"Let My People Go"

 

            "Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the river. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. Then say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness.' "

 

            Quite a few years ago a friend of mine shared a conversation he had with a neighbor. The details are sketchy in my memory, but this man was in a second marriage, and his wife's 19-year-old son was living with them. The boy was rather immature and uncooperative and created a good bit of turmoil in the home. So it finally got to the point where the boy was asked to leave and find another place to live. One of the boy's prized possessions was a large snake that he kept in a cage in his room, maybe a python or boa constrictor. The man was glad the snake was going to leave too. So the boy cleaned out his room and left, and all was quiet and peaceful for a few weeks. Then one morning the man got up and opened his closet to get dressed and found himself face to face with the big snake. First fear rushed down his body, and as soon as he got out of the room, the fear turned to anger. When they called the boy, he admitted that he had neglected to tell them that the snake had gotten out of its cage, and when he moved, he could not seem to find it anywhere. The point is that the big snake got the attention of this man on several levels.

            Today we read the story of Moses, where some big snakes get our attention. This is a very frightening event, although one commentator mentioned that it is also somewhat humorous. I have to admit that I need to get my feet up on my desk before it sounds humorous to me. When Moses told the Hebrew leaders that he was to lead them out of Egypt, one of the confirming signs God had given to him was to throw his staff down and it would become a snake, and then he had to pick it up by the tail. Now Moses and Aaron go to the Pharaoh and Aaron throws his staff down and it becomes a snake. Except this time the word for "snake" is different. This would mean "monster snake," "fearsome reptile," maybe crocodile, or cobra, or sometimes it is used to describe a mythical monster of the deep that is symbolic of chaos. The staff of Aaron becomes a very large and frightening reptile. And he does not pick it up by the tail. The magicians come and their staffs also become monster snakes. This is where the commentator sees some humor. All these huge reptiles are slithering around the palace, and Pharaoh and Moses and the magicians hopping around trying to get out of their way. Someone should make a movie. Then Aaron's snake unhinges its jaw and swallows all the others. The point of this to Pharaoh is that his best sorcerers and magicians are going to find their secret magic powers broken, and that he ought to listen to these two Hebrews who are not magicians at all, who do not use incantations or cast spells, they simply obey God. But the point to the reader is to get our attention. What happens next is very important and we need to be awake.

            Next come ten Mighty Acts of God. These acts of God or plagues will greatly diminish the economic power of Egypt, shaking its prosperity. These acts will also defeat the spiritual power of Egypt, its secret magic and sorcery, and its pantheon of gods. The Mighty Acts will destroy the personal power of the Pharaoh, a divine king who will be humbled before the Lord. So through these ten Mighty Acts the people of Israel go free, and are able to worship and serve God in the wilderness, and the Pharaoh comes to know that the Lord is God.

            At the end of this confrontation with the magicians and the staffs that become snakes, there is just one staff left, one shepherd, one symbol of authority. It is this staff, the staff of Aaron, that will call down the Mighty Acts of God until the LORD is recognized and his word obeyed. Jim Bruckner sees these acts of God to be like a "necessary forceful hammer striking Egypt's political and social shackles." Then he writes, "The purpose of God's judgment was to free the people to live in righteous relationship with others and with the Lord. This meant judgment on whatever powers or gods controlled the shackles."

            In these actions we see the power of God over sin and oppression. The Mighty Act of God, we know, is not a staff but the cross of Jesus. The Mighty Act of God is not the sending of plagues on Egypt, but the sending of His son who gave his life to take away the sins of the world.

            The first of the Mighty Acts was turning the water of the Nile River into blood. To attack the Nile was to attack the economic heart of Egypt. Because of the Nile and a system of irrigation, Egypt became the breadbasket of the Mediterranean world. The Nile was a source of great pride and of untold wealth and economic power. So when the Nile was turned to blood, Egypt was shaken to its core. Their stable and unending prosperity was threatened.

            At our Council planning meeting a few weeks ago, our chairman, Paul Naumann, showed us a video of a sermon given by Harvey Carey to the Leadership Conference at Willow Creek this fall. Harvey Carey is an African-American pastor who serves a church in Detroit, located in the most economically depressed ZIP code in the United States. His church, although very poor financially, carries out a very significant and active ministry in that community. Carey reflected for a few minutes on what happens to people when there is an economic downturn, when their financial power is reduced or taken away. His observation is that when this happens to affluent people, people who are accustomed to having financial resources, then they feel they can't do anything, they become cautious, they get stuck. But, he said, most of the world has much experience in living with nothing, or with very little, so they tend to keep doing things, even in a bad economy. People who are experienced in being poor know how to use what they do have to do God's work.

            Now the Bible does not tell us how the Egyptian people felt during the various plagues. It also does not tell us how the Israelites felt about them. The text keeps us focused on Moses and Aaron and Pharaoh. Sometimes when the Bible doesn't tell us something, that can be a permission to use our imagination and fill in the blanks. Then we can put ourselves in the story too.

            When the economic power of Egypt was shaken, and the Egyptians saw their prosperity threatened, and then later destroyed by the locusts and the livestock dying, I am thinking these people, who were used to affluence, probably felt they could do nothing. I think we can feel that way too. We connect money with ministry, so when there is a downturn and we do not have the financial resources, we tend to back away from ministry. We feel we can't really do anything until the economy gets better. But the lack of money does not stop God. We may need to learn how to live on less, and that is difficult. But we don't stop ministry because of a shortage of funds.

            The other side of that is our giving in a time of economic downturn continues, but it also can take different forms. In our giving we move our dependence from the Nile to God. When times are good we can find ourselves depending on the Nile, on the prosperity of our nation, and then giving out of that abundance. But when the Nile fails, then we depend on God. Our giving is not out of abundance or excess; it is truly giving in faith. This also can draw out of us creative gifts that are not related to finances, but have much more to do with personal and relational giving and caring. We invest our lives more fully when we can't always write a check.

            During the Mighty Acts of God, I see the people of Egypt drawing inward in fear, but the people of Israel looking upward in hope. Things are happening that they do not understand, but when the Nile turns to blood, maybe, maybe God is doing something to set us free to serve him.

            Amen.