Let My People Go

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

After this presentation to Israel’s leaders, Moses and Aaron went and spoke to Pharaoh.  They told him, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Let my people go so they may hold a festival in my honor in the wilderness.”  “Is that so?” retorted Pharaoh.  “And who is the Lord?  Why should I listen to him and let Israel go?  I don’t know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.”  Exodus 5:1-2

If you’ve hung around God’s people for a minute or two you’ve heard how Israel was in bondage to the Egyptians, and God sent Moses to lead them away from slavery to the Promised Land.  If you’re a believer, you’ve also probably shaken your head over the way Pharaoh was so hard-hearted (and hard-headed). 

These two verses give us God’s Heavenly understanding about why Pharaoh was so cruel…and why people of all generations do such mean stuff.  The bottom line of it all is when God said (through Moses) let my people go.  Pharaoh answered with a defiant scowl:  Is that so….why should I listen…I don’t know the Lord…and I won’t let Israel go.  Pharaoh wouldn’t listen or obey, because he had no clue Who he was dealing with, or the consequences. 

The Psalmist understood this well:

Why are the nations so angry?  Why do they waste their time with futile plans?
The kings of the earth prepare for battle; the rulers plot together against the Lord and against his anointed one.  “Let us break their chains,” they cry, “and free ourselves from slavery to God.”  But the one who rules in heaven laughs.  The Lord scoffs at them.  Then in anger he rebukes them, terrifying them with his fierce fury.  Psalm 2:1-5

I’ve known some angry and violent people, a few who directed that hostility towards me.  I’ve looked into the defiant eyes of those who would have taken my head off with little (or no) remorse.  I have seen hatred which I could only describe as demonic.  I’m not an exorcist…I don’t even like movies that deal with that stuff…but I’ve seen too much to deny that spiritual evil is real.  One such violent man was part of my life during early ministry days.  After wreaking havoc on our church for a few months, his alcoholic stupor and violence ended with him committing suicide in a police standoff.  I’m no psychiatrist, but this was more than booze, and much more than angst over life’s smaller questions.  This was a man who had shaken his fist at God for so long…so angry…that anger led him to the brink of despair, and, finally over that brink into the abyss.  His last act of pulling the trigger was desperation, the mark of one who had lost all hope.  Why do the heathen rage?  Why are the nations angry?  Why is life filled with such an absence?  A void?  A tasteless treadmill of nothing? 

Let’s do the math…it is entirely the lack of knowing the Lord.  Pharaoh wasn’t the only one…name any serial-killer in history…start with Cain, make your way through Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, and all the conquerors of history, Alexander the Great, Atilla the Hun, Stalin, Hitler, Tojo, et al.  What is the thread that binds all that violent behavior?  They didn’t know the Lord of Heaven.  They would not bow before anyone but their own thrones.

Knowing the Lord is more than knowing about God; rather it is a personal relationship of friendship, based on understanding God’s love, and responding appropriately.  Cain is the chief poor example.  When he killed his brother out of envy, God’s love for Abel was assaulted.  God’s love for Cain held him responsible:

You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out!  Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. Genesis 4:7a

For You Today 

Let’s finish Moses’ words:  Let my people go….to worship God.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library. 

Title Images:  Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain. Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

The Fight Between Faith and Works

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Friday, September 7, 2018

Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works.  James 2:26(NLT)

If you ask enough people you can start to believe there is something of an informal war between the words of apostles Paul and James.  Paul is heavy on faith being the key ingredient in salvation; James seems to think good deeds or works are so important they, alone, demonstrate whether you actually possess God’s salvation.

When it comes to pressing your side of a theological question there is a danger of tipping the scales too far in either direction.  That’s not to say we ought to straddle fences because we’re afraid to take a stand.  Suffice to say, I’m glad Paul does complete the circle by showing that faith finds its expression in works:

For merely listening to the law doesn’t make us right with God. It is obeying the law that makes us right in his sight.  Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it.  They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.  And this is the message I proclaim—that the day is coming when God, through Christ Jesus, will judge everyone’s secret life.  Romans 2:13-16(NLT)

It’s true that Paul flatly states it is by faith that we are saved (Ephesians 2:8,9).  But the apostle goes on (in the following verse) to say that any faith which doesn’t blossom into good works is a useless, or only a so-called faith:

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.  Ephesians 2:10(NLT)

Further, Paul points out the uselessness of claiming faith, when the life you live declares otherwise; the people at Crete were known for a life of lies, cruelty and a gluttonous attitude towards every pleasure:

Such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are detestable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good.  Titus 1:16(NLT)

Speaking of shameful behavior, there’s been a lot of it …a LOT… uncovered in the leaders of our country; the news has been full of it lately on a scale that makes the last few years one of the most scandalous in America’s history.  That’s not to say there have not been unscrupulous and dishonest leaders at other times; but our 24-hour news cycles are filled with that kind of shame…and not much good news!  If you check with each of the ones indicted, suspected, convicted, or turned states-evidence to avoid jail time, you will hear stories of how the system got them; you won’t hear confessions that they’re Cretans, liars, gluttons and cruel to the core. 

If, when it comes to crunch-time, you won’t even admit the truth then, it’s hard to believe you were ever introduced to it!  I had the pleasure of meeting the well-known Baptist evangelist, Vance Havner in 1980.  One of his favorite expressions was: 

Faith that Fizzles at the Finish was Fickle from the First.

Bottom line:  When your actions are of kindness, gentleness, longsuffering, goodness, generosity, and care for your fellow human being, the words you use to describe your faith are the last thing anyone cares about.  To paraphrase Paul’s friend, James:

Your deeds of faith show me your faith is real.

For You Today

Live in such a way with your good works and deeds that it won’t matter who is theologically-correct about whether it is faith, or works, or both that saves you.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image: Photo Courtesy of Pixabay.com