City Moses and Desert Moses

Does writing about a proverbial desert experience seem trite? What if it's only coincidental that one of the locations in the story happens to be a desert?

I was struck by so many life lesson scenarios in the life of Moses as I read the familiar story this week that I had to pause and dig into at least one. There may be more, I should warn you.

As you may recall from the book of Exodus, Moses had a life split into three parts, each part lasting approximately forty years. The first forty were as a Prince of Egypt (we've all seen the movie...), the second forty were as a shepherd for his father-in-law in the Midian desert, and the last forty years he spent leading a million or so cranky Hebrews out of Egypt and into the land God had promised. There you go. Exodus in a nutshell.

What's interesting is that the first forty years of Moses' life are covered in Chapters 1 and 2, the next forty in chapters 2-4, and the last forty years are stretched out between the last 36 chapters of Exodus, plus the entire books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. I guess those are the ones we're meant to pay close attention to.

But there is something significant in the experiences that get merely a brief summary in the beginning of "the real story". Where Moses came from. His first eighty years of life were a very long preparation period for the history-altering later years in that God used his experiences as a royal prince in a fertile land and as a family desert shepherd to launch him into those final challenging years as the leader of God's chosen people.

After a dramatic discovery as a baby in a basket by Pharaoh's daughter, Moses was raised as a rich and privileged prince in an area of Egypt that was green and lush and filled with all the trappings of a powerful kingdom. According to ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, Moses' adoptive grandfather, the Pharaoh, would have been considered to hold absolute power over a vast empire, but he would have also shared deity with a host of Egyptian gods and goddesses, thereby serving as a sort of liaison between the human and divine worlds.

After murdering an Egyptian in a fit of righteous anger, Moses flees this life of luxury and finds a safe haven with people in the desert of Midian, just south of the land that the Israelites eventually settled under the leadership of Joshua. But that's for another day.

In the desert of Midian, Moses spent a few decades with his father-in-law's sheep, in the desert, learning how to work for himself, learning about nature, spending some quality time in solitude. He may have thought about his previous life in Egypt, when he was surrounded by temples and verdant landscapes by the Nile. He was assimilating and going through a radical reidentification process. From clean-shaven prince to hirsute shepherd. From a life of leisure to a daily search for water and concern for safety.

Meanwhile, back in Egypt...

Exodus 2:23-25 tells us what was happening while Moses was adjusting to his new identity:

²³ During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. ²⁴ God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. ²⁵ So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

The Israelites groaned and cried out. God heard them and was concerned about them.

While Moses was in the desert learning to be a new person, his people were straining under the weight of their servitude, and God was about to do something on a miraculous scale for their deliverance and His ultimate glory.

Now comes the part we can all relate to.

It's a little thing I like to call perspective.

There was no way for Moses or the Israelites in Egypt to know the exact timing that God was going to put His plan in motion. But God did. There is no way for us to know when our present circumstances will change and God will spring into action in a totally unexpected - or perhaps long awaited - fashion. But He does.

That's what sovereign means. That God is always aware of and in control of His plans and purposes for His people.

Life not moving toward your dreams as fast as you'd like? Are you suffering under unbearable circumstances? God knows and He is working out His plan exactly as He designed it, whether we're aware of the moving parts or not.

Tragic phone call? Bad news from the doctor? Unexpected turn of events that has your head spinning? Just like God looked at the Israelites and was concerned, He knows your situation and He is concerned for you.

For all we know, we are sitting right where Moses and the Israelites were: separated from our ultimate destiny, but on the brink of participating in God's glorious plans. And the best thing we can do, over and over again, is cry out to Him and press into Him. Because when we get more of God, then the waiting is bearable. The suffering is tolerable. We can breathe through the tragic and be grounded amid the crashing waves. And what He's about to do is nothing short of amazing.

• Read Exodus 1 -2. Which scenes or characters do you relate to? How can you move closer to God in your situation?

• Read Psalm 18:1-6. Have you experienced what the psalmist has written about? Can you declare with assurance that the LORD is your rock, your fortress, and your deliverer? Verses 1-3 might be good ones to memorize.

• Read Romans 8:18-39. What comfort do you receive from these verses if you belong to Christ? How does it give you perspective in your current situation?

Doing Church

In the Bible study our church is doing right now, the author asked the following question twice in one week:

"Is it possible to be a committed, growing Christian and not be an active part of His body, the local church?"

Since the name of the Bible study is "Your Church Experiencing God Together", I'm going with "no" as the answer to this one. And I'm pretty confident of the answer, even though we haven't met to have our discussion yet.

Is it possible to be a Christian and not be an active part of a local church? Absolutely. Our relationship with God is individual, and we can be certain of our eternal destination without any specific connections to a church.

That being said, one simply cannot be committed or growing outside the context of Christian community. Here are some reasons it seems impossible to me:

1. We can't be challenged in our blind spots of obedience and character development on our own. I have a certain opinion and view of myself that isn't exactly objective. Pet sins, character flaws, etc. In a vacuum, I can do damage control just fine. Among other Christians living out an example of growth and challenging me to press deeper into God for transformation, I will grow.

2. I only relate to God in my way. I need to interact with other Christians on a regular basis to learn more about God. How does He speak to you? What have you learned about Him? What has He revealed to you?

3. We can't learn to obey all the "one another" commands in Scripture without another. And without those large chunks of Scripture in my life, I'm ignoring lots of Christ's very own words. Consistent disobedience is NOT a characteristic of a committed and growing Christian.

What about you? What reasons have you found for staying connected to the body of Christ? And what have you learned from the experience of being in relationship with God's people?

If you're not part of a group of like-minded Christians in community, what's keeping you from making the commitment?

God's kingdom will expand through the obedient actions of His devoted children. Let's all work toward that goal together!

Scan

Recently I've come to really appreciate the revelatory powers of my car stereo's "scan" feature. As I drop off the non-driving teens at their destination and finally have control of the musical environment, it's the first button I hit.

"What am I in the mood for?" I ask myself. Scan.

Then I wait for a song to reveal to me what my mood is. Sometimes it's the relaxing strings of Vivaldi. Sometimes I pause to reminisce over a tune from high school on an 80's station. Then, lo and behold, who knew I was in the mood for a techno dance party in my car? Apparently I was. Huh.

Sometimes I find the book of Psalms to have a similar effect. There are poems of despair, verses of rejoicing, angst, anger, contentment. All in the middle of our Bibles.

Last week I read Psalm 16, which I've dubbed "Sweet Sixteen". It's a psalm of contentment.

Keep me safe, O God,
for in you I take refuge.

² I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing."

³ As for the saints who are in the land,
they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.

⁴ The sorrows of those will increase
who run after other gods.
I will not pour out their libations of blood
or take up their names on my lips.

⁵ LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.

⁶ The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.

⁷ I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.

⁸ I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.

⁹ Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,

¹⁰ because you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

¹¹ You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

These are my feelings right now, and this psalm revealed and articulated them for me. That's what I love about this book: someone else has run the gamut of emotions that I experience in my life, and he has already put words to it, waiting for me to come along and say, "Yes!"

If you're in a Bible-reading rut currently, try scanning the psalms to find your spiritual temperature. Then rejoice, cry out, rage, or pray to the One who inspired the psalm and your mood. Connection with Him is what it's about, regardless of the channel we end up listening to.

Fear of God

A friend and I have been on a roll discovering situations, conversations, and Scriptural passages that highlight the fear of God. It's everywhere for both of us right now for some reason.

In my systematic (not really) daily (not quite) Bible reading, I came across this psalm today:

⁷ The earth trembled and quaked,and the foundations of the mountains shook;
they trembled because he was angry.

⁸ Smoke rose from his nostrils;
consuming fire came from his mouth,
burning coals blazed out of it.

⁹ He parted the heavens and came down;
dark clouds were under his feet.

¹⁰ He mounted the cherubim and flew;
he soared on the wings of the wind.

¹¹ He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—
the dark rain clouds of the sky.

¹² Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
with hailstones and bolts of lightning.

¹³ The LORD thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High resounded.

¹⁴ He shot his arrows and scattered the enemies ,
great bolts of lightning and routed them.

¹⁵ The valleys of the sea were exposed
and the foundations of the earth laid bare
at your rebuke, O LORD,
at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

¹⁶ He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.

¹⁷ He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.

¹⁸ They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the LORD was my support.

¹⁹ He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me. (Psalm 18:7-19)

Do you see the tension of extremes in God's character? He is powerful and angry, blowing smoke from His nostrils, bringing hail and lightning, and making the mountains shake. And in that infinite, indescribable power, there is intimate connection: "He reached down from on high and took hold of me... he rescued me." That power wasn't to punish or to condemn His child; it was to protect and provide.

Both extremes are part of our God's character. Neither is diminished. Neither is relegated to just one part of Scripture. He is perfectly just, mighty, and holy. He is wholly loving, forgiving, and compassionate.

He is God.

The power that shakes the mountains and makes seas part is the same power that raised my Savior from the dead. And it's the same power that will defeat my enemy and enable me to love those around me supernaturally.

I will tremble before this God. And I will approach His throne of grace with confidence. I will do both because I know the power of my Father. And I know His love. Thanks be to God.

Chapter 38

As I prepare this week to speak to a group of women who are more than a decade behind me in life, I've been reminiscing over the lessons God has taught me since my early days of marriage and motherhood. In so doing, God has been opening my eyes to those kinds of lessons in Scripture as well. Call it the wonders of our reticular activating system or the Holy Spirit teaching me. Either way, I'm fascinated by what He reveals.

While you may be familiar with Joseph's story in the book of Genesis, you may not be entirely familiar with some of the timelines associated with his brothers. There is a fair amount of the "meanwhile, back at the ranch" syndrome going on in the novel we read in the first book of the Bible.

Let's start with what we know. Joseph is the 11th of 12 sons born to Jacob, the patriarch of the Old Testament and father of the 12 tribes of Israel. He is a dreamer and God has revealed grand plans for his future through those dreams. Big brothers do not respond well to these kinds of revelations from little brothers. Joseph's ten older brothers are no exception. In fact, as you may recall, they dump the poor teen into a hole and sell him as a slave to a foreign caravan passing by. Then they dip his coat in goat's blood, tear it up, and tell their father that a wild animal ate him. Nice.

Two of Joseph's brothers stand out in this scenario of brotherly angst: Reuben and Judah. Reuben (the biological firstborn) tries to save him, and Judah (4th in birth order) comes up with the plan to save themselves the trouble of actually killing him and make a little money while they're at it. (I'm picturing the "light bulb moment" now. An ambling line of camels passes by and Judah's eyes light up. "Hey! I have an idea!" he cries.) So Joseph ends up in the service of the head of Egypt's military; Jacob is bereft when he learns of the death of his favorite son. End of chapter.

We follow Joseph's story right along as he is the main character of chapters 37 through the end of Genesis (chapter 50), complete with dreamscapes, famines, scenes of mistaken identity, plots of intrigue, and emotional reconciliation. It really is compelling reading.

In fact, there are some real life or death scenarios and it's Judah who really steps up when the family is in dire straits because of the famine. He goes from being the "evil plan" brother to the "I'll take responsibility" brother. Look at this passage of Judah's passionate pleas to his father and to Joseph (whom he doesn't yet recognize) when lives are on the line.

⁸ Then Judah said to Israel his father, "Send the boy [Benjamin] along with me and we will go at once, so that we and you and our children may live and not die. ⁹ I myself will guarantee his safety; you can hold me personally responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life. ¹⁰ As it is, if we had not delayed, we could have gone and returned twice." (Genesis 43:8-10)

²⁷ "Your servant my father said to us, 'You know that my wife bore me two sons.²⁸ One of them went away from me, and I said, "He has surely been torn to pieces." And I have not seen him since. ²⁹ If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery.'

³⁰ "So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy's life, ³¹ sees that the boy isn't there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. ³² Your servant guaranteed the boy's safety to my father. I said, 'If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!'

³³ "Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord's slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. ³⁴ How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come upon my father." (Genesis 44:27-34)

Where did this Judah come from? A brother who has overcome resentment of his younger brother and shows compassion for a grieving father? A man who is willing to exchange his own life for the lives of his brothers instead of selling a brother's life? Might I suggest he came from Chapter 38?

In a classic cutaway scene, we find chapter 38. A summary of Judah's life while Joseph is serving the Egyptian aristocracy and sitting in a dank prison cell. Judah marries and has three sons, the oldest of which gets married to a woman named Tamar. After the death of Judah's firstborn son, Tamar is given to his younger brother. When he also dies, Judah tells his daughter-in-law to wait for the youngest son to grow up and then she can marry him. The rest of the story is rather unsavory and not the kind of story we teach in kids' Sunday School classes, but it's an important chapter in Judah's life.

Perhaps a crucial chapter.

Because Chapter 38 is where Judah hits rock bottom. He experiences the death of not one, but two children. He acts in shameful ways. His integrity is cracked. And I would suggest that he came to a point where he recognized in himself a man he never wanted to become. That changes a person.

When we walk through tragedy, when we choose sinful paths that hurt others, and when we assess our lives soberly and don't like what we see, we are changed. That's how it should be. God uses those experiences to develop our character and to instill empathy and compassion for those around us.

Just like He did in Judah.

Judah could concoct a plan to eradicate his little brother's boasting without a trace of guilt because he hadn't suffered the loss of a child yet. How could he understand how consuming the grief of a parent is who has lost a child when he was consumed with his own jealousy and resentment? How could he grasp someone else's pain when he hadn't experienced his own? All that changed in Chapter 38. And it made him the man who inspired Joseph to reveal himself and begin the restoration process between siblings.

God will use any and all circumstances in our lives - good and bad - for His glory and His purposes. Our most shameful seasons as well as our proudest accomplishments. They are threads in His perfect tapestry for His kingdom. And when they drive us deeper into our relationship with Him, we gain insight and perspective from our Creator. That's what the transformation process is all about. We are becoming what we were always meant to be: reflections of Christ in the world.

Exchanging ashes for beauty, as the prophet Isaiah said. Working all things together for the good of those who love God, as Paul wrote to the Romans. Becoming instruments of reconciliation instead of destruction. No experience wasted. No lesson unlearned. Embracing all of my life, including my disasters, my weaknesses, my humiliating experiences, as well as my victories, my blessings, and my gifts to learn and be a holy influence in the lives of those God brings into my life.

To make the most of the Chapter 38s in my life.

• Read Genesis 38. What parts of Judah's story can you relate to? What response does the story elicit in you?

• Where have you seen God change you over the years of your life?

• What painful experiences has God brought you through that you could use to comfort or teach others? Pray about those opportunities.

I was reading a story today that prompted me to pray for my son. It has been, to this point, an amazing process to watch as he transforms from boy to man before my very eyes. He's only 14, but he is already leaving certain childish ways behind him and taking on physical and social characteristics of an independent adult. In phases, of course.

In reading Joseph's story in Genesis today, I was compelled to pray for my adolescent in a new way because of insight I got from the Holy Spirit. Here's the section that stopped me:

Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, ⁷ and after a while his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, "Come to bed with me!"

⁸ But he refused. "With me in charge," he told her, "my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. ⁹ No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?" ¹⁰ And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her. (Genesis 39:6-10)

Joseph was well-built and handsome. If he had been homely and overweight would Potiphar's wife even have noticed him? And what kind of woman was this, who would keep an eye on the help and try to lure them into unsavory acts while her husband was away? But the real question that fueled my prayer was this: what kind of character had Joseph built so he could resist her advances? What had Rachel taught him about the wiles of a woman on the prowl? What kind of relationship with God did Joseph cultivate to stand so firmly on his convictions? How does a teenager (we know that Joseph was 17 or 18 at this point) have such clear perspective and self-control?

I began to pray as soon as I read this that my son would be cultivating a relationship with God that would lead to character like Joseph's. That God would reveal Himself as holy and mighty so that my son would develop a healthy fear of Him to run away from disobedience and run toward purity. Even if it means dire consequences (Joseph ultimately went to prison after being framed for seducing Potiphar's wife.), I pray that my son would choose God and His way in the moments of pressure in his life. Because in that there is the reward of God's presence and the peace of obedience.

It's too late to pray that my son not be handsome and well-built. I'm not objective, of course, but the genetics were put in motion 14 years ago and it's done. He's handsome and well-built. (And cancer-free, I might add...Yay!) However, I can be praying that he would follow God. Trust God. Know and understand God as fully as he can so that God will be his strength in difficult social situations that will surely present themselves.

I won't pray for God to be with my son. He's already answered that prayer. I will pray that Charlie will know He's with him and that he will respond to that holy presence appropriately.

Hagar

If you have been to marriage counseling - or any type of relationship intervention - you may be familiar with the following sentiments. Years ago, when my husband and I spent some time "working out the kinks" in our marriage (read: desperately trying to salvage it), I remember the hope of the initial visits. Finally, I would think to myself, I will have someone to tell him what he needs to do to get this relationship back on track. I've been doing all the work for too long. (You see where this is going, don't you?)

Wasn't I surprised when the first several sessions included only homework for me! What? How was that possible when all the problems were his fault? My indignation was strong and it took a strong and loving God to convict me over the years of taking responsibility for my own contributions to our dysfunction. And I'm grateful that He is still working on me.

Recently, when reading the story of poor Hagar and her son Ishmael, I discovered a new kinship with the wandering Egyptian servant. Let me remind you of her story:

Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so she said to Abram, "The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her."
Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, "You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.

"Your servant is in your hands," Abram said. "Do with her whatever you think best." Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.

The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?"
"I'm running away from my mistress Sarai," she answered.

Then the angel of the LORD told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her." The angel added, "I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count."

The angel of the LORD also said to her:
"You are now with child
and you will have a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
for the LORD has heard of your misery.

He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone's hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward all his brothers."

She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: "You are the God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me." That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael. (Genesis 16)

Poor Hagar. Mistreated. Given and used like property. Surrounded by and victim of quarreling and frustrated spouses. And pregnant.

She runs away to escape her crazy mistress - the one who got her into her situation in the first place - and God finds her. Isn't that His way? Finding us when we're on the run, hiding from our feelings or circumstances? Even when we don't know to run to Him, He comes to us, asking us probing, invasive questions about our situation, knowing that our answers are more for us to articulate our inner struggle than for His information.

So, Hagar is on the run from Sarai, who has cast blame on everyone in this situation she can for her frustrating plight: Abram, Hagar, in her mind, I'm sure, God Himself. And Hagar is merely a pawn. A pregnant pawn with nowhere to go. And God comforts her with the prophecy about her son. She needs that comfort because He has just told her how to deal with her sadness and desperation: Go back to your mistress and submit to her.

What?! This cannot be what Hagar expected or wanted to hear. No, Lord. You must have missed the part where she abused me. Well, that's where I would go. I have gone there. But why can Hagar accept and respond the way she does? I see a couple of attributes in her that stir my heart.

1. She was a servant. Over and over again Hagar is described as a maidservant or a servant to Sarai. And what do servants do? They submit. When we enter into a relationship with God through the atoning work of His Son Jesus, He is not just our Savior; He needs to be LORD. That means we submit. I am the creation of the Most High God, who is sovereign in the universe and in my life. He gets to do what He chooses because He is God. And sometimes He is going to do something in my life that will build my character and prepare me for a future only He sees. I am His servant. So I need to listen and respond.

2. She experienced God. In verse 13 Hagar gives God a name: The God who sees me. Like Hagar, I have received words from God that I didn't expect or want to hear, but spending the time with the One who made me and loves me, hearing His voice and being in His presence, not only gives me the strength of conviction to carry out His directives, it is its own reward! Hagar had to swallow her bruised pride and go back and submit to the one who had mistreated her. But now she knew God and that was everything!

What wounds are you nursing currently? Hurt feelings? Betrayal? Dysfunctional relationship? Shattered ego? What difference could it make in our lives if we remembered that we are servants of our Sovereign Lord and that our highest priority is to be with Him? Would the rest work itself out for His glory? Yeah, I think so, too.

• Can Jesus be our Savior but not be our Lord? What's the difference?

• Are you currently struggling with a relationship that seems lopsided or less than healthy in some way? What might God be asking you to change in order to bring Him glory in that relationship?