Links for today’s readings:
Read: Exodus 7 Listen: (3:29) Read: Matthew 18 Listen: (4:25)
Scripture Focus: Exodus 7.1-6
1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. 2 You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, 4 he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. 5 And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.” 6 Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded them.
Reflection: Live Prophetically
By John Tillman
God makes Moses and Aaron a metaphoric picture of being a prophet.
Prophets speak in a deity’s name as a messenger speaks in a ruler’s name. This was common in preliterate history.
Messengers represented a sender’s words. They delivered a sender’s speech from memory with exact wording and took back exactly worded replies. (2 Samuel 11.19-22; 2 Samuel 14.2-3, 19-20)
Special messengers represented a sender’s will. These messengers went beyond rote memorization. They knew their masters’ minds and spoke freely on their behalf. Examples include Abraham’s servant (Genesis 24.50-58) and Sennacherib’s commander (Isaiah 36.1-5).
Messengers represented a sender’s person. They would be treated with respect due to the sender. Mistreating or disrespecting a messenger was tantamount to treating the sender in the same way. (2 Samuel 10.3-6)
Normal messengers represented the words, will, and presence of their senders. God’s prophets represent the words, will, and presence of God.
There is an important lesson in not responding to prophets as Pharaoh does, but today focus on your prophetic call. You have one.
Whether you can “speak well,” like Aaron, or whether, like Moses, you are “slow of speech” you do not lack any spiritual gift in Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 1.7)
Prophecy is not necessarily foretelling the future, but speaking the truth. When we speak the gospel, we tell the truth about the past, present, and future. “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again,” is a prophetic statement.
Be aware and worthy of your prophetic calling.
Faithfully know and represent his words. Read the Bible to know the words of Jesus and how Jesus treated scripture. Follow his interpretive example. Do not distort, leave out, or reinterpret scripture to justify your sin or anyone else’s sin.
Faithfully discern his will and follow his ways. Know the mind of Christ and follow his way. You cannot do his will outside of his ways. (ref) Get wisdom, though it costs you everything. (ref)
Faithfully represent his presence. Be Jesus’ feet and hands, serving the outcast and hurting. Have no “fear of man” or favoritism for the powerful or the weak, but speak the truth lovingly and firmly. Suffer, die, and rise with him, both metaphorically each day and literally one day in the future.
Do not shirk your prophetic calling. There are kings to be confronted and people to be set free. There are wonders to be shown and rescues to be enacted. Live prophetically.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Small Verse
Open, Lord, my eyes that I may see.
Open, Lord, my ears that I may hear.
Open, Lord, my heart and my mind that I may understand.
So shall I turn to you and be healed.
– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.
Read more: Invisible Status
Jesus calls “the greatest” those others call “the least.”
Jesus moves the invisible to the best seats at the feast.
Read more: Choices and Hard Hearts
Hardened hearts happen in stages. Our choices matter. Our hearts are hardened or softened day after day.
