Moses' Stretch
Moses’ Stretch
Exodus 7:10 “And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so
as the Lord had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before
Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent.11 Then Pharaoh also
called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also
did in like manner with their enchantments.12 For they cast down every man his rod, and they
became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.”
James 1:3 “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh
patience.”
Maybe this time, the
trying of Moses’ faith tempted the panic button. Imagine standing before the ruler of the
known world and hitting a speed bump.
Sure, Aaron could talk circles around Moses, but he did not have an
answer for this one. Blindsided, they saw
Paroah’s magicians perform the same sign.
“Stick to
snake? Big deal Moses. I still don’t know your god and neither do I
care. Take your sorry butt off my palace
property and get back to work!”
Why didn’t God
tell Moses how it would all play out? Yes, He told them of the hardening of the heart thing, but He left out point ‘B’
in the A to B to C agenda. Somehow God
omitted the “ain’t gonna impress Pharoah with the snake bit because magic
makers will do the same.”
Consider Moses and
Aaron before Pharaoh who was god on earth at that time. Pharaoh in exclusive control over his Kingdom. His land in total subjection to him in a
totalitarian state with him as the exalted head. Somehow, He forgot or it wasn’t passed down that
Joseph, a few generations back, saved the whole works and moved kingdom power
to the throne by shrewdly dealing the grain.
Yah, good going Pharoah. Way to root
for the home crowd. Moses even had to
define who was the God of the Israelites.
“You know jerk, the God of the Hebrews – dah!”
Still the ignoramus
was on the throne with Moses at his feet.
Magicians were all around spewing lies and making lewd gestures attempting to
cause intimidation. By the way, if Moses’
God was really Lord or ‘top dog’, then their meal ticket would be
shredded. What did they know of YHWH? Back to school they’d be, and Pharoah would
pick up some Hebrew crossover boys to come in and learn Egyptian ways. In the end, Pharaoh may continue his polytheism
to manipulate the masses, but keep the Hebrew magicians around to do his dirty
work. Weird.
Anyway, Moses and
bro’ Aaron were under pressure in seeing sticks-to-snakes. Pharaoh then ramped his voice, but our dynamic
duo saw the true confirmation at last.
One fat snake.
Does God do this
today? He guarantees everything is gonna
be ok. He just omits step ‘B’ in the A to B to C plan. Somehow He expects us to float in time, having faith in Him while He shores up with His invisible hand that stepping
stone we need to get to step ‘C.’ What, does
He play tricks on us? Sure seems that
way from this side of Heaven. A
malicious god sneering looking down at His little ones flailing about in agony
only to have Him save the day at the last second? Not totally in line with God’s character.
Faith without
works is dead. Ah, but what kind of
works are these? He is not talking about
serving at the soup kitchen or the Moose pancake feed. Not about the works that we execute conventionally
by normal means. He means faith works.
Extraordinary jumps of reason designed to magnify our God as the only One who
could make that happen.
Moses had to learn
this. “Go talk to Pharoah.” This short time with the king prepped him for
the future in the desert. Imagine then
the pressure of 500,000 plus people wanting fed!
Note: James does emphasize service
works to show conversion, but the focus here is the later works he discusses.
Comments
Post a Comment