Community Art Project: Exodus 15, Isaiah 25

This is the last installment of our community art.  If this is your first post, just scroll back through the archives to see all 8 weeks of art made by the people of KNU International English Church.  Special thanks to all the folks in Greenhouse Worship for incubating our creative worship experiences!

Isaiah 25:6-9 There he will remove the cloud of gloom, the shadow of death that hangs over the earth.  He will swallow up death forever!  The Sovereign Lord will wipe away all tears.  He will remove forever all insults and mockery against his land and people.
    The Lord has spoken!

 Exodus 15:8, 12  At the blast of your breath, the waters piled up!  The surging waters stood straight like a wall; in the heart of the sea the deep waters became hard.  You raised your right hand, and the earth swallowed our enemies.

Community Art Project: Exodus 7-11

Exodus 7 (A Plague of Blood)
14 Then the LORD said to Moses ... “announce to [Pharaoh], ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to tell you, “Let my people go, so they can worship me in the wilderness.” Until now, you have refused to listen to him. 17 So this is what the LORD says: “I will show you that I am the LORD.”  ...
 20 ... As Pharaoh and all of his officials watched, Aaron raised his staff and struck the water of the Nile. Suddenly, the whole river turned to blood! 21 The fish in the river died, and the water became so foul that the Egyptians couldn’t drink it... 
Pharaoh’s heart remained hard. He refused to listen ... 

God Plaguing Us - Exodus 7-11

   This is a long and complex passage.  You will probably have unanswered questions after I’m done talking.  That’s OK.  There is no way I can talk about everything here, so I want to make some observations that can help us understand this strange text and apply it in our lives today.   Ten observations about the ten plagues.

1. Yahweh is God of all the earth.  In the English text, any time you see the word LORD in all capital letters, that is a textual symbol that the Hebrew word used is YHWH (or Yahweh).  Yahweh is the special Hebrew name for God.  The background for the plague story is a battle of Egypt’s gods and Yahweh Israel’s God.
    Moses comes to Pharaoh and says, “This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: Let my people go ...”  But Pharaoh responds, “And who is the LORD?  ... I don’t know him, and I won’t let Israel go.” (5:1-2).  This is the essential conflict of the plagues.  Yahweh is making himself known to Pharaoh, and Pharaoh is learning to submit to the God of all the earth. 

 

2. Yahweh wants all people to worship him.  Before the plague of the flies, God says, he is sending this plague so that “you will know that I am the LORD and that I am present even in the heart of your land” (8:22).  Before the plague of the hail, God said, “By now I could have lifted my hand and struck you and your people with a plague to wipe you off the face of the earth.  But I have spared you for a purpose—to show you my power and to spread my fame throughout the earth...” (9:15-16).  
    God wants all people everywhere to worship him.  This was a radical concept.  Back then, each tribe or nation worshiped their own collection of gods.  The gods were regionally or topically based - the god of this area or this issue.  No god asked for everyone’s exclusive worship - only some worship from some people.  Yahweh’s claim that he is the One True God of All the Earth was - and is - radical.

Community Art Project - Exodus 6

 ¹ Then the LORD told Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. When he feels the force of my strong hand, he will let the people go. In fact, he will force them to leave his land!”

Beyond Failure - Exodus 5

He was a young man at the top of his game - a star athlete, a top scholar, tall and good looking.  Then, God called him to be a missionary.  At this point in his life, being a missionary was the farthest thing from Jerry’s mind.  He went outside to a lake to talk with God in private.  He told God the long list of reasons why he shouldn’t be a missionary.  Slowly, God answered all his objections.  

At last he had one more complaint - the heart of his worries: “God, I can’t be a missionary.  I’m no good at that kind of stuff.  I’ll fail for sure.”

Then, he felt like God answered him very clearly: “OK, then, will you fail for me?”  That was the heart of the issue.  Was he willing to be faithful to God even if it meant failing?  

That question is the first main point of our Exodus text today.  God called Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt.  Moses and Israel put their faith in God.  They took a radical step of faith and obedience.  They went to Pharaoh and asked him to let them walk out of Egypt.

(Don’t get distracted by the details of their request.  This is an example of Middle-Eastern bargaining.  The opening offer is to go into the wilderness to worship, but hidden inside that, both Moses and Pharaoh know that Israel is really asking for freedom.)

So after taking this radical step of faith in God, we would expect God to reward their faith and to set them free.  Not exactly.  Instead of freedom, they get more oppression.

Pharaoh’s response is really shrewd here.  By making the Israelites work harder, he does three things.  First, they are now so tired they don’t have any energy to fight for change.  Second, they will now be happy simply to return to the old levels of oppression.  (At least, it was better than this!)  Third, he turns the Israelites against each other.  The Israelite foremen attack Moses and Aaron and call on God to judge against them!  Epic fail!

Sometimes faithfulness leads to failure.  Sometimes obeying God makes our lives harder.  Don’t be confused by all of the beautiful promises in the Bible.  They are true.  Being a Christian is awesome.  Following God is absolutely the best way to live.  ...  But sometimes it really sucks!  Sometimes we suffer because we do the wrong things.  Other times we suffer specifically because we do the right things.

So here is the first main point of Exodus 5.  Will you follow God even if you fail?  Will you be faithful even if it makes your life harder?  Will you value obedience over success?