17TH January morning
Exodus 17-18
Verse 7 says; And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the faultfinding of the children of Israel, and because they put the LORD to the proof by saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?” Can you believe it is the Israelites questioning the presence of the Lord with them? Do you know why? It is because providence has gone low and now water is nowhere. The presence of food determines God’s presence and the absence of food supply implies God’s absence or incapability.
A certain African writer I have forgotten wrote and said, “A god who cannot save his people amidst problems is not worth them” (I have just paraphrased). While this holds some truth, it is practically more deceptive and dangerous to us as Christians than any other thing. The spirit of invoking God into our lives as an ambulance and rescue agent is very unfortunate and opposed to real sound Theology. God is not a fireman who commands a fire-brigade of miracles. The modern tendency of following God over miracles is very unfortunate. This is the spirit of consumerism. We prove who God is not by who he really is but through what he does.
It is important to appreciate God in this manner as far as contrast with the devil is concerned, but tying the identity of God to his performance form we have documented is not biblically coherent. It is a slave mentality and an uncivil belief. God is not in principle what he does, he does whatever he does because of who he is in the first place. So, let’s not test who God is by what he does or doesn’t but rather let’s understand who he is in the first place and we will not have to panic over what he has or hasn’t done. GOD IS GOD, WHETHER THERE IS FOOD ON YOUR TABLE OR NOT. WHETHER YOUR ONLY CHILD IS DYING OR RECOVERING, WHETHER YOU ARE DIAGONISED WITH IT OR FREE FROM IT. WHETHER THERE IS A MIRACLE OR NOT. And on and on…
After the slaves had behaved thus, he directed them to the rock and gave them the water they defined him by. However, he had to teach them a lesson. So after they had all the food and all the water they needed, a certain king attacked and battled them. They did know how to go about this. But he used the arms of Moses, and when they were lifted they succeeded in war but when the same arms were lowered, it never mattered how strong or skilled the Israelite youth were, they were killed in numbers. God wanted to tell these slaves that whether you have all the materialistic wealth and all the military, you are only safe with me. It’s me, not the things you have or the things you do not have.
God is the reason of our existence, not the things he does or does not. Do not run after God over food or miracles. Many people in the caskets are blessed with abundant miracles. There are satisfied corpses. What matters in life is LIFE and that life is not defined or even determined by what we have or haven’t but by whom (God), we are with. If you want to believe me, look at a naked madman with a healthy liver and that rich man on a plane to the hospital for a transplant. My friend Elder Opio showed me a quote on his phone that read: WHILE THE POOR WALK LONG DISTANCES TO GET FOOD, RICH MEN WALK AND RUN LONG DISTANCES TO DIGEST FOOD. Friend, God is not food and neither is food God. God is God, and food is food. We are successful when our worshiping hands and not begging hands are lifted up, and when they go down we also do.
In chapter 18 we begin with a name JETHRO. This name makes impact to my life not because it is in the Bible but because there is a significant person in my life who holds it. This guy is my friend and he is someone who has supported my life unreservedly. I like him and I cannot thank him enough. When you are a Moses like me, you need a Jethro as your in-law. Jethro came in to help his in-law. Moses had put away his family (wife and two sons), due to God’s business. He was too busy for his family just like most pastors are today. No wonder the Bible does not even mention any name of Moses’s son to have done any significant thing. I will come to this in the future. So Jethro decided to come and help his son-in-law.
In our world today, in the African setting, in-laws expect to be helped by those who marry their daughters but Jethro was one in-law who wanted to help his son-in-law, for he knew that if he was well then even his daughter and his grandchildren would be catered for. He never returned the wife of Moses and the children because he couldn’t afford their materialistic care. He returned them for two reasons: first, he could not take care of their emotional needs and secondly, he wanted to help build the family of a one Moses who was too busy to build a home.
Jethro was the Priest of Midian and it this Jethro who worshiped the god of mount Sinai on which the Hammurabi Code received an Israelite version. It was through the religion of Jethro that Moses developed the Priesthood. Priesthood was a Midianite religion that gained an Israelite version. Jethro was an agent that God sent to Moses not only to change his leadership style that lacked delegation and capacity building but one who changed the entire religion of Israel and initiated many other key elements like The Law and the Priesthood.
Every leader needs a Jethro in life to come and support his ministry, change its face and install the missing pieces. Moses was busy, yes, but he had started diverting his Theocratic leadership into a political mode. He had become a political judge who did not constitute the channels of worship but had started putting in place policies of a secular government.
Jethro help Moses understand his role. Initially, he thought he was called to do everything. If you read verses 14-23 you will see the danger of the leadership approach of Moses. He was too committed to the extent of doing everything. We must understand that however multi-talented we are, God has not called us to do everything. We need to administratively understand the secret in delegation and capacity building. When we engage ourselves in everything, we end up doing nothing. By the time Jethro came in, the Israelite camp had no real progress apart from murmuring, fighting each-other and fire-fighting.
Many leaders go through the same period that Moses went through, they spend time doing everything and achieving nothing. Many ministries get static in one place with the same leaders and it becomes like the upper–chamber dilemma for years. We need a Jethro to come and shake up things and redirect them. We need our in-laws to come and positively involve themselves in our family business and help us develop and grow from one stage to another. Unfortunately, many in-laws come in to break what we have built, but Jethro was a solution oriented in-law. Trust me, you and I need one.
After he had fixed things in the family and business of his children see what the last verse says, Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went his way to his own country. (Exodus 18:27 RSV).
Dear in-laws, always leave the homes of your children and always leave in time. Do not overstay. Leave.
17th January Evening
Exodus 19-20
All that is in these two chapter is the work and the religion of Jethro being synthesized with that developing cult of the Israelites. Thanks to Jethro, we will now have priests from the children of Levi under the custody of Aaron and we are going to have our own version of the Law on which our Theology will be built upon for ages.
Chapter 19 is a preamble of the constitution of Israel. It is a chapter that shows us how people should prepare themselves to meet their God. Muslims and shrines always prepare people to meet their small gods, it is only in this generation where people just meet God without preparing for this meeting.
I am a speaker and I talk to many people, and whenever I have a speaking engagement I prepare hard. I am wondering why we Christians never prepare for the appointment with God yet we prepare for our job interviews, relationship dates, etc. Seriously, let me ask you: when do you prepare and why? Imagine God declared that he wanted to meet with you, what are the things you would put away and what are the things you would destroy? That moment when someone important declares they are coming to your house.
Wittman wrote: Meeting with God requires personal preparation. It means seeking Him with an undivided heart and mind. It means not allowing anything else, no matter how blessed or wonderful it may be, to distract us from preparing to hear from God. If we want to experience God as believers did in days of old, we must be prepared to meet Him. We must be consecrated. James 4:8-10 tells us four things to do as we prepare to draw near to God:
- Cleanse your hands – stop sinning.
- Purify your heart – The heart is the realm of feelings and attitudes.
- Be wretched, mourn and weep – This speaks to taking your sin seriously, of understanding that it was our sin that nailed Jesus on the cross and that to save us from our sins was the reason He died on the cross.
- Humble yourselves – this brings us to the heart of the matter. To be right with God demands humility.
Approaching God requires consecration. It requires that we be set apart from all that profanes us and set apart unto the One who makes us Holy. As God prepares to meet His people, as He prepares to speak with them and give them the Law, He tells Moses that they must be prepared and Moses is given the task of consecrating or sanctifying them. We do not know in great detail exactly what it was Moses did to consecrate them, what is of importance is that we note they had to be set apart before they were ready to meet with God. There were two things God told them to do:
- They were to wash their clothes. By washing their clothes, the Israelites were demonstrating their understanding that God was Holy and that to meet with Him required holiness.
- They were to refrain from sexual activity. Not that sexual activity within the bounds of marriage was in any way unclean, but as they prepared to meet God, as they prepared themselves spiritually, they were to abstain from any personal indulgence which would take their heart and mind off of God.
We need to prepare to meet our God, after all, we will eventually meet him. And the easiest way to prepare for this final meeting is to believe upon Jesus Christ.
In the future, I will come back to chapter 20 of Exodus.
God bless you. I invoke TRUTH, KNOWLEDGE, and FAITH.
Am Pr. I.T.White. THE GOSPEL HAWKER
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