Manna and Jesus
Jesus said, “whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” John 6″33 I believe Jesus but I still need supper. Jesus is not talking of actual food, but is using food and water as a metaphor, in this passage. What spurred Jesus to say these things? The crowds had just seen him multiply bread and feed thousands of people miraculously, but like Israel in the wilderness, they wanted more and they were asking for a sign, ‘give us a sign like Moses gave bread in the wilderness.’ It wasn’t Moses who gave YOU bread, Jesus said, but my Father in Heaven. they still didn’t know who their provider.
Rewind a thousand years, lets talk about Moses in the wilderness and the bread. Immediately following the Red Sea incident, the people of Israel are thirsty and hungry. Is that so terrible? I mean, 600 thousand men plus women and children in the wilderness… for a month! I would expect at the very least they would be thirsty and hungry. But they were also camped beside 12 springs of water and 70 palms. Israel had food and water. God had just spent the last year raining devastating judgments on their oppressors, protecting and distinguishing Israel, he drown their enemies in the sea, parted the waters for Israel to safely pass, sweetened bitter waters and now he has camped them beside fresh water and an abundance of dates palm trees. But they were “hungry.” They were grumbling, “have you brought us out here in the wilderness to kill us with hunger, we would rather have died around pots of meat and bread in the land of affliction” Israel was looking back at their house of slavery and longing for that which satisfied their flesh, but left their spirit crying out for deliverance. Truth be told, they likely comforted themselves with food in Egypt because of their suffering. They are falling back on their old ways. They didn’t fully believe or trust that God was all they needed. This isn’t about food, just as Jesus message isn’t really about food. This is about trusting God to provide and being content.
Jesus is remembering this to the people. First he is saying get your story straight, Moses didn’t save the people, Moses didn’t provide for the People, that was My Father in heaven, that was God who gave you the manna, the signs and the wonders and delivered you from Egypt. God provided for the people because the people were hungry and thirsty, but the people didn’t truly know God, just as Jesus fed the 5000 but it wasn’t really what he wanted them to want. He wanted them to believe in Him, he wanted them to want him.
Jesus is the bread of Heaven that satisfies man fully when we believe what is true about him, we will be contended. we will not hunger and thirst for past life, for sins, slavery and Egypt. These things in the world that actually don’t satisfy our souls, but comfort the flesh. Longing for the bread and meat of Egypt prevents Israel and you and I from receiving the full measure of God’s provision, which far exceeds our stomachs. This was Jesus message, if we believe him, if we come to him, we won’t hunger and thirst after the things that we think will satisfy, we won’t be hungry and grumble like Israel did. We will Trust that what God provides is enough, and he provides HIMSELF, how can that not be enough? How can that not satisfy and fill us to overflowing. IF we come to him and believe we will trust that even in the wilderness our Father gives us everything we need. Even in the divorce court, even in the jail cell, even in the hospital, or the funeral home, Jesus is sort of saying that He himself embodies everything we need. I don’t think he wants us to starve ourselves because we believe him, i think he wants us to starve our unbelief, what Jesus is asking us to do is to stop grumbling. God wanted Israel to hunger for HIM, to thirst for HIS promises, not the bread and meat from Egypt. He wanted Israel to hunger for him so he sent Jesus the bread of life and said if you believe in me, then the food from the world will no longer satisfy you. If you come to me than you will no longer grumble because you don’t have the comforting fleeing pleasures of your past life, you will rejoice because you have ME.
The Firstborn
The final plague was actually the first to be foretold to Moses as a result of Pharaoh killing Hebrews babies. In one Jewish Commentary it is said that God only intended this one plague and that it was the only one needed for Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go, however because of Pharaoh’s obstinacy more plagues were given. How can God kill the innocent of Egypt? For three days before hand, the Egyptians saw the lights in Goshen and could have escaped to safety. God always sends a door of escape and his mercy is far reaching. God calls Israel his firstborn. He calls Jesus his firstborn, David and Ephraim are also referred to as “Firstborn”. Colossians 1:15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. Colossians 1:18
And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead, so that in all things He may have preeminence.”
To understand the significance of the firstborn, consider the Egyptian culture of hierarchy and power within their civilization. It was a society ruled by primogeniture (Primogeniture is a principle of seniority and inheritance that favors the eldest child.) The first born had absolute power within the family unit. Pharaoh was the firstborn of the firstborn of the firstborn. It was from his birthright that he exercised his power. The attack against the first born was therefore a powerful polemic against the entire culture of Egypt. The eldest ruled the younger siblings. This is why having slaves was so important to the Egyptians. This gave the lower classes someone else to control and dominate. (aish.com) Therefore not only was God inflicting punishment on their system but there was a direct attack on their power. Would it have been the firstborn who not only had the rights of inheritance, but also inherited the responsibility of vengeance on enemies. God was wiping out every one of Israel’s enemies. Does the fact that Pharaoh didn’t die disqualify him from being a firstborn exposing his birthright. Was he indeed a false Pharaoh, and hence one without absolute power even over his own people?
According to Judaism the firstborn were also significant. However, it was often the younger who was elevated to the rights of the firstborn for example, Cain was the firstborn however, Seth his younger brother took on the status of firstborn carrying on the lineage of the messiah. Also Isaac came after Ishmael, yet he was the promised son who formed the middle chain in the patriarch. Jacob was the most famous example of misplaced birthright. who is accused of stealing the firstborn rights of Esau, although God ordained the events around him legally purchasing the birthright from his brother. “ God confirms that Jacob’s willingness to serve God is what transformed him into a “firstborn.” On the other hand, “real” firstborns have lost their status: God purchased only the firstborn of the Hebrews in Egypt when he passed over the houses of the Israelite. God redeemed or purchased them as his own, however, their status as firstborn was given up when they sinned with the golden calf and God took the Levites instead who displayed loyalty and devotion to God in that day. Numbers 3.
“Originally the Temple service devolved upon the firstborn, but when they committed the sin of the Golden Calf, (Midrash Rabbah – Bamidbar 4:8)” based on these we know firstborns, who were not actually born first. In contrast to Egyptian culture, in Hebraic culture, heritage is spiritual. It is not those who are firstborn who serve God but those willing to serve God are called the firstborn. “ From the dawn of time there have been those willing to serve God, and others who have ignored or rejected such opportunities.10 The lineage of the Jewish people is the antithesis of Pharaoh, instead of firstborn after firstborn after firstborn, the spiritual legacy which we carry is of those who chose to serve God regardless of station, and at times despite modest ancestry. This is the significance of God’s resounding declaration that we are His firstborn. Others willing to serve in the future will likewise merit this status: Rabbi Natan said: “The Holy One, blessed be He, told Moses: ‘Just as I have made Jacob a firstborn, for it says: Israel is My son, My firstborn, so will I make the King Messiah a firstborn, as it says: I also will appoint him firstborn (Psalms 89:28). (Midrash Rabbah – Exodus 19:7) One day the Messiah himself will merit to be called a firstborn. He will help teach the world that being a child of God transcends lineage. And that being a firstborn of God is about how we lead our lives, it is the manifestation of the image of God within,11 not a question of sequence of birth.” (aish.com)
Lighthouses
At creation there was darkness and it covered the earth. It wasn’t until God interrupted the darkness with his word and said let there be light that the world changed. When Jesus gave up his spirit there was thunder and an earthquake and the sun grew dark at noon. The darkness in Egypt for three days was so thick it could be felt, and may have been the same kind of darkness that occurred when Jesus took his last breathe on earth and before God brought light into the world. We are Like lighthouses or cities on a hill or lamps on a table, directing people into the way of the Lord. Darkness which can be felt is an absence of God’s presence and life. The Egyptians had no fear of God. the world today has no fear of God. The world, like Pharaoh mocks God. We have a whole world of Pharaoh’s having hard hearts and impenetrable pride. Darkness comes before the day of the Lord, before the plague of death. I believe this will come again, in the end of all things when there is a new heaven and new earth, the only light we will have will be the light that comes from the Lord. … revelation 22:4 They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night in the city, and they will have no need for the light of a lamp or of the sun. For the Lord God will shine on them. Isaiah 60:19
No longer will the sun be your light by day, nor the brightness of the moon shine on your night; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your splendor. This world is in a spiritual darkness that can be felt, as we prepare for Christ return and the death that comes upon those who do not fear God. let all those who run to the Light of God’s word and Son repent and find rest for their souls and freedom from Bondage.
Any in Egypt who feared God would know where to God to know God. in the same way that God calls Jesus followers to be lights so too the Hebrews were the light in the world on these three nights. Matthew 5:14 14“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Isaiah 48:1010 Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of His Servant? Who among you walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD; let him lean on his God. The darkness in Egypt was a physical manifestation of a spiritual reality, they were living in darkness, and the darkness was the shadow of death , likely the last warning to trust in the God of the Hebrews, the last chance for them to run to the light in goshen, and come under the covering and mercy of the blood before the last plague, death.
Pharaoh’s gods Unravel
Egypt is known to have had upwards of 1500 different gods. Many of these
were creatures; such as goats, cows, serpents, falcons, crocodiles and frogs, to name a few. It was common for humans to worship many gods, most nations were
polytheistic. Israel was unique in their call by God to monotheism. Abraham was
called out of the Chaldeans, a culture and civilization who worshiped many gods, to serve and obey the One
True God. Polytheism did not dissolve over time. Paul addressed Christians in Rome about the matter. Paul says, Romans 1:25 For they exchanged the truth of God for falsehood,
and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,
who is blessed forever. Amen” Even today we could make an argument for American
polytheism. We are no longer a Christian nation known to worship one God. America has given up the laws of
the One true God in exchange for the various “paths to wholeness” We are not all that different than the Egyptians who had literally a god to meet every need and
desire they could have drummed up. We have covertly become pagans, abandoning absolute truth for relativism so that we can have what we want when we want it.
Heqet, was a well-known Egyptian “god”, the goddess of fertility, resurrection and creation who
resembled a frog. “In ancient Egyptian religion and mythology, Heqet
was a frog-headed goddess who personified generation, birth, and fertility.
Heqet was sometimes depicted with the body of a frog, and frog amulets were
common in ancient Egypt as charms for fertility. How differently the people
likely saw their amulets after smelling the stench of rotting frog flesh for
days on end. The worship of the frog was one of the oldest cults in Egypt. Frog gods and frog goddesses
were thought to have had a vital role in the creation of the world. ” Britannica. God was not
just judging Egypt, he was judging the gods of Egypt. Yahweh was discrediting them
and diminishing their power in the eyes of the Hebrews. This was paramount to becoming a monotheistic nation. BEFORE the children of Israel left Egypt they had to commit to the idea that it was good to serve One God and to view worshiping many gods as futile and useless.
By sending a plague of frogs on the land of Egypt, Yahweh is
making a statement. He is stating that HE alone is the one who reproduces and
multiplies and grants life. The gods of Egypt are created beings that have no
powers to grant any favors or meet any needs. They are controlled by the
supremacy and sovereignty of their Creator, and His power. The frogs
are just frogs, they are bothersome, they are unclean, they are unwanted in
day-to-day life. They are born and they die and when they die they become foul.
There is nothing divine about them. It’s also interesting that the Hebrew
babies were thrown into the nile the very place where the frogs came from.
Almost as if to send a message of the ridiculous edict to drown babies, all while they
honor this “frog goddess of fertility” in order to bring forth life and
children, yet throw children into the Nile as if they have no value or worth. Sound familiar? We worship false sources that we create and throw out the products. We are perverse in our logic. It would be like worshiping a cow for creating its own ability to make milk, but throwing out it’s milk and killing its offspring.
God is revealing to the Egyptians how foolish their logic and belief
system was. Note that in revelation we see a re-emergence of frogs 16:13 “I saw
coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out
of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs, for they
are spirits of demons performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole
world to gather them together for the war of the great day of God the Almighty.”
“out of the Beginning God reveals the end.” Isaiah 46:10 There is something about Egypt that speaks of the end of the world. I suggest “Egypt” will re-emerge and manifest itself perhaps as Babylon in the end. Before the final redemption, the salvation yet to come and Jesus return God will come down, and set his feet upon the mount of Olives. Exodus was a prototype of everything we know about God interacting with his people. The book of Exodus doesn’t just record a historical event. Exodus could be a blueprint for God revealing himself as God, judging the nations, delivering his people and taking down the prince of this world by the blood of the Lamb!
God’s Wonders – Exodus 7
God sometimes hardens hearts for his greater purposes. In Romans 11, Paul writes that a partial hardening has come upon the hearts of Israel in order for the fullness of the gentiles to come to Christ. Here in Exodus 7 we see God hardening Pharaoh’s heart so that God may multiply His wonders. Do you have a son or daughter or mother or father or loved one who refuses to come to acknowledge God as sovereign and Christ as Lord? I don’t know if they are a pharaoh or not but perhaps God has hardened their heart for a purpose far greater than you are able to understand or see right now. Perhaps it is so that He can multiply his wonders in their lives.
In the game of Chess, the winner is the one who is able to think several moves in advance. Each move is not a move unto itself, but a preparation for a future move, the chess master uses strategy to conquer his opponent. That is what God is doing here. The end goal is not a hard heart for pharaoh. The hard heart is a move on God’s part that is preparing for a future move; namely to display his miracles and wonders, which is also a set up for a future move; so that the Egyptians will know He is the Lord God. We see God’s moves often in singularity and it confuses us because we do not know the mind of God. The best thing we can remember is that we can trust the mind of God even if we cannot know it. God delights to put his power and glory on display before the proud and stubborn hearts of men, but this takes time and tactic. And as we know just from looking at creation God has a method and it complex at it’s core.
The very same signs which generated faith in Israel create a strong heart in Pharaoh who refuses to heed God’s voice or the witnesses of God’s power. God is hardening Pharoah’s heart for a future move. Had Pharaoh surrendered and believed after the staff turned into a serpent God would have no more opportunity to fully stretch out his hand, to fully extend his arm and reveal his power over Egypt, over kings, over the earth before all the people. Only in Pharoah’s defiance is God justified in multiplying his miracles, wonders and eventual judgments in the land of Egypt. This will have its perfect result and accomplish God’s perfect purposes, The Egyptians will know He, not Ramses, is the Lord God.
Without Straw – Exodus 5
In Ancient Egypt the children of Israel made mud bricks to build cities for Pharaoh. According to archeological sources, mud-bricks are made with organic material such as silt, sand, top soil and wheat chaff. The straw is what made the wheat chaff. It would be left in fields after the wheat was collected during harvest time. The stems of the wheat would be chopped into small pieces called straw temper and added to the organic mixture to make a mud. It would then be processed by bare feet for four days. Left to dry for one day and then mixed again, poured into molds and dried. The quota of bricks Pharaoh expected were 2000 every two days. The straw was essential for strong bricks that would not shrink or crack in the drying process. However, the straw was only available seasonally. During harvest time all the straw temper would be prepared, stored and then provided by pharaoh for the Hebrews to make the bricks. This is why the text says, they were scrambling to find straw, it is likely there was none available because it wasn’t harvesting time, it would be like looking for grapes in December.
When Pharoah stopped providing straw, he closed the storehouses and suddenly it was impossible to make the bricks. Which is really his problem, as the bricks were to build his cities. Pharaoh’s goal was twofold, he wanted Israel to see HIM as provider, not their own God, the God of the Hebrews and he wanted them to believe that they needed to straw and that not having it was their problem. His aim was to keep them afraid, to keep them slaves, keep them thinking they needed him and his mercy. He wanted them to believe they were slaves and He was the only one who could ease their burdens so first he had to invent the burdens. No straw. No strength.
The bible tells us God is their strength. God is their provider and God is the one who eases Israel’s burdens. And not only theirs. But all who are “heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3.
How easily and often we, like the children of Israel, forget these truths. We quickly turn and look to our worldly goods, our earthly governments, authorities’ institutes and even our own strengths to provide for our needs. Take the straw away and we panic, how on earth will we do the things we need, but we don’t really need to make bricks. All those human agents can never replace the freedom God promises us to stop making bricks we don’t need, to stop seeing ourselves as slaves and to stop believing things that aren’t true. Earthly resources usually keep us enslaved to their particular and selfish vices. Pharaoh was trying to hide the truth from Israel. Israel didn’t need straw, because they did not need to make bricks because they did not belong to Pharaoh. Pharaoh wanted those things and so he needed Israel to be his servants. Without a slave there is no master. What they needed was to trust The God of Abraham , Isaac and Jacob to provide them with something much greater than straw for their strengthening , he would be their strength.
We should not permit Satan or the world to tell us what we need, God will provide for all our needs according to his riches and glory. The devil is lying to keep us in every sort of addiction, unhealthy relationship, wrong belief systems and clinging to responsibilities that are not ours. Only the truth will set us free, the truth of who we are and the truth of who God is.
Exodus 4
God gives Moses supernatural power to perform three signs before the King of Egypt as well as the sons of Israel, “so that they might believe” and “perform before pharaoh the wonders which I have put in your hand”. There was one difference, To Pharoah, Moses was to say, The Lord, God of the Hebrews has met with us now please let us go.” But to the sons of Israel, he was to say, the Lord the God of your Fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has appeared to us; He sees you and he is concerned.” What a small difference and yet what a huge difference between the two reactions of the recipients. Same signs, different message, different relationship, different outcome. For a bunch of slaves, this was their God, speaking to them saying I’m going to free you, but for the king in Egypt, this was his slaves God saying I’m going to judge you, kill your son and take your labor. The signs simply sealed the promise. To Pharoah God presented competition, but for Israel He was a savior. The signs generated fear in pharaoh but faith in Israel.
Israel’s response to the signs was faith! The bible says, they believed when they heard God was concerned about them and had seen their affliction, they bowed low and worshiped. But Pharoah would not concede. Consider how similar this is to the people who witnessed Jesus’ miracles and signs. Those who were of high rank and hard hearts were indignant, they didn’t believe, they plotted to kill Jesus. But for the poor, destitute, lost and needy they believed and they worshiped. It is the difference between God’ children and his enemies, between soft soil of the heart and hard soil; same seed, same signs different outcome. How can Jesus be both judge and savior, how can he bring both peace and a sword. One is for his enemies the other his friends. One he comes to save the other he comes to judge.
I think it also depends on our own state and condition- do we have power that we are afraid to lose or poverty and affliction we are afraid to remain in? are we running to Jesus for help, or running from him in fear. It reminds me of the cross. The cross is there for each of us, Jesus didn’t die on the cross so that we wouldn’t have to but so that we would join him there. For some this is a threat, they don’t want to lose their lives, they don’t want to give up their status, their comfort or their stodge beliefs and way of life. For others that cross is their comfort, their support their hope. It represents forgiveness reconciliation and hope for heaven. For others it represents an end of all they worked for, it represents death of their dreams, suffering and sorrow. Is the Lord God to us a hero rescuing us from the pains of this world or is he a thief taking from us what we like about this world. That is why some take offense at the cross it strikes at the root of their pride and self-indulgence.
The same signs that Moses performed have two very different results? The same signs that Jesus performed had two different results. For those with hardened hearts, no sign was enough to prove Jesus’ deity. But those with tender hearts were like moist soil that received every word and sprouted a plentiful harvest.
The Gospel at Horeb – Exodus 3
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 glimmer, 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 allegoricalizing 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.
Exodus 2
Moses was a man without a land; homeless, but not godless; a man without a country but not without a king. Although Moses didn’t choose his life of wandering God used it to reveal Moses’ faithfulness to follow God. God’s goal for us has little to do with where we are from, it has everything to do with where we are headed, not where we live but who we worship. Moses was born to an Israelite woman who couldn’t keep him, set upon the Nile; found by a woman who couldn’t feed him, brought back to Goshen, then back to Egypt, but found no brotherhood. He had no companionship with either the Egyptians or the Israelites. He was rejected by the Hebrews for killing an Egyptian, chased off by pharaoh and fled to Midian. Eventually Moses will go back to Egypt and wander 40 years in the wilderness. He rightly names his son Gershom meaning I have sojourned in a foreign land.
Moses’ orphaned life prepared him for his wandering life. For 40 years Moses will lead the children of Israel through the wilderness. He will spent years of listening to Israel ask to return to the place where they had settled, where they were comfortable. But Moses had little temptation to settle, it wasn’t something he had ever become accustomed to, he had given up perhaps on homes, he was searching for God.
Wandering seems to be a common theme in the lives of God’s servants. Wandering forces us to rely on God, to look not to a place but a person. Our instinct is to settle and be secure, but God often calls us out of comfort into the discomfort. His entire life Moses lived in foreign lands, moving, sojourning, traveling from place to place. He wasn’t really Egyptian yet he looked the part, he wasn’t really Hebrew yet he was born the part. God needed Moses to be a nomad so that he could mediate between the two peoples. His only loyalty to Yahweh. He had an audience with Pharaoh because he was raised in the palace, but he had clout with the Hebrews because he was a Levite, but in truth He was God’s mouthpiece and servant. This was how God used Moses. Moses will never enter the promised land and even when God calls him up to the mountain to die, Moses body is never found. His home was not this earth.
What an important message for us today in America. My worldly goal is to have a beautiful home, with beautiful furnishings, to be settled, secure, comfortable, to belong in a community, to make a name and be accepted in fact not only do I strive for it, but I wickedly judge others by their ability to do the same. God permitted Moses to be a man without people or palace or land. Because those things neither defined him nor directed him and they shouldn’t define us neither drive us.
Jesus told a disciple, “Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the son of man has no where to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:20) Moses lived more like Jesus than I do! Jesus spent his earthly life on the move. It’s the way of the Lord, even the Holy spirit moved and hovered above the waters. (genesis 1)
This teaches us that God goes with us. Our God lives! We do not worship a god of stationary stone or dead wood. Those things we must go to or carry, but the one true God, He comes to us, Our God carries us. Since the dawn of time men have built high places to meet with their gods, but not our God, not the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, he comes down to meet with us and bids us come follow me. There is no greater example of this than a homeless Moses leading the sons of Israel to follow God through a barren desert, who constantly required the people to pack up and relocate.
Our security is not in homes and belonging and settlements, its not in land or comfort or community. Our security is not in where we settle but in who settles us. Our home is Christ, our security is the God who created heavens and earth, HE is our safety as we move and follow him. And as so many who went before us show us with their lives, our home is not this earth and our security is not where we live, but who we follow!
A story is told about an American tourist’s visit to the 19th century rabbi, Hofetz Chaim:
Astonished to see that the rabbi’s home was only a simple room filled with books, plus a table and a bench, the tourist asked,
“Rabbi, where is your furniture?”
“Where is yours?” replied the rabbi.
“Mine?” asked the puzzled American. “But I’m a visitor here. I’m only passing through.”
“So am I,” said Hofetz Chaim
my faith place 