A Choice; Ex 10-12

May the mumbling commence!

It seems that we have a choice to make.  In Exodus 10-12, there is a choice evident.  Do I wish to be like Israel or like Pharaoh?  I can be like Pharaoh and bargain with the Lord.  If I choose to do so, I may get to the stage of outright refusal and become separated from God.

In chapter ten, Pharaoh began asking questions.  Like:  If I allow you to go, just who will be going?  Pharaoh did not like the answer.  When the Hebrew people go to worship God, they go fully.  They would leave no one or nothing behind.  Pharaoh drew a line in the sand; he bargained with God.  He said, “I will allow only the men to go.”  But, when it comes to worshiping the Lord (not becoming confused with creation worship or self worship); there was no room for compromise. 

Less I am misunderstood.  No, God is not pleased when congregations of today draw those lines in the sand when it comes to worship.  Lines drawn for music.  Lines drawn for liturgy.  When we fight about these forms of worship, we are confused.  I may think that my music and my stories are the only true worship of God.  These forms draw me to God as no other.  Where is the focus in these statements?  On me.  Here, we can and should compromise so that more people can be guided into an awesome experience of entering the presence of God.  The one question we must be sure of is this: Does our worship glorify God?  There is no room for compromise there.

Then, the locusts came.  Pharaoh drew the line in the sand in another place.  Pharaoh bargained with the Lord again.  All your people may go, but you must leave behind your livestock.  It would be like someone telling us that we can worship our God, but we cannot read the Scriptures or sing hymns or preach or share our lives with one another.  Without these actions, we have no way of worshiping our Lord.  There was no room for compromise.

Then, came the darkness.  And Pharaoh just withdrew.  “Get out of my sight,” he said.  “Never come before me again, or you will die.”  Pharaoh slipped into complete refusal and asked for separation.

Then, the final plague fell on Egypt – the death of the firstborn of all people and animals.  Only then – and grudgingly – did Pharaoh allow the Hebrews to leave.  And he asked the Israelites to bless him in their worship.  I wonder – was this a subtle way of Pharaoh asking Israel to bless him in worship rather than or along with the Lord; or was it a final realization that the Lord could bless Pharaoh if God chose to do so.  Could Pharaoh finally be admitting that the Lord is greater than himself?  The greater blesses the lesser.  Even so, it would have been too little too late – for God continued to harden the heart of Pharaoh.  (And I find this troubling.  Did Pharaoh really not have a choice?  Does that mean that some people today not have a choice?  I find that difficult to believe.)

Well, that’s Pharaoh’s way.  There is another.  The Israelites continued to be led by Moses and Aaron, who showed their faith through their actions and words.  Because they acted, the plagues of the Lord came upon Egypt.  With the last plague, faith and action reached its apex.  Instead of causing the plague (that was Pharaoh’s doing), the whole community of Israel needed to act to avoid the death angel.

Specific and detailed actions were given to the Israelite people.  As a community, they fulfilled all these commands, so they were saved from the plague and were brought up out of Egypt.  The plague that the Lord, the Great I Am, promised to Moses so long ago finally came to pass.  There is the way of perseverance, listening, speaking, and acting.  It is the way of faith in the Great I Am.  

And the Israelites were to remember always this deliverance – that is a command that continues even to this day.  We, too, are included.  In Exodus 12:38, it tells us that many others went up with them.  And the Lord told Israel that aliens who show the way of faith in the Great I Am should be included, with the same rules as the native born.  The choice is before me.  May I chose faith this day forward and leave bargaining behind.  I give thanks for the awesome favor of living in the presence of the Great I Am.  I give thanks and remember in my small section of the faith community.

Enough mumbling for now…  

Peace Out