MAKING A DIFFERENCE: A Lesson from the 4th Plague

Blogging Exodus 8:20 - 32

²⁰ And the Lord said to Moses, “Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh as he comes out to the water. Then say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.

²¹ Or else, if you will not let My people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand.

²² And in that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, in which My people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, in order that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the land. ²³ I will make a difference between My people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall be.” ’ ”

²⁴ And the Lord did so.

Thick swarms of flies came into the house of Pharaoh, into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt. The land was corrupted because of the swarms of flies. . .

The first 3 plagues had affected everyone in Egypt.  For a week, neither the Egyptians nor their Hebrew slaves could find a cup of water blood red and stinking.  The frogs had hopped through the palaces in Egypt and the slave quarters in Goshen.  Lice had chewed on the flesh of slaves, overseers, masters, and visitors to the country.  The wrath of God had fallen on the whole nation of Egypt in general.

But then God sent word to Pharaoh, “I will set apart the land of Goshen, in which My people dwell. . .  I will make a difference between My people and your people.” 

When Pharaoh refused again to grant religious leave to the Hebrew slaves, thick swarms of flies invaded the homes and lands of ethnic Egyptians.  The land was corrupted because of the swarms of flies. Corrupted in this sense means “contaminated.”  The flies brought disease.  The insects were just gross and inconvenience.  People died. But not Hebrew people.

The flies didn’t fly in Goshen because God made a difference between His people and the other people.

When the process of deliverance begins it feels like a general disaster.

Companies all over are closing. 

Kids in every community have lost their minds. 

Families in every demographic dissolve in an epidemic of divorce and infidelity.

Every faith and denomination is tainted with scandal.

Every political persuasion is guilty of hypocrisy against their stated values. 

The poor urban (black and brown) kids are addicted to crack and weed.  Rural white kids are addicted to meth and weed.   The middle-class and rich kids are addicted to heroin (and weed).  Old folks are addicted to opioids, and everyone else is on sleeping pills and/or antidepressants.

The plagues afflict us all.

They say “Misery loves company,” but if you’re waiting on God to save your people, shared misery doesn’t actually make your situation any better. 

But then.

Even while things in the country are generally miserable, watch for that moment when God makes a difference for you.

After the Civil War came Reconstruction and the Freedmen’s Bureau which made such a difference that the HBCU’s were founded, African-Americans were elected to Congress, and in 1870, a new, independent Christian denomination was founded, fully led and administered led by ex-slaves (the Colored Methodist Episcopal church).  God made a difference for His people.

After Vietnam and the Cultural Revolution of the 1960’s Affirmative Action and the Office for Civil Rights. The list of firsts in that period is to long for this blog post, but you see the pattern, right?

God’s people cry out to Him.  He sends them the promise of deliverance, but at first things just get worse.  Their enemies double-down on their attacks, and the outpouring of Divine wrath meant to get the nation to repent is a series of general disasters in which God’s people suffer, too.  But then, the story shifts and God starts making a difference between His people and everybody else.

We call that “a season of favor.”

What is the difference that God is ready to make in, among, for, and through His people?   What is the DIFFERENT approach to alleviating poverty that communities of faith can deliver?  What is the DIFFERENT approach that Bible-studying people can find to make the legal system a system of actual justice?  In the midst of all the disastrous news pouring out of every crevice of the country, what has God put in the church, in YOUR church, that will set apart your response and make a difference between how your people deal with the next crisis?  

Think about it.  Pray about it.  Because as surely as other plagues followed the flies in Exodus 8, another crisis IS coming after whatever next goes wrong in America. 

Be ready God’s people.  Be different.

 --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

Email: BaileyTabernacleChurch@comcast.net

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

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

THE WORD YOU NEED, NOT THE WORD YOU WANT (audio)

A Communion Sunday sermon from Jesus’ original sermon about communion.  They didn’t want to hear it then, but we need to hear it now.  The title of the message is: THE WORD YOU NEED, NOT THE WORD YOU WANT.

Listen well and leave a comment.

If you can’t get the audio on your device, visit the main podcast page at http://revandersongraves.podomatic.com/

The podcast is on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/anderson-graves-podcast/id918990482

 --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

Email: BaileyTabernacleChurch@comcast.net

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

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

P.O. Box 3145 

Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35403

WHEN HATE OUTWEIGHS LOVE

We say, “If you’re nice to people, people will be nice to you.”

God says, “No. Not necessarily.” 

It’s like what the Lord told Moses in Exodus 3:18 – 19: And you shall say to [Pharaoh], ‘The Lord God of the Hebrews has met with us; and now, please, let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’

But I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand.

God warned Moses and Aaron that when they approached Pharaoh humbly and respectfully and in an unthreatening tone very nicely asked him to allow the Hebrew slaves just a few days off for worship, Pharaoh would NOT give the same respect he was given.

And he didn’t.  Instead, Pharaoh accused Moses and Aaron of being outside agitators stirring up trouble among his ni--- umm.  Among his Hebrews.

Then the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your labor”  (Exodus 5: 4).

As individual Christians, we identify with Moses, the believer, the humble underdog making a simple request.  We identify the American church with the children of Israel, God’s people oppressed and persecuted by a wicked dominant culture.

No.  Not necessarily.

What if you, I, we are Pharaoh? 

Here’s how we can tell:  the bad guy in the story is the one who’s hate outweighs his love.  

Let’s run some tests.

Do you justify your hatred like Pharaoh did?

Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are many now, and you make them rest from their labor!” (Exodus 5: 5)  

Pharaoh’s refused to give the Hebrew slaves time off because there were too many Hebrew workers.   Yeah, but would Pharaoh have given them time off if there had been fewer Hebrew slaves?  No.

And what in the world did the number of slaves have to do with whether or not enslaving them was right?  Nothing.

It’s like in the pre-Civil War South when Confederates states said, “We can’t free the Negroes.  There are too many of them.”

It’s like during World War II when the United States locked up Japanese-Americans in internment camps because, “There are so many of them, some of them might be spies.”  Of course, there were a whole lot more German-Americans at the time, so why didn’t we lock up German-Americans?  (Hint, it’s because they’re White.)

It’s like when people say we can’t allow Mexicans, or Muslims into the country because there are too many Mexicans and Muslims. 

Those people don’t really care how many there are.  They’d hate “those people” if there were only six of them on the planet. 

Do you apply blame like Pharaoh?

Pharaoh’s racist foolishness followed the same game- plan that racist foolishness always follows:     

Say the minority is a threat.  Say that oppression is necessary for national security  or to protect the economy .  Keep them dependent and geographically contained.  Ignore everything  God says condemning your actions.  And, when they ask for reasonable relief, call them lazy.

So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying,  “You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves.⁸ And you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it. For they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’

⁹ Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words” (Exodus 5:6-9).

You enslave these people to do your work so your people don’t have to do the work, and the slaves are the lazy ones?

People are walking thousands of miles through deserts and mountains to enter this country and WORK.   You’re seeking them out to fill positions Americans won’t take and paying them illegally low wages Americans won’t accept  to labor under conditions Americans would never endure.    

And then you accuse them of being lazy welfare recipients.  How is the guy who traversed a desert to get a job the lazy one? 

If  they can’t get a job if they fail a drug test, and there aren’t enough slots in rehab centers; if they can’t get a job without a permanent address, and there is no housing for the homeless; if they can’t get a job if they have EVER been convicted of ANY felony ---- if you’ve literally made it illegal to hire addicts, the homeless, and the formerly incarcerated ------ how can you scream at them “Get a job!”?

Is your heart devoid of compassion like Pharaoh?

There were no plagues after Moses’ and Aaron’s first meeting with Pharaoh.  The Lord gave Pharaoh space to take a small step toward easing his oppression of the Hebrews. That’s GRACE.

Pharaoh chose to double-down on his hateful rhetoric and policies.

So, the Lord withdrew grace from Pharaoh.  God let Pharaoh run uninterrupted in the direction of hate and anger and narcissism all the way to its self-destructive end.  That’s why Scripture says God hardened his heart.  

When you see people struggling under burdens you can’t even imagine and, without knowing their story you unilaterally decide, “They’re lazy; I need to make their lives harder,”  that’s hard-hearted.

When people approach you or me graciously and respectfully, asking for help and we respond with insults and threats (and it doesn’t matter whether you give them the money or not), that’s hard-hearted.

That’s some Pharaoh foolishness. 

When we see suffering in other parts of the country or the world and we say, “Well, if they’d pulled their pants up, if they hadn’t talked back to the officer, if they’d been at home instead of at that club, if they hadn’t been living in a country full of terrorists ----- then they wouldn’t have anything to complain about” --- that’s hard-hearted.

That’s some Pharaoh foolishness.

When we hear the Word of God spoken to us and we open our own Bibles and see point blank that the Bible says  You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt (Exodus 22:21), but you don’t like those people so you decide to mistreat them anyway, that’s not patriotism.

That’s some Pharaohish foolishness.

Pharaoh became so hardened in his heart, so hostile to God’s offer of grace that he ordered his people to make life harder on the people they were oppressing  ----- and to blame them for it. 

Do you, like Pharaoh, hate the others more than you love your own?

A sign of a Pharaoh hard heart is when you hurt your own people just so you can hurt “those people.”

Prior to Exodus 5, the Egyptians had supplied the Hebrew brick-making teams with the straw they needed to do massuh’s work.  To pay them back for having the audacity to send some liberal Midianite looking shepherd and his brother to beg for a minor improvement in working conditions, Pharaoh changed the labor laws.  Now the Hebrews had to get their own straw and still meet their daily brick-making quotas. 

The straw had been supplied by Egyptian farmers, who would have been paid for supplying straw.  The Hebrews couldn’t afford to buy straw from Egyptian farmers, so Exodus 5: 12 says the slaves collected stubble instead of straw. The stubble was scraps and tips and pieces leftover from hand cutting the grass into straw. 

The quality of the bricks used in construction diminished because they were using inferior raw material, and all the native Egyptian straw providers were out of business. 

Pharaoh degraded his country’s infrastructure and bankrupted an entire sector of his nation’s economy ----- cause he didn’t like Jews. 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-03/to-spite-harley-trump-may-have-to-turn-to-japanese-bike-makers

Warlords burn villages in their own territories because it MIGHT hurt their rivals.   Dictators starve their own citizens because some of them MIGHT supporter their political opponents. 

What about us?

America guts the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, internet privacy rules, and fair wage protection for women because ---- liberals. We hurt everybody cause we’re still mad about that uppity Obama guy.

That’s some Pharaoh foolishness.

What about you?

Who you mad at?

Which person or people do you despise for their very existence?  Whom do you hate SO MUCH that everything they say is wrong?  That everything is wrong because they said it?

Are you willing to sin to hurt them?  Do you want to destroy anybody who even thinks about mitigating their suffering?  Do you find joy in the thought of their pain?

Do you think like Pharaoh?

Scripture warns us:  Do NOT rejoice when your enemy falls, And do NOT let your heart be glad when he stumbles (Proverbs 24: 17).

The Hebrews were already enslaved when Moses met with Pharaoh, but those negotiations didn’t begin with Moses calling down a plague.  Technically, God didn’t plague Egypt for having slaves; He plagued Egypt because Pharaoh refused to extend grace to those slaves, grace that would have been a path to freedom.

God plagued Pharaoh for refusing to let his hard-heart be softened by the Word of God delivered by Moses and Aaron.

The plagues are coming.  The question is, when the plagues come, will we be on the side of the grace-filled Word of God, safe under the Blood? 

Or are we Pharaoh?

 --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

Email: BaileyTabernacleChurch@comcast.net

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

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

HARDER THAN YOU THINK; BETTER THAN YOU COULD IMAGINE

My father always told me that life would be harder for me than it was for him.  I didn’t believe him.  But, then I grew up, experienced life, and had children of my own.  Now, I understand what Pops meant.  And now I understand a pattern among God’s people that didn’t make sense before.

In our nation, in our churches, and in our personal lives it often feels like one step forward and two steps back.  But the Bible actually lays out principles for how God can use these cycles to accomplish great things in your life.

You’ll understand after you listen to the message called  HARDER THAN YOU THINK; BETTER THAN YOU COULD IMAGINE. 

Listen well.

If you can’t get the audio on your device, visit the main podcast page at http://revandersongraves.podomatic.com/

The podcast is on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/anderson-graves-podcast/id918990482

---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 Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

A LAMENT FOR MY GRANDFATHERS' WORLD

Only in the last decade of my life have I begun to fully realize what phenomenal men my grandfathers were.  

They were the sole bread-winners of their families, but both of them lived and died without credit cards, payday loans, or second mortgages. (Grandpa Anderson never even had a 1^st mortgage.)  To their combined 16 children, my grandfathers both left land, not debt. 

They bought property, built homes, raised children, and sent many of those kids off to college.  And they, Black men, accomplished all of this in south Mississippi during the years of overt, violent segregation.

Neither of my grandfathers had any specialized skills, professional certificates, degrees, or even a high school diploma.  They weren’t inventors, investors, financial geniuses, or marketing gurus. 

They were honest, strong men who worked hard and didn’t do a lot of stupid stuff with their money.

That’s it.  They worked----- hard and they didn’t do a lot of stupid stuff with their money. 

I had two epiphanies about my grandpas’ financial lives:

1st. What they did in their time was totally--- ORDINARY.  Most of the men (the Black men) of their generation in my hometown whom I knew had similar educational levels and left similar inheritances to their children.

2^nd. What they did, they could not do today.

Barring an oil strike in one’s backyard, a winning lottery ticket, or a highly successful lawsuit; what are the chances that a 8^th grade dropout with no investment portfolio and no specialized could acquire a 16 lot subdivision and keep it ---debt-free.

Wait.  Don’t just repeat that American dream stuff about hard work and dedication.  Stop and think through the scenario of an uneducated man, a regular guy, starting off right now in this economy.  Run the scenarios in your head and tell me how he ends up.  I’ll wait.

……..Well?

Exactly. 

He’ll end up homeless, addicted, imprisoned, indebted, dependent on charity, and/ or dead at a very young age.

Here’s the reality:  It’s not enough anymore to just be an honest, hard-working man who won’t do stupid stuff with his money.

And that means that most of the approximately 39 million adult American citizens who don’t have a high school diploma ARE SCREWED ---- unless they get some other educational or professional credential.

Yeah, yeah.  They should’ve stayed in school.  Too late.  They didn’t.

Riightt.  They ought to go get their GED’s.    I teach GED classes.  It’s harder than standard high school graduation exams.

And really, the fact that when you think of a “solution” it involves acquiring some new educational credential is pretty much my point.

It’s not enough to be an honest, hard-working citizen who doesn’t do stupid stuff with his/her money.

But that’s what tens of millions of Americans are.  They couldn’t (or didn’t) succeed in our educational institutions but they are decent, honorable people who just want to work. 

40-50% (depending on the study) of college graduates can’t are unemployed.  And as of 2012, 284,000 college graduates were working at or below the minimum wage.

So, who’s going to hire someone with an 8^th grade education when they can hire somebody with a master’s degree for the same pay?

The Bible says that If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.  (2 Thessalonians 3: 10)

But what about those who will work, but can’t?

You can’t just walk off into the woods with an ax and a rifle and start clearing land and hunting game.   All of the land in America is either privately owned, municipally zoned, or protected by the office of something or other.

You can’t just walk into a store with a help wanted sign, give the owner a firm handshake and good eye contact, and start working.    The manager has to do a background check, a drug screen, and e-verify your citizenship; and that's only after you complete the application online and IF you make it through the automated screening process.

And if you have any of the following items on your record, it doesn’t much matter how much you’ve matured, changed, paid your debts, or proven yourself---- you’re screwed and burned.

·         felony conviction

·         revoked/ suspended driver’s license

·         drug use in the last 14-90 days (depending on the sensitivity of the screening instrument)

·         no current permanent address

·         no email address

·         bad credit report

·         no credit report

·         any conviction for “any offense other than a minor traffic violation”

·         less than 3 verifiable references

·         absent or spotty past job history

Doesn’t matter how hard you WILL work.  If you have to check “Yes” to any of the above boxes, you probably CAN’T work.

Contrary to the opinion of many, the chronically unemployed can’t just “get a job.”  And when the economy improves it won’t improve or the people whose resumes look like the resumes my grandfathers never had to write.

My grandfathers were decent, dignified, and dedicated men.  They went to church. They were married to the same woman all of their lives.  They owned guns and they paid their taxes.  They were all that an American is supposed to have to be.

But if they started off today, my grandfathers would be unemployed, or homeless, or criminals.

Now, this is the place where I tell you my solution.

This post is not a solution.  It is a lament.

Woe!  Woe unto the American who is JUST honest, hard-working, and won’t do stupid stuff with his money.

---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 Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116