Sulking in Midian

It occured to me this evening that the typical interpretation of Moses's story is incorrect.

Moses flees Egypt after murdering an Egyptian overlord who is abusing Hebrew slaves, which I get. More to the point he flees once he is outed by his fellow Hebrews who even ask him, 'who has made you ruler and judge over us'.

The theory is assumed (in movies as well as sermons) that Moses was just a good guy who happened to be standing up for the downtrodden. At best he's angry at the treatment of his enslaved kinsmen and just has one of those moments. Oops.

At worst, he's a hot head in need of a 40 year coolin' off period.

Jewish Rabbis have speculated that Moses was as young as 20 when he did this. Stephen however in his sermon to the Sanhedrin tells us that Moses was 40 years of age (Acts 7:23). And at age 80 is when the Lord calls him from the burning bush (vs.30).

But Stephen tells us more. Giving insight to the purpose of Moses.

Acts 7:23 "When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand.

Holy Moses! I once pulled a guy, who was smakin' his women around outside a bar, off of her and we scuffled. Part way into it I was hit from behind by the women and subsequently lost the fight. They both took to kickin me. Probably made out quite passionately in some trailer not far from where I was picking myself up. But enough of that.

My point here is that Moses, nursed and raised by his mother, would have been full of the knowledge of His Hebrew God. Raised in Pharoah's court, full of the known wisdom of the world.

Unlike so many interpretations, Moses knows who he is and what his purpose should be. At age 40 it comes to his heart to present himself to his people as their salvation. This is more than the salvation of two men dookin' it out. It is the salvation of them all. He is ready to lead them out and since he's been taught about God's plans, fully expects God to show up with a high five. Theres the oops.

27 But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?' 29 At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

I no longer think Moses was running 'from the law' so to speak but running from his God. He was running away from the place were he expected God to show up and back him. The retort of the men shock him not because they will turn him in but because they don't understand. If the Lord is telling him in his heart to present himself as a leader than surely the Lord will see to it that the average knucklehead will follow him.

Here he was doing the Lord's work and the Lord ain't helping. Here he is in his prime. Strong, handsome, full of zeal but the Lord won't use him.

It's only after another 40 years passes. When the zeal has faded and the legs no longer can support a full on sprint. His arms have long since seen the day of striking other men down. He is old, tired and very much I think miffed at his sense of place in the world. His arguments in Exodux 3 and 4 with the Lord strike me as a man wanting some reassurance that the people will follow him this time round.

Even while in exile in the land of Midian, he continues to stand up for the weak. He can't help himself. It's who he is.

My belabored point is that it's not his warroir spirit that gets him into trouble. That was God-given. It is his pride. Only when he is humbled does the Lord call him to bring salvation to his people but it won't be by his (Moses's hand) in the earlier sense. Fist-a-cuffs. No, no, it will be by the hand of the Almighty, in a way the world will speak of for thousands of years.

Twitter

So, I'm learning about twitter, which is just a quick way to update people to what I'm up to using cell text mainly that is posted to my blog. Yea, I'm cool and hip and super savy (yawn).

So now, when I'm scratching myself, wondering what, if anything, profound I could say, I'll just say, "I'm scratching myself", and you dear reader will be in the know and cool like me. Not to mention hugely edified.

Yea, I'm also feeling sarcastic of late. : )

The greatest enemy will hide in the place you least expect.

I'm going to rank the movie..... "Revolver" (click here for trailer) up there with my all time favorites.
Leon, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking barrels, And the Matrix. I rented it yesterday and have watched it twice now.

This is definetly a mind bending movie. I knew the director Guy Ritchie was into Kabbalah and the references are there for those looking for such things but one can also extract Christian principles and beliefs. The ultimate enemy is the ego. The self. This can also be attributed to Satan. Feeding us lies during the everyday conversations we have with ourselves in our own minds.

The reduction of the ego is one of the most important battles and the least understood. And so this movie takes us through the character of Jake Green (played by one of my fav actors, Jason Statham) who unbeknownst to him has been subjected to a game that will expose his ultimate opponent, himself.

Jakes a con man and having learned the ultimate formula for winning while inprisoned embarks on a tale of revenge to those resposible for his incarceration. But this isn't your average revenge flick. Here we get to see numerous characters battling their own image of self thru voice overs.

The ultimate enemy is supposedly crime boss Sam Gold, whom you never see and with good reason. He is the strong man to use a biblical phrase. But fear of him and humiliation of self (the source of most violence if you think about it) drives the characters to destroy themselves and those around them. Only when we are awakened to the fact that the true enemy is within us, can we then take on the real fight.

Of course this is too much for the mind to grasp and like Jake Green we must be played first, beaten at the game we think we are in control of. Reduced and forced into enduring what we fear most.

This is an Exodus movie, and the charcters Jake (Jacob), Avi (Abraham) and Zack (Isaac) the patriarchs of Israel are leaving Egypt. An Egypt of the mind. A self made prison.

Rent this movie. Violent and profane it is. But so is life. The ending is redemptive.

My church is in the paper

My church family, Sojourn is the cover story in one of the local Papers, the LEO (Louisville eccentric observer). Smells like Holy Spirit.

The things that won't go away...

Micheal Spencer, the always insightful internetmonk, is asking the hard question of his neighbors. The things that won't go away....

Read it.

Exanastasis (a rising up; resurrection)

I was struck afresh when reading this verse today...

Philippians 3:7

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

I can and will not only share his resurrection on the day when God makes all things new, but also begin to live that new life in the present. It looks impossible; without God it actually is impossible; but, since God is the God of creation and new creation, it is not only possible but true.

"And, unquestionably, we lose nothing when we come to Christ naked and stript of everything, for those things which we previously imagined, on false grounds, that we possessed, we then begin really to acquire. He, accordingly, shews more fully, how great the riches of Christ, because we obtain and find all things in him."- John Calvin

Music

The Bravery - Believe

(via jeannieanline)