Day 297

Day 297

Pray (ACts)

Read - Exodus 2:15-22

Message - Alan Burke 

Pharaoh may have been a tyrannical leader of his people but he wasn’t stupid. He would have known fine well that or at least had his suspicions that Moses was a Hebrew but he was like most fathers when it comes to their daughters, there are times it is better to smile and say nothing in order to have a relationship with them. If you don’t believe me think to yourself how many fathers don’t confront their daughters with the truth of how that fella that they brought home is a buck ejit, for they know it’ll all end in tears and the buck ejit will likely marry their daughter who wont speak to them ever again. Here’s the point, while Moses behaved like a prince of Egypt, Pharaoh couldn’t lay a finger on him, as long as he didn’t step out of line Moses was safe, but then Moses killed an Egyptian! 

Politicians and Monarchs may behave with a certain decorum today (I use this loosely so no emails, phone calls or texts please about what Boris or Donald are up to), but Pharaoh was a god to his people and those of his household could have laid waste to thousands just for the craic, the only reason why Pharaoh bats and eyelid about this Egyptian of no significance that Moses killed was that it was the excuse he needed to get rid of this Hebrew Moses, he didn’t issue a decree “I want Moses dead or alive", Pharaoh simply wanted Moses dead. Moses was forced to flee but it was a road that he embarked on before he killed the Egyptian slave master, it began when he left the Palace and saw the plight of his people. 

But there is something intriguing that we see in Moses once more as he does flee and that is compassion. Moses once more is faced with injustice, he sees some local shepherds intimidating the daughters of Reuel. He does what was needed to drive them off and it see him invited into the household of Reuel who we later know as Jethro. Yet if you see here how the daughters of Reuel speak of Moses it is as an Egyptian. Moses was a nobody, He had the urge to take up his people’s cause while in Egypt but he would have to wait in God’s timing. There he longed for his people and a place to call his one, which is evident from the fact that he called his oldest son Gershom, saying, “I have become a stranger in a foreign land”. This is what he was a stranger in Midian but also Egypt.

In a world full of injustice the actions of Moses are a reminder that as Christians we must when we see the injustice that surrounds us and should be filled with compassion. With Moses we are reminded that the ends does not always justify the means which our WSC today reminds in the case of Moses, compassion had led Moses to kill but that goes against the Word of God. For us we have to remember that there is no justifying that which is in opposition to the word of God, no matter the motivation for it or the outcome, for we are to be holy as He is holy in all our conduct (1 Peter 1:15-16) even when that means we are powerless to do something, it means that we must trust in the providence of God, and there are groups and organisations that we may agree with their aim but their means of achieving it are wrong and thus cannot support them. For Moses that would be forty years, for the people of God it would be even longer but God was and is at work, God reminds us that He works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, it is him that we need to look to and trust (Rom 8:28).

Pray (acTS)

Sing

WSC
Q67 Which is the sixth commandment? 
The sixth commandment is, Thou shalt not kill. (Exod. 20:13)
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