Search This Blog

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

I CAN'T STAND IT (a lesson from the 6th plague)



Blogging Exodus 9:8-12

So the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Take for yourselves handfuls of ashes from a furnace, and let Moses scatter it toward the heavens in the sight of Pharaoh.
And it will become fine dust in all the land of Egypt, and it will cause boils that break out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.”
10 Then they took ashes from the furnace and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses scattered them toward heaven. And they caused boils that break out in sores on man and beast.
11 And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians.
12 But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh; and he did not heed them, just as the Lord had spoken to Moses.
  
And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians.   

At every previous confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh, vers 11 implies, Egypt’s chief magicians had accompanied the king of Egypt.  The magicians had tried to discredit the existence of Moses’ God, but Moses had produced credible miracles.  They’d tried to minimize the Hebrew God’s power, to make Him look like a minor new addition to the north African pantheon, but Yahweh’s serpent dominated and devoured theirs.  The magicians had offered alternative facts for the miracles plaguing their country, but after replicating some of the effects, they’d had to admit that the complexity and precision of the phenomenon could not be explained other than “This is the finger of God” (Exodus 8: 19).


The magicians had  turned all of their occult skill and spiritual expertise against Moses and failed, but the magicians were true Egyptians, patriots.  The unlettered peasants might be bowed by this abominable shepherd turned prophet, but they would stood by their president  Pharaoh. 

Until they didn’t.

And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians.   

When the water turned to blood, the magicians and other members of the Egyptian elite had drunk wine and milk for a week.  When frogs and flies infested the land, the magicians and other wealthy Egyptians had slaves to sweep and fan away the pests.  When lice spread, the unshaven peasants couldn’t afford the best ointments and treatments available to the magicians.  When livestock died, the members of Pharaoh’s magical cabinet could supplement their losses with bailouts confiscated from the surviving stock of slaves, peasants, and immigrants.  So, they had stood by their Pharaoh and defied the prophet of God.

Until they couldn’t. 
Until, the finger of God penetrated their wall of privilege and the elite, the initiated, the magical minority suffered just like all the regular people.   


And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians.   

They stood against the prophetic word until heroin was on the private school kids like on the urban schools.   They stood against the convicting word of God until the mass shooters were killing people in evangelical Baptist churches and “good” suburban schools.  They stood against the preaching of justice and liberation until police started shooting their neighbors and getting away with it.  Until their blonde-haired, blue-eyed granddaughters started telling the world that “it happened to me, too.”  Until the finger of God penetrated their walls of privilege.

Until they couldn’t stand it anymore. 

And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians.   

What are the magical walls of privilege behind which you have waited out the moving of God?

What makes you feel like it can’t happen to you?

What makes you feel so superior to those people over there? 

Mark that line in the sand where your self-righteousness is drawn.  Mark it well because God will step over it.  

 The righteous God wisely considers the house of the wicked,
 Overthrowing the wicked for their wickedness.
Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor
Will also cry himself and not be heard. (Proverbs 21: 12-13). 


Remember the Pharisee who prayed his privilege and religious exceptionalism:  God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess (Luke 18: 10-11).  Remember that Jesus condemned the Pharisee and justified the tax-collector, the government employee who standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’  (Luke 18: 13, 14).

Feel how you feel about that.  Feel how angry the thought of a religiously right man condemned while an admitted sinner and government employee --- probably in a union--- is “justified.”  Do you feel like . . . . you can’t stand it?

And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians.   


 --Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Bailey Tabernacle CME Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He writes the popular blog: A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar. 
Visit the ministry’s website at baileytabernaclecme.org

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 
Bailey Tabernacle CME Church
1117 23rd Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401







No comments:

Post a Comment