January 31st
Share your thoughts, comments, reflections and questions on the readings for January the 31st.
Exodus 5:1-6:30,Psalm 18:1-6,Proverbs 3:29-32,Matthew 20:20-21:11
“Let my people go that they may hold a festival for me in the wilderness.” Why did Moses and Aaron say that to Pharaoh when what they meant was “Let my people go.” Fullstop! I think a number of things were going on – Firstly God knew that Pharaoh would not let them go whatever Moses said. He showed that back in Ex 4:21. God had hardened Pharaoh’s heart – not that he needed much hardening I think. From his response to Moses and Aaron there is more than a touch of arrogance and the Egyptians may well have now come to rely on the Israelites for their building projects. If Pharaoh let them go who would do the massive building projects? So there was no way that pharaoh would willingly let them go.
But I think there is more to this than that – God didn’t want just to get them out of Egypt, he wanted to get Egypt out of them. They had lived in Egypt for so long that they had started to take on some of the beliefs and practices of their hosts. God wanted to free them in their spirits in relation to him as much as he wanted to free their bodies from slavery. How would he do that – by focussing on worship and sacrifice, sacrifices that would not have been acceptable to their Egyptian hosts, but which became part of the law of the covenant between God and the nation of Israel.
I wonder sometimes if God does not want to free us from some situation or circumstance as much as he wants to free us within that situation, a change of heart is as important as a change of geography, but the change of geography is often the easy part, the change of heart is more difficult and takes longer.
I also noticed today that when the Israelites became discouraged and broken in spirit (Ex 6:9) God did not give up on them. God kept going and continued working to fulfil his promises. When we give up God doesn’t – he keeps going to honour and fulfil all he has promised to us.
Just a short note on the list of names – I know you all enjoy reading these! From this list we see the heritage of Moses and Aaron.
Moses/Aaron – Amram – Kohath – Levi – Jacob (Israel) – Isaac – Abraham
Heritage is important – we also are heirs of Abraham through the covenant.