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.