20. Remembrance

Lessons from Israel: No.20 : Remembrance

Ex 13:3-6 Then Moses said to the people, “Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the LORD brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat nothing containing yeast. 4Today, in the month of Abib, you are leaving. 5When the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites–the land he swore to your forefathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey–you are to observe this ceremony in this month: 6For seven days eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to the LORD.

At first sight you may be tempted to think we are covering the same ground as we have covered in a previous meditation, for we have previously considered Israel’s instructions to pass on the memory of what has happened to their future generations. Here, however, we focus much more on the need to remember.  A much missed truth about Christianity is that it is a faith that is built on history and that is true of the Jews and Judaism as well. Thus we find the Lord, and later the prophets, continually speaking about the past. We have already seen the Lord at the burning bush describing Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, i.e. the One who had had dealings with those men, dealings which had been passed down through the generations. It was vital therefore to remember those things.

One of my favourite sayings, and I don’t know who said it originally, is “the one thing history teaches us is that history teaches us nothing”, i.e. we are notoriously bad at learning from the past. History was never a favourite subject of mine at school, although I have came to appreciate it much more in latter years, especially so as I have come to realise its importance as far as the Christian faith is concerned. The truth is that God has revealed Himself to us through history and that history is recorded in the Bible, and it is very important therefore that we read it and remind ourselves of what is in there, again and again. That, really, is the purpose of these meditations.

Speaking of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Moses is instructing the people to “commemorate this day,” i.e. remember it and celebrate it in the future. At the moment they are just on their way out of Egypt, but he is looking forward to the time when, “the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites,” i.e. when they eventually enter the Promised Land. In the verses above he spells out what they are to do – hold a seven day feast when they don’t eat any bread containing yeast: “Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders,” (v.7). Then he explains why they are to do it: “On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.” (v.8) That is the essence of why they are to do it, so that it will act as a reminder to them and to future generations that, on that day in the year, they left Egypt so hastily that they had not had time to properly prepare bread, letting the yeast rise in it.

Thus ‘unleavened’ bread or bread without yeast became the symbol or reminder of the haste of that exodus. He continues, “This observance will be for you like a sign ….For the LORD brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand.” (v.9)  Israel existed as a nation because the Lord had delivered them out of slavery in Egypt and made them into a special nation. When He gave them the Ten Commandments, they were prefaced by, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (Ex 20:2)  Yes, there had been dealings with the Lord with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but the big issue as far as them being a nation, was the fact that the Lord had come down and delivered them from being slaves and made them into a unique nation through whom He could reveal Himself to the rest of the world.

Without any doubt, the history of mankind has been one of gradual development and we have had to go through each previous stage to get where we are today. If you stop and think about it, the world could not have suddenly had nuclear energy two thousand years ago, say, because to create such energy requires an incredible amount of knowledge and technology, and both have been developed gradually in the human race. Now the same has been true in a large measure, in respect of the revelation of the Lord. He has revealed Himself to us through history but that has been a gradual process. At certain points in history there have been specific things that gave a great leap forward in our knowledge of Him. His encounters with Abraham brought some knowledge, but this period of history with the bringing into being of the nation of Israel is a major leap forward. The coming of Jesus, the Son of God from heaven, was the biggest revelation, but our understanding of Him has continued to grow as the centuries pass, as we come to take hold of His word and see more and more how it applies to our lives and to this world. We are STILL learning what it means to be to be the children of God, the church, and that is evidenced by the many weird and wonderful expressions of church that there are around the world. The counter to these are to go back to His word and check out what we find there. We don’t add man’s traditions or our own bright ideas!

Again and again we must go back to our history as recorded in the Bible and, even, check it against how the church over the past two thousand years has sought to apply it. Only thus do we learn what it means to be the people of God. We need continual reminders, we need to be continually provoked by the past that we may learn how better to live in the present. No wonder Moses went on, “You must keep this ordinance at the appointed time year after year.” (v.10) No wonder, again and again, he says, “In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (v.14) It is all about remembering what God has done and learning what it means for us today, for He is the same today as He was yesterday (Do you remember the sixth meditation, ‘The Eternal One’?) Don’t despise history; we need it. Don’t mutter when your preacher brings the same teaching again and again; we need it! Let’s learn from history!

23. Strategy Again

Lessons from Israel: No.23 : God of Strategy – Again

Ex 14:1-3 Then the LORD said to Moses, 2″Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. 3Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’

As we have been considering what we can learn from the revelation of the Lord with His activity with Moses as he prepares to make Israel into a nation, we have seen a number of things about the Lord which overlap. For instance we have seen that the Lord knows all about us, and He knows how we will act. He also has plans, things that He wants to achieve to reveal Himself to the inhabitants of the earth. Knowing how we will respond, He works through those plans to take account of that. He has seen His people being enslaved by this idol-worshipping despot in Egypt and determines to bring judgment upon him, but it is not as simple as that because He wants the world to see and know and understand.

As we’ve noted before,  the Lord could have killed Pharaoh outright at the beginning but instead He chose to give Pharaoh the choice – again and again – to submit to Him and avoid each of the ‘plagues’, but Pharaoh revealed his pride and stupidity and allowed his nation to suffer. Yet at the end of the last plague, Pharaoh is still alive! Why? Because God is yet going to show once more his folly, and this time it will be folly that will destroy him. In the annals of history you can never say Pharaoh wasn’t given every chance. At the end of the day his death was his own fault, as it is for every person who refuses the Lord again and again throughout their lives today, and thus fail to enter heaven. It is entirely their own folly!

Now, to return to the account of Israel leaving Egypt: so far we have seen them leaving and everything looks well but, as we’ve just noted, the Lord knows us and know how we will react and so sees that Pharaoh has never come to a place of repentance and so is still a candidate for judgment, but it will be a judgment he will bring on himself. How is that going to happen? The Lord is simply going to make Israel look vulnerable so instead of escaping directly out of the land by the easy route to the north east, He has Moses lead them down the ‘coast’ so it looks like they are hemmed in by the shore, and appear to not know where they are going. Surely they have made a mistake, surely they are wandering aimlessly, surely they are vulnerable and weak.

See what the Lord says about Pharaoh. “Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.” Yes, Pharaoh will see and Pharaoh will reason – wrongly! Why? “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them.” (v.4a) All it needs is for the Lord to whisper in Pharaoh ear, ‘Why don’t you go after them,’ and the pride in his heart will rise up and he will steel himself against all that he knows has happened recently and will go after them.

If we have never put to death the old self-centred sinful nature in us when we came to Christ, we will always be vulnerable to the temptations that the Lord allows to come through the enemy. The path is quite clear: we surrender our lives to the Lord – and that means totally – and so we crucify and put to death the old sin nature (Rom 6:11,12) because it has already been crucified and put to death; we’ve just go to believe it and act accordingly and make that an act of will that brings our experience in line with God’s will. Until we do we will be vulnerable to the attacks of temptation.

The Lord knows Pharaoh is still full of pride and so He is going to deal with him: “I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.” (v.4b) God is going to create a miracle to enable Israel to leave Egypt but that miracle is not there for Pharaoh and so it will be the means of his death, but that is of his own choosing.  So the Lord has laid out his strategy to Moses and so we read quite simply, “So the Israelites did this.” (v.4c) At the moment they don’t realise the significance of what they are doing. We’ll see in the next meditation their agitation when they realise what is happening but for the moment they are at peace – which is more than can be said for Pharaoh: “When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!” So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him.” (v.5,6)

Here they go!  It’s just as the Lord said it would be – not because He made them do it, but simply because He knew that that’s what their sinful, foolish hearts would do.  Pharaoh, you really don’t want to do this! Oh yes, I do, I’ve had it up to here with these Israelites; now I’m going to sort them once and for all! You really don’t want to do this! Oh yes I do! Here in today’s world is the man who starts letting his eyes stray from his wife to other women. You really don’t want to do that! Oh yes I do. Oh you foolish man! Have you never read, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction.” (Gal 6:7,8) Be warned!  Whatever the sin, the same is true. You won’t get away with it. Step back, step away from it while you can and before it’s too late!