I have shared with you before the “Children’s Bible in a Nutshell.” Listen to this rendition of the Moses story: “Another important guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston. Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt…after God sent ten plagues. These plagues included frogs, mice, lice…and no cable [TV]. God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti. Then he gave them His Top Ten Commandments. These include don’t lie, cheat, smoke, dance…Oh, yeah, I just thought of one more: Humor thy father and thy mother.”

 

Now, let’s read the real story of Moses. [Read the morning texts]. In a Pulitzer Prize-winning series in The New York Times, reporters told about the border guards between India-Nepal, carefully watching in order to stop the flow of pirated DVDs, but none of the guards stopped the stream of Nepali girls being trafficked to India [reporters Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, cited in Sojourners, Jan., 2010, p. 18]. So, in our world, DVDs are protected and valued but human beings are not? Our text this morning also deals with a cruel :Pharaoh who devalued the lives of the Hebrew people. Desmond Tutu once said that after you’ve been treated like a thing long enough, you begin to believe it about yourself. There is simply nothing more dehumanizing than sin and evil.

 

One mistake we make in our Bible storying is that we often jump from the popular “Moses and the burning bush” to the Red Sea parting, and leave out the ugliness in between: the depth of human suffering and the incredible ruthlessness of Pharaoh’s regime. To catch the despair and the grace of God that finally breaks through, let’s listen to the speeches of the central cast.

 

FIRST, LET’S LISTEN TO PHARAOH. Moses and Aaron had come to the Egyptian ruler and declared, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Let my people go…’” Pharaoh’s first words were ignorance and defiance: “Who is the LORD…? (v. 2). Then he showed his pragmatism by saying, “You know, Moses and Aaron, you’re wasting my time. Get back to work. There are pyramids to build! Time is money. Productivity is everything. People don’t count!” (v. 4). Then he displayed his cruelty. “By the way, Moses, to teach you not to complain, from now on, your people have to do the same amount of work but now they have to gather their own straw as well. Take that” (v. 7). Then, the real kicker. Pharaoh showed his political cunning. He said, “You know, the whole problem is that your people are lazy; that’s why they want to be free!” (v. 8). That’s what we sometimes think, right? It’s poor people’s fault they are poor! If we can convince ourselves of that, we don’t have any responsibility to help them.

 

NEXT, LISTEN TO MOSES. He and Aaron approached Pharaoh and declared God’s command to let God’s people go (5:1). But Pharaoh artfully turned Moses’ people against Moses. So in 5:22, Moses asked God, “Why did you send me?” The people were saying to Moses, “Why didn’t you just leave well enough alone? Just preach the Bible! Stick to religion and stay out of social issues.” This week, commentator Glenn Beck said that a person should find out if your church is committed to social justice and if so, to leave that church. I disagree with him on that. I say the opposite. I wouldn’t want to be a part of a church that didn’t care about suffering humanity. I wonder what Beck does with strongly evangelical churches like ours that see it all as one fabric—God cares about all of it: freedom from sin, death, guilt, freedom from hate, homelessness and hunger. I wonder what Beck wants to do with John Wesley who preached the love of Christ and also helped reform child labor abuse and bring about prison reform in England. Or Colonial Quaker John Woolman, who travelled up and down the Eastern Seaboard in the 1700’s, preaching Jesus saves and preaching against slavery.

 

Our own youth here at FBCJC are committed to raising $25,000 to dig a well in Kenya, Africa. You see, there is no separating the Water of Life, Jesus Christ from the water for life that keeps people alive physically. It all matters to God. “Let my people go!” Freedom from sin, from death, but also freedom from want and abuse.

 

I want you to notice that in these scriptures we hear from every other person and group: Moses, Aaron, the taskmasters, foremen…everyone except the oppressed people. From them? Silence. Who will speak for the suffering ones? God does. LET’S ALSO HEAR WHAT GOD SAID Notice the strong verbs in 6:1ff. “I appeared, established, heard, remembered, will free you, deliver you, redeem you, take you, be your God…” Wow! The word for “deliver” is the verb used for snatching a prey out of the mouth of a predator, just in time! This is God’s love commitment to us. God hears, sees and cares. And God will act.

 

The authors of the book Half the Sky (Kristof and WuDunn) tell of a Pakistani girl named Mukhtar, who was raped. Usually, young women in her situation commit suicide, but Mukhtar took her compensation money and started schools to give other girls a way out and up. Remember! The name of this book of the Bible is “Exodus”, a way out, departure from what is. Through God’s grace, it doesn’t have to be as it has been. God frees and heals.

 

But notice. These powerful words of hope and grace from God in ch. 6 are not first of all directed to the slaves; they are directed to the heart of Moses, who was discouraged and wanted to give up. He needed a reminder of his call. Do you need a reminder about your call? Do you hear the call to join God in setting people free and getting God’s world back to where God intended? How many unchurched people are near you at home or at work? They are enslaved and need the Liberator? How much more could you do with your money and time in correcting injustice in this city or Kenya?

 

Here’s a formula to remember: MY BEST TALENTS/GIFTS+MY DEEPEST VALUES+THE WORLD’S DEEPEST NEEDS=GOD’S MISSION FOR ME. You know, we read the Bible stories and think, “Wow…Moses was a spiritual giant, so God called him.” No. We have it backwards. God calls ordinary people, and when we obey God’s call, we become spiritual giants. So, what are you going to do with the rest of your life? How will God use you to set some people free?