Journal posting

I’m taking a course called The Biblical Communicator. The premise of the course is to develop skills in interpreting scipture and communicating biblical truths with consideration of historical, grammatical and literary study in context of different audiences. The course seems very reforming, which I find refreshing. Essentially, the goal is to approach scripture text from various points (historical, cultural, etc.) which we had not previously considered, then effectively communicate those revelations.

Part of the course requires weekly journaling about a provided text. Over the next few weeks, I’ll post here what I am submitting in my course journal. Following is my first submission.

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Week 1: Journal Entry (Exodus 3:1-4:17)

The humility and Moses’ poor self-worth in regards to God’s request is often the focus of this passage of scripture. Instead of positioning Moses as a humble servant, something traditionally considered, I found myself viewing him as a natural, everyday person—living only in that moment, with full knowledge from where he’d come, but blind to know where he would soon go.

Reading this week’s journal assignment, and considering it within the context of Moses’ journey, it was evident that Moses just plain did not want to do what was being asked of him. Every excuse he could think of exposes more his resistance of the task. He must have known that his life history had prepared him for each of the flimsy excuses he offered.

Here is a man who has struggled through his formidable years with a huge elephant in the room—a Hebrew living in the palace of the Egyptian pharaoh while his kinsmen were enslaved. Clearly he recognized the difference: the outward environment and circumstance which set him apart to be educated and esteemed as an Egyptian separated from his beaten and mistreated Hebrew brethren. In this place he was a misfit—both as a Hebrew-looking Egyptian and as an Egyptian-trained and dressed Hebrew.

While saving his own life was the immediate motivation for fleeing Egypt, I would suspect that he had often dreamed of different circumstances. When Moses fled to Midian, the geographical and emotional distance he placed between himself and Egypt was intentional. He wanted out; he had no intention of ever returning. The chance to make a new start where he would never again have to justify or deny his Hebrew blood or his Egyptian upbringing was perhaps greater than he had dreamed possible. Here, in this place of new beginnings, his past forgotten, God presents his commission to Moses: return to Egypt—the one thing Moses would intently resist with every excuse he could consider. God could have delivered the Hebrew nation without Moses. But he wanted Moses. He chose Moses. By allowing himself to be used by God, Moses’ opened the way for his past to be redeemed.

God’s redemption of one’s past is found elsewhere in scripture. From Esther’s reluctant request of a presence with King Xerxes (Esther, chapters 4-5), to Jesus’ plea to be spared the cross (Luke 22: 42) and Ananias’ vision to approach Saul (Acts 9:10-18), the human resistance to blindly heed God’s direction is apparent. Yet, through each of these examples, and many more, God is found faithful to strengthen the faith within us and to bring others into the fold.

How often do I resist God’s working through me? There are events, places, people groups found in all our pasts that we’d rather just avoid in the future. Perhaps by heeding God’s prompting, we allow God to redeem both the past circumstance and our past experience. How much we must miss of God’s revelation and future blessing when we resist our commission.

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• Was Hammurabi Sent by God?
• Take Two: Exodus 2, Proverbs 14
• Stepping Up