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March 11, 2010
Exodus 5:1-23 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.’” 2 Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go.” 3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.” 4 But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!” 5 Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.” 6 That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and foremen in charge of the people: 7 “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. 8 But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Make the work harder for the men so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.” 10 Then the slave drivers and the foremen went out and said to the people, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you any more straw. 11 Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.’” 12 So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw. 13 The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, “Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw.” 14 The Israelite foremen appointed by Pharaoh’s slave drivers were beaten and were asked, “Why didn’t you meet your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?” 15 Then the Israelite foremen went and appealed to Pharaoh: “Why have you treated your servants this way? 16 Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.” 17 Pharaoh said, “Lazy, that’s what you are– lazy! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’ 18 Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.” 19 The Israelite foremen realized they were in trouble when they were told, “You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.” 20 When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, 21 and they said, “May the LORD look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” 22 Moses returned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? 23 Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”
Matthew 23:25-36 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. 27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. 29 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers! 33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.
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Books: Exodus, Matthew 2 Comments »
2 Responses to “March 11, 2010”
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March 11th, 2008 at 5:14 am
It’s incredible how, even when God speaks clearly, as He did to Moses, He still causes His will to be worked out in ways that can really test one’s faith. God has clearly told Moses that he and Aaron will tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, and that God will do miraculous signs to convince Pharaoh. So Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh, and what happens? Pharaoh increases the workload of the people, and God does no miraculous sign. Moses must have felt like such an idiot. Here he is, telling people that God has called him to deliver them from Pharaoh, that God will do miraculous signs, and absolutely nothing happens. In fact, the situation gets worse, all because he trusted God and opened his mouth. Of course, we all know how this is going to turn out, but certainly Moses and the Israelites did not, as you can see by the way Moses compains to God at the end of this passage.
Moses is not alone in this. Many of us have done things, convinced it is God’s will, only to find things getting worse instead of better. We can either convince ourselves that it must not have been God, and give up; we can wrack our brains trying to figure out why God acts the way He does, or we can trust that God, with His omniscient perspective, knows exactly when the best timing is that will give Him the most glory and increase our faith the most. All I can say, to Moses and to you, if you are in that situation, is “Hang in there, do not give up believing, and you will surely see the deliverance of the Lord.”
March 11th, 2008 at 6:55 am
It seems to me that the heart of what Jesus is saying to the Pharisees was in yesterdays’s reading “you have neglected the more important matters of the law- justice, mercy and faithfulness.” This is reminsent of Micah 6:8″He has showed you O man what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with you God.”
It always seems that religeous observance is more attractive to us than fulfilling the real demands of God. Because their focus was wrong, the Pharisees slipped into all the other problems that are mentioned. It is so easy for us to slip into doing what the Pharisees did, and to think that it is all about religeous observance, this is why being a Christian is so tough.