Tag: Moses

The Bible in a Year – 23 January

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

23 January. Exodus chapters 16-18

Today’s readings covers several important passages including the provision of manna in the desert.  This can be viewed as miraculous, or possibly explained away (at various times some sort of lichen, or edible insect secretion have been suggested, neither of which sounds very convincing). But whatever it was, it helped with the diet for a generation, and left a lasting impression that finds echoes in Jesus as the “bread of life” and so on.

 

Chapter 18 has a more general application: Moses, finds himself in great demand, and does not of his own initiative think of delegating his work.  It takes an old man – his father-in-law – to persuade him to set up a system of delegated governance and retain just the function of a high court judge for difficult decisions.  Too many leaders, especially those whose charisma brings them many close followers, still fall into this trap.  God’s gifts are given to many people, and while not all can be leaders of thousands, others can exercise skills as leaders of smaller groups and make decisions on simpler matters.

The Bible in a Year – 20/21 January

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

20/21 January. Exodus chapters 7-12

These chapters cover the plagues of Egypt, in which God, through the prophesies spoken by Aaron and the symbolic actions of Moses, brought one disaster after another on the Egyptians, initially sparing the political leaders but increasingly affecting them too. But each time Pharaoh either refused the request to let the Hebrews go, or else reneged on his promise.  Only the last and most dreadful plague – the death of every firstborn child and animal – persuaded Pharaoh to agree to the ‘repatriation’ request.  This has echoes for me of two contemporary situations:

 

Firstly, the increase of negative attitudes or even hostility towards immigrants in Britain, especially since the Brexit vote.  Not only illegal immigrants, but those who have come legally from within or without the EU to work, and those born here of foreign parents, find themselves the subject of hate, discrimination or even violence.  That of course is incompatible with a Christian understanding of equality and love of neighbour.  But what strikes me is the contrast between those in the UK who want immigrants to “go home” even when they are working and living peacefully here, and pharaoh who refused to let an increasingly troublesome immigrant group leave the country when they wanted to! It seems that actually he valued and needed their labour to keep the economy going. Presumably they were doing the jobs that Egyptians would not do – making bricks, rearing sheep and goats, and probably many other back-breaking or dirty jobs.  And they were indispensable (though underpaid). Whereas the immigrants who do such jobs in our country – also often underpaid and living in poor conditions and sometimes even as slaves – are regarded with scorn. If they do leave (willingly or otherwise) who will do their jobs? And whose side will God be on?

 

The other aspect of the story is Pharaoh who saw the plagues and knew that the Hebrews (or their god) were causing them, and yet refused to acknowledge the damage the plagues were causing to his people – water pollution, infestations, disease, extreme weather, crop failure and increased mortality – until they hit his own family directly.  This week the new president of the USA is a known ‘climate change denier’ who has appointed another such man to head the Environment Protection Agency. What will it take for these people to acknowledge the impact that mankind’s activities are having on our fellow humans and the wider environment?  Will it take the death of their own children?  I hope not. But change they must.

 

The Bible in a Year – 18 January

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

18 January. Exodus chapters 1-3

The “second book of Moses” starts with the birth of the prophet, several generations after his people (by now called Habiru or Hebrews) arrived in Egypt, by which time they had become numerous but mostly working as forced labour and subject to a gender-selection policy by the ruler of the land.   Moses is lucky – several women (his mother, the Egyptian midwife, his older sister, the Pharaoh’s daughter and her maid) all do their part in enabling him to have the privilege of a court upbringing.  But he never forgot his roots.

 

Earlier this week was Martin Luther King day in the United States, a reminder of a man who by a combination of God-given talent and good fortune also overcame racial prejudice to achieve a high standard of education. He could have lived an easy life. Instead, he too never forgot his roots, but felt called as Moses did to challenge racism and slavery, to side with his oppressed people rather than their rulers, to “speak truth to power” as people say.  Neither man was a “saint” in the popular sense of a gentle, peaceful person: Moses committed murder and King was, by all accounts, not an easy man to be with.  But tackling injustice and evil, even in God’s name, demands a degree of determination and a willingness to suffer that do not sit easily with a gentle character. Each of these men heard the call of God to “set my people free”, and obeyed.  Thank God for them both.