At Mount Horeb, we don’t see Jesus on a cross, though Moses does encounter the angel of the Lord and God does say he will stretch out his hand. We don’t see Jesus healing people although God does promise deliverance through miracles. We don’t hear Jesus’ preaching repentance, but God reveals himself to Moses and Moses hides his face. We don’t see the sinners, yet we see the effect of sin, affliction, suffering, slavery and oppression clearly through the eyes of Holy and concerned God and they are in desperate need of a savior. The Hebrew people are in torment in Egypt, sort of like sinners in a broken world, separated from God, not even knowing his name. But God comes down to deliver them and bring them up. He hears them He sees them and he sends a shepherd to lead them to a promised land and appropriate response is simply to worship. Here we see glimmers, hints and foreshadows of Jesus, His fingerprints are all over the place. We don’t see the clear Gospel nor the fullness of Christ’ work, but we see traces and pieces and components of who God is and what he will do in Egypt for Israel and on the cross for mankind.
Today is the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday, I am not catholic so I did not grow up observing lent or getting ash on my forehead. We never abstained from eating meat on Fridays or gave up chocolate. But the past few years I have been drawn to the practice and observance of Lent. Lent feels like a good way to prepare my heart to receive Easter as more then just a passing Sunday morning where we dress up, sing ‘Because He Lives’ and eat loads of candy eggs. I want easter to mean something, I want it to penetrate me deeply each year that passes, I want my heart to marinate in the reality of what Christ did for me and why? He delivered me, he freed me, he stretched out his hand and struck down death for me, he saw me, he came down to me. I want to celebrate the resurrection as if I were there. So, I find lent valuable to my soul, heart and mind.
There is no better words than these I have ever read about Lent, “To observe lent is to strike at the root of complacency. Lent (literally ‘springtime’) is a time of preparation, a time to return to the desert where Jesus spent forty trying days readying for his ministry. He allowed himself to be tested, and if we are serious about following him, we will do the same. Lent should never be morose, an annual ritual during which we begrudgingly forgo a handful of pleasures. Instead, we ought to approach lent as an opportunity, not a requirement. After all it is meant to be the church’s springtime, a time when, out of the darkness of sins winter, a repentant empowered people emerge.” Bread and Wine pg. xvi
And Here in this very idea I see both the Exodus – deliverance of the sons of the Israel and my own personal deliverance meet. Emerging from death into a new life by the hand of God.
I don’t want to diminish the events of Exodus 3 by allegorizing and symbolizing away the actual incredible miracle God accomplished. It was precisely this moment in history God revealed himself not just to the sons of Israel, but truly to the entire world. Do we not see that he names himself and we know him for what he did there in Egypt, for the Hebrews, through Moses. Do we not learn who he is and what he is capable of in the Exodus Narrative. We DO! Not only do we learn about who God is, but we learn what he is able to do – FREE US, DELIVER, RESCUE, COME DOWN, SEE SUFFERING, INTERACT WITH HUMANITY and so much more as we continue our reading through Exodus. So much of what we know about God we read here in this incredible account and yet there is the gospel message weaved into every chapter. I cannot deny how similar the events of the exodus are with the events of Christ’s resurrection. Israel is about to emerge an empowered people, they are about to be born again to new life, they are about to receive the Word of God. The Exodus is amazing all by itself revealing the power and mercy of God and it’s a foreshadow of all that was to come and did come. God coming down, delivering us from slavery, bringing us new life, leading us to the promise of a new kingdom all the components are there if we look properly. Lent helps us to take the time to look properly. Lent is a season of Joy just as the news God gives to Moses here about deliverance ought to have ignited great joy in the Hebrews. Salvation was at hand. So we begin our journey into Lent at around the same time we read Moses is called by God to begin his journey – his journey towards the promise of freedom and the promise of God’s presence.
my faith place 