DAY 27

DOING LIFE

Exodus 16 & 17 and Matthew 18:1-20

Living life; getting up, getting food, getting work, getting rest, getting help; it can all be a bit much. Today we read of the Israelites complaining, grumbling quarreling. I myself am a master at this trait. We read of Jesus listing off a series of “to-do’s” with regard to life. There is a common thread. You won’t be surprised (after all this is a Bible Blog). The thread is God.

Exodus 16-17 the people display this character trait of complaining. One time I was sick, very sick. As the days went by I began to complain; apparently I had not been for some days. My wife commented I must be feeling better as I was getting back to normal. Ouch! We all do it, complain that is. There is however a common theme in the Exodus reading: failure to turn to God.

Consider all that God has done at this point for the people and for Moses. Shall I list them? The Ten Plagues that freed them from Egypt in which they were given gifts of gold and more by the Egyptians. Then there is the crossing through the Red Sea. Then there is the Pillar of Cloud/Fire.

The point is simple. God has and is providing. Might they, when they needed food and water, turned to God rather than against God? They (and we) try to do so much without asking God for help.

Moses is trying to do it all himself and so God uses Jethro to guide Moses. An interesting and encouraging detail is that Moses learns to ask God. In verse 16:4 God intervenes before Moses asks, but in verse 17:4 Moses goes to God for help. I think this is part of the process of God shaping His people. He wants his people to know they can ask for help.

A little “side bar” on Amalek – you might be wondering if God just decided to go and pick a fight with Amalek: he did not. Deuteronomy 25:17-18 (which we have not read yet) fills out the story: "Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God." The Amalekites, not daring to take on the main host of Israel, attacked the tail end of the line, where the slow and weak plodded along. Yet, as Moses notes in Deuteronomy, the Amalekites did not include God in their calculations. Moses commanded Joshua to select men to fight, and the Israelites met the Amalekites in battle. The result of this seesaw fight appears in Exodus 17:13-16.

AND we note that point that when they rely on God, symbolized by Moses outstretched arms, they win. Think about how God makes this point. The arm thing may seem silly, but the point is that even when the great Moses is weak, God prevails when they obey (hold up your arms).

Matthew 18:1-20 has a similar theme with the fundamental issue of do we trust God? Is our trust the kind that a child displays: simple and complete? Do we believe that God will come look for us, even if He has in his possession 99% of the people, do we believe He will come look and search for us, the lost 1%? Jesus says, “Of course!”

There are some differences. In the Old Testament God is talking to people who are just getting know Him. In the New Testament Jesus is talking to people who have been following Him and His Father for centuries. There is a little edge with Jesus’ teaching. If you are doing something wrong, then remove the source: cut it off or gouge it out!

God is hoping we actually learn to trust and follow him. We will see that as we continue in Exodus and beyond. Today, as I ponder these readings I do think the point is what Jesus says in Matthew 18:18-20. It is not that we have some “magic power”. Rather it is that when we are in God’s Will and when we gather together truly to seek His Face, He is present. If He is present, as in a Pillar of Cloud/Fire, then our task – while hard to learn and hold onto – is straightforward: Trust.