Moses returns to Egypt - Exodus 4:18-31

This next part of the story has some stuff that makes sense if we've been following along... er, and one bit that will seem a bit weird, unless you know about some stuff back in Genesis.

The main point here?  It's 2 things:
1. God has a plan and Moses is learning to trust and follow it.
2. And the plan is really good news for the Israelite slaves!

Stop and read Exodus 4:18-31

So we've seen that Moses is a reluctant leader but that God is insistent that he should be part of his plan to rescue the Israelite nation from slavery to Pharaoh in Egypt.

Moses continues to show a lack of faith when he says to his father-in-law Jethro, that the reason he's returning to Egypt is to see if any of the Israelites there are "still alive"!  He's still not completely trusting in God's plans and promises.

He packs up and sets off, remembering his staff, which is now referred to as "the staff of God" because of how it will be used to show God's power with Moses.

God reminds Moses of all that he is do and all that is going to happen in Egypt.  God will harden Pharaoh's heart (more on this later) and it will ultimately end in the freedom of God's "firstborn son" (the nation of Israel - the descendants of Abraham) and in the deaths of many firstborn sons of Egyptian families because of Pharaoh's hard heart (he hardens his own heart too but more on this later).

Then we've got this weird bit on the way back to Egypt where God is about to kill Moses because his son hasn't been circumcised and Zipporah, his wife takes care of it for him. 

What's the big deal?  And why now? 

Well, the big deal is found back in Genesis 17 - the covenant of circumcision.  It was a deal God made with Abraham (the father of the nation of Israel).  God promised Abraham that he would have not only a son but many sons and many descendants that would become a great nation of people: Israel!  And as a sign of this miraculous work of God to multiply this family and bless the whole world through it, every male would be circumcised.  It seems like a strange kind of sign but every time an Israelite bloke looked down, he would be reminded that God keeps his promises!  Moses had apparently neglected to circumcise his son and it needed doing in order to honor God's covenant deal with Abraham. 

And why now?  Because now, more than ever, Moses needed to remember that God keeps his promises.  And he needed to get this sign sorted on the way to Egypt because he was going to be representing the Israelite nation, and so he'd better make sure he's living the life of an Israelite man, banking on the promises of God and teaching his kids to do the same!

As promised, God sends Aaron to link up with Moses to go to Egypt.  He's on board.

And then we have this encouraging moment where they arrive in Egypt and the Israelites believe Moses has been sent by God to free them from slavery.  After 400 years of it, they must have been starting to wonder when or whether God would keep his promises to them.  When they realise that God has seen their suffering and still cares about them and still has plans for them, they worship him!

So Moses is learning more and more to trust and follow the plans and promises of God for himself, his family and for those he would lead.  There's a lesson for us as Christians!!  But I for one am glad that today it doesn't require the use of a flint knife!

And God's plan is really good news for the Israelite slaves.  And today, God's plan is really good news for those in slavery to sin who need the rescue Jesus offers.  He sees our suffering.  He cares.  He has plans.  He wants to set his people free!!

Back to Exodus blog

God's anger and hatred (Romans 1:18-32)

In this part of Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome, before he can explain what's so good about the good news of Jesus, he explains what's so BAD about people.

The Bible says 'God is love' and this is true but love is more than just an emotion - it is about action too.  In fact, God's emotions are wide-ranging and include anger and hatred when the situation and his goodness warrants it.  As CS Lewis said, 'anger is the fluid love bleeds when you cut it'...

Stop and read Romans 1:18-32

The first thing Paul says God gets angry about is the suppression of truth, especially the truth about himself.  Of course, Christians are just as capable of suppressing truth and telling lies about God as anyone else is, but Paul is talking about those who manage to exist in this world and invent reasons why it had to have come from nothing.  It's illogical, unscientific (Science can't observe 'nothing') and just plain wrong.  If our Universe had a beginning (and science assures us it did), its existence necessitates an uncaused cause.  More than this, the design, functionality and beauty of our Universe (even though it is broken) shows us the creativity of God.  Paul says everyone gets creation and there are therefore no excuses for not believing in the Creator.  And when people suppress this truth and believe lies instead, God hates it and gets angry because he loves the people he has made and he wants us all to know him. 

People's thinking continues to be 'darkened' in many ways and the truth about God is exchanged for many things, none of which deserve to come first in our lives.  The building of our lives around anything other than God is 'idolatry' (worshiping something else in place of God).  People love to do whatever they want and act as god of their own lives.  Interestingly, this almost always leads to the devaluing and abuse of sex whether through the enjoyment of pornography, casual sex, gay sex or adulterous sex. For now, people are 'given over' and totally allowed by God to run their own lives and sin (wrong thoughts, words or actions and neglecting good thoughts, words or actions) to their hearts' content.  God hates it and gets angry because he loves the people he has made and he wants us all to know him.

Paul specifically mentions gay lust and sex as being sinful.  This is frequently misquoted and misunderstood by Christians and non-Christians alike.  Some will say God hates gay people and it's wrong to be gay but that's NOT what it says here.  Others say love is love and God's fine with gay relationships provided they're loving but that's NOT what it says either.  Paul is explaining that one way in which people sin sexually is to actively desire and have sex with the same gender.  This doesn't mean it's wrong to be gay (to be same-sex attracted) but it is wrong to CHOOSE to sin sexually and to spend time thinking about sinning sexually and this is just one of the ways people do that.  It's unnatural and falls short of the best God intends for us.  God hates it and gets angry because he loves the people he has made and he wants us all to know him.

Incidentally, in our culture, singleness and community are both incredibly undervalued.  If a gay person decides to remain single and abstain from sexual relationships in obedience to God, they're not ruling out personal fulfillment.  Marriage is great but our happiness is not dependent on pairing up.  I know lots of people who have stayed single their whole lives and they wouldn't have it any other way.  They aren't lonely because they're committed to friendships and are plugged into a community.  Our sadness at the suggestion that gay people might choose not to pursue romantic relationships is part of our 'darkened' thinking because we think sex is more important than God in our culture.  God hates it and gets angry because he loves the people he has made and he wants us all to know him.

If you were faced with a glass of water with a big log of poo in it, you wouldn't drink it!  What if it was just a little bit of poo floating on the top?  You still wouldn't drink it!  Why?  Because poo is poisonous and dangerous.  This is what sin is like to God.  And no-one is off the hook.  We all sin in some of the various ways listed.  We all make selfish decisions to put ourselves first instead of God.  God hates 'little' sins as well as the 'big' ones because all sin is destructive, it's all against him and keeps people from knowing him.  God hates it and gets angry because he loves the people he has made and he wants us all to know him.

What should we expect from a perfect good God who created us and gave us life to love him back and be like him?  How long should we expect him to tolerate our sin?  Should we expect him to let us live forever?  If he did, he would not be a good God and there would be no justice.  The God of the Bible promises ultimate justice for all the sin in this world there has ever been or will be.  No-one gets away with anything!  Unless God intervenes in a dramatic way, we can all expect death and separation from God in the end.  What would it be like if God let us 'into heaven' as we are?  Heaven would just as messed up and broken as this place is.  If God is real and perfectly good, something radical needs to happen to us before we could ever expect anything good from him.  For now, we experience the natural consequences of a world that is generally running away from God instead of towards him. 

What do you think you deserve from God if he is a morally perfect judge? 

Bear in mind, your answer to this reveals how well or how little you understand God (how holy or good he is), and how well or how little you understand yourself (how far we fall short of him).

The good news will come later in Paul's writing, but before we can understand it properly, we need to grasp the bad news and the seriousness of our sin.

BACK

Moses is not the hero - Exodus 4:1-17

In every flipping film I've seen about Moses (and there are loads!), Moses is always made out to be the hero of the Exodus story - A strong, wise leader, usually with an impressive beard.  But that's NOT how the Bible tells it.  Moses improved as a leader but to start with he was weak, reluctant and surprisingly stubborn when it came to doing what God said...

Stop and read Exodus 4:1-17

"What if they don't believe me...?".  It's a fair enough question.  No-one's going to take seriously the guy who says "The bush told me"!  So in the previous chapter God told Moses WHO to say it was that was sending him.  Not a bush, but the great I AM - the God of your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  But even though Moses knows it's God speaking, what if the Egyptians aren't convinced?

So God graciously shows Moses 2 amazing miracles that he could perform on demand to prove to the Egyptians that he really did have the power and authority of God behind him.

But Moses is still hesitant.

He makes excuses about not being a very good speaker.  But he's missed the point.  It's not supposed to be Moses' amazing oratory that convinces people but God's power.  That's why God's answer was the 2 miracles and not, "Don't worry Moses.  People will believe you because you do great speeches!"  Moses is slow to realise that God's power will do the talking.

God reassures Moses and shifts his focus from himself to God.  "Who made people's mouths?"  Moses should know this is all about God and what HE can do. 

Then it becomes clear that Moses DOES get it but is simply not willing to do what God says.  He's stubborn.  God will use this stubbornness later with Pharaoh but refusing to submit to God is completely inappropriate!!  Moses should know better.  He's defying God.  "I don't want to.  Make someone else do it."  After all the grace God has shown him!  What a stinky attitude!!  And we all do it!

Understandably, God gets angry with Moses (a moment we don't usually see in the films) and effectively God says, "Oh alright then, go and get Aaron and he can help you speak."  In other words God, even in his anger, is gracious again and gives Moses extra help, but he's ultimately uncompromising in his command for Moses to obey him. 

So Aaron will do the talking and Moses will handle the miracles.  Again, not what we see in the films. 

So Moses is NOT the hero of the Exodus story.  GOD IS!  And you are not the hero either.  God is! 

Will you trust him to be the hero of your story...
or will you resist as if it's all about you?

Back to Exodus blog

11. Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? - Part Two: The Explanation

In parts 10 and 11 we are considering the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus.  If he's just another dead guy who had ideas about God, then Christianity is false and we can ignore it.  But if he really did come back from the dead, we should take Jesus very seriously and believe what he said about who he is (God) and why he came (to save people from their sins).  Trusting him could save and transform our lives and give us a real relationship with God both now and forever!!

The empty tomb of Jesus,
experiences of resurrection appearances
and the disciples' firm belief that he'd risen from the dead
are all matters of well-attested historical record that require explanation.

The next question to ask is: What is the BEST explanation for these 3 historical facts?  Is the resurrection story really more plausible than the alternative naturalistic explanations offered for the evidence we have?

Summary

1. The Conspiracy Theory says the disciples faked Jesus' resurrection by stealing and hiding his dead body and then spreading the lie that he had risen.  But...

• Jews at that time had no concept of a rising Messiah so this plan would not have made any sense to them.
• These disciples were willing to die for their belief that Jesus had risen.  People don't willingly allow themselves to be tortured and killed for something they KNOW to be a lie.
• This theory does nothing to explain the numerous experiences of the resurrection appearances of Jesus.

2. The Apparent Death Theory says Jesus didn't really die on the cross but merely passed out and later revived in the tomb, escaped and convinced people he had risen.  But...

• Romans were expert killers and knew how to make sure people were definitely dead!  Even if Jesus had managed to survive the cross (impossible), he would have died in the sealed tomb.
• Even if he survived the cross (impossible) and the tomb (impossible), he would have had to move the stone from the entrance (which took several healthy men to move) and then take on the Roman guard to escape!
• Even if he did all this (impossible), a tortured and half-dead Jesus would hardly be in any state to convince anyone he had risen from the dead.  Anyone who met him would see that he was in need of urgent medical attention!

3. The Displaced Body theory says that Joseph of Arimathea (whose tomb Jesus borrowed) moved Jesus' body to a criminals' graveyard and that's why the disciples found the tomb empty and believed Jesus had risen from the dead.  But...

• Jewish laws prohibited the moving of corpses after they had been buried.
• The criminals' graveyard was close to the site of execution, so there would have been no need to bury it somewhere else first and then move it.
• Also, once the disciples started saying Jesus had risen, Joseph could have (and surely would have) corrected them.
• And again, this theory does nothing to explain the numerous experiences of the resurrection appearances of Jesus.

4. The Hallucination Theory says the experiences of the appearances of Jesus alive after he died can be put down to people's minds playing tricks on them in their grief.  But...

• Jesus appeared many times in many places, and not just to individuals but groups and to a crowd of over 500 people at once.  And to skeptics as well as believers.  This kind of mass-scale hallucination simply does not happen.
• The jewish disciples' first thought would not have been (and wasn't) resurrection anyway because it was not part of their belief system at all.  They thought he was a ghost until he proved otherwise (Lk 24:39).
• This theory doesn't even attempt to explain the empty tomb.

The 4 most popular naturalistic theories fail to explain the 3 historical facts we have considered.

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the only explanation that accounts for:

• The empty tomb
• The resurrection appearances
• The disciples' willingness to die for their belief in the risen Jesus

If God exists, miracles are possible and we should not rule out this final explanation.

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, stated by Sherlock Holmes).


Questions

1. Do you believe God raised Jesus from the dead?  Why or why not?

2. What do you make of the various naturalistic theories to try and explain the 3 historical facts we have been considering?  How would you explain them?

3. What are the implication for you if the resurrection really happened and Christianity is true?  What would you say to God about this?

Back to Zangmeister Reasonable Faith Videos

10. Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? - Part One: The Facts

Jesus claimed to be God himself, coming into our world to save people from their sins so they could be forgiven and live with him forever in a world free from sickness, suffering and death!

If Jesus rose from the dead, we should take his claims seriously!  Christianity is true.

And if he didn't, he's just another dead guy with wrong ideas.  Christianity is false.

The Bible even says this:

And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.

(1 Corinthians 15:14) 

So how strong is the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus from the dead?  What do we know?

This video explores that...

Summary

There are 3 main well-attested historical facts that require explanation:

1. The discovery of Jesus' empty tomb.

• 6 independent early sources (Lk 24:1-12, Jn 20:1-8, 1 Cor 15:3-5, Mk 16:1-8, Mt 28:1-10, Ac 2:29-32).
• Women discovering the tomb (likely true because a plausible hoax in that culture would have had men discovering it).
• The Jewish authorities circulated a false story about the empty tomb.  This should also increase our confidence that there was one!

 
2. The appearances of Jesus alive after his death.

• Paul's list of witnesses: Peter, the 12, crowd of 500+, James, the apostles, himself (1 Cor 15:3-8).
• Various appearances are independently confirmed in the gospel accounts.
• We can be confident that many individuals and groups had experiences of Jesus appearing to them alive after his death.

3. The disciples' belief that Jesus rose from the dead. 

• As Jews they had no concept of a Messiah being killed and raised.
• They would have believed Jesus was under God's curse when he died (Dt 21:22-23).
• Yet Jesus' disciples suddenly and sincerely believed he had risen from the dead and were even willing to die for this belief.

So why was Jesus' tomb found to be empty after he had been buried in it?
Why did so many people experience appearances of Jesus alive after he died? 
Why were Jesus' disciples willing to face death for their belief that he had risen from the dead?

These are all questions for the next video, but for now, let's consider the CERTAINTY of these facts...


Questions

1. Why should we think that the empty tomb of Jesus is a historical fact?  If this were the only known fact, what alternative explanations could be suggested?

2. Why should we think that people really did have experiences of seeing Jesus alive after he died?  If this were the only known fact, what alternative explanations could be suggested?

3. Why is it curious that the Jewish disciples of Jesus suddenly and sincerely believed he had risen from the dead?  How do we know they were sincere?

4. Why do these 3 historical facts require explanation?  And what possible explanations are there?

Back to Zangmeister Reasonable Faith Videos
Next video: 11. Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? - Part 2: The Explanation

9. Who Did Jesus Think He Was?

Jesus, splits history in half (BC/AD).  2000 years after his death, nearly a third of the world claim to be Christians.  More books have been written about him, more songs sung to him, more paintings painted of him than anyone else in human history.

Who is he?  

Nearly everyone believes SOMETHING about Jesus.  He's in all the major religions too.  He's simply too big a deal to ignore.  But only Christians believe he is God.

Did Jesus actually make this claim?

You might say, "So what if he did?  Doesn't mean it's true!"  But although others have claimed to be God, they all tend to be dangerous cult leaders or those who are deluded or mentally unwell.  None of them (or anyone else ever), have impacted the world like Jesus. 

So we should be curious about what Jesus actually said about himself.

This video is about that...

Summary

The vast majority of modern historians, both Christian and non, are convinced that Jesus certainly existed and that his life and words can be investigated historically, just as we would with other ancient figures such as Plato, Aristotle, or Alexander the Great.

Historians, both Christian and non, treat the New Testament records as an ordinary collection of ancient documents to determine the life and words of Jesus.  Here is what they find...

1. Jesus claimed to be THE MESSIAH.  By riding into Jerusalem on a donkey (an event attested to by independent sources), Jesus was decisively and provocatively claiming to be: The Victorious King, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Anointed One, Righteous, Bringing Salvation, Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace, described in the ancient Jewish scriptures.

2. Jesus claimed to be THE SON OF GOD.  His parable of the vineyard shows clearly that he thought of himself as the only Son of God, God's final messenger, not simply another of the prophets, and the heir of Israel.

3. Jesus claimed to be THE SON OF MAN.  Jesus refers to himself this way over 80 times in the gospels.  It's a clear reference to the "son of man" in an ancient Jewish prophecy in the book of Daniel.  One who ultimately rules over everything and everyone (Daniel 7:13-14).

With these three titles (and in many other ways), Jesus clearly claimed to be the very God his accusers worshiped...

The majority of modern historians, Christian and non, are agreed that the historical Jesus...

• Claimed to be God and was accused of "blasphemy", because the Jewish leaders rejected this.
• Claimed to have divine power to heal the sick, drive out demons, revise the Jewish law, and forgive sins.
• Claimed that people's eternal destinies hinged on whether or not they believed in him.

Jesus' self-understanding cannot be reduced to that of a Jewish teacher or a charismatic leader.  He was claiming repeatedly and emphatically that he was and is God himself.


Questions

1. Are you surprised by the fact that most modern historians, Christian and non, are confident, not only of Jesus' existence but also quite a bit about what he said and did? 

2. Are you surprised that Jesus claimed to be God?  Why or why not?

3. How could Jesus be SOMETHING GOOD but NOT GOD if he was someone who kept claiming to be God?  Why would someone who is a good person but not God, keep insisting they are God until they were killed for this claim?

4. Why do you think he's had such a huge impact on the world?  Who do you think Jesus really is?

5. What if it's true that God has shown up in human history so that we might really know him?  If it's actually true, what would you say to God about this?

Back to Zangmeister Reasonable Faith Videos
Next video: 10. Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? - Part 1: The Facts