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Exodus…

At the end of the previous post, The Great Egress, the million or so Hebrew slaves were headed toward safety on the East side of the Red Sea (Sea of Reeds?). Pharaoh’s stubbornness had required “acts of God,” natural catastrophes to which he finally succumbed. He succumbed to the reality that Yahweh was sovereign and he, in fact, was not. His arrogance and stubbornness had a direct effect on his people, his subjects, to the point that they urged the Hebrews to leave as quickly as possible, taking booty with them (Exodus 12:33). As we read world history, we see time and again “sovereign” kings confused as to who exactly is sovereign. And their subjects bear the brunt of their misguided autocracy.

This rescue from Egypt is known as The Exodus, the primary event of the Hebrew Scriptures’ redemptive history. It was how God fulfilled his promise to the patriarchs (Abraham et al.) of their role in the world and his restoration project. They would become a great nation and a blessing to the rest of the world. It’s also the root of the annual Passover festival, a celebration of God’s justice and mercy (hesed).

As the Hebrews reached safety, they broke into song, praising Yahweh for the rescue. Typical of many Psalms, the song recapped the events of the rescue, praised God for his salvation and redemption from the Egyptians, and acknowledged God’s sovereignty as a faithful God and king (see Exodus 15). A particularly powerful acknowledgment can be found in the middle of the song…

Who among the gods
    is like you, Lord?
Who is like you—
    majestic in holiness,
awesome in glory,
    working wonders?

These are words of a kingdom people acknowledging the majesty of their (newfound?) king. These are words from a people who are grasping the significance that they are subjects of a King of kings. These are words of a people that God will involve in his restoration project. These are the words of a people who were beginning to understand the God who sent this message to them while they were still in captivity…

“I am the Lord [Yahweh], and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.” (Exodus 6:6-7)

Their God, Yahweh, was with them.

How was he with them? God manifested himself as a cloud pillar during the day and a pillar of fire at night. It’s how God led them and comforted them with his presence. The pillars were visible expressions of an invisible God. We must not miss the significance that the great Jewish theologian turned Christian Apostle, Paul, used a similar reference in his letter to the Church of Colossae…

 Now Christ is the visible expression of the invisible God. (Colossians 1:15, JB Phillips)

God’s presence with the people was a big deal. In the beginning, when things were “on earth as in heaven,” God walked with his created humanity. When the humans disobeyed God and desired to be like Him, the relationship with God was broken. This is why we say we live in a broken world.

Through Moses and the pillars, Yahweh was leading his people home – home being Canaan, the land where they lived before the Joseph debacle. Canaan was the land promised to the original people called to be kingdom ambassadors – Abraham and his descendants…

“I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”  (Genesis 17:7-8)

These million or so freed slaves were descendants of Abraham. The covenant applied to them, though likely most didn’t know of Yahweh or the covenant. Keep in mind that when Moses conversed with God through the burning bush, he didn’t know Him or his name, either. It would be fair to assume he was unfamiliar with the Abrahamic covenant as well.

See where this is going? These former slaves, dependents of the people God chose to be “blessed to be a blessing,” were likely unaware of their calling. A million or so people. As mentioned above, regarding the song they sang, they were probably just starting to get a glimpse of this God that rescued them. They had trusted Him thus far, it seems, but that doesn’t mean they knew him. Likely, they were simply trusting the God of Moses (which is pretty significant trust, by the way). They were just beginning to know and trust the creator God.

Yahweh was their God, and they were his people. But they had yet to learn what that actually looked like!

The Great Egress…

In the late 1800s, Phineas Taylor (P.T.) Barnum, known for his flamboyant and often deceptive marketing, decided to create a “memorable” experience for his audience. He placed a sign at one of his shows that read “This Way to the Great Egress.” The sign was placed at an exit, but it was cleverly designed to confuse and disorient the audience. People, thinking they were being directed to something important or special, followed the sign, only to find themselves outside the venue.

It could be folklore, but it’s a great story anyway. Here’s a little-known fact. I’m related to P.T. Barnum. Yes, the greatest showman! I don’t know how I’m related, but I remember meeting an “Aunt Barnum” years ago.

We have been working our way through a “working document” I created for myself – created to help me understand, capsulate, and articulate the kingdom of God that was central to Jesus’ message. Two-thirds of Jesus’ parables were about the kingdom of God – what it’s like and how things work in the kingdom. Understanding the nature of the kingdom is critical to understanding who God is as the King.

Given interruptions related to the holidays, etc., I suppose a brief recap of the ground we’ve covered thus far is necessary. We started with the creation of the universe, God’s’ kingdom – the heavens and earth. Humans were given “say” over God’s earth as stewards and caretakers. At the time of creation, it wouldn’t be a leap to assume God’s will (reign) was on earth as in heaven. Then distraction! The humans, God’s image-bearers, became distracted by the satan’s lure for them to be like God. Adam and Eve lost sight of their calling and their action created fissures in the kingdom on Earth.

God embarked on a project of new creation. He desired to continue to use his created image-bearers to be stewards and workers in the restoration or new creation project. He selected Abram (who became Abraham) to father a people who would serve His purposes in the larger plan of restoration. They were chosen to be his kingdom people, to be a blessing to the rest of the world – ambassadors of sorts.

Abraham’s descendants got distracted, though (see Joseph, Thermuthis, and Moses as well as Moses), ending up in Egyptian captivity for 400 years as slaves. Abraham’s descendants, the kingdom people, found themselves working seven days a week under brutality and brutal conditions. Tyrannical kings don’t get to abuse image-bearers and get away with it. Yahweh, the Lord of lords and King of kings had enough and stepped in to rescue his people. He chose Moses to be the leader who would confront Pharaoh, his adoptive father, and lead the people to freedom.

We know the story. God sent Moses, accompanied by his brother Aaron, with a message for Pharaoh, the king of Egypt…

Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go so that they may worship me in the wilderness.

Pharaoh was not about to lose his workforce, so he refused. The refusal led to a plague on the nation and its people. Pharaoh’s response to the plague? He dug in his heels (his heart was hardened) with more refusal, leading to more plagues – ten to be exact. In the final plague, God sent an angel of death to all firstborns (humans and animals alike), a judgment on Pharaoh, his people, and their gods.

On the night of the plague of the firstborn, God gave the Hebrews traveling instructions: Kill and roast a young lamb, smear some of its blood on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they gathered to eat the lamb; no time for the bread to rise, so no yeast. Eat the meal with sandals on and staff in hand, ready to move. Seeing the blood on the doors, the angel of death would “pass over” the house, sparing firstborns.

It was the Lord’s Passover (Exodus 12:11). Passover has been celebrated annually by people of Hebrew descent, Abraham’s descendants, ever since – approximately 3500 years.

Pharaoh ultimately let the kingdom people go, though he changed his mind, leading to the Red Sea fiasco that was the demise of his troops. The whole thing is known as the Exodus.

Exodus | ˈeksədəs |: a mass departure of people, especially emigrants

It was a great exodus, most central in the story of God.* I suppose it could also be called the great egress (the action of going out of or leaving a place), but I doubt it will catch on. Through the Exodus, God revealed that His project of renewal would continue its advancement toward “on earth as in heaven.” God’s kingdom people would remain commissioned to bring blessings and shine as a light to the world. The Exodus people were to be his…

Ambassadors!

* An example of the centrality of the Exodus story is the Psalms of Hallel (Psalms 113-118), also called the Egyptian Hallel, sung during the annual Passover meal (seder).

My Sister, the Good Neighbor…

My sister, Jackie Chattopadhyay, left the earth on December 11, 2024, after a 35-year battle with, among other medical challenges, a debilitating autoimmune deficiency that left her confined to a wheelchair and a motorized scooter for the past 20 or so years. A memorial service was held to celebrate her life on January 4, 2025, at the Church that gave her life and purpose, Nativity Lutheran in St. Anthony Village, MN.

I had the privilege to speak at the service. Her son, Rob, asked if I would share a few stories from our childhood. Jackie was one year older than me (actually, 360 days) so we had a lot of experiences together.

So, I shared a couple of stories. I talked about a time when we were three and four, respectively. Our twenty-something parents were occupied running a dairy farm, often leaving us to our own demises and “demise” we did. One day, it was decided (I assume by my sister) that we should bathe in a five-gallon pail filled with used oil from the farm tractors, starting with the dunking of my head in the pail to wash my hair, I presume. It got some laughs, especially from her grandkids.

And I told the story of how we, unplanned, gloriously tag-teamed the humiliation of our bus’s resident bully. As a seventh-grader, the event proved that I apparently didn’t understand that discretion is the better part of valor. The event evidenced my sister’s propensity toward justice. The story was laced with a fair amount of humor that’s nearly impossible to capture in a blog post, so I won’t try (though you can hear it here, starting at 18:00 minutes).

Jackie with her family (captured by my daughter, Melissa)

When Rob asked me to share some stories, I told him that I really wanted to talk about my sister as a faithful worker in God’s Kingdom.  

As I pondered what I might share at my sister’s memorial service, Jesus’ Parable of the Bags of Gold, recorded by his disciple, Matthew, kept resonating in my mind. It’s one of many parables Jesus told describing the kingdom of God. The parable is a story of a man who was leaving on a journey. While gone, he entrusted his wealth to three servants. He gave the first servant five bags of gold, the second received two bags, and the third a single bag.

The man gave no instructions and went away for a long, undetermined length of time.

Upon his return, the master settled accounts with his servants. The servants given five and two bags of gold apparently invested what was trusted to them, doubling their investment. The third did nothing.

The parable reminds me of a statement I once heard a pastor say, “Two questions will be asked of us at the end of our life: What did you do with my Son, Jesus Christ? And what did you do with the rest of your life?”

We live in a culture that focuses on size – the number of bags of gold we possess, ROI, etc.  We live in a culture that tends to lift up, even deify, those with natural and physical abilities.  But what of people whose medical challenges strap them physically?  

In our culture, such limitations can invalidate one’s role in society.  Invalidate and invalid come from the same root.  My sister and I talked about this once as we discussed our father’s lot in life, becoming an “invalid” after he suffered a debilitating stroke.

In terms of Jesus’ parable, it might seem that Jackie got a smaller bag of gold, given her medical challenges.  That misses the point.  What Jackie did with God’s Son, Jesus Christ, we knew – she followed Him.  What she did for the rest of her life is inspirational.

Jesus distilled all of Scripture down to two statements: Love God and love neighbor.  

Jimmy Carter often told the story of a Cuban immigrant pastor named Eloy Cruz, a man who focused his life and ministry on Puerto Rican immigrants to the United States, people who were among the poorest of the poor. President Carter asked his friend Elroy about the secret of his success as a pastor. Cruz responded in humility, “Señor Jimmy, we only need to have two loves in life—for God and for the person who happens to be standing in front of us at any time.”

My sister had an innate ability to see the person standing in front of her at any time as her neighbor.

When I traveled for my engineering/marketing job years ago, I would run into people in airports who knew my sister (it happened more than once!). It became evident in conversations that these were not mere acquaintances. These were people to whom Jackie had been a neighbor. When my dad was in ICU after his stroke 25 years ago, I remember Jackie always seemed to know someone in the family waiting room. Again, not just acquaintances, but people to whom she had been a neighbor. As I shared at her Memorial Service, it occurred to me that there were people on the other side of the camera at their senior living residence who were likely watching because Jackie had been a neighbor to them.

Back to Jesus’ parable.  The third servant did nothing with the single bag of gold, maybe thinking, “What can I do with this small lot given to me?”  Jackie, given her medical limitations, could easily have said, “What can I do with the lot given me.”  She did not.

Here’s the fascinating part of the parable.  The master’s response to the two servants who put their money to work was exactly the same:

The master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”

If I understand the intent of Jesus’ story, I think we can assume that God’s words of welcome to Mary Magdalene, St. Augustine, Martin Luther, Mother Theresa, Jimmy Carter, and Jackie Chattopadhyay were all essentially the same:

Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things. Come and share your master’s happiness!

Happy New Year

Several years ago, I thought an interesting exercise would be a read through the Apostle Paul’s Epistles in the order in which they were written, a period of about 15-20 years.  I thought it would be beneficial to get a sense of Paul’s core teachings and understand how his theology developed through the years.  I began the experience with 1 Thessalonians, thought to be one of his first letters.  Below is Eugene Peterson’s introduction to the Thessalonian letters in The Message paraphrase.  It seems an appropriate read as we move into a new year…

The way we conceive the future sculpts the present, gives contour and tone to nearly every action and thought through the day. If our sense of future is weak, we live listlessly. Much emotional and mental illness and most suicides occur among men and women who feel that they “have no future.”

The Christian faith has always been characterized by a strong and focused sense of future, with belief in the Second Coming of Jesus as the most distinctive detail. From the day Jesus ascended into heaven, his followers lived in expectancy of his return. He told them he was coming back. They believed he was coming back. They continue to believe it. For Christians, it is the most important thing to know and believe about the future.

The practical effect of this belief is to charge each moment of the present with hope. For if the future is dominated by the coming again of Jesus, there is little room left on the screen for projecting our anxieties and fantasies. It takes the clutter out of our lives. We’re far more free to respond spontaneously to the freedom of God.

All the same, the belief can be misconceived so that it results in paralyzing fear for some, shiftless indolence in others.  Paul’s two letters to the Christians in Thessalonica, among much else, correct such debilitating misconceptions, prodding us to continue to live forward in taut and joyful expectancy for what God will do next in Jesus.

May you live 2025 in taut and joyful expectancy!

Merry Christmas!

The following was written a decade or so ago by Jim Wallis, the founder and editor of Sojourners magazine. I read it periodically as a reminder of the significance of what we celebrate today in the Western world (and January 7th in Eastern traditions). This perfectly captures the essence of what we celebrate each Christmas…

What is Christmas? It is the celebration of the Incarnation, God’s becoming flesh — human — and entering into history in the form of a vulnerable baby born to a poor, teenage mother in a dirty animal stall. Simply amazing. That Mary was homeless at the time, a member of a people oppressed by the imperial power of an occupied country whose local political leader, Herod, was so threatened by the baby’s birth that he killed countless children in a vain attempt to destroy the Christ child, all adds compelling historical and political context to the Advent season.

The theological claim that sets Christianity apart from any other faith tradition is the Incarnation. God has come into the world to save us. God became like us to bring us back to God and show us what it means to be truly human.

That is the meaning of the Incarnation. That is the reason for the season.

In Jesus Christ, God hits the streets.

It is theologically and spiritually significant that the Incarnation came to our poorest streets. That Jesus was born poor, later announces his mission at Nazareth as “bringing good news to the poor,” and finally tells us that how we treat “the least of these” is his measure of how we treat him and how he will judge us as the Son of God, radically defines the social context and meaning of the Incarnation of God in Christ. And it clearly reveals the real meaning of Christmas.

The other explicit message of the Incarnation is that Jesus the Christ’s arrival will mean “peace on earth, good will toward men.” He is “the mighty God, the everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace.” Jesus later calls on his disciples to turn the other cheek, practice humility, walk the extra mile, put away their swords, love their neighbors — and even their enemies — and says that in his kingdom, it is the peacemakers who will be called the children of God. Christ will end our warring ways, bringing reconciliation to God and to one another.

Emmanuel – God with us!

Moses

In a previous post, we were introduced to Moses, raised by the daughter of the king of Egypt, Pharaoh. She had rescued him as a three-month-old floating down the Nile River in an ark. His parents had placed him in the little ark instead of the alternative of being thrown into the Nile to die per an edict of Pharaoh. Moses’ biological mother was his wet nurse, unbeknownst to Pharaoh and his daughter. The beginning of his life was really quite ironic.

It was Pharaoh’s daughter who named him Moses, giving him a name with Egyptian roots. According to the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, he was given the Egyptian name Mouses “for the Egyptians call water by the name of Mo, and such as are saved out of it, by the name of Uses: so by putting these two words together, they imposed this name upon him.”1

Although he grew up as Egyptian royalty, Moses was apparently aware of his Hebrew heritage. As he grew older, he became increasingly troubled by the harsh treatment of the Israelite slaves. Given his adoption into the Egyptian royal family and his identification with the oppressed Hebrews, Moses grew up with a dual identity. Who else do we know with a dual identity?

When Moses was about 40 years old, he witnessed an Egyptian slave master beating an enslaved Hebrew. In a moment of righteous indignation, Moses killed the Egyptian and hid the body in the sand. The next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting and tried to intervene, but they rejected his help, asking if he intended to kill them as he did the Egyptian. Realizing that his act of violence was known, Moses feared for his life, and for good reason…

Pharaoh, hearing of the incident, sought to kill Moses.

Moses fled Egypt and escaped to the land of Midian, located in the desert region east of Egypt. In Midian, Moses met the seven daughters of Reuel (also called Jethro), who he defended from some harassing shepherds. In gratitude, Jethro invited Moses to stay with his family. Moses eventually married Zipporah, one of Jethro’s daughters, and they had a son named Gershom because he was a foreigner in a foreign land.

Moses spent the next 40 years in Midian, living as a shepherd.

While tending Jethro’s sheep in the wilderness near Mount Horeb, “the mountain of God,” an unusual burning bush caught Moses’ eye. It’s my understanding that burning bushes are common in arid climates. What made this one unusual was the appearance of an angel in the bush. Oh, and the bush wasn’t consumed. I guess that might qualify as unusual. So Moses thought what any of us might have thought…

I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up. (Exodus 3:3)

As he approached, God garnered Moses’ attention by calling his name from within the burning bush – another uncommon occurrence. God provided further identification (as if a non-consumed burning bush with an angel and God’s voice wasn’t enough!). God revealed Himself as the God of his ancestry – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God had Moses’ attention.

God proceeded to share with Moses His plan to deliver the Israelites from Egyptian slavery and oppression. He chose Moses to be the leader who would confront Pharaoh, his adoptive father, and lead the people to freedom. Moses did not feel up to the task, questioning his ability to fulfill this mission. He had concerns. And questions. For example, Moses said to God…

Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” then what shall I tell them? (Exodus 3:13)

God responded with the well-known statement: I AM WHO I AM.  This is what you are to say to the Israelites: “I AM has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:14)

In this blog series, an exhaustive discussion of this powerful exchange is beyond the scope of our journey to understand the kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed. A couple of things are worthy of consideration, however. First, God did not respond to Moses’ question with a scolding theological reply. “Which god are you” was a fair question, given that the Hebrew slaves had lived 400 years in a polytheistic culture of gods and temples associated with different aspects of life, nature, or the cosmos (i.e., sun gods, rain gods, etc.). I always find it fascinating that God met Moses and the Hebrews at their point of theological understanding.

Capturing the essence of the statement I AM WHO I AM could consume an entire book. Essentially, it declares God’s eternal, self-sufficient, and unchanging nature, showing that He is independent of all creation, beyond human comprehension, and the ultimate foundation of all existence. Yahweh is derivative of the I AM statement. See why a book might be required?

Theologically, Moses is referred to as an archetype of Jesus. In short, in the kingdom of God narrative, an archetype is a person who serves as a model pointing to a greater fulfillment in God’s redemptive plan. Both Moses and King David are seen as archetypes of Jesus the Messiah, foreshadowing His role as the ultimate deliverer, king, and mediator.

While pondering Moses’ story, it occurred to me that his dual identity as Egyptian royalty with the roots of the common people is an archetype of Jesus. Thus, the question, “Who else do we know with a dual identity?” This is Advent season when we consider the significance of Royalty taking on the form of commonness.

The King came near!!

1Josephus, Flavius. The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (p. 491-2). http://www.DelmarvaPublications.com. Kindle Edition.

Am I an artist?

Apparently!

Inspiro Arts Alliance is an international ministry that exists to cultivate and empower artists globally to spark beautiful worship and witness among the least reached. One of their core desires is to nurture artists and to live incarnationally in their com­munities, using their local art forms to inspire local Jesus followers to worship Him in Spirit and in truth.  They reached out to me a couple months ago after discovering my blog post, Woodworking and God’s Poiema. They wanted to include a version of that post in their November newsletter, VIVID.

So, let me introduce you to the e-version of their new edition of VIVID magazine, including my article with the same title as the blog post. The magazine is one of many resources Inspiro Arts Alliance uses as they inspire, train, and equip a global movement of artists living out God’s beauty among the world’s least reached.  From their reveal email…

This edition of VIVID focuses on recognizing God’s masterpieces in art, faith, and community. Do you see yourself as a masterpiece? Nowadays, people have distorted self-images as they are bombarded by social media and the pressure of status, whether financially, in their jobs, or socially. Certain groups of people are also looked down upon if they are not the majority or if they are different. This issue delves into what the Bible says about masterpieces so people can find their worth in God’s truth. We pray that the articles empower readers to base their identities in God while also showing them examples of ways to help others see themselves as God sees them. 

You will need to scroll down a bit to find the article. For Americans, this will give you something to do as you recover from your Thanksgiving meal. For the rest of the world – something to read and consider on a typical Thursday.

So there you have it – I’m officially an artist!

Joseph, Thermuthis, and Moses

If you have never watched Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, you must. Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber musically tell the story of how the Israelites ended up in Egypt instead of Canaan, the land provided for Abraham and his descendants. It is brilliantly and humorously done and guaranteed to help one remember the story.

We know the story pretty well. Jacob (renamed Israel – see Distracted) had twelve sons. Joesph, the eleventh son, was by far his favorite. Joseph seemed aware of his place in his father’s eye and tended to push his older brothers’ buttons (if you have a younger brother, you might know of what I speak). He had dreams of them one day bowing down to him. It’s one thing to have such dreams. It’s quite another to tell one’s older brothers about them. Oh, and apparently, he had an ornate coat that his brothers envied.

One day, Joseph was tasked by his dad to check on his nomadic sheep-herding brothers, which he did while wearing his special, ornate coat. Envy and jealousy reared their ugly heads, and murder by brothers was imminent. The prudence of the oldest brother, Ruben, prevailed and Joseph’s life was spared. However, the other ten brothers sold him to slave traders headed to Egypt. How do you explain a missing favorite son? Smear his ornate coat with a slaughtered goat’s blood to convince Jacob that some ferocious animal must have devoured Joseph.

If you are thinking that things are not “on earth as in heaven,” you would be right.

Fast forward a lot of years. We find Joseph, aided by his God-given ability to interpret dreams, high in Pharaoh’s administration as the Secretary of Agriculture, overseeing preparation for and wheat distribution during a seven-year famine. The drought reached as far east as Canaan, forcing the brothers to grovel before Joseph, unbeknownst, for sustenance. With identities revealed and forgiveness granted, the entire clan of Jacob relocated to Egypt, settling on land provided by Pharaoh.1 (If you prefer more detail, read all this in Genesis 37-47.)

It might have now seemed like “on earth as in heaven,” but nope…

A couple hundred years after their relocation to Egypt, the tide shifted. A new king (a Pharaoh) “to whom Joseph meant nothing” came to power, recognized a potential threat the foreigners could pose, and acted swiftly and shrewdly. He enslaved them. Oppressive slave masters worked them ruthlessly, I assume seven days a week. They worked in the fields, in brick manufacturing, and as laborers for Pharaoh’s building projects.

Interestingly, the more the Israelites were oppressed, the more they multiplied. Pharaoh feared the expanding population of slaves might rebel and join Egypt’s enemies should war break out. So he acted with murderous shrewdness. He demanded that midwives kill baby boys at birth. The midwives feared God (and presumably not Pharaoh) and refused. When asked why the refusal, the midwives explained that the vigorous Hebrew women popped the babies out before they could arrive to assist.

Pharaoh ratcheted up his determination to control the population of the foreigners. He demanded that all baby boys immediately be cast into the Nile (there is no indication in scripture as to how this was accomplished).

Enter Moses into God’s redemption project

As you might recall, the baby Moses was hidden from the authorities for three months. When he became too active to conceal, his parents crafted a plan to spare his life as long as possible. This is how Jewish historian Flavius Josephus described the plan…

They made an ark of bulrushes, after the manner of a cradle, and of a bigness sufficient for an infant to be laid in without being too straitened: they then daubed it over with slime, which would naturally keep out the water from entering between the bulrushes, and put the infant into it, and setting it afloat upon the river, they left its preservation to God; so the river received the child, and carried him along.2

Scripture indicates that Moses’ sister followed her little brother as the ark floated along the Nile to see what might happen to him. Pharaoh’s daughter (Thermuthis, according to Josephus) found the baby boy while bathing in the Nile. She recognized the crying baby as a Hebrew child in need of a meal. The infant’s watching sister offered to get a Hebrew wet nurse to feed the child. The wet nurse was, of course, his very own mother. Scripture indicates that he became the son of Pharaoh’s daughter…

When the child grew older, she [Moses’ mother] took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water” (Moses sounds like the Hebrew for draw out). Exodus 2:10, NIV.

Josephus, the ever-embellisher, tells the story this way…

Hereupon it was that Thermuthis imposed this name Mouses upon him, from what had happened when he was put into the river; for the Egyptians call water by the name of Mo, and such as are saved out of it, by the name of Uses: so by putting these two words together, they imposed this name upon him. And he was, by the confession of all, according to God’s prediction, as well for his greatness of mind as for his contempt of difficulties, the best of all the Hebrews, for Abraham was his ancestor of the seventh generation.2

Through scripture and the historian Josephus, we see God’s hand in the continuation of his redemption / new creation project, though not without a fair amount of messiness. I suppose that should be expected, given his desire to continue to use flawed image-bearers to carry out his purposes. The descendants of Abraham, God’s kingdom people, were still called to be his ambassadors to the nations.

So the story continues…

1It should be noted that Jacob’s clan (Israel) and the Egyptians had a shared ancestry in Noah (see the reference to Ham in Psalm 105:23). Shared origins remind us that Israel was chosen from among their related clans. They were no better or righteous. God simply chose them for a particular task.

2Josephus, Flavius. The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (p. 491-2). http://www.DelmarvaPublications.com. Kindle Edition.

Distracted…

I can easily get distracted and sidetracked. I’m guessing I’m not alone. Though never diagnosed with an attention disorder, I would be willing to bet I might land somewhere on the spectrum. The advent of the internet has not been my friend. My top CliftonStrengths (Intellection, Connectedness, Ideation, Context, Input) make me ripe and susceptible to internet rabbit trails that deter me from intended purposes. Again, I’m guessing I’m not alone. It must be a human vulnerability that the satan is well aware of. Distraction might be his best work!

Consider how he distracted the original humans in the Garden.

They were tasked with caring for part of God’s kingdom, the earth they inhabited. The satan distracted them with a shiny object, and they bit. The result? They lost focus of the original intent to serve as kingdom stewards. It reminds me of the old saying:

When distracted by the swarming alligators, it’s hard to remember that the original intent was to drain the swamp.

Not only did Adam and Eve lose sight of their calling, but their action created fissures in the kingdom on Earth. The created order was broken. So, God embarked on a project of new creation. His desire to continue to use his created image-bearers to be stewards and workers in the redemption project, even though they got distracted, is fascinating. As discussed in the last post…

God chose Abram and his descendants to be catalysts in the redemption of the kingdom. They would be workers for God’s kingdom. God would bless Abram and his descendants for the express purpose of, in turn, blessing the image-bearers around them. Abram and his offspring were to help reestablish God’s will “on earth as in heaven.” Ambassadors for the kingdom, as it were.

Well, the people got distracted again. They appeared to have lost sight of the original intent as ambassadors. They liked the idea of being blessed. But being a blessing to the peoples around them somehow got lost. As we all tend to do, they got distracted by helping God in ways he didn’t ask. A synopsis…

God promised Abram that his descendants would outnumber the stars in the sky or the sands on the seashore. Accordingly, God renamed him Abraham, meaning “father of many [nations].” Abraham got distracted by the reality that he and his wife, Sarah, were very old, beyond child-bearing age. Taking things into their own hands, Sarah suggested that Abraham sleep with her servant, Hagar. Cultural custom allowed such an arrangement, deeming the child “theirs” if the baby was birthed onto Sarah’s lap. Abraham bit, and Ishmael was born.

Ultimately, Abraham and Sarah had a child of their own – Isaac. Once Issac was weaned (evidence that he had avoided the dangers of infant mortality?), Sarah had Hagar and Ishmael sent away. But God, in his generosity, took care of them in their exile. Arabic Islam tradition holds that Abraham fathered their nation through Ishmael.

Issac fathered twins Jacob and Esau. Esau was the first-born and thus the rightful heir. Jacob was a hustler and a deceiver (his name actually means “deceiver”). Apparently, his mom, Rebekah, was a deceiver too. Together, they tricked Isaac into giving Jacob, her favorite, the first-born blessing.

However, the heir apparent to the Abrahamic “blessed to be a blessing” calling got sidetracked for a few years. A lot of years, in fact. Escaping the wrath of Esau, Jacob ended up on his uncle Laban’s sheep ranch. The hustler negotiated a deal with Laban for the hand of his daughter Rachel, who he fell for down at the watering hole. Jacob agreed to work for his uncle for seven years to earn Rachel as his wife. However, Laban tricked the trickster, and Jacob found himself married to Rachel’s sister, Leah. Argh!

Long story short, Jacob ended up with Rachel as his wife, too, but it cost him several more years of his life serving Laban. As you can imagine, being married to two sisters created some interesting familial dynamics. God’s image-bearing ambassadors were not only sidetracked but appeared headed for derailment. Ultimately, the now humbled Jacob returned with his dysfunctional tribe to his homeland to face Esau. Much to his surprise, Esau ran to embrace Jacob!

(As I write, I can’t help but think of Jesus’ parable of the prodigal brothers. In this case, it is the older brother who surprisingly runs to embrace the wayward younger brother. Perhaps he was stepping into the role his late father once held.)

After returning to his homeland, Jacob wrestled with a man (some think it was God or an angel) for an entire night. (Who among us hasn’t wrestled with God in some manner over the years?) Jacob would not let the man go, even after experiencing a significant hip pointer. He demanded God’s blessing, WHICH HE RECEIVED! God, in his generosity, continued to work with his flawed image-bearing ambassadors and recognized Jacob as the rightful heir.

God renamed Jacob “Israel.” Israel means “let God prevail” or “struggle with God.”  God changed Jacob’s name to signify that he had become someone different and was now seeking God instead of relying on deception.

The name Israel was significant because it represented the covenant between God and Jacob and the promise that he would receive the same blessings as Abraham and Isaac.  The mission of Abraham’s descendants to bless the nations was back in motion. The redemption project was back on track.

Or was it?

On Earth as in Heaven…

In the previous post, I described an upcoming series exploring my broad understanding of the kingdom of God, the kingdom Jesus ushered in and proclaimed…

Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:14-15)

What was this kingdom that Jesus proclaimed, and why didn’t his hearers ask, “What kingdom?” So, apparently, they had some kind of understanding of God’s kingdom. It wasn’t necessarily “news” to Jesus’ first-century hearers. However, it appears that Jesus’ proclamation was that his news about the kingdom might be new and fresh – good news.

Let’s start with an understanding of God’s kingdom through the ages.

We should start with the description of a kingdom. Dallas Willard in The Scandal of the Kingdom1 offers a simple definition of a kingdom…

A kingdom is a society of people with a structure in which there is one person, a king or queen, to whom all the citizens offer loyalty, service and respect.  The sovereign’s part of this relationship is to provide care, protection, and service for the good of the people.  

In his book The Divine Conspiracy2, Willard describes the kingdom of God as the range of God’s effective will, where what God wants done is done. This “effective reign” is present wherever God’s will is actively carried out. To Willard, the kingdom of God is not just a spiritual or internal experience but encompasses all aspects of life, including social, political, and personal domains. 

Genesis 1. Starting with the creation story, which we are quite familiar with, we see God as the creator. His kingdom encompassed the entire universe, including the third rock from the sun that we inhabit. To the ancients, God resided in the heavens (note “the heavens,” not heaven). One could also say he lived in “the sky.” Since the sky, to them, was everything above the Earth (think atmosphere), God wasn’t far away as we tend to believe today. At the time of creation, it wouldn’t be a leap to assume God’s will (reign) was on earth as in heaven (where have we heard that before?).

Integral to God’s creative activity was the creation of his image-bearers (Genesis 1:27)…

So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

He entrusted his image-bearers to care for his earthly kingdom according to his will. (Think, Thy will be done on earth as in heaven.) They were tasked as stewards to care for the Earth in a way that reflected God’s heart – both environmental and relational stewardship. By definition, a steward is someone employed to manage another’s property. They were workers in and for God’s kingdom. They were to be fruitful and multiply, adding to the number of those serving the kingdom.

Genesis 3. We know what happened next. The image-bearers decided they had a better idea of how to steward the planet. With the encouragement of the serpent, they decided they could manage things as well as God. The serpent got Adam and Eve to take their eyes off God and his will with an enticement to “become like God” (Genesis 3:5). The rest is, as we say, history.

Their decision (sin) meant that the kingdom of God on earth was broken and in need of redemption. One result was that the relational closeness Adam and Eve experienced with God was broken. God’s kingdom didn’t cease to exist. God was still the king of the universe. But, things were not on earth as in heaven! The entirety of the scriptures post-Genesis 3 is the story of God’s redemption (new creation) project, using his image-bearers to assist in the process.

Genesis 12. God kicked his restoration project into full swing by singling out Abram as his ambassador…

2“I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you.”

God chose Abram and his descendants to be catalysts in the redemption of the kingdom. They would be workers for God’s kingdom. God would bless Abram and his descendants for the express purpose of, in turn, blessing the image-bearers around them. Abram and his offspring were to help reestablish God’s will “on earth as in heaven.” Ambassadors for the kingdom, as it were.

This King/ambassador relationship with these kingdom people was a covenantal relationship, sealed by God himself (see Smoking Pot in the Old Testament). There is a theme/thread woven throughout the entire redemption story known as the covenant formula. The formula is integral to gaining an understanding of and seeing the kingdom of God throughout the biblical narrative. It can be found throughout scripture as some form of…

I will be your God, and you will be my people.

We will pick up Abram’s story in the next post. Meanwhile, you might want to check out the wealth and richness of covenant formula instances. I created a Google Doc with a list of such Biblical occurrences for your perusal. (When I discovered this thematic thread, it was a game-changer!)

1 Willard, D. (2024). The scandal of the kingdom : how the parables of Jesus revolutionize life with God. Zondervan Books.

2 Willard, Dallas. The divine conspiracy: rediscovering our hidden life in God. HarperOne, 1998.