CHANGING TIME: The 10th Plague

Blogging Exodus 12 

Times change.  

The increments by which we measure hours, days, weeks, months, and years are invented things which we alter according to need and import.  In the world before fast-moving trains, international shipping lanes, and global communication forced standardization with Western time-keeping, a major cultural change, like a new king, a new religion, or a natural disaster was frequently commemorated by changing the calendar. God participated in that tradition,  marking the emancipation of the Old Testament Hebrews by changing the count of time.

 

Freedom is revolutionary, so God cleverly ordained that the Jews should equate their national liberation as a new year, a new “revolution” around the sun.   

 

This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you (Exodus 12:2).   

But, at the beginning of Exodus chapter 12, freedom for Israel did not feel imminent. Pharaoh had resisted Moses, Moses’ God, and their radical progressive agenda of liberation and ethnic self-determination.   Through 10 rounds of negotiation, Pharaoh had  refused to let God’s people go.  When last Moses had approached Pharaoh, the king ended talks by threatening to have the prophet executed.  

Then Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me! Take heed to yourself and see my face no more! For in the day you see my face you shall die!” (Exodus 10:28)

Yet, God promised that within 2 weeks of the beginning of their new, new year Pharaoh Pharaoh will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out of here altogether (Exodus 11:1).

Pharaoh had grown more and more hard-hearted with each cataclysm God sent upon Egypt.  Why would he change his mind now?  How could the times change THAT quickly?    

Why did the United States of America abolish slavery after a century of protecting the wicked institution? It wasn’t because the leaders of the United States suddenly felt morally convicted by the abolitionist sermons they’d ignored all their lives.   

America freed its slaves because the Civil War killed or wounded more than 5% of the population  (1.5 million reported casualties, not counting civilians, of an 1860 population of 31 million people).  The Civil War was the great plague necessary to force the liberation of God’s Black people in America.

Some times only change because the times are made so brutally hard that the powers at the time are forced to change. 

At  midnight on the 14^th day of the first month of their changed time, God would send a final plague upon the Egyptian slaveholders.  A deliberate, intelligent spirit, an angel from God, would kill every man, woman, child, and domesticated animal in Egypt that was the firstborn of its family.   The casualties would be so high that Egypt, like 1860’s America, would let God’s people go.

Some times only change because the times are made so brutally hard that the powers at the time are forced to change. 

Without the great plague that was the Civil War, American abolition would have been delayed indefinitely.  Without the horrors of the first Passover, Pharaoh would not have let God’s people go.

PASSOVER is the celebration, the sanctification of blood shed in the revolution of liberation.    On the 10^th of their new, new year’s month, the descendants of Israel held  in Goshen were to gather as families and eat their LAST SUPPER as slaves. 

Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. . .  Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats (Exodus 12: 3 - 5).

PASSOVER was offered to every member of God’s community.  No one, no matter their socioeconomic condition was to be excluded from the table.

And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb (Exodus 12:4). 

The enslaved community came together, pooling their resources around the Lord’s table as a united community.  A community union.  A COMMUNION.

PASSOVER, COMMUNION, THE LAST SUPPER of a people in bondage took place under THE BLOOD.

And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it (Exodus 12:7).

People who prefer their steaks and chops rare claim that the meat is “juicy.”  That’s not juice, though.  That’s blood.  In our “civilized” era, most people are far removed from the bloody process of taking an animal and turning it into meat.  Ancient people couldn’t delude themselves about the ugliness required to provide for their families.  Israel’s new ritual required them to take a sheep (representing innocence) or a goat (representing mean guilt) slit its throat, drain the blood into a basin, take that blood, and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it (Exodus 12: 8). 

Up-and-down and then across, every Hebrew home was marked with THE BLOOD.  The blood of the innocent who took upon Him the guilt of a people.  Up-and-down and then across, the people of God marked the change in the revolutionary change in their times by coming under THE BLOOD of the Innocent who was killed like the guilty are killed; who gave body and blood to His people to set the people free.    On a night of wrath, and death, and revolution, the blood of the lamb purchased mercy for those in a believing household.  

Redemption is freedom from sin and the condemnation of eternal death.  All freedom is revolutionary, and every revolution is an ugly, brutal thing.  The Civil War, the death of the firstborn in Egypt, the Cross. 

Jesus, as God manifest, transcends time.  He is “I am.” He is present, future, and past; so His death as the innocent lamb of God was the revolutionary sacrifice that liberates believers across time from the slave wages of sin.  The judgment of God passes over us who are under the blood of Christ.  It is a new birth.  A new life.  A new beginning that extends into all time.

Times change, but more importantly, Christ changes ---- everything.

---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

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Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401

ANGRY YOUNG MAN or “MOSES AND THE REVOLUTION”

Blogging from Exodus 2:11+

Now it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.(Exodus 2:11, 12)

Moses was angry.  It was a seething, simmering, suppressed rage lidded by a schooled smile, a flawless WASP accent, and the impeccable manners acquired in an Ivy League lifestyle; but Moses  had been angry for the better part of 40 years. 

If any of his high-class Egyptians peers had noticed, one of the elders would surely have accused Moses of being “ungrateful.”  After all, he’d enjoyed privilege, education, and opportunities other boys like him could only dream of.

But Moses knew too much to just “shut up and play” the game of Egyptian assimilation.  

Moses KNEW that the man he called grandfather had tried to kill him when he was a baby.  Moses KNEW that the same folks who caled him “sir,” and “your highness” would have cheerfully drowned him in the Nile without hesitation and without consequence.

In 4 decades in Pharaoh’s house, how many racist, anti-Semitic jokes do you think Moses forced himself to laugh at?  How many times did he sit through impassioned speeches about how it was acceptable for Egyptians to murder young Hebrew boys because “Look at all the Hebrew-on-Hebrew crime”?

How many family dinner guests casually quipped about wasting education on Hebrews because “All they really need is to job skills so they can make bricks faster”?

  

In 40 years, how many adopted siblings, cousins, uncles, and aunts repeated the common line,  “All those Hebrews do is live off the government in Goshen and have babies and take Egyptian jobs” and then when they noticed Moses’ awkward silence added, “but not you, Moses.  Oh no, your highness.  You’re not like THEM.  I don’t even see color when I look at you, your Highness.  You’re like a ‘real’ Egyptian.” 

Someone probably even tried to explain to Moses that the Hebrews LIKED being slaves.  “They’ve been in Egypt 400 years,” they said, “That sounds like a choice.”

For 40 years Moses heard and KNEW:  “They’re talking about my people.  They’re talking about my brother, my sister, my mama.  They’re talking about ME.”  

Yeah, Moses was angry.  But, he didn’t kill the Egyptian overseer because he was angry.  Not ONLY because he was angry.   Moses killed the Egyptian because he was angry and AMBITIOUS.

Moses supposed that his  Hebrew brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand . . . (Acts 7:25).

that God would deliver them by his hand

Moses didn’t just want to kill an overseer; he wanted to Nat Turner the whole system.  Moses was trying to start a revolution.

That’s why Pharaoh ordered Moses killed.   He didn’t care about another spoiled prince’s liberal rage, and he didn’t care about a dead overseer.  The Egyptian royal family were worshipped as the descendants of the gods.   A prince of Egypt could have killed or ordered the death of a hundred lowly Egyptian overseers for any reason or for none at all.    No prince would be arrested for murder but one would have been arrested and executed for treason.

So why didn’t God support Moses when he first tried to deliver the Hebrew children from their oppressors? 

Remember what the Hebrew men asked Moses the day after the murder? 

And when he went out the second day, behold, two Hebrew men were fighting, and he said to the one who did the wrong, “Why are you striking your companion?”

Then he said, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? . . . ”  (Exodus 2:13,14)

Who made you a prince and a judge over us? 

They knew that Moses wasn’t just angry; he was angry and ambitious.  Moses didn’t just want to be a liberator.  Moses wanted to be king. 

But the only kind of king Moses knew to be was a king like Pharaoh.

God didn’t want another pharaoh. 

So instead of endorsing Moses’ revolution by striking down the Egyptians in a string of deadly miracles, the Lord let Moses catch a case.  He  fled into the wilderness of Midian where he met a man named Reuel, aka Jethro.

Reuel (Exodus 2:16) became Moses’ father-in-law and mentor.  For the first time in his life, Moses sat under an actively engaged father figure.  He learned to be a husband and father.  He learned to know and love the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  In Egypt Moses spent 40 years learning  to lead like a pharaoh.  In Midian, it took just as long for him to learn to serve like a shepherd (Acts 7:23; Exodus 7:7).

When God spoke to him out of a burning bush Moses had changed so much that he tried to decline the offer of leadership.

God didn’t support the revolutionary who wanted to be a king.  God called the prophet who wanted to be a shepherd. 

Maybe this is why OUR attempts at revolutionary reform in and through the church fail:  because we fail to get beyond our anger and our ambitions.  We need to add a whole new mindset to our highly educated skillset.   

The Lord is looking for leaders who have not made their ascent to power a condition of their people's deliverance.  God is waiting on us to think less like revolutionaries and more like shepherds.

--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. He writes a blog called A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

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.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

ORIGINAL POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: #23, Blogging Through the Articles of Religion

Article XXIII - Of the Rulers of the United States of America

The President, the Congress, the general assemblies, the governors, and the councils of state, as the delegates of the people, are the rulers of the United States of America, according to the division of power made to them by the Constitution of the United States and by the constitutions of their respective states. And the said states are a sovereign and independent nation, and ought not to be subject to any foreign jurisdiction.

For weeks, I searched the scriptures for an explanation of this Article.  I read scholarly and semi-scholarly interpretations of Jesus’ views on government.  I  examined the theology of the founding fathers.  I started and restarted this blog article at least 10 times.  But the Holy Spirit wouldn’t green-light any of it.  I couldn’t get peace over the Biblical justification for this doctrinal pronouncement.  

Then I realized:  there isn’t one.

Article 23 has nothing to do with the Bible.  This one is all about political correctness.

John Wesley (1703-1791) was the founder of Methodism and an ordained priest in the Anglican Church.  Legally, the Anglican Church, also known as the Church of England, was an extension of the government of Great Britain.   During the early days of Methodism in the American colonies, Wesley didn’t ordain any colonial preacher, so the sacraments were administered by British clergy who sailed over from England.  That worked well enough until the American colonies rebelled against Great Britain.

When the American Revolution ended in 1783, the British government, and therefore the  Church of England, no longer had any jurisdiction in the newly formed United States of America.  America needed a Methodist Church with its own ordained pastors.  So, despite the concerns of other British Methodists, including his own brother, Charles, John Wesley ordained Thomas Coke as superintendent to the United States, and sent him across the Atlantic with instructions to serve in America and to ordain Frances Asbury as co-superintendent. (The title superintendent was later changed to bishop.)  With Coke, Wesley also sent a Methodist hymnal and a revised version of the Anglican Articles of Religion.  Wesley had trimmed the 39 Articles of the Church of England down to a Methodist-friendly 24.   

On December 24, 1784, the Christmas Conference in Baltimore formally created the Methodist Episcopal Church in America.  This conference, the first Methodist General Conference, established the tradition of electing superintendents (bishops). It also adopted Wesley’s 24 articles of religion as the foundational doctrine of the Methodist Church in America.

Now, Baltimore one year after the American Revolution wasn’t exactly the ideal setting to launch a church whose clerical authority derived from a Englishman who held office in an extension of British government.  The delegates of the first General Conference knew that they had to do something to reassure the ultra-patriotic culture that Methodists hated the evil British Empire just as much as anybody else. 

So, the first General Conference in America added an additional item to the articles of religion.  The additional item was inserted as Article XXIII.  

Article 23 is true but it really shouldn’t be a doctrine. It isn’t anti-Biblical.  It’s just non-Biblical.  It’s not about freedom from Catholicism.  It’s not about a separation between church and state.  It’ not about anything spiritual or ecclesiastical. 

Article 23 is an acquiescence to socio-political pressure.  The words are the sound of the 18^th century church pleading, “Hey, America, please like us. We’re just like you.”

Article 23 is the sound of the Methodist church being politically correct.

I really wish we were over that, but we’re not.

America ca. 2015 is as politically volatile as America 1784.  If the CME Church removed Article 23 we’d be accused of everything from hating America to collaborating with foreign states.  So, #23, the least Biblical of the 25 Articles needs to stay---- for the same non-Biblical reasons it was written in the first place.

But knowing now what it looks like to our descendants when we manifest political correctness as non-Biblical statements of doctrine, perhaps future General Conference will find the courage to say NO to proclamations that please the present culture but ignore the Bible.

Perhaps. 

---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

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

#Awordtothewise

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 WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 30: 21, 22. "Rebellion or Revolution"

Proverbs 30: 21     For three things the earth is perturbed.  Yes, for four it cannot bear up:
22     For a servant when he reigns,
A fool when he is filled with food,

Proverbs 30: 21- 22.  Rebellion or Revolution? When you make certain changes in life the shift automatically brings conflict and upheaval because you are challenging the status quo and upsetting the expected order.  Through these situational shifts you become one of “those who turn the world upside down” (Acts 17: 6). 

And that may be a good thing, or not.  It all depends on whether you’re being rebellious or revolutionary.

David’s transition from servant to king was revolutionary.  When David is first introduced in the scriptures, he is little more than a personal servant to his father and 6 older brothers.  After David slew the giant Goliath, he was retained to serve King Saul as armorbearer, personal musician, and eventually an officer in the Israeli army under Saul’s command (2 Samuel 16).

Though called and anointed for the throne, David refused to seek his destiny through rebellious/ sinful means.  When Saul turned against him, instead of lashing out in vengeance, David humbled himself, ran and hid.  He only fought Saul’s forces when he absolutely had to in self-defense.  Repeatedly, David refused to use raw power to harm or to order harm against Saul (1 Samuel 24; 1 Samuel 26). 

This wasn’t the most expedient path to the throne, but David was determined to honor God’s holy Word rather than indulge his personal ambition.

Because David kept his ambition under submission to God’s will and God way of doing things, his ascension to the throne was REVOLUTIONARY, but it was not rebellious.

On the other hand, David’s son Absalom started a civil war and for a time took the throne by force (2 Samuel 15).  He publicly raped his father’s wives and tried to kill his father (2 Samuel 16). Prince Absalom’s coup was the act of an ambitious, angry, and damaged son who foolishly hoped that vengeance and violence would fill the emotional void left by a dad who had  been too busy to deal with his son’s issues.

For a time, Absalom had it all.  He was “filled” (Proverbs 30: 22b) but the means of his ascension were sinful and dishonorable.  His was a REBELLION rather than a godly revolution.

David’s REVOLUTIONARY reign was long and blessed.  Unlike any other government in his day, David’s dynasty extended to an eternal line of kings (2  Samuel 7: 12-16).  That had not happened before. 

Absalom’s REBELLIOUS season of power and prosperity was short, destructive, and cursed.  Absalom sowed seeds of damage and distrust which were still bearing poison fruit into the early days of his little brother Solomon’s kingdom. 

HOW and WHY you fight will determine whether your rise is a blessed revolution or a cursed rebellion.

If you consider your battles, and inquire of the Lord to decide whether or not you fight---- you’re leading a revolution.

If you attack and try to destroy every perceived enemy----you’re in rebellion.

If you refuse to sin in pursuit of your destiny, if you’d rather have to wait than have to violate God’s commands---- you’re a revolutionary.

If you let the end justify using any sinful means necessary to get what you (think you) deserve------ you’re in rebellion (1 Samuel 15: 23).

If you seek the job because it’s where your anointing has lead you (1 John 2: 27)--- it’s revolution, baby.

If you want the title because it appeals to your ambition---- that’s rebellion.

When you press for greatness,  you are going to upset some people and some institutions.  You are going to have to fight.  You and others will be hurt in the battle that ensue.  Automatic.  Can’t be avoided.  Somebody’s world is going to get turned upside down.

This is true for a person and for the church.

If you’re going to make a difference then you have to make things different.  That’s controversial.  That’s REVOLUTIONARY.

The only way to completely avoid all conflict is to sit and do nothing, to never pursue our greater callings.  In other words, to avoid conflict you have to DIE.

So, every now and then, a person and a church need to do something that is perfectly aligned with God’s will and is also difference-making, earth-shaking------ REVOLUTIONARY.

But watch how you do it.  Be mindful of why you’re fighting.  Let the Word of God set your rules of engagement. 

Down with rebellion.

But get ready for the revolution!

---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.

Call  334-288-0577
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@blogspotcom.

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
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541 Seibles Road
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Proverbs 30: 21, 22. REBELLION OR REVOLUTION?

Proverbs 30: 21     For three things the earth is perturbed.  Yes, for four it cannot bear up:
22     For a servant when he reigns,
A fool when he is filled with food,

Proverbs 30: 21- 22.  Rebellion or Revolution? When you make certain changes in life the shift automatically brings conflict and upheaval because you are challenging the status quo and upsetting the expected order.  Through these situational shifts you become one of “those who turn the world upside down” (Acts 17: 6). 

And that may be a good thing, or not.  It all depends on whether you’re being rebellious or revolutionary.

David’s transition from servant to king was revolutionary.  When David is first introduced in the scriptures, he is little more than a personal servant to his father and 6 older brothers.  After David slew the giant Goliath, he was retained to serve King Saul as armorbearer, personal musician, and eventually an officer in the Israeli army under Saul’s command (2 Samuel 16).

Though called and anointed for the throne, David refused to seek his destiny through rebellious/ sinful means.  When Saul turned against him, instead of lashing out in vengeance, David humbled himself, ran and hid.  He only fought Saul’s forces when he absolutely had to in self-defense.  Repeatedly, David refused to use raw power to harm or to order harm against Saul (1 Samuel 24; 1 Samuel 26). 

This wasn’t the most expedient path to the throne, but David was determined to honor God’s holy Word rather than indulge his personal ambition.

Because David kept his ambition under submission to God’s will and God way of doing things, his ascension to the throne was REVOLUTIONARY, but it was not rebellious.

On the other hand, David’s son Absalom started a civil war and for a time took the throne by force (2 Samuel 15).  He publicly raped his father’s wives and tried to kill his father (2 Samuel 16). Prince Absalom’s coup was the act of an ambitious, angry, and damaged son who foolishly hoped that vengeance and violence would fill the emotional void left by a dad who had  been too busy to deal with his son’s issues.

For a time, Absalom had it all.  He was “filled” (Proverbs 30: 22b) but the means of his ascension were sinful and dishonorable.  His was a REBELLION rather than a godly revolution.

David’s REVOLUTIONARY reign was long and blessed.  Unlike any other government in his day, David’s dynasty extended to an eternal line of kings (2  Samuel 7: 12-16).  That had not happened before. 

Absalom’s REBELLIOUS season of power and prosperity was short, destructive, and cursed.  Absalom sowed seeds of damage and distrust which were still bearing poison fruit into the early days of his little brother Solomon’s kingdom. 

HOW and WHY you fight will determine whether your rise is a blessed revolution or a cursed rebellion.

If you consider your battles, and inquire of the Lord to decide whether or not you fight---- you’re leading a revolution.

If you attack and try to destroy every perceived enemy----you’re in rebellion.

If you refuse to sin in pursuit of your destiny, if you’d rather have to wait than have to violate God’s commands---- you’re a revolutionary.

If you let the end justify using any sinful means necessary to get what you (think you) deserve------ you’re in rebellion (1 Samuel 15: 23).

If you seek the job because it’s where your anointing has lead you (1 John 2: 27)--- it’s revolution, baby.

If you want the title because it appeals to your ambition---- that’s rebellion.

When you press for greatness,  you are going to upset some people and some institutions.  You are going to have to fight.  You and others will be hurt in the battle that ensue.  Automatic.  Can’t be avoided.  Somebody’s world is going to get turned upside down.

This is true for a person and for the church.

If you’re going to make a difference then you have to make things different.  That’s controversial.  That’s REVOLUTIONARY.

The only way to completely avoid all conflict is to sit and do nothing, to never pursue our greater callings.  In other words, to avoid conflict you have to DIE.

So, every now and then, a person and a church need to do something that is perfectly aligned with God’s will and is also difference-making, earth-shaking------ REVOLUTIONARY.

But watch how you do it.  Be mindful of why you’re fighting.  Let the Word of God set your rules of engagement. 

Down with rebellion.

But get ready for the revolution!

---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