Last week we drew startling parallels between the bondage in which children of Israel found themselves in good old Egypt’s land and the predicament of enslavement we find ourselves in today.
You remember we talked about how the Israelites became enslaved in Egypt for economic reasons. They needed food and security. It was better to be enslaved in the security and plenty of Egypt than to risk the unknown wilderness that led to their promised land. As individuals, we have become hooked on the ways of a spiraling economic order:
- We have spent next year’s salary already.
- We have even cut into the salaries of the years ahead.
- We have bound ourselves in luxuries that have become necessities.
We are also like the children of Israel and that we have become dependent on the gods of Egypt.
- The power of wealth
- Security of materialism
- The sweet smell of status
- The quest for security in our old age
These are the gods of Egypt that we carry with us in our packsack.
But something happened to the chosen people. In a sense, a great event happened in the wilderness, where a young man named Moses was hiding from the frightening things happening in bondage.
To describe the scene, the voice says: “Take the shoes from off your feet for the ground on which you are standing is holy ground. I have seen the reflection of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry come. I will send you to bring forth my people the sons of Israel out of Egypt.”
Moses answered: “Who am I that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?”
Finally, God convinced him from the burning bush that he was the only one who could lead his people out of the bondage.
But the job was only a third through. When Moses got back to Egypt, he had a lot of convincing to do. First, he had to convince his own people. That was not an easy job.
His own people said: “Who do you think you are that you can lead us back to the promised land?”
Now, that was embarrassing. All he could say was this: “The God of our fathers came to me in a burning bush way out in the desert and told me he had seen the affliction of the people and heard their cry. He is now calling on me to go back to Egypt and lead his people out of bondage into the promised land.”
Remember from last week, the Hebrew people during the 400 years sojourn in Egypt had actually forgotten the name of their God. They said: “What is the name of the God who told you this? Moses said: “He only identified himself as I AM.”
Now what a name for God, “I AM.” Finally, they gave Moses the impossible as an alternative: “If you are able to convince the Pharaoh to let us go, we will follow you.” They never dreamed he would be able to do this.
To accomplish convincing the Pharaoh really took some effort. First, he had to turn the Nile River into blood. Then, he brought a horde of frogs out of the River and overwhelmed the land. Then, he brought a plague of pesky gnats to infest the land. Have you ever got into a swarm of gnats? Then, he brought a plague of flies. The Egyptian animals were struck with the horrible disease. Soon, there was an epidemic of boils among the people. Then, the plague hit.
(As I was reading this last item reminded me of my days in Nebraska.) There was even a plague of locusts. Finally, darkness enveloped the land, and the Angel of death struck the first born. The Pharaoh was then ready to let the people go.
So, there they go the people many thousands strong fleeing from a land of plagues with only the voice of the burning bush as their guide.
Now there’s a strange problem in this story for us day. There are voices of prophets today that are like Moses saying: “We have heard the voice of God from a burning bush. He is saying lead my people out into the wilderness of the world. There they will find a way to the promised land.”
Now, it’s very hard to convince the church that they should do this. Where too are hooked by our Egypt. We like the security of the leaks and garlic of Egypt. We have a nice, easy security of the fact that we and our family are within the Ark. Let’s have a nice, easy religion where we can feel ourselves saved with our families.
Don’t ask us to go out into the wilderness of the world. We might have to get our hands dirty with that community poverty program. Don’t get me involved in civil rights. The church ought to keep out of politics. Besides, didn’t you know that “God is Dead” and we have forgotten who God is. Who is this God that is sending you and commanding us?
But then comes the plagues, World War II when the whole country drips with the blood of 6 million Jews. When the most civilized nation on earth drops two atomic bombs on another nation, and the fire literally hails from heaven. Then, comes the plague of hunger. Too little food and too many people. There is ferment in our streets. Watts burned and the San Fernando Valley took up arms. During the Watts riots, the gun shops of Southern California were sold out.
Finally, the Pharaohs of today are becoming convinced the people of God must launch out in this wilderness. In a meeting with scientists and theologians at Chicago University a few years ago, we learned that we created a monster in our nuclear weapons that threaten our destruction. We were asked, “What directions can you give us?”
What more terrible possibilities will come from modern science? As a collection of individuals, we’re literally taking our planet in our hand and looking at it. We see the infiltration of the FBI CIA with new possibilities of electronic bugging. What direction does the Christian gospel give to the world? What do we say to the world where the landmark of one’s neighbor is being wiped out to where there may be no such thing as a private again?
Did I say anything about the plague of disease that is still with us? Do we follow the great physicians?
Let me tell you an exciting thing. This past week at the Portland Council Churches meeting we heard a young man speak who is chairman of the Interreligious council of the city of Los Angeles. Now they have some plagues staring them in the face. Not only the tragedy of Watts district multiplied many times, there are predictions that by 1978 smog will take over at LA and it will become inhabitable. On a day in 1980, the last car will enter the freeway, and everything will grind to a stop. From mobility to solidarity, they are on a collision course.
What can you do with the city’s projected populations 20,000,000 by 1980? The LA city leaders have called the church and their Interreligious Council for help, with everyone from conservative Baptists to Unitarians to Jews to Roman Catholics to Mormons Seventh Day Adventists and Pentecostals. The church was called to help. The church was called to help the city draw its blueprint for tomorrow for a city of 20,000,000 people.
Then, the Hebrews went into the wilderness. The Red Sea looms ahead. The Egyptians suddenly feel they made a mistake in letting them go, so they pursue them. They are caught on the route between the Red Sea and the pressing Egyptian army. But God opened the way through the Red Sea, like an Indiana tornado, creating a road across the river. The winds of God were blowing and that day they crossed the Red Sea. There are no signposts and no caches of food for tomorrow. All they had to had to go by was a leader who had heard God in the burning bush.
A cloud that led them by day and a pillar of fire by night. God the Lord of history. The “I AM” was their God. He was the leading them through the wilderness into the Promised Land. Here we go.
Many times, the pressure is on and ahead is the Red Sea with no seeming way through. Breathing hard on our neck may be the bondage in Egypt. The wilderness ahead as no signposts in it. But we have the voice from the burning bush. The God, the Lord of history, the “I AM” is at the helm. There may only be a cloud by day and clouds can vanish with the wind. And there may be a pillar of fire in the night that could be quenched by any rain. But God is calling us. We are like Moses and God is waiting for to make a high road through the Red Sea.
Today, we can be travelers in the wilderness, and our destination is the Promised Land.
Reverend Arthur Schwabe Blog 