Journey Through Exodus: Chapter 2

Moses is born and, like Jesus, the narrative of his life jumps from birth to adulthood.  Moses emerges on the scene “grown up” and sees the forced labor all around him.   Unlike Jesus, his reaction is less-than-noble.  He kills a man and flees to Midian.   Jesus, in contrast, saw the “forced labor” around him and announced good news to the captives.

Although Moses has a dubious beginning he is still to be sought by God and used as a mighty instrument of God’s.   He names his first son Gershom, for he says, “I have been an alien in a foreign land.”   

A foreign land.  A distant country.  Remember the Prodigal Son?  He fled to a “distant country.”  

I am reminded of something Henri Nouwen wrote in his book, The Return of the Prodigal Son.  

“Addiction” might be the best word to explain the lostness that so deeply permeates contemporary society.  Our addictions make us cling to what the world proclaims as the keys to self-fulfillment: accumulation of wealth and power; attainment of status and admiration; lavish consumption of food and drink, and sexual gratification without distinguishing between lust and love.  These addictions create expectations that cannot but fail to satisfy our deepest needs. As long as we live within the world’s delusions, our addictions condemn us to futile quests in “the distant country,” leaving us to fade an endless series of disillusionments while our sense of self remains unfulfilled.  In these days of increasing addictions, we have wandered far away from our Father’s home.  The addicted life can aptly be designated a life lived in “a distant country.”  It is from there that our cry for deliverance rises up.

After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under the slavery, and cried out.

Why?  Why is it that after the king of Egypt dies, the one who has enslaved them and put these heavy burdens upon them, that the people then cry out and groan?   Shouldn’t they rejoice?  Shouldn’t they be free because their captor has deceased?  

Thinking from an addicts perspective this makes complete sense to me.   It is only when the “drug” is cut off, when it dies, that the real pain begins.  It is only then that the addict can face the emptiness that has for far too long depended on a “king of Egypt.”   It is only after the drug of choice for the addict is killed that the long road to freedom can begin – but it does not come without cost.  It does not come without groaning.   

Groaning is birth pains.   It is the sign of new life coming forth.

Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God.   God heard their groaning…God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.

God hears our groaning.   And God acts.  

Here is the gospel.  This is good news.