1.23.25 ~ Are you thinking?
Good morning!
We made it to an island offshore from Utila, Honduras, via some 8'-10' swells in the gulf, thanks to the crazy weather patterns hitting the southern United States; cold weather and freakish snow for Florida and rain, rain, rain and more rain for Honduras. Fortunately, our Utila Ferry was able to handle the swells easily...but garbage bags were available for those who might need them :-). It was an amazing day of Bible study, sharing, listening and gleaning truths to conform our lives too. I can't wait to see what the next 7 days will bring, besides rain, wind, rain,wind, and more rain (Isa. 55:10,11)!!! Thanks for your prayers, encouraging notes and snowy pictures :-)
After a long commercial break on God's hardening techniques (Chazak vs Kavad), let's go back to our question: "How does this cycle of family abuse connect to the Exodus story"? When we stop to really think about this Exodus story, theoretically, God didn't have to put on such a huge sound and light show about the exodus from Egypt. Consider this: He's God! So if you're God and one out of five of your favorite Sons is enslaved (Ex. 4:22), and you know, you're the same God that ordained the laws of nature...You're the same God that is behind the laws of physics, the laws of chemistry, biology, astronomy, etc... And since all of nature is set up by your governing laws, it's like miracles aren't a thing you have to rely on, because the God who created nature doesn't need miracles...His natural laws are miraculous enough. And common sense, to the enquiring mind, says, 'if you have too many miracles, then gravity will become unpredictable; If the sun stops too many times that's going to ruin the stock market and the growing seasons. Frankly speaking, we need some predictability in life, and that's one of the great things about God's laws that you can actually count on them because they're undeniable laws. If they weren't laws, it would disrupt our life fundamentally.
So miracles can create some real problems unless you use them at essential times. So if a ministering angel from a burning bush and God are contemplating getting involved miraculously in the salvation of His people, (Ex. 3:4) they have to figure out how to get these guys out of slavery without the whole fire and light show. For instance, why didn't He just have Egypt experience an economic stock market crash, or suddenly, someone like great, great, great grandad John Deere miraculously invent their version of the John Deere Tractor with all the fancy implements, so Pharaoh wouldn't need slaves to make all these bricks. Or, why didn't God just create 3-D printing to build massive structures? Meanwhile, while they're preoccupied with these technological advances, the Hebrews walk out to freedom. I hope you're following my line of thought :-)
There are other ways He could have done it, but, Why? Why? Why did He choose to do it the miraculous way? I believe, returning to our victim, perpetrator, God wanted to demonstrate a third possibility in the cycle of abuse...a Savior.
The Israelites were being abused. They were being abused by a parent-like figure; Pharaoh. The relationship between Pharaoh and Joseph, as we've seen in our Genesis studies has a father-son relationship (Gen. 41-50). Pharaoh takes him in, pulls him out of the pit, listens to his dreams, does all the things for him that his own father didn't do, sort of redeems that father role for him. Then he makes him second-in-charge in the family business, just like his own father did with the coat of many colors (Gen. 37). He gives him a car/mirkevet hamishneh, a chariot, and he gives him a job and sets him up as CEO of the world.
The relationship of Pharaoh to Joseph is that of father-son. Presumably, one could argue that that relationship continues and makes the eventual abusive slavery all the worse. Because, if I'm just being abused by some impersonal king, all right, I'm being abused by some impersonal king. But if my father is turning against me, if there's a latent father-son relationship that the Israelites, the children of Joseph have established with the crown of Egypt, and they were taking care of me and they gave us Goshen and it was wonderful, and then all of a sudden there's this new king and they turn on me, it's terrible. It's not just anyone, it's my father who is abusing me. It's worse.
If you think about it some more, at some point in the plagues, it just doesn't become worth it anymore for Pharaoh. You've got to wonder what's in it for Pharaoh in keeping God's 1st born son around; the Israelites, the seed of Abraham. Common sense would say, somewhere around plague five and six, in terms of the economic GDP, when Pharaoh's servants say, "don't you know that Egypt is lost already, that he'd let them go" (Ex. 10:7)? But, it sounds like there's something else motivating Pharaoh. It's not just economic calculus anymore, there's emotion behind holding onto these children. Hmmm...
Maybe the 'father piece' of his stubborn control issues is tied up in the emotion. It's like, "no way Jose, dog-gone-it, this is my kid...it's the abusive father with this power control thing over his child (some of you know what I'm talking about). So from Pharaoh's angle, one of the reasons he's hanging on to them is because of this abusive father-child relationship. This is truly a domestic violence situation. That's what it was. It was violence in the home between father and child. The danger was that if we tried to walk out of there without knowing that God is our Savior...then we would have to look at God as if He's the bystander who has to make a choice. And that could lead us to dozens of different self imposed mindsets the people could have. Hence, the miracles were necessary for Israel's sake.
Let's think some more, if this was their memory and they then experienced anything that smacked of an abusive style relationship, or the potential of one, if they would go into the land and they would be in a position of potential power over those who were disenfranchised, if they were going to become landowners, then how would they relate to the stranger/ger among them? Their only memories would be of these power dynamics of abuse when they were on the receiving end, from someone in a position of power. They would think there's only two possible positions. You're either in power, or you're being abused. Not good!!
But, how does it answer the miracle question, you may ask? The answer is, God could have chosen a naturalistic means by which to free them, but then no one would have seen God's overt hand in the act. The way they would have looked back at the whole experience would have been, we were abused. We were abused in a terrible way, thank God we're no longer experiencing that abuse and God gets left out of the deliverance memory. It is only two possibilities. The savior role had not yet been created. You wouldn't have seen that. You wouldn't have had it modeled for you. You would have seen a system with only two possibilities, presenting with a binary choice. God had to show that there's a third possibility, and say, this is how I want you to act. Be like me. You can be a savior to those enslaved to this world (Eph. 5:1,2).
Let's peel another layer of the proverbial onion for clarity. If we think about what is revealed to us in Moses' early life, we will uncover more beautiful truths. Why did the Torah tell us the stories it did tell us before you get to the burning bush (Ex. 1-2)? Presumably it has something to do with the kind of leadership model he's going to bring to the table. Do you see this playing out in those stories? We heard that he's a baby in a basket. He's a potenial victim. He's not a savior figure. Fortunately, he's going to become the recipient of individuals intervening: there's two courageous people in that story and the primary courageous person is the daughter of Pharaoh (Ex. 2).
Biologically she's the daughter of Pharaoh, but in her actions and virtues it's as if she's funneling God into the story..almost as if God is saying, you stole my kid? I'm stealing yours for good. You stole my kid and abused him. I'll steal your kid, who's going to reject your values and elevate herself to take on a savior role (Ex. 2:5-9). It's also interesting to note that God also chooses her as the mother figure for Moses; not a co-ink-eedink (Ex. 2:10).
The father figure is going to be God, but your mother figure is this savior mother; Pharaoh's daughter. Ultimately, Moses will have to do for the people what she did for him, which is take him out of the water/moshe; which he does at the Reed Sea (Ex. 14:12-22). That's finally when they end up trusting him, by faith/emunah (Ex. 14:31)! but faith/emunah also comes from one other word, omein/to nurse. Not necessarily as a biological parent, but to assume responsibility for someone who you're not the biological person. To become their nurse. As in Moses, when he complains to God about the people when he says, "did I conceive this child"? "Did I give birth to it that you should say to me, that you should take this child the way an omein holds her (Num. 11:12-15)"? Well Moses, did he ever have any experience with an omein? Yeppers, he did (2 Cor. 1:3,4)
He had an omein of his own, that was Batya, the daughter of Pharaoh. When someone nurses you, when someone shows you, I'm going to take responsibility for your welfare...even though I don't really have a responsibility to do so, that causes the person to have a feeling towards you. What's that feeling? It's a feeling of complete trust. That's where emunah/faith comes from. If I'm your mother (spiritually speaking), I'm going to care for you. I am going to adopt you have the opportunity to love me like your my own child and you're going to receive care from me? That's real trust. Amazingly, Moses had that experience. Someone adopted him and was that savior, that mother figure. Now, he will have the opportunity to do that for the people.
When he does it, then they trust him the way he once, probably, trusted Batya. They establish that caring relationship. Later on, when he complains to God -- it's interesting that God doesn't answer him, when Moses says, did I give birth to this nation? Am I really the omein? And God is like -- Moses, maybe you are. Maybe this is why we are to remember the law of Moses (Mal. 4:4).
Are you thinking?
Shalom!
After a long commercial break on God's hardening techniques (Chazak vs Kavad), let's go back to our question: "How does this cycle of family abuse connect to the Exodus story"? When we stop to really think about this Exodus story, theoretically, God didn't have to put on such a huge sound and light show about the exodus from Egypt. Consider this: He's God! So if you're God and one out of five of your favorite Sons is enslaved (Ex. 4:22), and you know, you're the same God that ordained the laws of nature...You're the same God that is behind the laws of physics, the laws of chemistry, biology, astronomy, etc... And since all of nature is set up by your governing laws, it's like miracles aren't a thing you have to rely on, because the God who created nature doesn't need miracles...His natural laws are miraculous enough. And common sense, to the enquiring mind, says, 'if you have too many miracles, then gravity will become unpredictable; If the sun stops too many times that's going to ruin the stock market and the growing seasons. Frankly speaking, we need some predictability in life, and that's one of the great things about God's laws that you can actually count on them because they're undeniable laws. If they weren't laws, it would disrupt our life fundamentally.
So miracles can create some real problems unless you use them at essential times. So if a ministering angel from a burning bush and God are contemplating getting involved miraculously in the salvation of His people, (Ex. 3:4) they have to figure out how to get these guys out of slavery without the whole fire and light show. For instance, why didn't He just have Egypt experience an economic stock market crash, or suddenly, someone like great, great, great grandad John Deere miraculously invent their version of the John Deere Tractor with all the fancy implements, so Pharaoh wouldn't need slaves to make all these bricks. Or, why didn't God just create 3-D printing to build massive structures? Meanwhile, while they're preoccupied with these technological advances, the Hebrews walk out to freedom. I hope you're following my line of thought :-)
There are other ways He could have done it, but, Why? Why? Why did He choose to do it the miraculous way? I believe, returning to our victim, perpetrator, God wanted to demonstrate a third possibility in the cycle of abuse...a Savior.
The Israelites were being abused. They were being abused by a parent-like figure; Pharaoh. The relationship between Pharaoh and Joseph, as we've seen in our Genesis studies has a father-son relationship (Gen. 41-50). Pharaoh takes him in, pulls him out of the pit, listens to his dreams, does all the things for him that his own father didn't do, sort of redeems that father role for him. Then he makes him second-in-charge in the family business, just like his own father did with the coat of many colors (Gen. 37). He gives him a car/mirkevet hamishneh, a chariot, and he gives him a job and sets him up as CEO of the world.
The relationship of Pharaoh to Joseph is that of father-son. Presumably, one could argue that that relationship continues and makes the eventual abusive slavery all the worse. Because, if I'm just being abused by some impersonal king, all right, I'm being abused by some impersonal king. But if my father is turning against me, if there's a latent father-son relationship that the Israelites, the children of Joseph have established with the crown of Egypt, and they were taking care of me and they gave us Goshen and it was wonderful, and then all of a sudden there's this new king and they turn on me, it's terrible. It's not just anyone, it's my father who is abusing me. It's worse.
If you think about it some more, at some point in the plagues, it just doesn't become worth it anymore for Pharaoh. You've got to wonder what's in it for Pharaoh in keeping God's 1st born son around; the Israelites, the seed of Abraham. Common sense would say, somewhere around plague five and six, in terms of the economic GDP, when Pharaoh's servants say, "don't you know that Egypt is lost already, that he'd let them go" (Ex. 10:7)? But, it sounds like there's something else motivating Pharaoh. It's not just economic calculus anymore, there's emotion behind holding onto these children. Hmmm...
Maybe the 'father piece' of his stubborn control issues is tied up in the emotion. It's like, "no way Jose, dog-gone-it, this is my kid...it's the abusive father with this power control thing over his child (some of you know what I'm talking about). So from Pharaoh's angle, one of the reasons he's hanging on to them is because of this abusive father-child relationship. This is truly a domestic violence situation. That's what it was. It was violence in the home between father and child. The danger was that if we tried to walk out of there without knowing that God is our Savior...then we would have to look at God as if He's the bystander who has to make a choice. And that could lead us to dozens of different self imposed mindsets the people could have. Hence, the miracles were necessary for Israel's sake.
Let's think some more, if this was their memory and they then experienced anything that smacked of an abusive style relationship, or the potential of one, if they would go into the land and they would be in a position of potential power over those who were disenfranchised, if they were going to become landowners, then how would they relate to the stranger/ger among them? Their only memories would be of these power dynamics of abuse when they were on the receiving end, from someone in a position of power. They would think there's only two possible positions. You're either in power, or you're being abused. Not good!!
But, how does it answer the miracle question, you may ask? The answer is, God could have chosen a naturalistic means by which to free them, but then no one would have seen God's overt hand in the act. The way they would have looked back at the whole experience would have been, we were abused. We were abused in a terrible way, thank God we're no longer experiencing that abuse and God gets left out of the deliverance memory. It is only two possibilities. The savior role had not yet been created. You wouldn't have seen that. You wouldn't have had it modeled for you. You would have seen a system with only two possibilities, presenting with a binary choice. God had to show that there's a third possibility, and say, this is how I want you to act. Be like me. You can be a savior to those enslaved to this world (Eph. 5:1,2).
Let's peel another layer of the proverbial onion for clarity. If we think about what is revealed to us in Moses' early life, we will uncover more beautiful truths. Why did the Torah tell us the stories it did tell us before you get to the burning bush (Ex. 1-2)? Presumably it has something to do with the kind of leadership model he's going to bring to the table. Do you see this playing out in those stories? We heard that he's a baby in a basket. He's a potenial victim. He's not a savior figure. Fortunately, he's going to become the recipient of individuals intervening: there's two courageous people in that story and the primary courageous person is the daughter of Pharaoh (Ex. 2).
Biologically she's the daughter of Pharaoh, but in her actions and virtues it's as if she's funneling God into the story..almost as if God is saying, you stole my kid? I'm stealing yours for good. You stole my kid and abused him. I'll steal your kid, who's going to reject your values and elevate herself to take on a savior role (Ex. 2:5-9). It's also interesting to note that God also chooses her as the mother figure for Moses; not a co-ink-eedink (Ex. 2:10).
The father figure is going to be God, but your mother figure is this savior mother; Pharaoh's daughter. Ultimately, Moses will have to do for the people what she did for him, which is take him out of the water/moshe; which he does at the Reed Sea (Ex. 14:12-22). That's finally when they end up trusting him, by faith/emunah (Ex. 14:31)! but faith/emunah also comes from one other word, omein/to nurse. Not necessarily as a biological parent, but to assume responsibility for someone who you're not the biological person. To become their nurse. As in Moses, when he complains to God about the people when he says, "did I conceive this child"? "Did I give birth to it that you should say to me, that you should take this child the way an omein holds her (Num. 11:12-15)"? Well Moses, did he ever have any experience with an omein? Yeppers, he did (2 Cor. 1:3,4)
He had an omein of his own, that was Batya, the daughter of Pharaoh. When someone nurses you, when someone shows you, I'm going to take responsibility for your welfare...even though I don't really have a responsibility to do so, that causes the person to have a feeling towards you. What's that feeling? It's a feeling of complete trust. That's where emunah/faith comes from. If I'm your mother (spiritually speaking), I'm going to care for you. I am going to adopt you have the opportunity to love me like your my own child and you're going to receive care from me? That's real trust. Amazingly, Moses had that experience. Someone adopted him and was that savior, that mother figure. Now, he will have the opportunity to do that for the people.
When he does it, then they trust him the way he once, probably, trusted Batya. They establish that caring relationship. Later on, when he complains to God -- it's interesting that God doesn't answer him, when Moses says, did I give birth to this nation? Am I really the omein? And God is like -- Moses, maybe you are. Maybe this is why we are to remember the law of Moses (Mal. 4:4).
Are you thinking?
Shalom!
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