Dave Dishman

I was told as a young parent chasing kids and falling into bed exhausted that the days are long but the years are short. As I grow older, I understand the awareness behind that observation.

Moses, when considering the brevity of life, asked the Lord to teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Our years fly away, and are marked with times of happiness, but also plenty of toil and trouble. Our heads are often worn out when they meet the pillow.

Moses goes on to pray, Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!

Hope for a meaningful life, and a worthwhile legacy, is found in the Lord. The Lord solidifies our lives and adds purpose to our day-to-day. Confidence in the future springs from Him.

Moses asked God to teach us. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. I can ask God to teach me to number my days, and to find deeper purpose in them. True understanding begins here, and grows through my relationship with Him.

Psalm 90

Photo by Road Ahead

Some truths are basic to life. I need air to breath and water to drink. My body requires food and my soul requires relationships. I often overlook the importance of these foundations to flourishing. Some needs are so basic, and fulfilled on a daily basis, that they easily slip into the background of my busy day-to-day.

In the same way I let the reality of Jesus fade as well. This depreciation is not overt, I simply take for granted his role in this world. But as I read the Scriptures I’m snapped back to reality. Paul clarified the fact of the matter to church members gathered in Philippi:

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Paul states the most elemental of truths—Jesus Christ is Lord. Every knee shall bow, whether in this life or in the next. But no matter when, at some point we all go to our knees before Him.

Jesus Christ is Lord. King of Kings and Lord of Lords, to be accurate. I forget this certitude. Since I’m easily distracted by my own desires and the shiny things of this world, it’s good for me to be transported back again and again to the amazing reality of Jesus.

Philippians 2:8-11

Photo by Austin Neill

On the way back to Egypt to begin the vast undertaking of freeing the Hebrews, Moses endured a bizarre and nearly fatal interaction with the Lord:

At a lodging place on the way the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” So he let him alone. It was then that she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.

What to make of this odd story? Why would the Lord seek to punish Moses with death, just as Moses was following the Lord’s directions to return to Egypt? Why didn’t God whisper encouragements or line his path with rainbows?

Apparently Moses failed to follow through on the rite of circumcision with one or both of his sons. In Genesis 17:10-14, God commanded Abraham to circumcise every male on the eighth day after birth as a sign of the covenant. Any uncircumcised male was to be cut off from the people because he broke the covenant. Moses was breaking covenant with his sons.

Moses may have been prepared to meet Pharaoh, but his family was not. Perhaps his wife, Zipporah, objected to this bloody practice? Maybe Moses gave in to keep the peace? The fact that in this moment of crisis, while Moses lay incapacitated, Zipporah instinctively knew what to do points to her understanding of the issue.

Moses was not fully prepared for the massive task laid before him. He choose to ignore one detail. Moses grew to understand God’s holiness more than anyone else who’s ever lived. Part of this learning involved his role as spiritual head of his family. The covenant required circumcision, and Moses needed to meet the requirements.

The Lord requires decisions from you and me as well. Perhaps one niggles at the back of your mind? Pay attention. Don’t ignore something God makes clear to you, and don’t set aside the teachings of Scripture.

We all follow the same Holy God who appeared to Moses in that burning bush. The Lord requires all we have and all we are—even the seemingly little things we keep putting off.

Exodus 4:24-26

Photo by Ian Barsby

You get what you deserve. Your karma, good or bad, will seek you out. What goes around comes around. The Bible states this universal truth this way, you reap what you sow.

Early in the Exodus story Pharaoh ordered the death of all new-born Hebrew boys. Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.

Fearing the latent power of his rapidly expanding slave population, Pharaoh decided on murder as a management tool. Hebrew mothers and midwives ignored the ruling and hid babies (Moses among them). But Egyptian enforcers followed orders, and children died at their hands.

Years later the bad karma caught up in the final plague visited on Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt died, unless their doorpost was marked with blood, from Pharaoh down to the lowest prisoner. As the Lord promised, there was loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.

Actions have consequences. A later prophet described sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7). If anyone epitomized this description, it was Pharaoh. He sowed a homicidal order and reaped the death of his people’s greatest hopes.

I can’t help but wonder what consequences will follow from the callous disregard for life, both living and unborn, we see around us today? Choose life, as the scriptures say, and reap a full and good harvest.

Exodus 1

Photo by Picsea