Today's reading: Exodus 8; 1 Corinthians 14
It’s kind of crazy to me that Moses still isn’t bold enough to just declare what Yahweh says to Pharaoh and let that stand. Even four plagues in, when Pharaoh gives a minor concession that they can go sacrifice in the land, Moses doesn’t say, “No, God told us to go worship him in the wilderness, three days’ journey out,” Instead he says, “But the Egyptians won’t like our sacrifices and will stone us if we do it here, so I guess that one probably won’t work…”
I want to bash Moses for not being more bold, especially when he is clearly holding the better cards, and Pharaoh is just bluffing, but I do the same thing. I have, over the years, become completely convinced of my faith. I am completely convinced God is there, that He is good, that He is sovereign, that He moves in human history, that He can (and does) intervene in miraculous ways at times, etc. But despite that, despite knowing I am on the winning side, that this world is passing away and there will come a day when all creation will stand before God, where everyone will see the truth plainly, and where we will be rewarded for our faithfulness to Him with the time we have here, it is so much easier to hem and haw and be timid about my faith, especially when I think there might be opposition to it, or even just someone passively unhappy about it.
To be blunt, even posting these posts about the Bible is a bit of an internal struggle. It shouldn’t be. I love the Scriptures. I have spent a kind of ridiculous number of hours over the last 15 or so years dedicated to studying and/or teaching the Word. If there is anything I have dedicated more time to than studying the Bible it would be building software, simply because that’s my job so I spend 40 hours a week at it, but I’m not entirely sure which of the two I would speak about with more confidence. And yet, while I have no qualms getting up at a software conference and telling people they should listen to my views on software, I’m honestly kind of hesitant to even post my thoughts about what I’m reading in the Bible out on a blog that people can completely ignore and are only going to read if they’re actively curious about it…
I want to be more freely bold for God.
God, it is so much easier to treat the material world we see and interact with every day as the most important, but if what you say in your Word is true, then this world is passing away and we are looking forward to an eternity with you, and who is there with us and the reward we get there are based, at least in part, on how faithfully we live our lives for you here. Convince me more, in the depths of my heart, of that reality, so that I’m not like Moses here, hemming and hawing about what you have declared.
No comments:
Post a Comment