Know God; Know Your Work. Exodus 4-5; Matthew 20

May the mumbling commence!

It behooves us to know God.  Knowing God can bring a well-being that is not to be found elsewhere.  Refusing to know God can bring eternal separation from the Lord… a dead-end street.  Read from Exodus chapter five:

After this presentation to Israel's leaders, Moses and Aaron went to see Pharaoh. They told him, "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 'Let my people go, for they must go out into the wilderness to hold a religious festival in my honor.'" 

"Is that so?" retorted Pharaoh. "And who is the Lord that I should listen to him and let Israel go? I don't know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go." 

But Aaron and Moses persisted. "The God of the Hebrews has met with us," they declared. "Let us take a three-day trip into the wilderness so we can offer sacrifices to the Lord our God. If we don't, we will surely die by disease or the sword." 

"Who do you think you are," Pharaoh shouted, "distracting the people from their tasks? Get back to work!  Look, there are many people here in Egypt, and you are stopping them from doing their work." (Verses 1-5)

“Who is the Lord that I should listen to him?”  “Who do you think you are?”  Pharaoh was telling the Hebrew people that they got their identity from their labor.  He basically told them, “Stay on task.  Do your work.  That is most important.”

Ironically, Pharaoh was right.  The Hebrews had work to do.  But it had nothing to do with building more structures for Pharaoh.  The work of the people – the liturgy – is to worship God.  Nothing was to stop them from doing this work.

Do we recognize where we get our identity from?  Not from our jobs or our friends or our possessions… we get our identity from the Lord… worshiping Him.  Let’s get down to the task of worshiping our great Creator.  Even blind men recognize this reality!  Read from Matthew chapter twenty:

As Jesus and the disciples left the city of Jericho, a huge crowd followed behind.  Two blind men were sitting beside the road. When they heard that Jesus was coming that way, they began shouting, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!"  The crowd told them to be quiet, but they only shouted louder, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!" 

Jesus stopped in the road and called, "What do you want me to do for you?" 

"Lord," they said, "we want to see!" 

Jesus felt sorry for them and touched their eyes. Instantly they could see! Then they followed him.  (Verses 29-34)

To see and know is to follow.  It is that simple.  Let’s join the children of God in following Jesus.  It is our work… our greatest task in the world.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out