Bible in one year, day 46 Exodus 17:1-18:27, Mark 1:1-28,Psalm 22:1-11 Exodus 17:1-18:27… On one level I understand but, on another, I don’t. Deserts are roasting hot places and, once you’ve been there for a matter of a few hours – let alone days – you start to get incredibly thirsty. So I can kind of understand why the Israelites were quarrelling with each other and with Moses. But, on the other hand, how could they not see how God had provided for them all along. They were free, due to God’s amazing acts. They were fed because of God’s amazing bread distribution and yet still they thought that somehow God wouldn’t fashion some amazing water fountain just when they needed it. They even get to asking, ‘Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?’ But of course, so much more patient with his people than I would have been, God does provide, and in typically amazing fashion. ‘Strike the rock,’ God tells Moses, ‘and water will come out of it for the people to drink.’ And it did. And, all refreshed and fed with the manna, the Israelites are ready for a battle with the Amalekites which – thanks to God – they win. And then Moses’ father-in-law shows up: Jethro (how cool a name is that!). He was a Midianite priest who seems to have believed in many different gods, including our God (the true one!). The thing was, he seems to have been on a quest to discover which of all the gods was the greatest. And, listening to all that the Lord had done for the Israelites, a big smile comes across his face as he learns the answer to that quest. He exclaims, ‘Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods.’ And, I believe, at that moment, Jethro forgot all about his other ‘gods’ and devoted the rest of his life to the God of Israel… our God. Jethro was also an administrative genius. Organisation is really not my thing. But it was Jethro’s. Moses had been spending days at a time judging various different moral and legal disputes that emerged amongst the people. There were hundreds of thousands of them remember! And it took a whole day to get through all the cases: a whole day of Moses sitting, thinking and judging. A whole day of the people standing around waiting to be heard. Jethro saw that this was a rubbish arrangement. And whilst Moses had to remain as the guy in charge who taught everyone about God’s laws and decrees it was perfectly reasonable, Jethro argued, to appoint jolly good fellows to act as judges and administrators over smaller groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. And Jethro was right. And Moses agreed and that’s what they did. And God approved. And there’s a lesson there. Whatever your gifts might be… they’re valuable. Jethro was good at administration and God used that gift. The guys in charge of the smaller groups were good at overseeing and guiding people. And Moses was good at teaching the people what God was all about and how he wanted them to live. Whatever gift God has given you there will always be a way to use it for God’s glory and the building of his Kingdom. No one is useless. Mark 1:1-28… A new gospel! If Matthew wanted to emphasise that Jesus is the King, Mark wants to emphasise that Jesus is also a servant. And you get that sense in Mark. There’s no birth narrative (no Christmas story) and you’re just straight into the action with Jesus dashing about left, right and centre like a servant with work to be done. And the whole gospel starts with a bang. What takes Matthew and Luke a few chapters to get to and John a page or so, Mark gets to in one line: ‘The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.’ We’re left in no doubt what these pages are going to be about. And we whiz through John the Baptist and Jesus’ own baptism. Instantly Jesus is getting the message out there: ‘The Kingdom of God is near.’ Disciples are being called and leave there fishing nets. Evil spirits recognise him and that they’re no match for him as he casts them out. There’s no hanging about with Mark – no time to catch your breath. There’s work to be done and Jesus is on a mission. The servant of God has his sleeves rolled up and he’s getting on with it. Psalm 22:1-11… This guy is seriously depressed! Jesus quotes this Psalm as he’s on the cross which gives you an idea of the level of pain we’re talking about. And whilst I hope very few of you guys ever suffer to this extent or (if you do, not very often) there are times that you’ll feel God is distant from you. But the psalmist continues to trust in God because, although he feels as though there’s nothing else to cling too, he knows that God gave him life in the first place, bringing him forth from his mother’s womb. In a nutshell, even if we feel like God’s given up on us and when we feel like giving up on God, remember that the fact we have life at all – and life is an amazing thing – means that God is real and worth trusting. And he will come to our aid in his perfect time.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 05:06:47 +0000