phrases 1 comment

Hard hearted

By on February 21st, 2011

Hard´-heart`ed    (~härt`ĕd)

a. 1. Unsympathetic; inexorable; cruel; pitiless.

The wisdom of Solomon gave us this proverb:

Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.  (Proverbs 4:23)

Our lives are governed by our hearts.  What we love determines who we are.

Unsurprisingly philosophers might define a human being as a rational animal.  Scientists may label the human race  homo sapiens (men of wisdom/knowledge).  But a more biblical description might be homo adorans (men who love).   Our lives issue from our hearts.

These days if we come across an uncaring person we might say “Have a heart!”  But in the bible the uncaring do have hearts – just hard hearts.  And this is a problem.

Because in fact we all have a congenital heart condition.  We are not born with soft hearts.  We do not, by nature, love the things we ought to love – supremely the LORD and our neighbour (Mark 12:28-31).  We are forever doing what we want.  But we can’t just decide to want the right things.  We need to be swept off our feet.  We need a heart change.   And this is precisely what the LORD offers.  He comes by His Spirit to woo us from sin and self and the world.

But here’s the issue for today.  If our hearts are not warmed and softened by the LORD we are not left in a neutral state.  If the LORD is not softening our hearts, He is hardening them.

This was the archetypal experience of Pharaoh in Exodus.

Throughout the plagues on Egypt Pharaoh’s heart became increasingly hardened.  And that hardening is described variously as ‘The LORD hardening’, ‘Pharaoh hardening’ and simply his heart ‘being hard’.

The LORD will harden his heart (Exodus 4:21)

The LORD hardened his heart (7:13)

Pharaoh’s heart was hardened (7:14)

Pharaoh’s heart was hardened (7:22)

Pharaoh hardened his heart (8:15)

Pharaoh’s heart was hard (8:19)

Pharaoh hardened his heart (8:32)

Pharaoh’s heart was hardened (9:7)

The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh (9:12)

Pharaoh hardened his heart (9:34)

Pharaoh’s heart was hardened (9:35)

The LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart (10:1)

The LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart (10:20)

The LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart (10:27)

The LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart (11:10)

There is an interplay of Pharaoh’s hardening and the LORD’s.  But it is striking that the LORD’s agency is highlighted more than Pharaoh’s.

What is going on here?

Well, just as a resolve can be hardened so can a heart.  Its direction is  not changed, only reinforced.  This is the sense of the LORD’s hardening of Pharaoh.  You could even translate it, “The LORD strengthened his heart.”

Pharaoh wanted to reject the LORD and exalt himself.  And in the poetic justice of the LORD, He gives Pharaoh exactly what he wants.  This is the essence of God’s judgement – to “give us over” to our “lusts”, our “affections”, our “minds” (Romans 1:21-28).  It is a mark of our heart-sick condition that “getting what we want” is such a terrible curse.  Yet as Jesus says, all our fallen desires are death-wishes:

“All they that hate me love death.”  (Proverbs 8:36)

We are in a desperate plight when our deepest natural inclinations are hell-bent.

But the LORD Jesus has a solution for us.  It’s not in our hearts, for our hearts are naturally perverse.  It’s not in our minds or our wills, for they are  ruled by our fallen hearts.  The solution is outside ourselves.  A new heart – a soft heart that is the gift of Jesus by His Spirit:

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.  (Ezekiel 36:26)

phrases 5 comments

Plagues (of biblical proportions)

By on February 20th, 2011

Click for source

If you watch news footage of disasters in the third world you see people who know what to do.  This is a sad time.  The people are sad.  They weep and wail and mourn.  And this is entirely appropriate.

But watch news footage of disasters in the west and what do you see? Not weeping and mourning. There’s one dominant emotion on display: shock.

How could this happen?  How could this happen here?  How could this happen to us?

We feel entitled to good health, financial security, national security, job security – any and every kind of safety.  And when these rights are threatened or removed we are completely de-stabilized.

The original plagues of biblical proportions were meant to humble a sinful people.  To bring them to a godly grief – a repentant frame of mind.  But they ended up hardening a proud people who careered towards further destruction.

The purpose of the plagues was two-fold – to reveal the LORD and to humble Pharaoh.

First – to reveal the LORD

The LORD’s repeated phrase as calamity rains down is:

and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God

Through the plagues, the LORD’s Name will be made known to the Israelites (Exodus 6:7), to Pharaoh (Exodus 7:17), to all the earth (Exodus 9:16), and to the Israelite descendants to come (Exodus 10:2).

You might ask, What kind of God is known through plagues?

Answer: A God who’s trying to get through to a deaf people.

There’s a saying: most people never look up until they’re flat on their backs.  This being the case, disasters can be a severe mercy.

The original plagues of biblical proportions are just the kinds of “wake-up calls” to rouse a stubborn king and his evil regime.

From blood to frogs to gnats to wild beasts to pestilence to boils to hail to locusts to darkness to the death of the firstborn the plagues become more and more deadly. At each point there is an opportunity for Pharaoh to repent and let the Israelites go.  Yet the madness of the human condition is seen in his hard-hearted rejection of the LORD, plunging himself and his land into ruin.

Second – to humble Pharaoh

For 400 years Egypt had ‘humbled’ Israel (Genesis 15:13).  They had afflicted, enslaved and impoverished them.  Moses, at the head of this afflicted people became the most humble man on earth (Number 12:3).  He is therefore the polar opposite of Pharaoh – one raised up before all the earth (Exodus 9:16) and who “refuses to humble himself before the LORD.” (Exodus 10:3)

This is what the plagues are for – humbling.

In Amos 4 we see plagues falling on Israel and the constant refrain is – “yet have ye not returned unto me.”

“I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt… yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.  (Amos 4:10)

The LORD expects that plagues should humble us, not harden us.

Again in Revelation 15 and 16 we see plagues that fall on the whole earth.  And yet those suffering refuse to turn:

and they repented not to give him glory.  (Revelation 16:9)

The plagues on Egypt are types of the judgement that will befall the whole earth.  One day there will be a cosmic shake-down, a mighty revelation of the LORD Jesus, a humbling of everything lifted up.  That is the intention, and yet when calamity strikes, there are many who fail to be humbled.  Instead they are hardened.

And that is an immense tragedy:

“God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.” (Prov 3:34; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5)

“The LORD lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground.” (Psalm 147:6)

“For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.” (Psalm 149:4)

“Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD’s anger.” (Zephaniah 2:3)

In Exodus, the humbling plagues increase until there’s only one place of shelter: the blood of the lamb.  All the plagues lead to Passover.  And all the judgements of God lead to the cross.

The cross is the ultimate plague.  There the LORD’s name is revealed and the LORD’s people are humbled as we see the Judge of all humbled in the darkness, perishing under judgement.

The question is, will we be humbled by the judgements of God or hardened?  Will God’s judgements bring us low and lead us the LORD lifted up?  Or will we lift ourselves up and so be cast down by God.

phrases 3 comments

Taskmasters

By on February 19th, 2011

Click for source

Moses and Aaron deliver the LORD’s message: Let my people go.

But Pharaoh is singularly unimpressed.

“Who is the LORD?”  (Exodus 5:2)

“I’ve heard of Ra, Amun, Osiris, Isis, Seth, Nephthys, these gods I know.  Who is this LORD??”

Pharaoh has no time for weak men preaching a weak message about an unknown God.  Baffled and angry, he turns up the heat on the Israelites.

Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves.  (Exodus 5:6-7)

This is what happens when you meet earthly power with the weakness of preaching.  In the end the earthly power comes tumbling down, but in the short-term the people of God suffer more.

But as we read Exodus 5 about their burdens, this isn’t just a history lesson for us.  This is our story.

Jesus will say, “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.”  (John 8:34)  We were born into a spiritual Egypt – a slavery to sin and Satan and self.

And here is how it’s described:

Verse 4: Works and burdens – they weigh us down.
Verse 6: Taskmasters – We go from task to task to task and the world is our slave-driver.  God might be a Father, but the world is a taskmaster.  And verse 8 is the beat of its drum:
Verse 8: “ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle”.
Verse 9: “Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein”
Verse 11 “not ought of your work shall be diminished!”

That’s the treadmill of the world, the flesh and the devil.

You’re enslaved to sin, working harder and harder to prove yourself and getting less and less recognition.  Even as you do more and more you are branded as lazy.  Our slavery to sin and Satan is just like this.  We chase after moving targets and never get the verdict we’re looking for.

The world is a place of taskmasters.  But the LORD is different.  He speaks these words to those suffering and enslaved:

I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: 7 And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the LORD.  (Exodus 6:6-8)

phrases 8 comments

Let my people go

By on February 18th, 2011

Click for source

Moses was 80 and his brother Aaron was 83 when they confronted Pharaoh.  They went as a double-act – Moses putting words in Aaron’s mouth.

Their message has become famous

Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go,  (Exodus 5:1)

A chapter previously the LORD put it slightly differently:

Israel is my son, even my firstborn: And I say unto [Pharaoh], Let my son go, that he may serve me  (Exodus 4:22)

The LORD’s people aren’t simply His favoured nation – they are His children. He takes an intense personal interest in His own people.  The LORD – the Maker of heaven and earth – is not ashamed to be called the tribal deity of His people.  In fact He is their Father.  And all His fatherly concern is aroused for His particular inheritance.

He therefore stands implacably against Pharaoh – the head of the house of the wicked.  Pharaoh is very much a Satan figure in the Exodus and as such enslaves the people.  Pharaoh, like the devil, is only interested in works, in what you produce, in what you can perform.  Being under his rule is bondage (as we will see tomorrow).

But the LORD does not want slaves, He wants sons.  Whatever service the LORD wants it’s the service of children.  And so the LORD is the original Freedom Fighter.  His desire is to emancipate His people.

And this is the meaning of the term “Redeemer.”  A redeemer is literally one who pays the ransom price to release the slaves.  When you say “Let my people go” there’s a price tag.  And for the ultimate redemption there was an ultimate price to pay.

Jesus said of Himself:

For even the Son of man came not to be [served], but to [serve], and to give his life a ransom for many.  (Mark 10:45)

This is how committed God is to our freedom.  The Father who said “Let my son (Israel) go,” was willing to sacrifice His eternal Son – Jesus – for us.  And the LORD Jesus was willing to put Himself in our place.  He became the servant of all and gave His own life away to buy our redemption.

So often we’re tempted to think that the world, the flesh or the devil are offering us freedom.  Perhaps this choice or experience or opportunity to prove myself will liberate me.  But actually, without the LORD, these things that promise so much deliver only slavery.  It’s not the LORD who is the kill-joy, it’s Satan.

So may the Spirit open our eyes afresh to a Father and Son who value our freedom more than their own Life!

phrases 3 comments

Putting words in his mouth

By on February 17th, 2011

Click for source

If you accuse me of putting words in your mouth you’re probably complaining that I’m misrepresenting your views.  Perhaps I have elaborated on your statement in a way you never intended.  “Stop putting words in my mouth,” you’ll say.

But the biblical origin of the phrase is a little different. In the bible, Moses is meant to put words in his brother Aaron’s mouth.  And both Moses and Aaron are very happy about the whole arrangement.  You see Moses doesn’t want a podium or a microphone.  If he’s going to play any part in this whole Exodus caper he wants his brother to be his mouthpiece

This is quite understandable from a human viewpoint.  Moses’ last attempt at leading the Israelites was 40 years ago.  It was a failed coup and he’d spent the last four decades as a stranger in a strange land.  He’s not exactly brimming over with confidence:

Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?  (Exodus 3:11)

Moses here is full of self-doubt.  So what does Moses need?

Well ask anyone today and they’ll tell you: the solution to self-doubt is self-confidence.  That’s the modern cure-all for whatever ails you.  Have more confidence in yourself.

That’s what the world says.  What does the LORD say?

I will be with thee  (Exodus 3:12)

There used to be a saying in tennis that the greatest doubles team imaginable was John McEnroe and anyone.  John McEnroe and anyone could win Wimbledon.

If you happened to be that anyone it would be absurd to spend the whole pre-match press-conference saying “Who am I to win a tennis match? Who am I to win Wimbledon?  I’m not a brilliant tennis player!!”

What would John McEnroe say?  Apart from ‘You cannot be serious?’  He’d say, “I will be with you.  Enough about yourself, really it’s irrelevant.”

This is how the LORD seeks to address Moses’ self-doubt.  Not to instill self-confidence, but God-confidence.

Well Moses responds asking about the LORD’s identity.  The LORD responds pronouncing His name: I AM THAT I AM.

Even if Moses’ self-confidence is flagging, His LORD knows who He is.  He’s strong enough to get the job done.

But in Moses still has his doubts:

Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice.  (Exodus 4:1)

Well, the LORD gives Moses three miraculous signs to authenticate his ministry.

But even this is not enough.

Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.

If we were reasoning with Moses at this point we’d probably head in two directions.  We’d either give up in exasperation or we’d pander to his inverse pride: “Nonsense Moses, you have a lovely speaking voice I’m sure you’ll be just brilliant!”

But the LORD is different.  Again he seeks to take Moses’ eyes off himself

And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? (Exodus 4:11)

Which is harder, making a mouth or putting words in it?  If the LORD had done the hard thing, don’t we think he can do the easier thing too?

But Moses responds, effectively saying “Send someone else.”  (Exodus 4:13)

And the LORD is angry with him (v14).  Not for some failure of self-confidence, but for his failure of God-confidence.  Moses does not trust the LORD to do in him what He commands of him.

And so we come to our phrase for today.  The LORD brings up Aaron, Moses’ elder brother, and says to Moses:

thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do.  And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people:  (Exodus 4:15)

In this way the LORD redeems the situation.  In spite of Moses’ sin, the LORD will use this turn of events to reveal truth about Himself.

You see in verse 16 the LORD says that Moses will be like God to his brother.  For God addresses the people only and always through His Prophet, Jesus Christ.  (Acts 3:22-23).  God speaks through His Son the way Moses spoke through Aaron.  As Jesus says:

as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.  (John 8:28)

all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.  (John 15:15)

When we hear the words of Jesus, He is not speaking on His own.  The grace and truth that drop from His lips are the words the Father put in His mouth.

phrases 18 comments

A land flowing with milk and honey

By on February 16th, 2011

Click for source

Egypt was not a bad land.  In fact it was a very good land.  Genesis 13:10 describes it as “like the garden of the LORD”!  And under the wise and righteous rule of Joseph it had flourished with the Israelites enjoying “the fat of the land.”

But since Joseph had been forgotten (Exodus 1:8) it was no longer a good land for the Israelites.  Instead, for the seed of Abraham it was a “house of bondage” and a “furnace of affliction.” (Exodus 20:2; Deuteronomy 4:20; Isaiah 48:10).

Importantly, the hope for the Israelites was not a coup d’etat in which they seized control of Egypt.  Their hope lay beyond Egypt in a land that was promised to them before there was ever a seed of Abraham. (Genesis 12:7)

For Israel in slavery, home was a place they had never been.  But the description is held out to them again and again.  This promised land “flows with milk and honey.”  It’s a word for “gushing forth abundantly” and the verb is used with this phrase 20 times in the Old Testament and only ever to refer to Canaan – the promised land.

Under the curse Adam was told that the ground would produce thorns and thistles for him (Genesis 3:18).  But by faith the seed of Abraham awaited a land that would bubble over with luxury goods. There would be no more scrounging for the bare necessities.  There would be nothing mean or plain about the land – it would overflow with fatness and sweetness.

Milk and honey are put together in only one other context in the bible – when the bride belongs to the bridegroom (Song of Solomon 4:11; 5:1).  That richness of rest and enjoyment is an experience of “milk and honey.”

We all long for this homeland – a future resting place we’ve never yet experienced.  But we won’t get this by moving to Jerusalem.  Not even Abraham found this rest by dwelling in Canaan.  But as the book of Hebrews explains:

By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.  (Hebrews 11:9-10)

That small strip of land at the end of the Mediterranean was never the point. It was always a token of a far greater inheritance.  We, along with Abraham and his seed, look to “a better country” (Hebrews 11:16).  We look to the whole world set to rights when its true Joseph – King Jesus – stands upon it to rule in wisdom and righteousness.

For now we are sojourners in a land not our own.  But one day soon this earth will be resurrected and renewed, just as Jesus Himself was.  And we will be settled in the land.  Thorns and thistles will be replaced by milk and honey.

phrases 15 comments

I AM THAT I AM

By on February 15th, 2011

Click for source

I wonder whether Reebok and their celebrity endorsers even knew they were ‘taking the LORD’s name in vain’?

But then again the font they use is rather biblical in appearance don’t you think?  And anyone who says “I am what I am” must be aware of what a divine pronouncement they’ve uttered.  They are giving a final word on their own identity.  They are who they say they are and that’s that.

Well when the LORD of the burning bush says “I am that I am” (Exodus 3:14) it’s in response to a question from Moses.  He’s worried about what will happen when he goes to his people with a story about a burning bush and a promised deliverance:

[When] they say to me, What is his name?  What shall I say unto them? (Exodus 3:13)

And so the LORD answers

I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shall you say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me to you. (v14)

You could translate it in either the present or future tense (you could say “I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE.”)  But this is the name by which He wants to be known.  And it’s a name preserved for us in the Hebrew name “Yahweh.”  Essentially if you write “I AM THAT I AM” in Hebrew and then squash down the letters you end up with “Yahweh” or when it’s anglicized we might say “Jehovah”.  And in our bible translations it’s indicated by the word “LORD” when all the letters are capitals.  Every time you see “LORD” – over 6000 times in the Old Testament – it’s the personal name of this One from the burning bush: “I AM THAT I AM.”

This is the LORD naming Himself.

But is it the same as the gun-toting rapper proclaiming “I am what I am”?

Yes and no.

Yes He is taking the job of identifying Himself into His own hands.  He’s ending the game we like to play when we say “I like to think about God as…”  He is who He is, not who we say He is.  He names Himself, we don’t name Him.  The direction of travel is always down.  From Him to us.

In saying this, we are released from the prison of our own imaginations about God.  We don’t have to come up with God – He comes out with Himself.  He’ll define Himself His way.

But notice how He utters “I AM THAT I AM”.  He’s not like the Reebok commercial actually.  He doesn’t set Himself up as the Arch-Gun-Toting-Rapper-In-The-Sky.  He is putting the naming of Himself beyond us, but He is not putting Himself beyond us.  Not at all.

You see He doesn’t declare this name to us in a treatise on His divine perfections.  He names Himself in a torrent of divine promises.  (See Exodus 3:7-10 and 16-22!)

Sometimes people understand this name in a quite philosophical way.  As though “I AM THAT I AM” were about His splendid isolation.  But that could never be so.  For a start, think of the One who utters it.  He is the Angel of the LORD (verse 2).  He is the One Sent from the Unseen God.  He is the eternal Son of the Father.  This is not the name of a lonely monad defining Himself in opposition to all else.

Think of where He is pronouncing the name from.  A burning bush – symbolising His presence with the people in their suffering.

And think of the context.  Just two verses earlier He has used the same phrase “I AM / I WILL BE…” in a promise of tremendous solidarity:

And he said, Certainly I will be with thee (Exodus 3:12)

In a sense the LORD’s name in verse 14 is saying, “I will tell you who I am.  I will end the guessing games.  I AM who I WILL BE in my mighty saving acts.  You want to know who I am?  Watch this space.  Watch how I AM with you.  Watch how I WILL deliver you.  Watch as I work unlike any other god or any other human – in glorious redeeming love.”

And really if you want to know all the ins and outs of this name, I AM, you have to wait and see – not only what He does in the Exodus.  But you have to wait and see what He does 1500 years later when He stands before His people again and says

“I AM the bread of life” (John 6:35);

“I AM the Light of the world” (John 8:12);

“I AM the Gate” by which you must enter (John 10:9);

“I AM the Good Shepherd” (John 10:11);

“I AM the Resurrection and the Life” (John 11:25);

“I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6);

“I AM the True Vine” (John 15:1).

When we proclaim loudly who we are, it is to distance ourselves from the claims of others.  When Jesus does it He puts Himself – sovereignly – at our disposal.

Who is there like the great I AM!?

phrases 15 comments

Burning Bush

By on February 14th, 2011

Click for source

Usually when we talk of a “burning bush experience” we mean a divine encounter of grand proportions.  A happening so earth-shattering it awakens you to spiritual realities.

Yet, when you think about it, a burning bush isn’t the most arresting vision conceivable.  In fact for the director of Exodus the Movie, the special effects required for “the burning bush scene” would be the very least of their worries.  That one’s easy compared to magic staffs, miraculous plagues, thundering mountains and Red Sea crossings.

So what’s going on with a bit of blazing shrubbery?  Is this really the best launch event for the Exodus?  Surely the LORD’s PR company could do better than this, especially considering the budget available.

But no.  Once we understand the symbolism, a burning bush is the most appropriate context for the LORD’s appearance.

Here is how the event unfolds.  Our stranger in a strange land – Moses – was doing what he’d done for the last 40 years: shepherding dumb animals through the wilderness.  He came with his flock to mount Horeb (a.k.a Sinai)…

And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.  (Exodus 3:2)

There are three elements here: the bush, the burning and the One in the midst of the bush.

First, the bush.

Many times in the bible, people are described as like a plant: a vine or a branch or a tree. Usually it’s the people of God en masse who are described like that, or their king is described like that since he sums them up as their representative.  And so you get Jesus saying to His people “I am the vine, you are the branches.”  (John 15:5)  The people of God are a plant grafted into the True LifeSource, Jesus.  So the bush represents the people of God.

Second, the burning.

Many times the suffering of the Israelites in Egypt is described like a furnace. (Deuteronomy 4:20; 1 Kings 8:51; Jeremiah 11:4).  It’s a furnace of affliction.

Well here is a bush that is burning.  Burning, but not consumed.  And, wonder of wonders, the Angel of the LORD comes down into the burning bush.

That’s the One dwelling in the midst of the bush.  But who is He?

Well you might know the story of another blazing furnace…

In the book of Daniel we read about a foreign king who throws three faithful Israelites into a “burning fiery furnace.” But when the king looks into the furnace he says this:

Lo I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.  (Daniel 3:25)

This fourth figure looks for all the world like the Son of God.

And when the king releases the three men he says,

“Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants!”  (Dan 3:28)

The fourth figure was God’s Angel.  He’s the very same one who meets Moses in the burning bush – the Angel of the LORD.  Literally that means “The Sent One from the LORD.”  He is the Son of God.  And it is always His nature to come down into the fires to be with His people.

This is why the burning bush is such an appropriate apparition.  How should the good LORD meet with a suffering world?  Incredibly He joins us in the furnace.

In Exodus, the Divine Angel comes down to be with His people to lead them out.  But in the definitive deliverance, He would descend not just to a burning bush but would enter into our humanity for all time.  He would enter our predicament, take our sorrows and sufferings on Himself and then on the cross would take our sins on Himself.  There He endured the flames that were destined for us.

And so the Christian can look to Christ crucified and from the midst of His fiery affliction we can hear Him say what He said to Moses:

I have surely seen your affliction, and have heard your cry … I know your sorrows; And I have come down to deliver you.  (cf. Exodus 3:7-8)

What do you think of when you imagine a divine encounter?  A special effects set-piece.  No.  The “great sight” which should astonish the world is this: God sends His Son down into a burning bush, down into the afflictions of His people, down to a bloody cross.  We should all “turn aside” and be amazed, not simply at a God above us or over us.  But a God who shows up in the furnace to be God with us and for us.

In all their affliction God was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.  (Isaiah 63:9)

phrases 5 comments

A stranger in a strange land

By on February 13th, 2011

Exhausted, the freedom fighter slumped by a well.  He had chanced his arm and initiated a violent coup but the wheels had fallen off.  Now he’s a failed revolutionary without a friend in the world.  A week earlier he had been a prince in the most powerful court on earth.  Now, aged 40, he’s Egypt’s most wanted man.

His story to date has been an extraordinary tale of rags to riches.  He was born a Hebrew – a member of Joseph’s race.  But Joseph was now long dead and in the next 400 years there was a chillingly familiar progression.  The Israelites were first oppressed, then enslaved and finally the labour camps turned to genocide.  Pharaoh had ordered all Israelite boys to be drowned at birth (Exodus 1:11, 22).

But this child was saved.  Instead of being hurled into a watery grave, he was cast off by his mother in a miniature ark (Exodus 2:3) and “saved” out of water.  And that’s what Moses means: “saved” (Exodus 2:10).

In an ironic twist, the child was saved by Pharaoh’s own daughter who then employed Moses’ birth-mother to raise him.  His mother’s experience must have been a real death and resurrection.  She had cast him off on the waters, received him back and was then paid to raise him! (Exodus 2:9)

By his natural mother he would have learnt the stories of Israel.  Stories about Abraham and the promises to his seed.  About how Israel was destined to suffer in Egypt for 400 years.  And that afterwards they’d be saved through a mighty work of God.  (Genesis 15:13-14)

By his adoptive family he was growing in the wealth and power of Egypt, learning their ancient wisdom and ways. (Acts 7:22)

By the age of 40 he was at the height of his physical and political powers.

And the reader is thinking – I know how the story goes.  Surely Moses will climb through the ranks of the Egyptian court and, through political cunning or military might, he will liberate his people as an inside job.

Well, maybe that’s what Moses was thinking.  But that plan goes horribly wrong.

In Exodus 2:11 he makes a ham-fisted attempt at liberation.  One day he comes to the rescue of a fellow Israelite against his Egyptian slave master.  Moses kills the Egyptian.  In Acts chapter 7 we learn that this was meant to be the first act in an uprising of the slaves.  But the Israelites aren’t on board with Moses at all (Exodus 2:14).  The coup is well and truly botched, Pharaoh is alerted and Moses flees into the desert – on the run from the authorities, on the run from his own people.

And so he collapses by the well in wilderness country.  As Acts 7 tells us, he lives out the next 40 years as an insignificant shepherd.

Can you imagine the regrets, day after day?  If Moses was anything like me he’d be complaining, “How can this be used by God?  Shepherding stupid creatures around the wilderness for 40 years?  What possible good could this serve?”

Clearly Moses is feeling sidelined by life.  When he has a son he calls him “Gershom” meaning “stranger”.  He gives the reason in v22,

I have been a stranger in a strange land.

This is the context of God’s mighty deliverance.  Exodus will be the story of God’s salvation.  He doesn’t use a political insider or a popular freedom fighter.  He uses a despised, octogenarian shepherd.

The leader through whom God will bring salvation is brought low – just as low as his battered people.  But the depths are exactly where God loves to work.

As D.L. Moody, once commented:

Moses spent 40 years thinking he was a somebody, 40 years realizing he was a nobody, then 40 years seeing what God can do with somebody who knows they’re a nobody.

phrases 3 comments

Fat of the land

By on February 12th, 2011

Click for source

In English we say “the cream of the crop”.  In Hebrew they would say “the fat of the land” (Genesis 44:18).  Not that the ground is particularly oily (they’d also talk about “the fat of the wheat”; Psalm 81:16).  The fat is the best portion.

And this is what Pharaoh offers to Joseph’s brothers:

“Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Say unto thy brethren, This do ye; lade your beasts, and go, get you unto the land of Canaan; And take your father and your households, and come unto me: and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land.” (Genesis 45:17-18)

This is a conversation between the arch-ruler, Pharaoh, and his right-hand-man Joseph.  Earlier, Pharaoh had said to Joseph:

“I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.”  (Genesis 41:41)

Joseph rules the whole land under Pharaoh. And through Joseph’s wisdom, the land is first made prosperous (Genesis 41) and then redeemed – bought back – into the possession of Pharaoh. (Genesis 47).

Now the famished and guilty brothers of Joseph are given a life-line.  Much more than a life-line.  They come in on his inheritance.

What right do these foreigners have to the fat of the land?  None.  Except that their brother has made the whole land fat.

What right do these brothers have to share in Joseph’s wealth?  None.  By rights Joseph should have sold them into slavery the way they’d sold him.  Yet he receives his brothers to himself.  And they enter into the inheritance of Egypt’s lord. (Genesis 45:8)

Thousands of years later Jesus stood on a mountain proclaiming:

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.  (Matthew 5:5)

He doesn’t say ‘they shall inherit eternal life’, though that would be true.  He says they will inherit the earth.  This future hope is not celestial but very much grounded. But it’s also cosmic.  The whole earth.

Who could possibly possess the earth?  Surely only the bold.  Only the go-getters.  Only those who take life by the scruff of the neck.  But no Jesus says it’s the meek.

How is this so?

Well we are like Joseph’s brothers.  We are desperately guilty, desperately needy and should, by rights, be shut out of the inheritance.  But King Jesus is Lord of this world.  It’s all coming to Him.  And those who come to Him meekly He receives as family into the fat of the land.