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