Grains of Sand

Google Images The journey has begun. The Israelites are on their way. But their trip would not be easy. The first test came when God purposely used them to lead Pharaoh into a trap. The Lord told Moses what He was going to do (Exodus 14:1-4) and why. He would harden Pharaoh’s heart so that Egypt’s ruler would pursue his ex-slave workforce and end up providing the centrepiece of a demonstration of the power of God. We are not told if Moses shared this information with the others—certainly when the Israelites saw the chariots moving toward them with deadly intent, they panicked (Exodus 14:10-12). The sea was in front of them and their enemy was behind them. There was no place to go. But then, they weren’t supposed to go anyplace anyway. Moses told them: “ Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still ” (Exodus 14:13, 14). Througho...

What pastor would have the nerve to tell his people that if they wanted to cruise through the Christian experience, they should go and join the church down the street? Apparently there is at least one, and his church is full of people who are working their passage rather than sitting on the deck basking in the sun. As I began reading in Ezra yesterday I was reminded that if the church were a vessel, it would be freighter not a cruise ship. The Lord has moved the King of Persia's heart to allow some of the captive Israelites to return to Jerusalem to rebuild. Notice the telling little phrase: " Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem " —Ezra 1:5, NIV. Anyone could have gone, but only those whose hearts God had moved would have volunteered for the "blood, sweat, and tears" involved in reparation of the disaster that had been left b...

Job 35-37 In these final three chapters of the conversation between Job and his friends, Elihu continues his discourse. The one thing we learn from these friends is that one can speak truth and still be in error. That’s a scary thought, a theological disaster. But when we speak in our arrogance, taking what is truth and twisting it to suit our purposes, we run the risk of ending up like Job’s friends—condemning the innocent, attributing to God what is not his, and bringing down on ourselves his judgment. God is about to speak, actually to piggyback on Elihu’s words as he “counsels” his friend. The truth that we find in these chapters is another eloquent description of the wonders of God—something God will pick up on in the following chapters. Elihu rightly asks who is capable of understanding the ways of God. He might think he is (36:3, 4) but he is about to find out otherwise. Still, his description is elegant: “ God is exalted in his power…How great is God—beyond our understanding! T...