Festival of Swords

Exodus 5: 1-21

So Moses and Aaron go see Pharoah and begin their "let my people go" entreaties. It doesn't go so well- at least not in the short term. Their opening presentation leaves two very different images of God- one uplifting- one pretty scary.

They tell Pharoah that God has told them "'Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert." And I'm struck by how cool that sounds. When was the last time you thought of worship as a festival? I'm guessing not so much the creepy carnies, about to break ferris wheel or out of control ticket prices- but more the sense of enormous celebration, huge gathering and sheer joy. Worship too often can consist of drudgery, guilt, responsibility and service instead of an expression of pure unadulturated passion for our creator and father.

But their very next response quiets the party. "Now let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword." Suddenly this party doesn't sound like quite so much fun anymore. Is this just a tactic Moses is using to get Pharoah to change his mind? It doesn't work. Or is this really a fear the Israelites have? Maybe it expresses a misperception of God on the part of Moses and Aaron. The first idea came directly from God- and this seems to be based more on a reaction from Moses and Aaron.

Or maybe the "us" here was the land and not the people. Not God will hunt down the Israelites, but- Pharoah if you don't give in- bad things are going to happen around here.

Well Pharoah's not biting- and in fact says that if the Israelites have time to whine about worship, they have time to do more work. So they stop providing the Isralites with straw to make bricks. They still have to make just as many, they just have to find their own raw materials to make them from.

Naturally this doesn't go over so well. It doesn't happen. Production decreases and the Israelite foremen go talk to Pharoah about it. We're working just as hard as before- we just don't have the straw. But Pharoah won't relent- he calls them lazy and won't reduce the workload.

As you might guess, Moses and Aaron aren't about to win any popularity contests in the camp. The foremen tell them "May the LORD look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us."

What must Moses be thinking at this point? Lord God, I've done what you asked- I knew I'd be bad at this- and I was right. Why have You left me? Not only doesn Pharoah hate me- so do the Israelites. Why am I even here?

And maybe the same thing happens to us. We come to a crossroads where there's a tough choice. We make the one we think is right, not the one we want to choose- but the one that seems like the right choice. And when we take that path...bad things happen. Wait, it wasn't supposed to be like this.

But we don't see the other side of the valley. We don't see the sunshine after the rain- we're in the moment. And too often our short-sightedness makes us back out- or head back for the other path.

May we press through the pain- and see what God has in store for us further on down the road.