ROCK-BOTTOM (Lessons from the 8th Plague)

Blogging Exodus 10:1-20

 ³ So Moses and Aaron came in to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, that they may serve Me.

⁴ Or else, if you refuse to let My people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory.

⁵ And they shall cover the face of the earth, so that no one will be able to see the earth; and they shall eat the residue of what is left, which remains to you from the hail, and they shall eat every tree which grows up for you out of the field.

⁶ They shall fill your houses, the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians—which neither your fathers nor your fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day that they were on the earth to this day.’ ” And he turned and went out from Pharaoh.

“Rock-bottom” is the lowest moment of a downward journey.   But when you hit rock bottom, you stop falling for a while.  Things are at their worst so they’re not getting any worse. Hitting rock-bottom can cause a moment of peace and clarity during which you change perspectives.  Rock-bottom is the moment when you’re supposed to decide that the only way you can go is UP.  Some people hit rock-bottom and start climbing up.

And some people hit rock-bottom and start digging.

Exodus 10:1 says that God had hardened Pharaoh’s heart.  But the Hebrew word for hardened in that verse is kabad or kabed which can mean hard or heavy.  After 7 national cataclysms in rapid succession,  all of Egypt’s fish were dead.  It’s food stores were ruined by frogs, flies, and gnats.  It’s herds had been wiped out --- twice, in turn by disease and flaming hailstones.  The people were weakened from an infestation of lice and a pandemic of staph infections.  Egypt was on the brink of ruin and Pharaoh’s heart was hard AND heavy.  He was stubbornly angry at Moses, but at that moment he was also heavy-hearted.  Pharaoh was worried and, therefore, potentially open to a way out of Egypt’s descent toward rock-bottom. 

Some Egyptian insiders had begun to heed God’s warnings, saving a few herds of livestock, and the Lord had timed the 7^th plague to strike between growing seasons,  so that the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they are late crops (Exodus 9:32).  Egypt had some food, but if Pharaoh provoked God just one more time, they would have nothing left.

if you refuse to let My people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory. And they shall cover the face of the earth, so that no one will be able to see the earth; and they shall eat the residue of what is left, which remains to you from the hail, and they shall eat every tree which grows up for you out of the field (Exodus 10: 4-5).

The nation was hurtling toward rock-bottom.  God tried (again) to save them from the impact.

Some skydiving rigs are outfitted with altitude warning systems that blare a shrill, deliberately irrigating signal, warning, begging the skydiver to pull the cord before they hit the ground.  You can ignore those.  It isn’t a good idea, but you can.  Even when we have a proven record of disobedience, the Lord sends warnings for us to pray, to repent before our dive terminates.  Pharaoh’s signal came from within his own circle. 

Then Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long shall this man be a snare to us?

Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?” (Exodus 10:7)

But when someone believes they can fly, it’s hard to convince them to use a parachute.

  

Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron back and nitpicked in negotiations over which Hebrew slaves could go on their requested religious furlough.  (Again, remember that Moses’ and Aaron’s official request wasn’t for emancipation.  They’d just asked Pharaoh’s leaves to go 3 days distance into the wilderness to worship.)

Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old; with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds we will go, for we must hold a feast to the Lord” (Exodus 10:9).

Pharaoh angrily countered that he would only allow the adult males to take the time off.  He went so far as to threaten the Hebrews if they tried to all do as their God had commanded. 

Then he said to them, “The Lord had better be with you when I let you and your little ones go! Beware, for evil is ahead of you (Exodus 10:10).

God is serious about the way He wants to be served, and when you try to force someone to modify the way God wants them to serve so that it accommodates your interests, you aren’t opposing the person. You’re opposing God.

When God calls a woman to preach and you tell her she isn’t allowed to speak with authority in your sanctuary.  When God doesn’t call someone to preach but you convince them to pursue ordained ministry because it’s a good job or because it’s what you expect of them.  When God calls someone to be an evangelist, or a missionary, or some other non-pastoral anointing, but the church coerces and bullies them into becoming a pastor because pastoring fits most easily into your institutional structure.

When you try to force people to modify their service to God in ways God has not asked their service to be modified, you are stepping on God’s authority.  And there are consequences to crossing that line.  Heavy as a rock, bottom consequences. 

The consequence for Egypt was a plague of locusts (verses 12-15).  They ate all of the surviving vegetation, the crops, the seedlings, the trees.  There are historical records of locust swarms in 19^th century America with reports of locusts consuming even fence posts, clothing, and saddles.  Everything in Egypt that had survived the previous plagues was gone. 

Rock. Bottom.

At rock-bottom, some people change their perspective.  They repent and begin to climb upward.

Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste, and said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you.  Now therefore, please forgive my sin only this once, and entreat the Lord your God, that He may take away from me this death only.”

So Moses went out from Pharaoh and entreated the Lord.  And the Lord turned a very strong west wind, which took the locusts away and blew them into the Red Sea. There remained not one locust in all the territory of Egypt (Exodus 10:16-19).

It seemed like things were looking up, like Pharaoh was looking to grant the Hebrews’ request and lead his people off the rock-bottom.   But then, the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go (Exodus 10:20)

In Exodus 10:20, the Hebrew word for hardened is chazaq, not kabad.  Chazaq in this tense means to be made more rigid, to go through a process that reinforces your stubbornness. Pharaoh got rock-bottom bad, and then he got worse.    

Some people hit rock-bottom and start digging.

After the locust, Egypt’s agricultural wealth was all gone.  Maybe Pharaoh figured it couldn’t get any worse.  He was wrong.  It got worse.

It can always get worse.

Whether you’re at rock-bottom, on the way to rock-bottom, or standing at the tippy-top of everything: pay attention to what God is telling you.  Heed the warning God is sending you.  Be strong, but don’t be stubborn.  Be focused, but don’t be hard-hearted.    You are never so high nor so low that you can’t go lower if you refuse the Word of God.

--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

INSIDERS' CHOICE: The 7th Plague

Blogging Exodus 9:13-35

¹³ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews: “Let My people go, that they may serve Me, ¹⁴ for at this time I will send all My plagues to your very heart, and on your servants and on your people, that you may know that there is none like Me in all the earth. ¹⁵ Now if I had stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, then you would have been cut off from the earth.

. . .  ¹⁷ As yet you exalt yourself against My people in that you will not let them go. ¹⁸ Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause very heavy hail to rain down, such as has not been in Egypt since its founding until now. ¹⁹ Therefore send now and gather your livestock and all that you have in the field, for the hail shall come down on every man and every animal which is found in the field and is not brought home; and they shall die.” ’ ” . . .

Exodus 9: 14-15 refers to 3 categories of Egyptians:  Pharaoh, Pharaoh’s servants, and Pharaoh’s people.  The people are the mass of regular Egyptian citizens.  The servants of Pharaoh included the royal family, courtesans, nobles, priests, chief magicians, military leaders, and elite households who supported and ran the details of government.  Pharaoh and his servants are equivalent to the president, Congress, the Supreme Court, their collective cabinets and staffers, and the whole body of Washington insiders who operate and manipulate our federal system. 

Insiders are marked by the favor they receive and/or by the loyalty that they give.

During the fifth plague all the livestock of Egypt died (Exodus 9:6), but enough time had passed for Egyptian insiders (Pharaoh’s servants) to have replenished their herds.  Now, the wealthiest and most powerful Egyptians faced a choice They could be loyal to their leader or they could listen to the Word of God.

He who feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his livestock flee to the houses. ²¹ But he who did not regard the word of the Lord left his servants and his livestock in the field. 

America and every political sub-category in America has its own body of “insiders.”  Every agency, municipality, denomination, and office-of-the-such-and-such  is managed and manipulated by “servants of the people” who are so well connected that when no matter the economic crisis, the official solution official always involves bailing them out.   

Insiders are favored servants, but they are also LOYAL servants. 

How loyal are you to the leaders of your little empire?  Do you defend the leaders of your party when they do exactly the thing you attacked leaders of the other party for doing?  Have you re-written your theology to accommodate the platform of your preferred cultural leaders?  Do you stand for truth and integrity until your favorite public figure is caught lying, at which point your stance shifts to “Who are we to judge?”  Does your definition of “victim” and “predator” keep shift with the affiliations of the accused and the accusers?

You and I are offered the same ancient choice.  We can obey the Word of God, or we can remain loyal servants inside of our factions.

Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard (Acts 4: 19-20).

If you’ve never had to choose to follow God and rebuke your faction, it doesn’t mean that your faction has always been right. It means that you have always chose to follow your faction and disobey God. 

 

Our worldly loyalties do not insulate us from God's divine judgment.  Just as promised, volcanic hail fell on the land of Egypt. 

And Moses stretched out his rod toward heaven; and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire darted to the ground. And the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, so very heavy that there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation . . . Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail (Exodus 9: 23-26).

The insiders who heeded the prophetic word saw that the God of their slaves was true and willing to be merciful even to those who were insiders in the evil empire.  This might have been the beginning of a faith-based revival in Egypt. 

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).

Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans.  Hurricane Harvey hits Dallas.  Hurricane Florence hits New Jersey. Shooting at Black church in North Carolina.  Shooting at conservative white church in Texas.  Shooting at elementary schools, military bases, and workplaces all over. HIV ravages East Coast and West Coast communities.  HIV rates increase higher in conservative deep south states than anywhere in the nation.  Every time a plague, storm, and or violent tragedy strikes the strongholds of our respective factions, we turn to prayer.  But just at the point when we would be convicted of OUR sins and turn in faith and repentance away from the gods we’ve made in our images and to the God of scripture, just at that point we shift from faith --- to damage control.

And Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “I have sinned this time. The Lord is righteous, and my people and I are wicked. Entreat the Lord, that there may be no more mighty thundering and hail, for it is enough. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.”. . .

So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and spread out his hands to the Lord; then the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain was not poured on the earth.

And when Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet more; and he hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the heart of Pharaoh was hard; neither would he let the children of Israel go, as the Lord had spoken by Moses. (Exodus 9: 27-34)

Pharaoh and his loyal servants didn’t know that there were would be 3 more plagues and a Red Sea of destruction.  They didn’t know that they’re decision to minimize the damage to their empire rather than maximize the opportunity for divine grace would lead to more damage than they could control for.  They didn’t know.

You do.

And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15).

 

 --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

MISPLACED LOYALTY, an uncomfortable lesson about Joseph

Before we leave the book of Genesis, we need to talk about Joseph.

Joseph survived and succeeded under circumstances that would have destroyed most people.  Though betrayed and forgotten, he maintained his personal integrity and phenomenal work ethic. Through the trials and temptations of slavery and the quite different but equally perilous trials and temptations of rapid success, Joseph never abandoned faith in God.  Joseph modeled the principles of love your enemy.  He forgave his brothers for the unforgiveable.  He fed them when they were hungry, provided them a home when they were strangers.  He lifted them up when he had the power and justification to grind them into the dust.  In doing so, Joseph saved the covenant line from extinction.  He was a prophet, a natural leader, and a really, really smart guy.  He was a hero.  I’d argue with you that Joseph is THE most genuinely heroic figure in the entire book of Genesis.

But. . .

(Of course, but. . . )

But, we have to talk about what Joseph did to the Egyptian people during the famine.

Read DON'T TRUST PHARAOH  for the details, but basically Joseph used the crisis to strip the general populace of Egypt of their wealth, property, and freedom.  By the 14^th year of Joseph’s appointment as prime minister, the average Egyptian citizen was basically a slave to the state.  Specifically, a slave to Pharaoh.  All by the very deliberate plan and administration of Joseph, the Hebrew hero.

Now, if your response is, “So what?  They were Egyptians.  All that matters is that Joseph saved the Jews,”  pump the hate-brakes and think. 

The Egyptians hadn’t done anything to deserve being bankrupted and exploited by their own government.  They had not enslaved the Hebrew people.  In fact, the Egyptians saved Abraham from a famine (Genesis 12), Isaac from a famine (Genesis 26), and Israel and sons from famine (Genesis 46-50).  Now that you think about it, maybe you’re remembering that Abraham and Isaac went down to Egypt lying and causing plagues but Pharaoh blessed them anyway. 

Maybe you think that Joseph was repaying the Egyptians for enslaving and incarcerating him.  But when you stop and think, you'll recall that Joseph was bought and imprisoned by the noble-elites of Egypt.  It was the working people (cooks and butchers) who shared his cell and, after a while, remembered and recommended him for parole (Genesis 40, 41).    

Maybe you want to say that Joseph only did what he had to do to save the Egyptians from starvation during the famine.  You know, “Desperate times, desperate measures” and all that.  “Somebody had to make the hard choices” blah-blah-blah.  But come on.  It was THEIR grain taken from them by a tax that Joseph invented just for that purpose.  Joseph set the price.  He didn’t have to set it so high that it took ALL of EVERYBODY’S money.  No he didn’t.  That wasn’t market capitalism.  They didn’t even have market capitalism.  

So, we have to talk about the fact that Joseph the hero was directly, deliberately, and personally responsible for the economic ruin and subjugation of millions of innocent people.   Joseph’s actions were neither justified nor necessary.  So why did as nice and as smart a guy as Joseph do it?  

Because his boss.

Joseph understood (quite correctly) that his first and final loyalty in his job wasn’t to the country.  It was to Pharaoh. 

This is how a genuinely good person in a powerful position finds himself/ herself doing genuinely horrible things to people who don’t deserve to have horrible things done to them:  through misplaced loyalty.  

Loyalty is a virtue, a necessity among friends and family and colleagues fighting for any cause.  But loyalty is a dangerous virtue.  Joseph bankrupted millions of innocent, hard-working Egyptians because he was loyal to Pharaoh instead of to the people. 

We need to talk about Joseph because we’re all in danger of misplaced loyalty.

Honorable soldiers commit war crimes not usually because every soldier in the company is a terrible human being but because they are loyal to the terrible human being who gave the order.  Lovers do foolish things not always because they are fools but more often because they love and are loyal to a fool.   Innocent clergy protect predatory ministers because the innocent ones are so blindly loyal to the institution and to the brotherhood of ministry.  Partisans become so loyal to their party designation that they find themselves aggressively supporting the very policies and practices they joined the party to defeat. 

We need to talk about Joseph because we are each equally capable of atrocity in the name of loyalty.  

The antidote to misplaced loyalty is to look beyond Joseph and make Jesus our final example.   Jesus loved His people, the Jews. 

But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24).

He loved His companions, the disciples. 

No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you (John 15:15).

He has faithful to His religious tradition, the Temple-synagogue system. 

. . . And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read (Luke 4:16).

He was present and selflessly engaged for the good of the community, especially the poor, possessed, and sick.  He gave His life for them and for us. 

When the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them (Luke 4:40).

Jesus was loyal. 

But when any of those to whom Jesus was loyal tried to turn Him against what He knew was the Father’s will ---- Jesus rebuked them. 

But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men” (Matthew 16:23).

Joseph-style loyalty is a dangerous virtue.  Jesus-style loyalty is the solution. 

Jesus-style loyalty is built from a moral-center that’s independent of all other relationships. 

Jesus-style loyalty is built on a clear sense of personal identity that doesn’t change when the people around you change.

Jesus-style loyalty is built within a clear sense of mission and purpose.  You know why you’re here no matter who else is or isn’t here with you.

Jesus-style loyalty exists where you have a personal relationship with your heavenly Father, a relationship that does not depend on any other  associations.   

Joseph was loyal, but misguided.  Don’t be like Joseph. 

Be like Jesus.

--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