So Moses told the people of Israel what the Lord had said, but they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery. [Exodus 6:9 (NLT)]
Things went downhill for Israel in the centuries following their arrival in Egypt. Life turned bad when Pharaoh’s once welcome guests became Pharaoh’s oppressed slaves who labored in his fields or made bricks for his building projects. Hearing their cry for relief, God called Moses to lead His children out of captivity. Although He warned Moses that Pharaoh would not let his labor force depart easily, God didn’t tell him that Israel’s life would go from bad to worse before they left Egypt.
Pharaoh did more than deny Moses’ request; he punished the Israelites for making it! He instructed his slave drivers to increase Israel’s workload by no longer providing the straw necessary for making bricks. Although the laborers had to find their own straw, they still had to meet their same daily quota of bricks! The extra work wasn’t to make them work harder; it was to break the people’s spirits as well as their backs!
Straw was crucial for the making of mud bricks. After harvest, it was stored in Pharaoh’s warehouses where the straw for bricks was chopped into small pieces. But, without access to Pharaoh’s straw, the Israelites had to search the fields for any remaining field stubble. Pharaoh’s instructions made it impossible to meet their required quotas and the Israelite foremen were beaten. With life having gone from bad to worse, the people refused to listen to Moses and the discouraged nation lost heart. Nevertheless, Moses and Aaron persevered. Although it took ten plagues to convince Pharaoh, the cruel ruler eventually relented and let Israel depart.
Life often goes from bad to worse. Consider Job. His bad began when Sabeans raided his oxen and donkeys and murdered his farmhands. It continued to worse with the immolation of his sheep and shepherds, the theft of his camels, the killing of his servants, and the death of all his children in a windstorm. Life hit rock bottom when Job lost his health! Although he lost property, wealth, family, and health, Job never lost heart. Even though he didn’t understand why, Job continued to have faith in God!
Think of Joseph—the favored son who was betrayed by his brothers, thrown in a pit, sold as a slave, and taken to Egypt. His bad turned to worse when he was unjustly accused of rape, tossed into prison, and forgotten by Pharaoh’s cup-bearer. Like Job, Joseph lost everything but his faith!
Consider Jairus—the synagogue leader who fell at Jesus’ feet with an urgent plea to come and heal the man’s dying daughter. Things were looking up for Jairus until Jesus stopped to talk with the bleeding woman and messengers arrived to say the girl was dead. Jairus, however, never berated Jesus for the delay or turned away in disappointment. When Jesus told him not to be afraid but to have faith, the man did—even though his bad had turned to worse!
As Christians, like the Israelites, we are on a trek through the wilderness to a Promised Land and, as happened for them, life will go from bad to worse more than once during our journey. Will we lose heart every time we face challenges, disappointment, or loss? Like the Israelites, will we want to return to slavery rather than trust in God and continue through the wilderness? Or, when the vultures start circling and our bad turns to worse, will we have the perseverance of Moses, the patience of Job, the fortitude of Joseph, and the faith of Jairus?
Faith endures as seeing Him who is invisible; endures the disappointments, the hardships, and the heart-aches of life, by recognizing that all comes from the hand of Him who is too wise to err and too loving to be unkind. [A.W. Pink]
Jesus told two parables about persistence. In the first, a man went to his neighbor’s home at midnight. Waking him, he asked for three loaves of bread because a traveler just arrived and he had no food for his hungry guest. Initially, the neighbor refused to open the door but, after tiring of the man’s persistent knocking, he finally gave him the bread. In the second parable, a widow kept badgering a corrupt judge with her appeals for justice against a man who has harmed her. Finally, worn down by her persistent pleas, the exasperated judge granted her request.
English philosopher Francis Bacon defined “old age” as “always 15 years older than I am.” He would have liked it here in southwest Florida because there always seems to be someone fifteen years older. Nevertheless, having recently celebrated my 77th birthday, it’s getting increasingly hard to find them! While I enjoy being told I look good, I don’t like hearing the “for your age!” ending that sentence! Hearing that qualified compliment, being called “Hon” or “Sweetie” by a waitperson or nurse less than half my age, or people assuming my grey hair means I’m computer inept and/or hard of hearing remind me of the subtle ageism in today’s society.
Back in in 1586, during the Eighty Years’ War, Sir Philip Sidney was fighting for the Protestant cause against the Spanish when he noticed another soldier was without leg armor. Believing that he shouldn’t be better protected than his men, Sidney gave the man his cuisses (armor that covered the thigh). During the Battle of Zutphen, Sidney was fatally wounded in his thigh during the final charge and, three weeks later, he died of gangrene from the injury. While heroic, his death was avoidable if the man had worn his complete set of armor!
God’s armor includes the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation. No soldier, however, would go into battle without a weapon. While a soldier might go into battle without armor as did David when he met Goliath, he’d never go without a weapon. The young shepherd’s weapon was a handful of stones but the Christian’s weapon is the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
As a young child, I loved singing “Onward, Christian Soldiers” in Sunday school. My enthusiasm for the hymn waned as I grew older and learned about the evil and horrors of the Crusades and the World, Korean, and Vietnam wars. With its mention of war, soldiers, mighty armies, battles, and foes, the hymn seemed to glorify war. Even though the martial imagery comes from Biblical texts, the hymn’s combination of soldiers marching into battle and Jesus (the Prince of Peace) has caused controversy and some denominations have eliminated it from their hymnals.
