Exodus 7:8-13: Cane Snake!

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 29 June 2014 

By Captain Michael Ramsay

We will be looking at the plagues of the Exodus in a little more depth over the weeks to come. Sarah-Grace is working on a sermon about the plagues. She has been asked to preach in Maple Creek in August as a guest preacher, so we will have her use us as guinea pigs once she has finished the sermon. We can be her trial audience. Today I am going to look at the signs that Moses and Aaron offer to Pharaoh in advance of the plagues. In Chapter 4, which we looked at the last time we spoke together here, God mentions a number of signs that He wants Moses and Aaron to show to the Israelites and/or the Egyptians and in our pericope today we see one of maybe two of them play out before Pharaoh: the sign of Moses’ / Aaron’s staff turning into a snake (the other sign might be the Nile turning to blood).[1] We will look at that first sign today. Before that though, I have some comics for us from Dr. Was. [2]

 Let's take a look again at Exodus 7:8-13:

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron,  “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a snake.”

So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.

There are a number of items and ideas that jump out at one as we read through this sign that God performs for Pharaoh through Moses and Aaron.

1)      We notice that not only can God do this sign but so can wise men, sorcerers and even Egyptian magicians. They can all turn their staffs into snakes.

2)      Aaron’s staff snake eats and swallows the others

3)      Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he won’t let them go.

First let us get a bit of an image in our mind of the scene painted before us in Exodus 7:8-13. Aaron and Moses are coming into Pharaoh’s palace.[3] This must be like an old homecoming of sorts for Moses. This past week, the Comp Grade 12 students and their parents just celebrated Grad. Now I think that I may have gone to my 10^th Grade 12 Grad reunion but I know I didn’t go to my 20^th, 25^th, or any others. I do know that many people tell stories about what happens when they do go to reunions. They notice who has lost hair and they notice who has gained weight; they notice who has children and who has even grandchildren; they notice who has become rich or famous; they notice who is divorced or never married. They also notice how much the school has changed or remained the same. Anyone here every gone to a school reunion? Think of your old school and your old friends; when you see them the old stories and feelings come flooding back.

Moses in our story today is returning to a palace that he would have spent some time in and around – at least as a teenager or young adult (Exodus 2:5-10) - and a pharaoh who is probably in some way related to him: a step or foster brother or cousin, someone he may have even known with as a teenager or a young man, or this pharaoh may even be the child or grandchild of someone he may have grown up with. Moses in our story today is eighty years old and his brother Aaron is eighty-three (Exodus 7:7). It has been a long time since he left the Egyptian Composite School (had their been one, of course!). Picture yourself as an 80 year-old returning to your high school for the first time or visiting the old family homestead that you haven’t seen since before you got married. This is what it may have been like for Moses as he stands before Pharaoh - who is probably a relative of his foster mom or a step-relative of some kind who he hasn’t seen since he was a young man. Now Moses is eighty, standing in the halls of this building he once knew so well, talking to types people he used to know so well and challenging these people like maybe he used to do sixty or seventy years ago in this very building. This is the scene before us today: an 80 year-old at a school and/or a family reunion.

Now this 80 year-old Moses and his 83 year-old brother throw his cane –that’s what a staff is – this octogenarian throws his cane to the ground, it turns into a snake and then – I guess – while this snake is moving along the ground, Pharaoh sends messengers out to find wise men, sorcerers, and even some magicians. I doubt they were all in the palace. They probably weren’t even all in the city. Pharaoh’s men would have had to go find them. I don’t know what they did in the interim whether Moses and Aaron picked up the snake staff and waited outside or whether they all just stood there and looked at this snake. At any rate these wise men, sorcerers and even magicians finally arrive and this brings us to our first observation for today:

1)      Not only can God, Moses and Aaron do this sign but also all these wise men, sorcerers and even the Egyptian magicians. They all turn their staffs into snakes.

Does anybody else find this interesting? I can’t turn a staff into a snake. Now some people have suggested that all of these wise men, sorcerers, and magicians somehow hypnotised some snakes so that they would stand rigid for a long time and disguised them as canes and then as soon as they throw them to the ground they snap out of it and wriggle along the floor.[4] That would be a neat trick – unlikely – but a neat trick nonetheless. Now some other people have suggested that all of these wise men, sorcerers, and magicians had somehow simply done a slight of hand merely creating the illusion of making the staff a snake but there is a problem or two with that idea as well: the main one being that the Bible doesn’t pretend that they were tricking.[5] It simply says that they could do this just like Moses and Aaron could do this. And as you read through the other sign that Moses and Aaron perform for Pharaoh at the commencement of the plagues – turning the Nile to blood – the magicians can do that too and even the subsequent plague; the Bible records that the magicians – on command - conjured up frogs to further devastate their own lands. This seems to be more than a slight of hand. At any rate,

Observation 1: this turning of a senior gentleman’s cane into a snake doesn’t seem to impress everyone and it appears that anyone in this field of work was able to do this same thing. [6]

In the end, this miracle, this sign, seems to be something that the magicians, the politicians (the officials) and Pharaoh himself can simply write off as an insignificant trick that many people can do. And this brings us to observation #2.

2)      Aaron’s snake staff swallows up the others.

Again let us picture this scene together. There could possibly be a very packed room with Pharaoh, his officials and possibly a whole bunch of wise men, sorcerers and even magicians here (cf. 2 Timothy 3:8).[7] It may even be like us in this room today. Imagine that Pharaoh is sitting or standing up by me here. Imagine that these two men in their 80’s throw this staff on the ground in front of us here and it becomes a snake and then either one-by-one or all-at-once the person beside you and everyone around you - these many wise men, sorcerers and even magicians - they throw their canes on the ground and there are all of a sudden all these snakes crawling everywhere. This is what it would be like.

Now imagine that this snake up here sees all of the others down there and one-by-one goes and fights and eats those 20, 30, 40, 10 or however many other snakes there are sliding around on the ground.[8] That is the visual image of this first sign for Pharaoh. I’ve been in a snake pit or two before – I can’t say that I would necessarily be so eager to watch these duals.

Picture this further with me. When Pharaoh and everyone see that anyone in the room can seemingly throw her cane on the ground and have it become a snake, they are probably thinking that it is no big deal and maybe they are feeling a little bit smug too. Pharaoh probably thinks that Moses thought that he had come up with this impressive feat so he calls together this room full of people to show Moses up: “Look Moses. What’s the big deal? You thought you could convince us to do what you want by doing this? We can all do it!” Now we can imagine Pharaoh or one of his officials or a magician, a sorcerer or two start giggling or laughing to themselves that someone dares make demands of Pharaoh when he can’t do anything more special than any of the rest of the wise men, sorcerers or even magicians. How can Moses think he is so special? They are possibly enjoying the humour of the moment when someone notices – and then the next person sees – and then someone else watches as Aaron’s rod, Moses’ staff, this older gentleman’s snake cane is not only attacking but is actually eating, swallowing up all of the other snake canes. Can you picture that?

You can picture how the mood would change in a moment, right? One minute they are enjoying their illusion of victory probably laughing in celebration; the next they are shocked, embarrassed and maybe even the object of scorn themselves as their canes are eaten by Moses’ or Aaron’s staff. In one moment, they believe they have proved they are superior, in the next minute God shows them that He has defeated them. Their defeat has been swallowed up in His victory.

Remember not the last Grey Cup, which we won, but the final we were in before that against Montreal? Remember how that ended? Montreal just had to make a simple field goal before time ran out and they would win the game. They missed though. We all celebrated as apparently Saskatchewan had won the Grey Cup; everyone was happy and then one by one each person in whatever room you happened to be in happened to notice something was happening; something was wrong. The players were lining up again. Someone had miscounted. Saskatchewan had too many men on the field. Montreal was allowed to kick again. They did and this time they won the game; they won the cup. As we from Saskatchewan felt on that day, losing after we thought that we had won, that is how it must have been for Pharaoh’s magicians on this day. As the Montreal kicker and his team must have felt when the next kick went through the uprights that must have been exactly how Moses and Aaron felt as God through their snake cane carried the day. This brings us to our third observation.

4)      Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he wouldn’t let them go.

Now we can understand how Pharaoh would not be so happy, seeing defeat snatched from the jaws of victory in this way as the work of his magicians, sorcerers, and wise men is gobbled up before his very eyes. You can understand how he would be more than a little upset. Now this upsettedness is further exasperated. Have you ever seen those Egyptian headdresses? Picture King Tut – he’s a famous pharaoh. What does his headdress – his hat – what does it look like?

– A Snake, a Cobra. Pharaoh has just not only seen all these snakes eaten by the staff of this guy who was run out of the kingdom decades ago but he has also seen this powerful symbol of his family, this powerful symbol of himself, and this powerful symbol of his whole country mocked and devoured before his eyes. It would be like if we went to visit the president of the United States and suddenly chopped up and burned and American flag right in front of him; what would he do? At the very least he would have us arrested; if we did it in a very public fashion like Moses and Aaron did here, they would probably do even worse to us. Just ask Noriega or others who have spent decades without charge in an American prison for threatening to embarrass today’s equivalent of Pharaoh, the US President.[9]

Pharaoh has just been shown up and Pharaoh’s heart is hard and it is going to get hardened either again or even further many times until he finally does concede God’s victory. At this stage however Pharaoh hasn’t learned his lesson but what lessons can we learn from this first sign, the sign of the staff that turned into a snake and devoured Pharaohs’?

I think it is this: Pharaoh thought that he was master of his own destiny. Pharaoh probably didn’t care too much about the disparate religious beliefs represented before him in our pericope today. He thought anything that either God could do or that people thought that God could do, Pharaoh seemed confident that he could find someone else who could do the very same thing. He probably saw the miraculous as mundane and explainable, at least he saw them as duplicate-able. He then errs by trying to copy the work of God, instead of submitting to God.

Pharaoh tried to do in his own strength what can only really be accomplished in God’s strength. In Pharaoh’s time of trouble, the LORD wanted Pharaoh to turn to Him but he trusted in himself and turned to magicians rather than turning to God.

How many times in our own lives when we are faced with a crisis like Pharaoh was, do we act exactly the same way? Do we really believe that God is the one who can deliver us? Do we acknowledge the signs He is doing right in front of our eyes, right now, in our lives, or do we try to conjure up snakes of our own fancy? When we can’t pay the bills do we go to God in prayer and meditation and reading our Bible to see how He is transforming us like Aaron’s staff or do we try to make our own snakes and answers? Do we try to make our own miracles by trying find money on our own, or borrowing money, or gambling, or taking out a loan, or selling something, or conjuring up any other magician’s snake instead of seeking God? If something tragic happens in our lives, if something desperate happens in our lives, do we follow the signs of God’s snake cane or do we try to do the work of God all on our own?

Make no mistake my friends, if we oppose God, working against Him by trying to do things on our own instead of seeking Him, those snakes of self-reliance will be shown to be as useless as Pharaoh’s magicians’ snakes - but there is good news and the good news is this: Jesus, the Son of God Himself, provides a very real deliverance from whatever problems we face in this world. Numbers 21:4-9 records that when Moses lifted up a bronze snake in the dessert, all who cast their eyes upon him, even those who were dying were saved and John 3:14 records, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up;” Jesus is like Moses’ bronze snake in that – even today - any of us who cast our eyes upon him will be saved for now and forever,

So I encourage all of us today, to cast aside all those inferior magicians’ snakes of our text today. They can’t save us and they will not survive. Let us not miss the sign; instead let us look upon Jesus, who was lifted up, lived, died, and raised again. Let us look upon Jesus and let us live for now and forever more in his loving embrace.

Let us pray

www.sheepspeak.com

---

---

[1] Cf. Peter Enns, Exodus, (TNAC: Zondervan: Grand Rapids, Mi., 2000), 195.

[2] Captain Michael Ramsay, Dr. Was: Daily Rations with a Smile, (Sheepspeak: Vancouver, 2005). Available on-line at www.drwas.blogspot.ca 

[3] But cf. Peter Enns, Exodus, (TNAC: Zondervan: Grand Rapids, Mi., 2000), 194.

[4] Peter Enns, Exodus, (TNAC: Zondervan: Grand Rapids, Mi., 2000),198.

[5] Brevard S. Childs, The Book of Exodus, (OTL: Westminister Jihn Knox Press: Louisville, Kentucky, 2004), 152.

[6] Cf. Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:Exodus/Exposition of Exodus/I. Divine Redemption (1:1-18:27)/D. Judgment and Salvation Through the Plagues (7:6-11:10)/1. Presenting the signs of divine authority (7:6-13), Book Version: 4.0.2

[7] Cf. Donald Guthrie, Pastoral Epistles: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1990 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 14), S. 176

[8] R. Alan Cole, Exodus: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1973 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 2), S. 95

[9] Cf. Walter Brueggemann, The Book of Exodus, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), 740

Exodus 3:1-4:16: “Go!”

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 24 June 2012 and 12 June 2014 by Captain Michael Ramsay

Click here to read the 2012 version: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2012/06/exodus-3-4-go.html

Today is Fathers’ Day and I have certainly been blessed with three of the greatest children for whom a father could ask. We are looking forward to helping out at the Soapbox Derby as per The Salvation Army’s tradition here in Swift Current. It should be a good day and I have good daughters.

Sometimes, however, I must admit that my children listen better than they do at other times. I can remember one day: I remember telling them that we would have to walk home when they arrived at the corps. I told them that we would have to walk home because mom couldn’t come pick us up. I told them to make sure to put their coats on because it was raining and we would be walking home. I told them not to bring too many things home from the corps because we would be walking home. We then head outside and immediately one of the children asks, where’s the car?

My girls can do so much and can be at times quite confident in their abilities. Rebecca, I remember, even as a three year-old, sang this amazing impromptu solo at a talent show (or something like that) in front of maybe hundreds of people that was absolutely captivating for all who were present. Sarah-Grace played the villain in the school play one year and she did a spectacular job. Many people commented on her performance. Both Rebecca and Sarah-Grace have won accolades for their performances. Heather too is growing into quite a big girl. She knows she is special. My children, they can be quite confident in their abilities at times.

Moses, in our pericope today, may lack some of this confidence that my girls have at times displayed but Moses appears to listen in very much the same manner as my girls did in the car episode. Moses, in our story today, as he stands before God, sounds a little like a scared child and as the reader nears the end of the pericope, he actually sounds a lot like an obnoxious child who he keeps refusing to just do what he’s told.[1] Here is a brief paraphrase of the text we read earlier today.

Exodus 3:8: The LORD says to Moses, “I have come down to rescue the Israelites from the hands of the Egyptians…” 3:10, “Now go, Moses, because I am sending you to Pharaoh.”

Moses: Exodus 3:11, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

Exodus 3:12: the LORD speaks. It’s not about you. “I will be with you. I have sent you…”

Exodus 3:13, Moses: “Well … suppose I go and…? If I go, who should I say sent me?”

Exodus 3:14-17, the LORD: “I am who I am! Tell them I am sending you! Go and tell them that I am the one who will deliver them.” Exodus 3:16, the LORD says: “I have watched over you…” Exodus 3:17, the LORD says: “I have promised to bring you up out of your misery…” Exodus 3:18 and so on, God says: “I will strike the Egyptians” God says, “I will perform wonders among them…” God says, “I will make the Egyptians favourably disposed to My people…” God says, “Go…I will do it!”

Moses, Exodus 4:1: “But what if they do not believe me…”

God then provides Moses with all kinds of signs, wonders and miracles that God performs… Exodus 4:2-3:

Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

“A staff,” he replied.

The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake… and he ran from it.

God then turns it back into a staff and then the LORD gives Moses leprosy… and then He cures it and then He tells Moses that He, God, will do all this and more for him in front of Pharaoh. God will even turn the Nile River to blood, He says.

Then, Exodus 4:10, Moses – not apparently listening and still focussing on himself - says to God: “I can’t do that…I am slow of tongue…I can’t…. I can’t”

Exodus 4:11, the LORD, who might be getting a little ticked off at this point, I know I would be, He says: “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or who makes him mute? Who gives him sight and who makes him blind…” In essence the LORD is asking, “Who? Moses, who? Who’s the one who does all of this? I am!”, He says. Exodus 4:12, God says: “Just go! I will do the rest! I will tell you what to say. Just Go! ^[2]

Exodus 4:13, Moses: “No, Please send somebody else…”

By Exodus 4:14 God is getting really upset by this disobedient adult child. Exodus records that, “Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses… ‘Get Aaron to help you; he can speak; I will help you both speak and teach you what to do.’” God does it (cf. Genesis 26:3, 24; 31:3; Exodus 4:12, 15; Deuteronomy 31:23; Joshua 1:5; 3:7; Judges 6:16).

God still is going to do everything that God says God is going to do. God will deliver Israel;[3] God will do it but He is still angry with Moses. Actually, a few verses later, Exodus 4:24, it says that God is more than just a little upset with Moses. God, it records, is even going to kill Moses but Moses’ wife – who isn’t even an Israelite – she knows how to satisfy the LORD and she saves her husband life and/or possibly even her own son’s life.

Now Moses ultimately, we know, does wind up forfeiting his right to enter the Promised Land and Moses does die on the outside looking in. After a later display of his lack of obedient faith in God, Moses earns this consequence and maybe even more than that (cf. TSA doc. 9). The Biblical story cares a lot about one’s descendants and we don’t know much about what happened to Moses’ sons at all (1 Chronicles 23:14). Instead of Moses inheriting a dynasty like David later does, God may have even effectively ended Moses’ family line (Numbers 3:1, 27:21 but cf. 1 Chronicles 23:14; see also Midrash Tanchuma, Pinchas 11).[4] At any rate, God certainly does remove them from any prominence in posterity. The priesthood descends through his brother Aaron’s line – not through Moses’ or one of his sons. The next political leader is Joshua, not one of Moses’ sons. Moses dies on the outside of the Promised Land looking in and in our pericope today, Exodus 3:1-4:16, Moses angers God through his lack of faith and faithfulness and he really is blessed simply to escape with his life.

How about us? Jesus asks the same thing, in essence, of us that He asks here of Moses. Just like God, from the bush, asks Moses to point His people to the salvation that He has provided for them from slavery, if we flip in our Bibles to Matthew 28:18-20, you will notice that Jesus asks us to do the very same sort of thing. Jesus asks us to point everyone to eternal salvation. Jesus says, Matthew 28:19-20a: “…go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you….”

Just like with Moses, God wants to bless us as instruments of His salvation. Do we ever forget that God is the one who provides for their salvation? Do we ever think of reasons why we can’t do that? Do we ever relentlessly question God –ignoring His repeated responses- like Moses does in Exodus Chapter 3? Do we ever doubt God in our ignorance like it appears that Moses doubts God here in Exodus Chapter 3? Do we ever ignore God when He tells us that He will do something through us? Do we ever argue instead that we can’t possibly live up to what God wants to do? If so, then, like Moses, we probably anger God. And if this is the case then we – like Moses - will be blessed to simply escape with our lives.

God has asked each and every one of us to point people to the salvation that is available for everyone through Christ Jesus, our Lord (Matthew 28:18-20; cf. TSA docs 6, 10,11). Do we do that or do we argue with God -refusing to lead others to salvation- as if it is us that need to die for their sins? Do we ever, like Moses, offer to God and ourselves a litany of excuses and reasons why we can’t obey Him in pointing everyone we meet to salvation? Do we ever, like Moses, come up with lame excuses as to why we can’t obey God’s great commission? Do we ever, like Moses, say that we are not good enough speakers to lead people to salvation? Do we ever, like Moses say, “What if they don’t believe us?” Do we ever, like Moses say, “Who am I that I should be the one to do it?” Do we ever like Moses say, “Please God, send someone else?” Do we ever decline the opportunity; do we ever decline the command and do we ever decline the commission to lead people to the salvation that is found only in Jesus Christ?

I have told the story before of a friend of mine who was a car salesman. He felt the prompting of the Lord to lead a friend to Christ - as I believe each of us will who serve the Lord. He felt that the LORD was telling him to tell an employee or a co-worker about the Lord. He felt that he was supposed to point someone to salvation through Christ Jesus our Lord. He knew that the Lord was commissioning him to share the gospel. He didn’t do it. The very next day -I believe- he found out that his employee, his co-worker, his friend had died.

Today, all of us here worshipping the Lord are metaphorically standing before God at a burning bush. God is asking us to point others to His salvation. The question is, will we do it?

Moses did. God is a loving God and God is a patient God. God waited for Moses. God waited 400 or more years actually from the first time He promised Abraham he would deliver his descendants into the Promised Land (Cf. Genesis 15:14).[5] God waited those many, many years to use Moses to point God’s people to salvation. God did not give up on Moses. Even though Moses tried God’s patience, pushing God seemingly to the limit, God persisted and God used even Moses – taking Moses from a position of one who is seemingly more afraid of pointing people to salvation than of defying God (Matthew 10:28), to the point where Moses is remembered today as the great lawgiver whom God used to lead a whole nation out of slavery and into a life for service to the LORD (cf. also Deuteronomy 30:11-20, Judges 21:25, Ps 56:13, Proverbs 11:19, 13:14, 14:27, 18:21, Jeremiah 21:8, John 5:24, Hebrews 13:6, Romans 2:1-16, 6:13, 1 John 3:14).[6]

My friend, the car salesperson: He never forgot the lesson God taught him that day. He went on to be an evangelist, a pastor, and a preacher – probably the best preacher that I have ever heard actually. God did not give up on him (Romans 3:3,4; cf. Deuteronomy 31:6, Joshua 1:5, Hebrews 13:5). Even though he may have tried God’s patience, pushing God seemingly to the limit, God persisted and he used even my friend – taking him from this position of one who is seemingly afraid more of pointing people to salvation than of defying God (Matthew 10:28), to the point where he is remembered today by me as great preacher whom God has used to lead many people out of slavery to sin and into a life of service to the LORD.

It can be the same with all of us here today. We are all standing before God, like Moses at that burning bush. God is asking us to point others out of slavery to sin and towards this glorious salvation in Christ Jesus. The question for us today is will we invent excuses as to why we can’t obey God’s great commission? Will we tell our Lord that we are not good enough speakers or that we don’t know enough to lead people to salvation? Will we doubt God and ask, “What if they don’t believe us?” Will we question God saying, “Who am I that I should be the one to do it?” Will we plead, “Please God send someone else?” Or will we – like Moses eventually does – follow God in leading our friends and our family to salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord?

In just a few minutes we are invited to help at the soapbox derby concessions; every Saturday from now on through the summer we have an opportunity to be at the prayer booth at Market Square, right downtown. Next week we are going to join the Baptists in a community barbecue. The youth this week handed out flyers to the homes in the neighbourhood in preparation for this event. Between all these events and other things happening in our lives, there may be some people that we are going to meet in this next month, in this next week and in this next hour that have never met Jesus; so I encourage us to ask anyone we don’t recognize if they attend a church in town. If they don’t (or even if they do), pray silently, then ask them if they know the Lord - and who knows, if they don’t yet, maybe in our obedience to God, maybe even this afternoon, maybe God will use even us to lead someone to salvation.

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

---

---

[1] But cf. Kathy Beach-Verhey, "Exodus 3:1-12." Interpretation 59, no. 2 (April 1, 2005):180-182. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed June 20,2012). 181.

^[2] R. Alan Cole, Exodus: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1973 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 2), S. 74: Moses, unlike his early days in Egypt, has learnt to distrust himself so thoroughly that he will incur God’s anger (Exod. 4:14). Self-distrust is good, but only if it leads to trust in God. Otherwise it ends as spiritual paralysis, inability and unwillingness to undertake any course of action. Moses, like Elijah (1 Kgs 19), is a picture of a man who has had a ‘nervous breakdown’, and is now unwilling to work for God at all.

[3] Cf. Walter Brueggemann, The Book of Exodus, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), 712.

[4] Cf. Rabbi Menachem Posner, Ask the Rabbi @ The Judaism Website, “Do we know anything about Moses’ descendants? Did they enter the Land of Israel with everyone else?” On-line at http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/1530929/jewish/What-Happened-to-Moses-Descendants.htm (viewed 19 June 2012)

[5] Walter C. Kaiser Jr., The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Exodus/Exposition of Exodus/I. Divine Redemption (1:1-18:27)/B. Preparations for Deliverance (2:1-4:26)/5. Answering inadequate objections (3:11-4:17)/b. What if they ask what your name is? (3:13-22), Book Version: 4.0.2

[6] Cf. Fredrick Carlson Holmgren, "Exodus 2:11-3:15." Interpretation 56, no. 1 (January 1, 2002): 73-76. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed June 20, 2012), 76.

1 Corinthians 6-10: In Tents Storm of Life: Everything is Permissible but Not Everything is Beneficial.

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 01 June 2014 

by Captain Michael Ramsay

The other week Susan the kids and I went down to Montana. We saw Pompey’s Pillar. Do you know what that is? You know Lewis and Clark – the 2^nd or 3^rd explorers to travel across North America to the Pacific Coast; Mackenzie was first and Thompson may have been second. Lewis and Clark, we’ve heard of them, right? We saw a rock that Clark famously signed in the 19^th Century as he was traveling through. It was really quite interesting. We also saw the Little Bighorn. We are all familiar with the Battle of the Little Bighorn right? That is where the Sioux had their last successful resistance to American conquest and US General Custer famously had his last stand. As we were leaving that area, we stopped by the gift store and Rebecca showed me this bumper sticker:

 Our adventure was quite an enjoyable time – at least in the daytime. The nights were an entirely different story. As Susan mentioned last week to those of you who were here, the nights were quite dramatic. To recap: Night Number 1 at the campground, Rebecca and I managed to set up our giant three-room, 15-man tent in the rain and everyone managed to get to sleep only to awaken when one person wets not only her sleeping bag but many other things in the tent as well. So we toss the items out in the rain and walk down to the Laundromat first thing in the morning to wash everything.

Night Number 2, there is a horrible wind and rainstorm and one person wakes up terrified and another wakes up vomiting not only on her sleeping bag but also on many other things in the tent. So we toss the items out in the rain and walk down to the Laundromat first thing in the morning to wash everything.

Not quite Night Number 3, there is a terrible storm with hailstones twice the size of quarters and a powerful enough wind to drive those stones with force at anything caught outside. We head back to the campground and the campsite to where we pitched the tent… it is not there. The ropes from the tent are still tied to the tree and to the pegs in the ground but the tent has been torn apart and blown over a building and/or some trees and landed – with our stuff mostly still in it – in a culvert outside the campground.

As the hail turns to rain, I stand straddling the culvert and steadying the tent as we lower Rebecca down into the remains of our tent to salvage whatever can be salvaged. We save most items – not our tent though. Now we had paid for one more night at the campground and we could stay there longer but we thought, ‘enough is enough’ and after we load the car, we head towards home and stop in a nice hotel room for our last night on the road so we can all get some much needed rest. We all get to sleep nicely in a bed… only to awaken when one person vomits all over the carpet and the side of a bed. I wash the items in the bathtub, scrub the carpet, and clean up. It was nice to be home from our trip.

When we had reached the penultimate night of our trip, because we had already paid for it, of course we were permitted to stay for one more night but – as it was storming and we were without a tent - it was not beneficial to do so. The Apostle Paul says that everything in life is like that. Everything – he says – is permissible but not everything is beneficial and he puts this in a number of different ways in Chapter 6-10 of this letter to the Corinthians.

Paul talks about our response to the storm that is hitting the 1 Corinthian tent in a number a different ways. He reminds us that it is permissible to stay in the metaphorical tent but not really beneficial with everything that is blowing around out there. As recorded in Chapter 6:9-15, Paul says pertaining to this and specially referring to the storms of idolatry and sexual sin:

 …do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

 [

Everything is permissible.] “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.  Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute?

In Chapter Six of this letter here, Paul speaks about our quote – ‘everything is permissible for me but not everything is beneficial’ – encouraging us to avoid sin. Referencing the body: implying, inferring, alluding to, and acknowledging that it may be permissible to do anything even something as drastic as chopping your hand off but then you have to realize that you won’t have a hand. It is permissible to overeat and eat bad foods but then you have to accept that you might get fat, get diabetes, have a heart attack, and die. If you treat your body improperly it won’t work and - as you are a part of Christ’s body (which is the church) - if you abuse the body, the church won’t work. In Chapter 3, Paul comes right out and says that those people who do destroy the church will be destroyed themselves.[1] If we destroy ourselves then we will be destroyed.[2] Everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial. That makes sense, right?

The example Paul gives is that we are a part of Christ’s body. Should we then join Christ sexually with a prostitute or with someone else in sexually destructive ways? Even more than that: how can we be both a part of both the body of Christ and the body of sexual sin?[3] How can we be a part of the ocean and a part of the prairie at the same time? How can we be a part of the wind and a part of the doldrums? How can we be a part of the sky and a part of the land? How can we be a part of the body of sin and a part of the body of salvation? It may even be allowed – Paul says – but that doesn’t make it possible and even if it is possible, it certainly doesn’t benefit the body of Christ; and anything that destroys the body of Christ (the church) like spiritual junk food, metaphorical overeating or excessive drinking, symbolic STDs, etc.; Christ says He will ultimately destroy, as amputating a limb to save the body. So while some things may be possible to do - or even permissible to do - in our culture that doesn’t make them useful, helpful, or even non-destructive. You are allowed to go for a long walk in the prairie summer in a snowsuit but it may not be your best option; you are allowed to go for a long walk in the winter prairie wearing only your bathing suit but it might not be your best option and really, it will impede your salvation; you might not survive. If you destroy yourself, you will discover that you are destroyed. Paul uses this expression, “everything is permissible for me but not everything is beneficial”, to point out to us that there are some things that we really should not do. This all makes sense so far, right? But just when we think we have this whole thing sorted, Paul comes back to this thought in a little bit more puzzling way.

Paul speaks about some other important items and then he comes back to this idea in Chapter 8:1-12 and he comes back to the same phrase again in Chapter 10:14-30: “everything is permissible for me but not everything is beneficial”; he uses the phrase this time to more thoroughly address food sacrificed to idols. And some have pondered potential contradictions in these thoughts.[4]

1 Corinthians 8:4-6&8, Paul says reassuringly and almost nonchalantly to the Corinthians: So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols:

We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.”  For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live….  But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

But a few moments later as we read on, we come to 1 Corinthians 10:14-15: “… my dear friends, flee from idolatry. I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say.”

In one moment Paul is saying, “What does it matter if we eat food sacrificed to imaginary idols? They don’t exist anyway;” and in the next he is saying, “Flee idolatry! Run away from it!” One moment he says that an idol is nothing at all in the world (1 Corinthians 8:4). 1 Corinthians 10:19-20a: “Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No …”

Then – Verses 21-22 - Paul continues on in seemingly a completely different vein – “ but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s Table and the table of demons. Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than He?”

And then Paul says,  [but] Verse 23, “Anything is permissible for me but not everything is beneficial.” So what does Paul mean? Verse 23, “‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say—but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything’—but not everything is constructive.” What does Paul mean when he says, 10: 21, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons” when he also says 4:8, “But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.” When Paul said “anything is permissible for me but not everything is beneficial” in Chapter 6, he is doing so to encourage us NOT to partake in sexual sin and idolatry and now as he uses this phrase further in relation to idols, is he saying that we should or that we should NOT partake of idol food; is he saying that it really matters or is he saying that it really doesn’t matter because idols are nothing anyway? He seems to be saying both things; so what is he saying?[5]

I do invite you to keep your fingers in all the passages we have read here today where Paul is speaking about this same matter in this letter: 1 Corinthians 6:9-15, 8:1-13, 9:18-23, 10:14-31. It is important: Paul in the same letter is not going to be disagreeing with himself and changing his mind. He is making the same point so what is the point?

I think there are two bits of cultural-historical information pertaining to meat sacrificed to idols that we need in order to fully grasp the meaning attached to this discussion. One is this: almost all meat sold in the marketplace was meat sacrificed to idols.[6] If there was a Safeway or a Co-op in Corinth of Paul’s day, much of the meat there would have been sacrificed to idols and they didn’t label their packages so you would have no idea if the package that you were buying was meat sacrificed to a pagan idol or not. Just like Israelites and Judeans sacrificed animals to God in ancient times, so too did pagans. And priests were the butchers in ancient Corinth; so just like people bring animals to the butcher shop today, people then and there would bring their animals to the temple to be butchered for eating; they would bring their sacrifice to the pagan temples and the priests would dedicate the animal to a pagan deity and the priest would then butcher the animal. The family would eat some, the priests would eat some, but inevitably there would be a lot of meat left over and that meat would wind up in the marketplace. Paul knows that if anyone buys meat in the marketplace, they will have a really good chance of eating meat sacrificed to idols.[7] The only way that they can avoid eating meat sacrificed to pagan idols is to become vegetarians and Paul is definitely NOT promoting that here. He says, Chapter 10 Verse 25-26, “Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for, ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.’”

So then, why in the next breath of Chapter 10 (V.28) does Paul say, “do not eat meat sacrificed to idols”? As we look at Verses 27-31, I think we will see what is the difference. Verses 25-26 are talking about buying food at the market or even eating food in the restaurant (early restaurants were in pagan temples as well!) Paul is saying that it doesn’t matter if you eat that food because the other so-called gods are just make-believe anyway. Verses 27-31, on the other hand, speak to going to eat at someone’s home for dinner. This, we see has the potential to be quite different. Verse 27-29a:

If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience. I am referring to the other person’s conscience, not yours.

If your friend invites you over for dinner and he tells you specifically that they have dedicated this meal to a false god, do not eat it. The reason that you shouldn’t eat it is as a witness. Eating this meat, in this manner, would – in essence- be taking communion with pagan gods (or demons as Paul calls them) and your non-believing friends.[8] You certainly don’t want to lead other people astray by having communion with demons.

Paul, Verse 24, says, “No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.” And Verse 31, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

Do you see the difference? Paul is saying that, “everything is permissible for him but not everything is beneficial.” And the criterion that he is using here to help him determine whether or not something is beneficial seems to be the life and the soul of the people around him.

We don’t have a lot of meat sacrificed to idols around here – though in Vancouver it would not be uncommon to see a Buddha or a Buddhist cat statue in many local restaurants. Here and now, especially for those of us in The Salvation Army, I think one of many examples as to how this relates to us is the following way. Soldiers in The Salvation Army do not drink– not that I believe that there is anything inherently scripturally wrong with drinking strictly speaking. The potential problem arises in that many people who come to The Salvation Army have struggled and are struggling with addiction. Can you imagine if God uses you to lead your friend to the Lord and the Lord delivers him from alcoholism and then your friend sees you in the pub having a pint? What might that do for them relating to their addiction? And more importantly what might that do to them relating to their salvation/holiness? What might that tempt them to do or think relating to their faith? Paul says, 1 Corinthians 9:18-19, about putting aside his freedom to eat and drink what he wants, he says, “What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights as a preacher of the gospel. Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible”

And so it should be for us as well. Though we are free in this culture to do so much, some things are quite frankly - like Chapter 6 records - very harmful for us and so we should avoid them for that purpose; and some things – even though they are not inherently harmful to us – some things are very harmful to others and so we should avoid them for that purpose: to make straight the path to salvation. I would hate for my freedom to be used to condemn anyone to bondage in sin. Though I am free and belong to no one, I would rather be myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

---

---

[1] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, 1 Corinthians 3:9-17: Building the Building. (Swift Current, SK, Sheepspeak, 04 May 2014): http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2014/05/1-corinthians-39-17-building-building.html

[2] Cf. Leon Morris, 1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 7), S. 98

[3] Cf. W. Harold Mare, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:1 Corinthians/Exposition of 1 Corinthians/VI. Paul's Answer to Further Reported Problems in the Church (5:1-6:20)/B. Christian Morality Applied to Legal and Sexual Matters (6:1-20)/2. Christian morality in sexual matters (6:12-20), Book Version: 4.0.2

[4] Cf. R. Simon J. Kistemaker, ‘1 Corinthians’ in New Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2007), 62-63., 69-71

[5] Richard B. Hays, 'First Corinthians' in Interpretation, ed James L. Mays, et. al. (Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox Press, 1997), 169: among other things he argues quite convincingly that this pericope is not so mauch speaking of pagans sacrificing to demons as Israelites.

[6] Cf. N.T. Wright, '1 Corinthians' in Paul for Everyone, (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), 98.

[7] Cf. N.T. Wright, '1 Corinthians' in Paul for Everyone, (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), 98.

[8] J. Paul Sampley, ‘1 Corinthians’ in The New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 10, ed Leander E. Keck, et. al. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2002), 918.