When They Ask

Scripture Focus: Exodus 12:26-27
26 And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ 27 then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped. 

Reflection: When They Ask
By Erin Newton

“Preach the Gospel. If necessary, use words.” This anonymous quote suggests the gospel can be told through actions. It’s true—faith needs to have actions. But it fails to answer Paul’s rhetorical question, “how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”

As the Hebrews prepared for the final plague, God instructed them to perform the Passover ceremony. This was an unprecedented ceremony and one that would be repeated annually. With each new year, the people would explain to the community why they celebrated. No new generation could say, “I didn’t know.”

You can always tell what is important to people by what they talk about the most. We know which friends are sports fanatics, bookworms, or cinema aficionados. If we love it, we ramble on about it. When God calls the Hebrews to teach the next generation, he’s asking for the Passover to fill a place of importance in their hearts.

It is not a laborious call to cover the curriculum. With devoted hearts, the people would celebrate, and the kids would be watching. “What does this mean to you, mom? Why are you doing that, dad? Where is the lamb we had last week, uncle?”

Passing on knowledge is commanded by God. We are called to teach to our children, younger believers, and those new in the faith. Sometimes it is handled like a theological checklist. Or something we pass off to the church staff. The burden seems daunting. 

Let’s look at the passage again. The parents would be practicing their faith. The kids would be noticing. Passover would not be a mere checklist of annual traditions; the people would celebrate out of faith and love.

We are fortunate to have myriads of resources at our fingertips. There are videos and books and programs designed to teach biblical truths to people with minimal religious backgrounds. Some are created to hold the attention of small children and others are created to spur deep thinking in new believers. For our core beliefs, we usually don’t need additional resources. The truths are too important to us.

We worry how to explain the hardest questions someone might ask. Remember that the question is often very simple, “What does this mean to you?” No need to be eloquent. Speak from the heart. Let the truth be filled with your experience and emotions.

I imagine their answers, “We were terrified that night, but God saved us…”

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Protect my life and deliver me; let me not be put to shame, for I have trusted in you. — Psalm 25.19

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Exodus 12.22-51 (Listen 7:31
Matthew 23 (Listen 4:53)

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The disciples to lead the next generation of the church may be those we have yet to reach.

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Do You Know The Enemy?

Scripture Focus: Exodus 5:20-23
20 When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, 21 and they said, “May the Lord look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

22 Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? 23 Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”

Reflection: Do You Know The Enemy?
By Erin Newton

I have a love for science-fiction and fantasy, including most youth fiction. The Hunger Games tells a good story about an other-worldly apocalyptic fight for survival. At the climax of one book, the scene unfolds into a life-or-death decision by the heroine. She points her weapon, and the targeted character throws his hands up and yells, “Remember who the real enemy is!”

As we read through the Old Testament, there is always the risk that we will lose sight of the battle being fought. The stories are a reflection of something greater.

Moses returns from his meeting with God to confront Pharaoh. He makes his case and Pharaoh receives it about as well as you could imagine. Terrible. Horrible. It makes Pharaoh respond cruelly to the Hebrews. Moses is distraught.

Pharaoh plays the villain in this story. There is no denying that, even if we get into circular conversations about who hardened who’s heart. The protagonist is Moses. The Hebrews are the victims of the conversational drama between Pharaoh and Moses.

Is this really a story of a righteous man versus a mean bully? No, they are simply playing their parts. They have free will to comply with or reject the requests made to them: Yahweh’s call to Moses and Moses’s plea to Pharaoh. Who is the real enemy here?

Pharaoh was Egyptian royalty and that meant he was the supposed manifestation of an Egyptian god. Moses, an image-bearer of God, was the spokesperson for Yahweh. This is not just a tale of former stepbrothers vying for influence over the Hebrew slaves. This is a story that reveals the power of Moses’ God and the impotence of Pharaoh’s nonexistent pantheon.

The next chapter opens with God’s reassurance to Moses that signs and wonders will come to Egypt. Pharaoh and his people are about to take a front-row seat to a supernatural revelation.

Do we remember who the real enemy is or are we too focused on the powers of this earth? Paul reminds us that we do not struggle against flesh and blood but against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6.12).

The conflict in Exodus is real. The oppression of the Hebrews is not lessened by viewing this as a spiritual battle. The effects were bodily and painful. There is, however, hope in knowing God is at battle in our suffering. He never loses.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Morning Psalm
Rescue me from the hurtful sword and deliver me from the hand of foreign peoples,
Whose mouths speak deceitfully and whose right hand is raised in falsehood… Psalm 144.11-2

Today’s Readings
Exodus 5 (Listen 3:15
Matthew 16 (Listen 3:43)

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Christ confronts, on our behalf, our greatest enemies—sin and death. Christ is the deadly enemy of death.

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Mistakes for Good?

Scripture Focus: Genesis 48:17-19
17 When Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim’s head he was displeased; so he took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. 18 Joseph said to him, “No, my father, this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.”

19 But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations.”

Reflection: Mistakes for Good?
By Erin Newton

God can take something meant for evil and make it work for good. But what about mistakes? Can God take a human mistake and use it for good?

As Jacob lays on his deathbed, Joseph brings his two sons to see their dying grandfather. Jacob blesses the boys with promises given to his own sons. But the grandsons are blessed out of order! Ephraim, the younger, is given the elevated blessing, a firstborn’s portion. Manasseh, the oldest, is blessed as a second-born.

Jacob is blind, and Joseph assumes his crossed arms were an accident. Jacob continues by granting Ephraim the greater blessing.

Joseph only sees a mistake being made. (He even tries to jump in to correct his father.) He bases his assumptions on how things ought to be. He has done everything right, reconciled with his brothers, and visited his ailing father. This should be a straightforward situation; nothing can go wrong.

Like the story of Joseph’s enslavement and deportation to Egypt, God worked through situations that looked hopeless or bound for misery. We are accustomed to looking at tragedies and preaching to our hearts that God can work something good out of them. But what about things that look haphazard? What about the events that look like someone messed up? 

The text never really indicates if God divinely inspired Jacob to switch the blessing order or if a mistake was made that Jacob accepted. The blessing was done, and the results could not be changed.

How many times do we look at a situation and assume that someone has made a mistake? If it’s a small thing, we don’t give it a second thought. But what about the big mistakes—the doctor who missed a diagnosis, the airline that lost your luggage, the distracted driver that hit your car, or the cashier who overcharged you?

When these things happen, we fault the person for making a mistake. We think, “If only they had done it right, I wouldn’t be suffering right now!” We cling to an “if-only” faith.

Jesus was blamed for an “if-only” scenario. “If only you had been here, Lazarus would not have died” (John 11.32).

It is easier to blame someone for making a mistake rather than trusting God to work among errors. God works through perceived irregularities. Think of the “if-only” times in your life. Hear God say, “I know, son, I know.” 

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lesson
The same stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. — Psalm 118.22

Today’s Readings
Genesis 48 (Listen 3:43
Matthew 9 (Listen 4:56)

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Through Mirrors Dimly

Scripture Focus: Genesis 42.8
8 Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him.

Reflection: Through Mirrors Dimly
By Erin Newton

This chapter opens with the next saga in Joseph’s life, the reunion with his brothers. It is a long story with many twists and turns. If Joseph’s life were a movie, the tagline would be: “What you meant for evil, God has meant for good” (Genesis 50.20).

Joseph was abused by his brothers. They tried to kill him but settled for having him sold into slavery. He was wrongfully accused and imprisoned. Joseph, however, rose to a place of authority in Egypt and his brothers, unknowingly, came to him to seek mercy.

Joseph was a blessing in disguise. He wasn’t in a real disguise; his brothers simply didn’t recognize him. Now grown older, they had graying hair and aged faces. Despite their long separation, Joseph could recognize his brothers. So, it is more likely that God prevented the brothers from recognizing him.

Here is something good, life-giving in fact, but they are blind to it. The brothers cling to hope that the man before them will be merciful. Their vision is muddled, like seeing through a mirror dimly.

What makes this story intriguing is the vantage point we have as readers. We know who the man is, we know it is their brother. If we’ve read this story before, we know it ends with joy.

But we never have that vantage point in our own lives. We are blind to how God will make all things work together for our good. We only feel the pain of our suffering, the sting of desperation. Like the brothers, we are taking steps in faith and worrying about every new crisis.

God was still working in Joseph’s story and the big reveal took much longer than we’d hope in this chapter. (We are a bit prone to demanding instant gratification, in stories and in our lives.)

We see through a mirror dimly, partial vision of God’s greater plan.

When the shadows tempt us to despair, let us pray:
Lord, you see us in the darkest of places where everything seems impossible. We need a way out, but every door is shut. Let us cling to the truth that you sent Joseph to store grain for his brothers, seven years before they ever knew they needed it. Our lives are as precious as those. Let us step in faith knowing you have stored up provision before we knew to call on you.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Morning Psalm
Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but stands fast forever.
The hills stand about Jerusalem; so does the Lord stand round about his people, from this time forth forevermore.
The scepter of the wicked shall not hold sway over the land allotted to the just, so that they just shall not put their hands to evil. — Psalm 125.1-3

Today’s Readings
Genesis 42 (Listen 5:08
Matthew 3 (Listen 2:17)

Read more about Vengeance, Arrogance, and Partiality
May we find in Jesus forgiveness to replace our vengeance, humility to replace our arrogance, and justice to replace our partiality.

Read more about Treasure in Our Sacks
We underestimate God’s generosity. Like Joseph, Jesus doesn’t accept our payments, he suffered and made our payment in full.

Spiritual Twins

Scripture Focus: Genesis 33:3-4
3 He himself went on ahead and bowed down to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.

4 But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept.

Reflection: Spiritual Twins
By Erin Newton

Before 2016, when I read the story of Jacob and Esau, I thought the note about their twin birth was a random fact. After having twins of my own, I’ve had a front-row seat to their unique relationship. Like brothers, they are the best of friends and, sometimes, the worst of friends. Despite the quarrels, they are closer than any other.

Jacob and Esau are usually thought of as enemies. One loved, one unloved. Israel versus Edom. Jacob was the trickster and Esau was impulsive. In the New Testament, Esau is always labeled for his quickness to sell his birthright for a meal. A poor choice, to say the least, but he did something more memorable.

Esau was angry enough to kill Jacob. But time had passed. Jacob had been the victim of someone else’s trickery. God allowed Jacob to learn his lesson from Laban’s hand, instead of vengeance from Esau.

Forget the birthright-stew debacle. Remember when Esau showed unmerited forgiveness. He loved his brother. He ran to him. He hugged him. He wept. The reunion of Jacob and Esau is a picture of brotherly love. 

Both brothers humbled themselves. Esau laid aside his grudge. Jacob laid aside his pride. Time healed some of the wounds, but humility brought peace. 

When Esau saw the face of Jacob and Jacob looked at the face of Esau, they saw themselves. Twins. Sure, Esau’s a bit hairier than Jacob but they share the same genes. Both were sons of Isaac and probably looked like their father.

My twins are identical, but you’d never know it. There was a problem in the womb, and now the scars and diagnoses create a visible distinction. But technically, each twin is a perfect donor match to the other. They can heal one another if needed. A better “eye for an eye.”

The Bible calls believers “brothers and sisters” in Christ. We are a kind of identical, spiritual twins. We have different scars, our environment shaped us differently, but we’re bonded together. We see each other and see ourselves, as children of the Father.

Look into the faces of those around you. Your friends and your neighbors, the barista and the doctor, a child with disabilities, and an octogenarian with a walker—these people reflect the image of your Father.

Grudges and pride must die. Run. Hug. Weep. These people are your brothers (and sisters). One God, Father of all (Eph 4.2-6).

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; let the whole earth tremble before him. — Psalm 96.9

Today’s Readings
Genesis 33 (Listen 2:59
Mark 11 (Listen 3:59)

Read more about Running to Forgive
A prodigal son approaches home…limping…fearful of rejection…the wronged party embraces him and kisses him. It’s Esau running to meet Jacob.

Read more about From Esau to Jacob
We are not hated. We are loved. This is demonstrated in Christ as God turns “Esaus” into “Jacobs.”