation, I look for a Saturday evening service to attend. But usually, I attend a worship service on Sunday. I remember attending a Saturday evening service of a large, multisite church a few years ago, and they used the Saturday evening service to record for the various sites on Sunday morning. They recorded the service, placed the Saturday night service onto thumb drives, and the thumb drives were sent out to the various locations on Sunday morning. So I remember the Saturday night service which started off with an explanation of what was going to happen next. We were going to pretend that it was Sunday Morning. The preacher was not going to say “How are you this evening?” He was going to say “How are you on this Sunday Morning?” One of the sites was going to have a breakfast the next morning, so the introduction included a comment that we could smell the pancakes from where we were sitting, which would not have been just a miracle over distance but would have required time travel as well.

The Bible says “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” And there might not be a more contentious commandment. Even Jesus seemed to violate it. And it is the one commandment that Jesus never reinforced. I have good friends who accuse me of violating the commandment on a regular basis. After all, the Sabbath is Saturday. (Yes, that is why Saturday occurs in the last column of most of your calendars. I have had calendars that have tried to rectify the situation by placing the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, at the end of the week, but those calendars just confuse me.) Saturday is the Sabbath and did I mention that I go to church on Sunday.

So, the question that I get asked is this, if the Bible states so clearly that Saturday is the Sabbath and we are to keep the Sabbath Holy, why worship on Sunday. And my answer is just as forceful. I go to church on Sunday because Jesus Christ rose from the dead on Sunday morning. And in doing so, he instituted the eighth day. The eighth day is a day of love and grace. We had made the Sabbath a religious requirement that it was never intended to be. The Sabbath rest was something that we needed, not something that God needed. He set the example so that we would know that we needed a day of rest. We needed this time to connect with God, and with ourselves. We needed one day that was holy, set apart, different from all of the others. A day when we would do different things than we did on the other six. And on this day, maybe God would have a better chance to speak to us.

I go to church on Sundays, but I am not sure that it really matters. At least, I don’t think that Jesus cares. Oh, we still need a Sabbath. It is required by your manufacturer for the health of what he has created. You need a Sabbath, but maybe it doesn’t have to be Saturday or even Sunday. But whatever day you choose, remember to keep it holy; to make it different. This is a day that has been set apart by God so that you can grow in him, and remain healthy.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 21

Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain is to be put to death. – Exodus 19:12

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 29, 2018): Exodus 19

While Indiana Jones chased after the Ark of the Covenant in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” the location of the real Ark is a bit of a mystery. At least to some. Most believe that the Ark was removed from the Temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonians just before they leveled the structure. But others are not so sure. One persistent rumor states that the Prophet Jeremiah got into the Holy of Holies, the area of the Temple where the Ark was kept and removed it into one of the series tunnels and caves that exist below Temple Mount. According to the legend, the Ark is still there today. Unfortunately, because the Temple Mount is under Islamic control, no one is allowed to go searching for it.

Another rumor states that the location of the Ark of the Covenant is actually known. According to this rumor, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba had a relationship that resulted in a son, Menelik I, who was also called the “Son of the Wise.” Solomon apparently decided to give the Ark of the Covenant to Menelik, who took it to what is now Ethiopia. And there the Ark has remained. A forgery was made and placed in the Temple to fool The High Priest on the one day each year when he would encounter it, the Day of Atonement, and made sacrifices before the Ark for the nation. But today, the real Ark of the Covenant can be found at the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion at Axum, Ethiopia. Here, one patriarch has dedicated his life to the care of it. And he is the only one who can see it.

Or maybe the Babylonians took it and melted it down, discarding what they did not want and the Ark is not lost. The Ark of the Covenant has been, like the Temple that held it, destroyed. Which theory holds the truth about the Ark? To be honest, while the theories that the Ark is hidden on Temple Mount or that it resides in a Church in Ethiopia are both intriguing and exciting, I suspect that the Ark has been destroyed and, like many other artifacts, it is lost in the pages of history.

And part of the problem with both the theory that Solomon gave it to Menelik and the theory that Jeremiah had taken it and hidden it under Temple Mount is that access to the Ark of the Covenant was highly restricted. God had placed a boundary around the Ark. No one, except the High Priest on the Day of Atonement, was allowed into the Holy of Holies. Remarkable stories are told about those who dared to treat the Ark without the respect that it deserved. The Ark was not a relic to be displayed, nor was it an idol to be worshiped. It was believed to be the Presence of God on the earth. Solomon might have been King of Israel, but he was not the High Priest, and he was not welcome in the “Holy of Holies.” Jeremiah might have been the foremost prophet of his time, but he was not the High Priest, and he had no access to the Holy of Holies, and therefore, no access to the Ark of the Covenant.

And because the Ethiopian Church maintains the tradition, allowing only the Patriarch to minister in front of what they believe is the Ark of Covenant, we have no idea what is truly inside the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion. But whatever it is, and I do think that something very old is there, I don’t think it is the Ark.

A boundary was placed around Mount Horeb because this was to be the meeting place between God and Moses. No one was allowed even to touch the foot of the mountain. It was sacred. What went on there was between the deity and the prophet, and there would be no witnesses. This was a sacred moment.

And a moment over which the people would have to trust Moses. And that is part of the fundamental problem with our attempts to prove God and our faith. The reality is that God has set a boundary around him and us. And our journey toward God must always start with a step of faith. There is no other way to get to God than to put one foot in front of the other an begin to walk in faith. Without faith, God can never be found. Without faith, Moses would have stayed away from the mountain, or he would have invited someone else to come and witness the event. And in either case, God would not have shown up.

We walk by faith.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 20

Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, together with Moses’ sons and wife, came to him in the wilderness, where he was camped near the mountain of God. – Exodus 18:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 28, 2018): Exodus 18

So, what did you do today? As a kid, I hated the question. Who can remember silly details even about today? Often we interpret the question to be asking if anything important took place on this day. My grandkids still answer with the traditional “nothing,” which was the same answer that I used when I was their age. I did nothing, which should probably be translated as “nothing any different or more significant than I did on any other day.

And, yet, details are important. We are geared to think chronologically. Today I got out of bed, drove to an appointment I had with a doctor, worked in my office, went to lunch with a good friend, headed back for more work in my office. I hope to go for a walk a little later, tonight I am meeting my granddaughter for supper. And then I will head home to do a little more work, and hopefully, some light reading before I fall asleep. Welcome to my day. This is what happened – and it happened in this order. Ask me next week or next year what I did today, and I probably will have no idea, and if I do remember, I will likely get the details mixed up.

We are moving through the Bible chronologically, or as it probably took place, but there are several reasons to believe that this story is out a place. I am not saying that it didn’t happen, just that it probably took place a little later than we have it in the Exodus story. And part of the problem is the last line of this verse. Here, Moses is still camped at Horeb, the Mountain of God. But Exodus 19 begins with Israel moving from Rephidim, heading towards Horeb, the Mountain of God. Add to that that it seems that the laws had already been established, while at this point they had yet to have been given, Jethro offers a sacrifice in a manner as prescribed by the law, which did not yet exist, and that later, in Deuteronomy 1, Moses would date his complaint that he was not able to bear the burden of the government of Israel alone to more than a year after the law was given, and we have a case that can be made for this story being out of place where it is included in Exodus. Chronologically, a move from here in Exodus to maybe someplace early in Numbers might be in order.

But that does not remove the importance of the passage. Once again, just like at Rephidim, and maybe this is the most important factor as to why the story has been placed here instead of in Numbers, Moses recognizes that he needs help to govern the nation. The story complements well with the story at the battle of Rephidim where Aaron and Hur join the battle by holding Moses’s hands up in the air.

Life requires help. We all need it, no matter what it might be that we are in charge over.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 19

When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. – Exodus 17:12

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 27, 2018): Exodus 17

One of President’s Trump’s promises, as he campaigned for the position of President of the United States, was that he would hire the best people. What he may have found out is that that is one of the harder promises on which to follow through. Every national leader wants to surround themselves with the best people, and no national leader is equipped with all of the answers, but there are a couple of major obstacles to the task of surrounding ourselves with the best. The first is the ego of the leader. The best people want to be listened to, and if the leader is unwilling to take the advice of the experts, the experts are unlikely to stay around for long. But the second obstacle is loyalty. In an interview on Fox News in August 2018, President Trump spoke about the appointment of Jeff Sessions as head of the Justice Department. The President, who promised to hire and appoint only the best people, admitted that the Sessions appointment was a loyalty appointment. It was not that Jeff Sessions was the best, but rather that Sessions had been one of the earliest supporters of Trump’s bid for President. Loyalty to supporters often colors our opinion of best. The best, then, become, not the most knowledgeable about a situation, but rather the one who is knows something and is the most loyal, and therefore, hopefully, the one who will most often agree with the leader’s thinking and position.

Admittedly, we know very little about the political arrangements of Moses and his leaders. But one thing the Bible speaks clearly about is that the leading of Israel was more than a one-person job. In this case, Joshua led the army into battle against the Amalekites. It was something that Moses, now past eighty years of age, could not do. There is no doubt that Moses was the leader of the movement, but the battle needed to be placed in younger hands. Moses was not a David who, early in his reign, was often seen as a warrior king.

Moses was relegated to supporting the battle in prayer. But that did not mean that Moses had the easier part of the task. True prayer is hard work; it is a struggle that we agree to enter into with God. And Moses, a man who had an intimate relationship with God, needed help. In this case, Aaron and Hur were the ones who rushed to Moses’s aid.

We are not sure why the symbol of Moses raised hands were important to the battle, but it might have been as simple as the army, seeing their leader in a battle with God, were encouraged as they saw Moses’s raised arms. But that encouragement faltered as Moses grew tired, and the soldiers began to feel their own fatigue. The sight of three men engaging God on behalf of the soldiers kept the battle energized.

But the truth of the story is that no matter the task, we need help. And the best help that is available is always the ones who are willing to enter into the process of our engagement with God. We all need our Aaron and our Hur.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 18

The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” – Exodus 16:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 26, 2018): Exodus 16

A local restaurant recently organized an excursion into the city’s River Valley Park system in search of food. The idea behind the program was to allow people to understand how much food grows even within a large city. There was also an element of trying to produce an understanding that if a restaurant majors in food that is locally available, throughout the various seasons, that that menu can be exciting even with the absence of more exotically grown foods.

After the excursion into the valley, the chef prepared a meal with what the hikers had found, much of which they did not even know was edible. The meal that resulted from the tour included mushrooms on toast, foraged cold brew tea, tumbleweed salad, foraged onion dumplings, roasted broccoli and a mixed berry clafoutis. All cooked with locally available ingredients.

Israel was running out of food. That is that the food that they had brought with them from Egypt was coming to an end. That meant that the next step on their journey was going to have to be sustained by what they could gather along the way. The problem was that the slaves had essentially spent their lives on building projects in Egypt. They knew how to gather straw to make bricks. They knew how to structure the bricks to make a building. Just a note, it is highly unlikely that the Israelite slaves were used to build the pyramids, as some have suggested. The time period does not match. But, there is no doubt that the slaves were used in building projects of some kind inside of Egypt. What the slaves did not know was how to identify edible plants as they wandered in the wilderness. And now, as the food began to run out, that was exactly what was going to be required of them.

Nostalgia is special. It causes us to remember things that were never really there. And there is much nostalgia in the memories of the children of Israel. Two things seem to be true in this passage. The first is that food was never as readily available as it was in their remembering of Egypt. Life had been hard, and Israel had suffered much at the hands of the Egyptians, which is why they had cried out to God in the first place. The other truth was that they had never gone without food. Not even now were they left hungry. What caused the abrupt change from singing to complaining was the fear that they might go hungry; the fear that now they could see the end of their food provisions.

Of course, starvation was never in God’s plan. He would provide. The food would be different from what they ate in Egypt, but it would still provide for their basic nutritional needs. But Israel needed to be able to lift up their eyes and see the food that was all around them. They needed to be willing to forage for what God was going to give to them.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 17

The LORD is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. – Exodus 15:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 25, 2018): Exodus 15

At the 2018 Video Music Awards, which took place just after the death of Aretha Franklin, “The Queen of Soul,” at the age of 76, Madonna did a tribute to the “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” singer. But the tribute did not go over well, especially with fans of Franklin. Some people took to social media to complain about the sentiments offered by Madonna. The basic complaint was that there was too much Madonna, and too little “Aretha Franklin,” in the tribute. Madonna opened up long speech by expressing thanks to “The Queen of “Soul” for “changing her life. Madonna then explained that Franklin’s 1967 hit “(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman” had given her the courage to make it through an audition early in her career; at a time when she had yet to become Madonna and was still searching for her identity. And the result of that encouragement was all that Madonna had become. The message of the tribute was clear; without Franklin, we might not have ever had a Madonna.

Unfortunately, the viewers found the long tribute heavy on Madonna’s career and her gift to music, and short on Aretha Franklin. The speech focused on Madonna’s accomplishments, and was relatively light on the vast accomplishments of “The Queen of Soul’s.” For some, the speech was a perfect example of what Aretha Franklin might have said had the roles been reversed and it was Madonna who had died, and Franklin who was giving the tribute.

Admittedly, tributes are hard. And the truth is that the person we know best is ourselves. And sometimes it is hard to break out of that shell and stop talking about us so that we can immerse ourselves in the other, which is why good tribute speeches are rare. Madonna is not the first to have failed at the task, and she most definitely won’t be the last.

But maybe “The Song of Moses and Miriam” provides us with a template for a good a tribute. As you read through the song, take special not that Moses, Miriam, and Aaron are not mentioned even once. The total focus is on God.

There is no mention of Moses journey into leadership, of Miriam’s work as a prophet, or of Aaron’s way with words. There is no mention that, without Moses, the people of Israel would still be slaves in Egypt. No mention of all that Moses had sacrificed, at this advanced age, to lead Israel. No mention of the special challenge that the people of Israel were to lead. All there is is God. Moses is not the salvation of Israel; God is the salvation. And all praise is directed at God, who is the God of Moses, and the God of Moses’s father. The focus remains on this God who has guided Israel through the years, and who will continue to guide Israel even now into whatever the future might hold.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 16

Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’ – Exodus 14:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 24, 2018): Exodus 14

The Chinese military philosopher Sun Tzu argued that “If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.” If you understand your limitations, and the limitations of those who oppose you, you will not have to fear the battle because you will have already won the war. This act of understanding is one the hardest battles that any of us fight. But it is essential for our continued health and security.

It seems that God agreed with Sun Tzu. He knew the tendencies of Egypt, and of the people that he had chosen. Egypt, once the shock of losing the firstborn of their children of had subsided, was going to come after their Israelite slaves. Their economy depended on the service that Israel freely provided. They had allowed Israel to leave in the heat of the moment, but it was a decision that the Pharaoh and his leaders were going to regret. Their economy could not continue without their slaves, and as far as the slaves were concerned, they would freely return to slavery when the going got tough. And God did not want the showdown to happen at a time of Pharaoh’s convenience. And so he instructs Moses to act as if he is confused, tempting Pharaoh to attack quickly.

There is no doubt that God essentially set a trap using the understanding of both cultures to lure them into a final confrontation. It can’t really be called a battle; Israel was no more than an unorganized and unarmed group of slaves. And Pharaoh was about to respond with his best. What happened next in the desert would be a final confrontation for the two combatants, at least during the lifetimes of Pharaoh and Moses. Pharaoh would lose his best men, and the people of Israel would slowly come to the understanding that there could be no turning back and returning to their former lives in Egypt. Here the bridge was about to be burned. Pharaoh would have to admit defeat and let Israel go regardless of the effect that such an action would have on Egypt, and Israel would realize that they would now have to go it on their own.

Okay, in the case of Israel, the lesson would seem to come a little more slowly. But it would come. God, who knew both Israel and Egypt, knew what had to happen for the nation to move forward, and orchestrated those events to happen in the desert just within Egypt’s reach.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 15

In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.’ – Exodus 13:14

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 23, 2018): Exodus 13

Australian novelist Helen Garner wrote “The rain began again. It fell heavily, easily, with no meaning or intention but the fulfillment of its own nature, which was to fall and fall.” Rain is like that. It falls. We may say that the sky looks angry as a storm gathers, but there is no actual anger in the clouds. We may predict the future action of the weather, but there is no intention. Someone once asked why tornadoes seem to hate trailer parks. But there is no hate, just a storm. Rain does what it is designed to do. It falls.

And it is not just the weather that happens without meaning. The truth is that much of our actions, and many of our beliefs are actually without meaning. We do what we do because we have always done it that way, and often because we watched our parents do it that way. There is no mistaking the power of “I have always done it this way” thinking. So the rain continues to fall in many areas of our lives. Even in the area of religion, too often we lose sight of meaning. We do things because it is what we are told to do, and what we have always done. We react to outsiders in a way that does not reflect what we say we believe because we have always done it that way. We never ask the question “why.” And the question why, while annoying when we don’t have an answer, is important. If we are to live our lives with purpose and with meaning, that purpose begins with asking “why.”

God was about to lead Israel out of slavery. And with the deliverance of Israel, we find the beginnings of a system of sacrifice. The firstborn of every animal and human belonged to God. This was God’s price for the deliverance that the people were about to receive. Maybe this system of sacrifice was God’s idea, although I am not convinced of that fact. Sacrifice to God had existed long before this moment.

The first murder that the Bible tells of, the killing of Abel by his brother Cain, was a direct result of an argument over sacrifice. Job, a contemporary of Abraham, made sacrifices to God on behalf of both himself and his children. Abraham made sacrifices and paid a tithe. So there is nothing new about the idea of making a sacrifice to God or the gods.

But maybe what is lacking is an answer to the question why. What is lacking is meaning. Why would God care if I killed a bull and gave it to him? Up until this moment in time, the Bible does not give us an answer to that question. Here, God gives a reason for the question of why, at least to some of the sacrifices. I am not convinced that the sacrificial system was not something that we thought was right and God that accepted and ordained. We started the act of sacrifice, and God decided that sacrifice was something that he would accept, but for which we needed to have a meaning. So he instructs Israel that when your children ask why we need to sacrifice, tell them that we sacrifice because we remember what God has done for us. After all, without him, we would still be slaves.

The reasoning hasn’t changed. Why do we worship God; why do we gather and sing praises and offer our tithes and our sacrifices? Because we recognize that without him we would still be slaves to our pasts; we would be slaves to all of the wrong that we have committed. There is a reason why for our worship. And we should never allow our worship to take place in a space that is without purpose or intention.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 14

Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. – Exodus 12:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 22, 2018): Exodus 12

My first introduction to hunting was probably the sterling example of Elmer Fudd. Of course, Fudd was the archenemy of Bugs Bunny. The battles of Bugs and Elmer reinforced the early childhood idea that hunting was evil. It wasn’t until much later in my life that I tried my own hand at Elmer Fudd’s favorite pastime. And, while I enjoyed using guns for target practice and was a faithful member of rifle clubs in my mid-teenage years, hunting has never held much of a fascination for me. Today, if I go hunting, my preferred weapon is a camera. 

This is not to say that I am a vegan. I love my meat. But I have found it advisable not to build a relationship with supper. And it is easy, in our contemporary society, to divorce the idea of our McDonald’s hamburger from the cute farmer’s cow that had to give its life so that we can eat. I am pretty sure our young children don’t get it, and would likely be appalled to know the truth about their supper. But in our culture, we have made it an easy proposition. Cows and chickens live in the field and on farms. Our meat comes from the grocery store. (Maybe omit the fact that we call the person that we get our supper from a “butcher.”) And most of us can live our lives without really examining the step between the farmer’s field and the grocery store shelves. And maybe we need to understand that our food, all food, comes with a cost. (After all, according to the Arrogant Worms, “carrot juice is murder.”)

With this thought firmly implanted in our heads, it has always amazed me that, according to God’s instructions, the Passover lamb that was to be chosen on the tenth of the month, cared for by the family, and then slaughtered at twilight on the fourteenth of the month. It may not have been a long-term relationship with the animal, but there would be a bit of a relationship. It would seem to be an easier proposition to select the lamb and kill it within moments of its selection. But instead, God seems to have a demented version of “Mary had a little lamb” in mind. For four days, the Lamb would live with the family, go with family, be fed by the family, and then, finally, be slaughtered by the family.

I have no idea why God thought this might be a good idea, but I do have a suggestion. Maybe this drama played out as a reminder that life, all life, comes with a cost. The Passover would save the lives of the firstborn of Israel. But that salvation was not free. The lamb that the family built a four-day relationship with would pay the price.

Of course, for God, the cost would be even deeper. While the firstborn sons of Israel, as they lived in Pharaoh’s Egypt, would be spared by the lambs that would give their lives, God actually stood in camaraderie with the Pharaoh and all of Egypt. He would give his firstborn son so that we could live, as the Lamb died one more time in the grand Passover drama.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 13

Now the LORD had said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely. – Exodus 11:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 21, 2018): Exodus 11

We are a people of competing fears. As the drama over immigration rages in First World nations, there are contradicting fears that seem to rage on both sides of the discussion. For some, immigration is a problem because we are often afraid that we import the problems of the world into our neighborhoods with the people that we accept into our nations. President Trump makes the most of this argument, often inciting opposition charges of racism. But the flip side of the argument is that First World nations need to grow their populations faster than they currently are biologically to create healthy economies. In other words, immigrants in First World nations are needed to create the flourishing economies that the residents of these nations currently enjoy. Without a populations increase, the economies of these nations will settle into recession or depression modes. The only partial solution to this problem, without immigration, is an expansion of world trade markets, and the resultant free trade treaties on which that expansion would rely. So the people of these nations have a choice. They can remove immigration and threaten their economies, or they can embrace immigration, mostly from Majority or Third World nations, feeding their economies, but creating the risk of the problems that may enter the country with these immigrants.

And this was precisely the situation in which the Egypt of Moses found themselves. Israel was a complication. They were foreigners with foreign problems. As with modern-day immigrants, the political power of Egypt was unsure of their allegiances. And so they were made slaves and oppressed under the thumb of the majority. These immigrants that Moses led were feared by the leaders of Egypt. And so they were unwanted. Yet, they also represented the fiscal future of the nation. They were slaves, and while the Israelites may have been looked down upon, the economy of the nation depended on the work that they provided to the wealth of the nation. They were necessary for Egypt’s fiscal well-being.

Moses had a solution to the fear. He was willing to remove the people from the country. While we think of the biblical Exodus as being a mass migration that happened under the direction of Moses, it is likely that that was only part of the Exodus. The Exodus of Israel out of Egypt was already well underway as people trickled away from Egypt, just as Moses had left the country forty years earlier. Moses was far from the exception; Israelites had been leaving for generations. But the final removal of Israel from Egypt would have an economic effect on the host nation. And so the Pharaoh wavered about whether or not he was willing to let the people go; he suffered under competing fears.

But God tells Moses that this is the end. After the events of this plague, Pharaoh would decide that Israel was more trouble than she was worth. After this event, Pharaoh would not allow Israel to go. He would force them out and compel them to leave. The time had come for Pharaoh to discover an economy not based on the slaves of Israel because they could no longer stay.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 12

No! Have only the men go and worship the LORD, since that’s what you have been asking for.” Then Moses and Aaron were driven out of Pharaoh’s presence. – Exodus 10:11

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 20, 2018): Exodus 10

In March 1858, Dudley Atkins Tyng preached at a rally sponsored by the YMCA from Exodus 10:11 entitled “Ye That Are Men, Go and Serve the Lord.” Admittedly, it was a different age, and the event was aimed at men, so we might be tempted to excuse the sexist language, but it is one thing that we shouldn’t do. At the meeting, over 1,000 men were converted, and Tyng’s sermon was called “one of the most successful of all time. Reports from that day were that the entire city was aroused and there were the seeds of the beginning of a religious awakening in the region.

On April 13, 1858, Tyng returned home and was watching a corn-thrasher at work in his barn when the unthinkable happened. Tyng raised his arm to place his hand on a mule when the sleeve of his shirt got caught by the cogs of the thrasher. The machine lacerated the arm, and six days later, Dudley Atkins Tyng died of his injuries. His last words were reported to be "Ye that are men now serve Him! Stand up! Stand up for Jesus!" The words were taken from the sermon that he had preached less than a month before his unfortunate death.

Rev. George Duffield Jr. heard of the story of Tyng’s death, and his reported final words, and wrote the hymn “Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus.” And if we are aware, the hymn reflects the words and death of Tyng. The hymn not only contains the last words of Tyng found in the title of the song, but the second verse also contains this line – “Ye that are men now serve Him against unnumbered foes; Let courage rise with danger, and strength to strength oppose.” But Duffield didn’t stop there. He also wrote about Tyng’s death in the opening lines of the third verse – “Stand up, stand up for Jesus! Stand in His strength alone, The arm of flesh will fail you, ye dare not trust your own.” It was the injury to Tyng’s arm that caused the evangelists death.

All of this might be just interesting trivia about a popular gospel hymn, but what might be disturbing is that the sermon that Tyng preached, and therefore the hymn that Duffield wrote, are based on a misreading of a gospel text; or at least a text taken out of context. Tyng’s sermon title was lifted from the King James Version translation of Exodus 10, “go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord” (Exodus 10:11 KJV). But the words in the story are a description of a compromise made by Pharaoh to Moses. And it was a compromise that Moses would reject. It was the perversion of the Pharaoh that it was only the men who needed to go out into the desert to worship Yahweh; the woman and children were unnecessary for that endeavor. But Moses was just as adamant. Even in ancient times, the Worship of Yahweh was a requirement of both men and women, and of the young and the old. Everyone is welcome in the worship of God.

Maybe, in our age, we learn to do it differently, or more precisely, in what might be labeled age-appropriate ways. But the call of God is spoken to all of our hearts. You who hear his voice now serve him, without excuse or hesitation. We all need to stand up for Jesus!      

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 11

The flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley had headed and the flax was in bloom. The wheat and spelt, however, were not destroyed, because they ripen later. – Exodus 9:31-32

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 19, 2018): Exodus 9

I recently watched an episode of the old Detective Television Series “Colombo.” Back in the day, I loved to watch Colombo in his rumpled coat and old car chase down the crooks. The plotline was typical for the detective show. Usually, the crooks underestimated the detective, often liking to play along with him, making fun of his inept ways. And in the process, they released details that later the detective would use to solve the crime. In detective fiction, the details are important. Whether it is a book or a television show or a movie, seldom is a detail mentioned to the audience that is not somehow important to the plot. If something is mentioned, then it will be used later. If prescriptions were picked up on Monday at 6 p.m., then the audience should immediately realize that somehow that is going to be important to the solving of the crime later in the story.

And sometimes the details trip us up. The idea of a Monday at 6 p.m. prescription pick-up was used in a book I recently read, and it actually left even more of a mystery. At one point in the story, the pick-up of prescriptions was used to indicate that one of the characters was without an alibi, but somehow the author seemed to lose that details. She indicated that one character could have committed the murder because she was not the one who picked up the prescriptions, even though the character had used the prescription pick-up as her alibi. But later her murderer confessed to the crime ending the story. But the eventual revealed murderer was the one who picked up the prescriptions earlier in the story. The result was that while the book ended with a confession and the law enforcement officers solving the crime, everyone seemed to miss that the murderer had an alibi and could not have committed the crime. In a crime story, we have to follow the details.

The Bible also provides us with details that help us to fill in some answers for some of our questions. Sometimes the details help us, and sometimes they just add more questions. In this case, the details are a help. We are told that the hail destroyed the flax and barely, but not the wheat and spelt (sometimes mistakenly translated as rye). The detail makes sense, and allows for the destruction of the wheat and spelt later in the story. It also gives us a bit of a date for the disaster. Since the flax and barely were “headed” or “in bloom” but the wheat and spelt were not, then it is likely that this disaster took place in late January or early February.

But the destruction of the flax and barley was significant. Flax would have been used for the making of linen for the clothing of the wealthy classes, and barley was a food source for both men and animals. Through the details, we can understand the disaster a little more clearly, and maybe feel some of the desperation that the Pharaoh would have felt realizing that this part of his harvest was lost.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 10

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. – Exodus 8:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 18, 2018): Exodus 8

Sean Covey in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens” writes “Isn't it kind of silly to think that tearing someone else down builds you up?” And he is right. One of the most uncomfortable conditions of our success is finding someone who is not threatened by it. Instead, people seem to find the need to knock us down, to make us as unhappy as they are, and in the process hope against hope that our unhappiness will result in their happiness. And it never works because the two are never related. And this forms our cultural idea of jealousy. Jealousy is the green-eyed monster that lurks within us and destroys anything that is good within our circle of influence. In popular culture, jealousy is the enemy of love. The two cannot exist together.

And then we begin to read the Bible, and it talks about God being a jealous God. Some years ago we played a song in a worship service that hung on this idea of God being a jealous God, and I remember after the service having a conversation with a woman who was angry over the song. God was a God of love, and therefore, no matter what the Bible said, he could not be jealous. The concept of a jealous God was a non-starter; that just could not be true.

And yet, there is no doubt that God is a Jealous God. We often misunderstand the first commandment - “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). We make the commandment about priority. In our modern world, we often think about the gods differently. Our gods are not molded deities we place on the mantles of our home. Our gods are often things (and many good things) like family, job, and even money (there is a lot of good that we can accomplish with what we possess). And in our minds, that is okay as long as God is first. So we write it down on a list.

1.      God

2.      Family

3.      Job

4.      Church (the separation of God from the Church has always baffled me, but we seem to do it).

5.      Friends.

These are our gods. Maybe we place them in different orders, but we worship at their altars. And that is okay as long as God is kept at number one. But that is not the meaning behind the commandment. The first commandment actually teaches that you shall have no other god in my realm. There is God, and there is only God. Not God as number one with lesser gods tailing behind. There is only God. This is the essential meaning of God being described as a jealous God. He will tolerate no other gods in his orbit. He is God alone.

The reason why Pharaoh needed to let the people of Israel go is related to this idea that God is a Jealous God. They could not worship Yahweh in the presence of the Egyptian gods. There could be no temptation to add Yahweh to the pantheon of gods that already existed in Egypt. He was a jealous God; God alone. He could not be worshipped in a temple built to honor Ra or Isis or any of the other gods. The people needed to get away from the false gods of Egypt to worship the God who is God alone.

And so the repeated request of Moses was that Pharaoh let Israel go into the desert so that they could worship the jealous God who was God alone. And our quest is the same. To truly worship the God who is God alone, we have to be willing to give all to him. He is a jealous God who does not want just part of our worship. He wants it all. He wants us to offer our temple time to him, but also our family time and our job time and our moments with friends. It all belongs to the jealous God who also loves us. And in giving him everything, he will be the one who will build us up.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 9

“When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a snake.” – Exodus 7:9

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 17, 2018): Exodus 7

I have never been very adventurous. I am not the one who will take a trip to unknown lands and eat unknown foods. I am quite happy going to places I have been and eating at restaurants where I have already eaten. My wife gives me a hard time (not really) because, while she explores the menu at a restaurant looking for that dish that she wishes to consume, the act of giving me a menu is often symbolic at best. I know before I walk into a restaurant what it is I am going to order. I have ordered it before.

It is not that I never order the unfamiliar. But the reality is that too often when I have ordered something new; I have ended up wishing that I had stayed with the tried and true. For me, the question is why waste money on something that you may not enjoy when there are favorites available on the menu that you know you are going to enjoy. And the reactions of my more adventurous friends has only served to strengthen my conviction. Too often, in my experience, the adventurous leave disappointed. Life gives me enough disappointment; I don’t need to order it off of the menu.

Also, staying with what you know is easy. Experimentation is sometimes hard, especially if the result is not to your liking. So, when we vacation in Canada, we like Kelowna. We know what we are going to get there, and the summer weather has always been nice, usually sunny and warm. It is the same logic that we follow when we go to Hawaii. Maui is our preferred landing spot. It is a little quieter than Oahu, and the weather is consistent, no matter when we decide to go. (The fact that the major volcano is largely silent is just another plus.) Admittedly, there are some places I would like to explore, but when the time is limited, I want to stay with the experiences that I know, and that I can be reasonably sure that I am going to enjoy.

So it is probably not a surprise that when Moses goes before the Pharaoh for the first time, God doesn’t give him something new. That will happen, but to start off the process, Moses does a trick that he already knows. God turned the staff into a snake and then back into a staff in the wilderness when he first attracted the attention of Moses. Moses has already had practice at the trick. So this was something that Moses was already comfortable in doing, and that he trusted God could do.

Things would get harder. But God seems to understand the way he created some of us. And, sometimes, before we attempt what is hard, we need to start with what is easy.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 8

But Moses said to the LORD, “If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?” – Exodus 6:12

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 16, 2018): Exodus 6

The phrase was coined in the 1950’s by the Quakers. It was short, which probably lends to its power. And the phrase is needed today more than ever. Here is the phrase – “Speaking Truth to Power.” The phrase is powerful, but it is never easy. There are many reasons why we shouldn’t do it. We might get ridiculed or called stupid. Whenever I attempt to speak truth to power, invariably someone tells me that I am wasting my time, after all, power isn’t listening. And that is the truth, and yet, sometimes, something special does happen when we decide to remind power of truth.

Over the past few years, there have been several movements that have caught the eye of many powerless people. #BlackLivesMatter and #SayHerName have tried to focus attention on police violence against Black people in the United States. #LoveWins has tried to focus attention on the issue of marriage equality between LGBTQ and traditional marriages in our society (and the truth even within the church and notwithstanding our stand on the Gay Marriage issue is that God created all of us equal, and equality is an essential part of what we believe. None of us are saints; we are all sinners standing in need of the forgiveness of God.) #MeToo has focused attention on sexual harassment and rape. Just the word #Charlottesville has become a message of racial equality and a stand against racial violence. In every one of these situations and many more, there is a truth that needs to be spoken to power – even if power is not listening.

God gave Moses a truth that needed to be spoken to power. Moses complained that no one was going to listen; that he did not have a voice that commanded attention. The complaint that he spoke with “faltering lips” has caused many to wonder if he had a problem with stuttering, which might have caused people to question his intelligence and made him an object of ridicule. But the message of God was clear. Moses possessed a truth he had discovered at the burning bush. He also had an intelligence that would result in him becoming Israel’s Law Giver. His responsibility was to speak the truth to Pharaoh. What happened to that truth was in the hands of God, and was not part of Moses’s responsibility.

We have the same responsibility. Each one of us needs to be a speaker of truth, especially a speaker of inconvenient truths that may cause us to suffer disdain from power. What comes of that truth is in the hands of someone else. And maybe no one will listen. But that does not mean that we do not have to speak and speak repeatedly, of the truth that we have come to know.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 7

Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’” – Exodus 5:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 15, 2018): Exodus 5

Minerva is the Greek goddess of wisdom. Interestingly, she is also considered to be the protector of all who believes in a god, any god.  It is interesting that within a specific belief system, in this case, the Greek Pantheon of the gods, we have a belief and an entity that is designed to protect all believers, including those who may not believe in her. So Minerva has become the goddess who protects the concept of Freedom of Religion. Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Belief is usually, in our contemporary society, considered to be a fundamental human right; a right that should be available for everyone.

While Freedom of Religion is often considered to be universal human right, our societies seem to be moving in the opposite direction. We are becoming even less tolerant of those who do not believe as we do. The United States Muslim ban seemed to assume that all Muslim’s were radicalized, or that all Muslims were supporters of Sharia Law, are just the edge of this intolerance. I often hear the complaint about Sharia Law coming from Christians who do not even seem to understand that they have their own version of this radical system of laws within their own Bibles; we just call it Mosaic Law. But in our culture, we tend to explain away at least some of the more radical aspects of that law. Even within Christianity, we seem to be shunning other Christians who may not believe exactly as we do. We separate ourselves into smaller and smaller echo chambers of people who believe exactly as we do. Rather than a Freedom of Religion and Belief, we are becoming intolerant of any deviation from what we consider to be the norm. And it is a very dangerous trend. And what escalates the problem is that we are not even willing to listen to people who believe differently from what we believe, even when what they say makes sense and conforms to our own beliefs. And that makes conversation between echo chambers almost impossible.

It is interesting that the first request of Moses to the ruling elite in Egypt was a request for Religious Freedom. It does not seem to be a threat to remove the workforce from Egypt, although it is quite possible that the ruling elite of Egypt believed that it was an attempt to remove the slaves from Egypt. But the basic request is that the slaves, Israel, be allowed to move into the wilderness for a religious festival; an opportunity to worship their God. It was this request that would set in motion all that would follow. It was a chance for not only Egypt to understand the vast power of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but for Israel to come to terms with the God of their ancestors who loved them and had a plan for the future.

In all that was to follow, Israel would begin to learn a lesson that, in reality, they would never really learn in its totality; that God was worthy of their worship and their praise, and that he could be trusted with their future.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 6

Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.” Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.” – Exodus 4:18

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 14, 2018): Exodus 4

“You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.” Winston Churchill spoke the words, and they are important ones. Only people who have taken a stand have made enemies. But I also tend to believe that only those who have taken a stand on an issue can be trusted. Someone who rarely takes a stand is also someone who may not carry through with their commitments. Politically, I would rather have someone in power who I know will take a stand on issues, even if their stand opposes my own convictions, then to have someone who I do not know what action they will take, but that the action taken will likely be the one the last person in the room held and communicated.

As the fire of the burning bush faded in Moses’s memory, Moses made preparations to do exactly what God had asked him to do. I believe that God frequently speaks to us, but too often as the voice fades into our memory, we convince ourselves that there is no need to follow through on our convictions. We tell ourselves that God didn’t speak, or that there is a myriad of reasons why the action we were instructed to take is wrong, or out of step, with what we want out of life. Moses was not going to let that happen. He goes to his father-in-law and tells him of his impending trip to Egypt. Moses leaves no time to talk himself out of the trip. God said to go to Egypt, and so it is to Egypt Moses must go.

Moses had taken a stand once. When the Hebrew slave was being beaten, he decided that this could not happen. He jumped into the situation and killed the Egyptian soldier. On that day, Moses made an enemy of the Royal Family in which he had grown up. On that day, Moses got out. He probably vowed never to take a stand again. He went into the hill country, found a woman to marry, had children, and lived out his days as a shepherd.

But now, God was asking him to leave that life, go to Egypt, and make a stand again. It is likely that the Pharaoh now reigning in Egypt had forgotten about Moses’s indiscretion. But Moses was not being sent to Egypt to make friends with the Royal Family of which he had one day been a part. He was being sent to Egypt to take a stand, and to make a new enemy of the power on the throne of Egypt. And it was only because Moses was once again willing to take a stand that he could be trusted with the task that God was giving to him.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 5

When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” – Exodus 3:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 13, 2018): Exodus 3

The famous line from William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet" reminds us that often a name is nothing more than a label. “What's in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” We could call it a hippopotamus, or a zrigley, or anything else that we could imagine, and yet the flower’s essence would remain unchanged. It is rose, coming in different colors and often carrying different meanings; red for love, yellow for friendship or white for purity, but the essence of the flower remains unchanged. No matter the name, it would still be beautiful and coveted, and it would still have a fragrance that would encourage us to breathe deeply of its essence.

But, while Shakespeare might have been right about the rose, I am not sure that he is right when it comes to us. Names matter, Unfortunately, while I realize that names matter, I struggle with them – especially if someone’s appearance reminds me of someone from my past. Even my best friends are not immune from my forgetful nature. Their essence has not changed, they are still my friends, but their name is still very important.

The Exodus story turns to an obscure shepherd. He hasn’t always been obscure. In fact, there was a time in his life when he was very well known. He was royalty. But a long time had passed since the days when he lived in the palace in Egypt. But while once he was known, no one in Egypt had spoken his name in decades. His entire existence seemed to be wrapped up in taking care of his father-in-law’s sheep. And not only had no one in Egypt spoken his name, fewer and fewer people in Egypt would even remember his name but out here with the sheep, no one called his name. The sheep never spoke it. And there was no one else around to speak it.

Except that on this day, the name is spoken. Moses. The name must have seemed loud amidst the silence of the pasture. The voice spoke a specific name. The voice and the bush were not waiting for someone, anyone, to pass. The voice, the bush, and the fire were waiting for one specific person; one named Moses.

The people in Egypt had all but forgotten his name. The sheep never knew his name. But God called him by name. God had not forgotten this obscure shepherd who was once royalty. God knew his name, and he spoke the name clearly. And God, in speaking Moses name, spoke love and belonging over the shepherd that he probably did not believe could belong to him. After all, he was no longer a prince; just an obscure shepherd of the pasture.

Moses story is also our story. God still knows our names. And he is still calling. Can you hear your name being called by the one who knows you better than you know yourself? Listen closely, because God is still speaking love and belonging over you, just as he did with Moses. Know that your name matters and that God not only knows it; he speaks your name.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 4

God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. – Exodus 2:24-25

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 12, 2018): Exodus 2

Jack London in “The Star Rover,” a collection of short stories that revolve around the concept of reincarnation, says that “to be able to forget means sanity.” We are tortured enough by what we remember; sometimes there is a needed bliss in forgetting what has happened in our lives. Personally, I have a long list of experiences that I wish I could forget, moments and actions that I regret, and times of struggle that still seem to reassert themselves in my dreams. And the real problem with most of our bad memories is that there is absolutely nothing that we can do in the present to solve the problems of the past. What is locked away our the past we have no choice but to accept as an uncomfortable stage of our lives.

We would have no idea if Moses forgot his time in Egypt. But, possibly, the memory of the struggle that he had experienced in Egypt during the first third of his life began to recede. After all, Moses was convinced that there was nothing that he could do address the situation in Egypt. He could not unsee what he saw. And he definitely could not raise the Egyptian he had killed back to life. The first forty years of his life existed almost as the experiences of someone else. Once, he was a prince. But now his reality was that he was a shepherd, and there was nothing that he could do to become a prince again. And, if he is anything like me, he probably didn’t want to return to his royal life. He had built something else, something better, in the wilderness. He had a wife and children, and the respect of others who saw him as the Shepherd of Midian. He had become a fixture in the wilderness over the past four decades that he had lived there.

And so, as the years passed, Egypt receded. Moses probably never really forgot his previous life, but he likely tried not to obsess over a situation that he couldn’t change. Maybe, one day, God would raise a mighty warrior who would free his people from their oppression. But Moses was not that person. He might have been once, but now he was just an old shepherd.

But if the memory of the Hebrew people had receded in the mind of Moses, the descendants of Jacob were still front and center in the mind of God. He heard them cry, something that Moses probably also heard in his nightmares. He remembered the covenant that he had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, something of which Moses was also likely aware. And God had concern over them, something that Moses tried to forget because obsessing over the plight of the Hebrew people in Egypt could do nothing but bring Moses pain.

The difference was that the once mighty Moses was now powerless to change what he had left behind. But God had never left. And God still retained the power to bring his people home.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 3