16th January morning
Exodus 13-14
Chapter 13 has three themes I want to briefly discuss: The Leaven in verse 3, The Firstlings in verse 13 and The Travel Map of God in verse 17.
Let me begin with the first one. The Leaven: R. Kelley writes thus:
Most breads, cookies and crackers list “leaven” (in one of its forms) as an ingredient. It’s what makes the dough rise. But what it pictures in biblical usage may surprise you. Could something so commonplace be such an important spiritual metaphor that God actually designed a week of holy celebration around it?
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the definition of leaven is:
- An agent, such as yeast, that causes batter or dough to rise, especially by fermentation.
- An element, influence, or agent that works subtly to lighten, enliven, or modify a whole.
Leavening includes yeast and chemical leavening agents, such as baking powder, baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and potassium bicarbonate. Whenever leaven is mentioned in the Bible (22 times in the Old Testament and 17 times in the New Testament), it always (or almost always) represents sin or evil.
The first instance in which this word is used is found in (Exodus 12:15). This was just before the Passover, in which God destroyed all of the firstborn of Egypt, but spared the firstborn of Israel in the last of the 10 plagues that He visited upon Egypt. Just as most things in the Old Testament point to Jesus, the “unleavened bread” does as well. In the New Testament, Jesus referred to Himself as the “Bread of Life” (John 6:22-59). He was, of course, also without sin (1John 3:5) (2Corinthans 5:21) (Hebrews 4:15) (1Peter 2:22). Because leaven is equated with sin throughout the Bible, the “unleavened bread” pictured bread (Jesus) without sin in it. In addition, a “blood sacrifice” (the blood also represented Jesus in the Old Testament: Hebrews 9:11-28, Hebrews 10:11-25) was not to be offered with leavened bread (Exodus 23:18) (Exodus 34:25).
Now let me tell you what I make of the leaven theology in the Old Testament. The elementary interpretation of what the leaven means to a modern Christian is sin. Therefore, whatever has leaven in it is sin or sinful, and this was the original understanding of the Hebrews in the Old Testament. However, today, after theology has been developed and revelation progressed from that ancient perspective, I would like to point you to the fact that Leaven might not be the problem as its characteristic of rising and puffing off what it is mixed in. The reality of our time is that we are sinners and that wouldn’t be a problem if we were not evil sinners.
There is a difference between being a sinner and one being evil. We are all fallen sinners but some sinners live with others without hurting them while others hurt them. Modern diseases from sexual intercourse are due to yeast. Friendly viruses and bacteria that live in our bodies without harm regardless of how active they are. They are not as problematic as one single virus that affects the functionality of the body. That is what yeast does, it puff us up and affects us as individuals and the communities altogether. God understands us being fallen sinners but what he does not understand is the leaven that pumps and rises the sin in us into action and directs it towards intended evil practice.
It is due to the fall to be angry but it is leaven to kill due to anger. It is sin to have adulterous propensities, but leaven is prostitution (trading your body), rape (robbing sex), homosexuality (sleeping with your kind), bestiality/zoophilia (sex with animals), incest (sex with relatives), pedophilia (sex with infants), etc. It might be a sin to steal, but it becomes leaven when you kill those you steal from.
I could continue and continue but the point here is that we are all sinners and equally fallen. What makes the difference is that some sinners have eaten the bread of life Jesus Christ (John 6), while others have eaten the bread of death and they are leavened and puffed up to be and do evil. Many people include this leaven in their lustful and conceited minds even when they are preaching or teaching people what to believe. The apostle Paul also referred to leavening when teaching the Galatians about obedience to God’s laws. There were those who distorted God’s grace into a license to sin. Paul made the point that a small amount of misrepresentation of the truth can lead to large amounts of confusion and deceit.
Galatians 5:7-10 contains his warning: “You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in you, in the Lord that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is.”
Jesus condemned the Pharisees for this same problem in Mathew. Jesus Christ showed little tolerance for the religious leaders of His day who represented themselves, as righteous but did not have regard for their fellow man when it came to love, mercy and kindness. In Matthew 23, Christ referred to them as hypocrites who should have known better. He had warned His disciples to avoid this type of behavior by using Leaven as the metaphor of this sinful conduct:
“Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.’ And they reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘It is because we have taken no bread.’ “But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, ‘O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread? Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up? How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? —but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’ “Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:5-12).
Leaven is the systematic, intended and planned evil practices of every sinner Christian and non-Christians. The biblically relevant question we need to ask is: “Am I leavened?” In other words, do I still live a sinful life in God’s eyes? Have I learned to worship God with the “unleavened bread of sincerity and truth,” or am I living a sinful, hypocritical life? If I am truly spiritually “unleavened,” then what are my intentions right now? Why do I do what I do? Is it a leavened act or one that is unleavened?
The second theme I would like to shed light on is about how God is obsessed with the firstlings of everything and everyone in our lives. God wanted to emphasize only one thing that I actually have always stressed in all that I teach. God is the Alpha. God is the beginning in which even time has a beginning. And because God is the beginning then that means that God should always be given priority over any other important thing in our lives. Nothing should come before him. God is the priority of everything we do. And that actually means that God being the priority of everything in our lives does not mean that God is just another item on our list but rather that everything else on the list must be coherent and corresponding with the main agenda who is none other than God himself.
What do I mean then? We must understand that we are not to do anything that has nothing to do with God. The only reason as to why selfishness is condemned in the Bible is because it is a way of behavior exclusive of God and any divine principle. God is the essence, the vision, mission and objective of everything we do in this world. Whenever the first principle (first-cause), is neglected our creativity, technology, education, political power, and all sorts of development and innovations are at owner’s risk. For this reason, that is why all modern discoveries that have no respect, attribution and recognition of God as the primary reason have done more harm than good. It is not only true that God must come first in our lives, but that he must be primary in all that we do.
God is not just another item on the priority list. God is the priority element of our existence. That is why I would like to philosophically say that: THE MAIN THING IS TO KEEP THE MAIN THING, THE MAIN THING. And that main thing is GOD. Majority people know God, but God to them is someone whose appointment is always scheduled at the end of their busy week schedules. God is a weekend agenda in most lives here on earth. To some, God is a morning and evening show guy. Others flock the churches every day, and every night, and they neither consider God as a priority but what he has to give matters more than himself. So to me, while it is important to ask people this question: IS GOD FIRST IN YOUR LIFE? We would do better if we asked next: IS GOD THEN THE MAIN THING IN YOUR LIFE? God being first is just a number, what matters is him being the agenda.
The third theme we need to look at is in verse 17. When God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, he never led them out through the way stipulated on the map which was by the Philistines but he took them through the long distance. Going through the Philistine route was actually near but God took them through the route which was far. The map of God has no quick routes. When you take the route designated on the map of God, it will take you longer than the route on the usual ungodly maps. The point in divine journeys is not in reaching but in who reaches. God is about getting us to heaven or to the new world any soon or any later. What God is about is the kind of people who reaches. It is not the distance of the journey it is kind of people who gets there. It is not about arriving, after all, those who arrive unprepared suffer from arrivalism; it is instead about the capacity to stay where you have arrived.
God hates two routes: the known route and the short cut route. God hates the known route because it is the traditional route, it is the cultural route, it is the religious route, it is what has been established by social systems and philosophies and not by his ordinations. The usual accepted route is a majority route which was never begun by God himself. It is one route you take and everyone endorses you, accepts you, recognizes you but not God. It is what the majority says as opposed to what the word of God says, it is the route of what scientists have approved but not the word of God, it is what historians and all the geniuses of this world approve but despised by God.
The known route is one which works and has worked for many but God is indifferent with. The known route is righteousness by works, it is faith founded on works. It is demonstrative religion manifested in all sorts of gymnastics for sainthood. It is the route of works and public show. It is a route of works, a route by sight. It is not one of faith which actually God is about.
The other route is one which is known as the short-cut. It is one that gets you there faster than any other person. It is a route that skips protocol and procedure, it is a route that adjusts the clock of growth, it is a route of getting what is of 15 years. in 15 seconds. It is an effective route but not an efficient one. It gets you there quickly but it cannot keep you there. It is a way of Philistines; you get into them too quick and get dissolved into them upon your arrival.
There is nothing as deceptive as a short-cut. We all know what it means to short-cut your way to wealth. We know what it means when you are sick to short-cut medication, we all know what it means to short-cut our into education, we all know what it means to short-cut marriage, we know what it means to short-cut political power. It is a very easy route but with difficult consequences. It is a quick and short distanced route but with long-lasting pain. Avoid short-cuts in your life. Go the long divine route.
Chapter 14 is a record of glory display, slave mentality and God’s providence in unlikely situations. The Bible tells us that after Pharaoh had lost his servants to the Lord, he pursued them to have them back. First of all, it is important that we emphasize this point that this king was right in what he did (he pursued what he had lost) but wrong in what he thought he had lost (Israel of God). It is important to emulate this king, in his strong will. A will that resists and is focused on maintaining the status quo. I personally think that is what the hardened heart of Pharaoh means in most cases. A heart that is not willing to give up easily just because of a chaos of plagues in the country.
Pharaoh had a heart that could lose, accept defeat and then retreat, go back, dust itself and come back in pursuit of all that it had lost. This is what we see in the book of Exodus about this character Pharaoh. He never gave up and let’s get this straight, this was not about his ego but essentially about his GLORY. His resistance and God’s continuous plaguing of the country was about nothing but the glory. Pharaoh resisted to ensure that the surrounding nations understood that the glory of Pharaoh was not smashed and slapped in the face by losing an entire nation (Israelites) as his slaves while on the other hand God also had his glory at stake and could not afford to let other surrounding gods get to know that in the league of gods, it was he who failed to save his people from slavery while other gods made their people thrive.
For this reason, we see Pharaoh coming with all the host of Egypt, and chariots and everything. He came with an army that was more than he wanted to retrieve. These were slaves who had nothing in their hands, so why bring all this military power and arsenal? The reason was simple, to display state power and state glory. On the other hand, we see his opponent also raising the stakes by dividing the waters and making walls of water and a dry land in the sea. This is a battle of the gods and not a contest between a creator and a creature-Pharaoh. We must understand that God is generous with almost everything in the universe and himself but he is very conservative with his glory.
Another thing we see in this chapter is the slave mentality of the Israelites. When they saw the glory and power with which Pharaoh had attacked and pursued them with, in their minds, this king became superior to the God who had led them out of the hands of the same king. It really happens in our lives. Problems are always magnified and worshiped in our minds, hearts and mouth. That moment when you have God on your side but worshipping and praising your problems. That moment when fear runs your life at the expense of faith.
It happens in life. and that is what a slave mentality is all about. It is one of inconsistent faith, it believes this today and when winds twist the direction they blow the mentality to any direction. It is a mentality that does not look at long-term solutions but temporary immediate pain-killers. A slave mentality argues it rather dies comfortably in wrong than be agitated in the course of doing the right thing.
They looked at all mountains on all sides, they saw the sea, huge sea before them, and the Egyptian state power after them and their minds were like lets surrender but before we surrender let us first condemn those who led us into doing what is right. The Bible does not show anything like any single individual who dived into the sea, to swim their way away from slavery, they only had one solution to their pain: do not do something about it, just get used to it. That is the slave mentality.
It is a reality in many lives today: some spouses do mind the domestic physical abuse as long as they drive. Others are fine with your sexual unfaithfulness and sometimes Sexually Transmitted Diseases as long as they have the status. It is a slave mentality to solve your financial problems by trading yourself.etc. A slave mentality does not eat healthy but eats wrong and saves the money. A slave mentality does not appreciate others but always finds error to condemn. A slave mentality is an uncivilized thinking whose logic is so filled with flaws.
Finally, chapter 14 tells us how God was provident to the Israelites in the cloud that worked as a shelter during the day. Since there was too much heat in the wilderness. And it worked as warmer as well as light in the night. It was this cloud that worked as the campus of their travels in the wilderness. Again, this cloud was before them and after them. This was God himself surrounding his people. He provides for us in ways we cannot even tell. Am very sure the Israelites appreciated this cloud the first days it appeared in the wilderness but after some time they got so used that they could not recognize it. That is what happens with God’s providence in our lives every day of our lives. Regardless of what we do not have, there is what God has provided for us consistently that we cannot even recognize and appreciate it.
There is a text in Habakkuk 1:5 that says: “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.” The problem with all of us is that we focus so much on what God has not done and too little attention (if any) is given to what God has done and is doing. The Lord says that he is doing a work in our lives we cannot believe even if we are told. The Israelites could not consider this daily providence of God unless it was taken away for minutes. We do not appreciate the functionality of our heath until we fall sick. We cannot appreciate our spouses until they are taken away from us, it is not enough until it is no more. Our jobs are not good until we do not have one. etc. We need to learn to pay attention to the providence of God in our lives.
16th January Evening
Exodus 15-16
The slaves who had already begun complaining and resigning their allegiance from Moses and his God after walking on dry lands amidst the sea, just burst into worship. My elder brother and former lecturer Samson Kasumba always says: “The magnitude of one’s worship is determined by the depth of the pit that the worshipper realized was saved from”.
Chapter 15 is 90% a record of the worship of the Israelites after their deliverance from the power of Pharaoh. The glory of God was established before the eyes of all doubters and challengers. God displayed that he deserved all the worship and glory. We need to worship God and actually everyone worships. It is important to note that the entire Bible tells us WHO to worship but it never tells us HOW to worship. We cannot train adults with real life experiences how to worship. Worship is a personal experience. People need to respond impulsively to God. let those who are crying, dancing, jumping, kneeling in silence, running around, shouting and jubilating etc. Let them be. It is all worship.
Do not set an organized way of worship that constrains and restricts all the emotions to one norm. Worship is an informed feeling. It’s what you know that influences your worship gestures. If what you know that the Lord has done to you necessitates that you undress and run naked then you have literary represented the kind of God you worship before others. Worship is another form of evangelism, you tell us who your God is by the way and in the manner in which you worship him. Worship is not a kindergarten thing, it is for adults, those we the capacity to understand what has been done and by whom.
Chapter 16 is a manna chapter. It is a response to the murmurings of these pilgrim slaves. They are not in slavery anymore but every time they want to eat something special, their reference point is Egypt. The days of their slavery. I have seen married people who keep comparing their present spouses with their past exes. It happens in life when we appreciate the present in our past. Our present is judged by our past. We start telling our present how our past was good and better and our present wonders why we ever even came in the present.
So God decided to give them what they wanted but this time round something better. He gave them manna from heaven. They told him of how the left-overs of Egypt were sweet and God decided to rain fresh food from the heavenly dining table. Sometimes if you cannot take people into your house for a meal, carry the meal out to them. God did this. Another thing we see is what my late mother taught me; she told me to have self-control over food.
People with a slave mentality struggle with this food issue in their lives. When God dropped manna from heaven he set a very wide table in the wilderness and he invited all the slaves for self-service. He, however, cautioned them, that all you need to serve yourself with, is that which is enough for the now in which you are in. do not serve yourself food for the tomorrow in which you aren’t.
Guess what, still some individual slaves served manna for three days, just to find it spoilt the next day. In our modern world, we see it on corporate parties, company parties, wedding parties, where people struggle with filled and overflowing plates of food. Some even abuse the queue, others quarrel with those serving, and all sorts of things. These are the slaves with the manna in the wilderness.
Another final lesson that you and I need to learn is that people who are used to nothing, find it difficult to manage abundance. Not only with food but even power, that is why the English people say that: Power corrupts but absolute power corrupts absolutely. They use today’s and tomorrow’s power. They keep manna-power until it rots and stinks to those exercised upon.
God bless you. I invoke TRUTH, KNOWLEDGE, and FAITH.
Am Pr. I.T.White. THE GOSPEL HAWKER
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