We’re in a sermon series called “Holy Moses”, looking at
the life and times of Moses. Last week we discussed the plagues that were
put on Egypt by God as a result of Pharaoh’s refusal to set the people of
Israel free. We only discussed two of them last week, but there were a
total of nine before the last one, the one we read today. This last
plague was the worst of all, the first born of every Egyptian, and the first
born of all their livestock, were killed. Only the people of Israel were
spared, and then only if they followed God’s instructions to the letter.
This, as some of you know, is the event that is called the Passover,
because the houses that followed God’s instructions were “passed over” when
death came.
This, quite honestly, is not the most comfortable passage
to preach. We like to think of God as this loving, caring God. The
good shepherd, taking care of the sheep. And of course, God is that.
But then, we read a passage like this. Not a lot of love in this
passage. Not for the people of Egypt anyway. God showed love to the
people of Israel. God protected them and saved them. This was the
event that finally led to the people of Israel being set free. But we’re
told all the time that God loves everybody, with no exceptions. Where’s
God’s love for the people of Egypt?
Now, in the case of Pharaoh, we can at least say that
Pharaoh deserved it. After all, Pharaoh was responsible for the
mistreatment of the people of Israel in the first place. And it’s not
like Pharaoh was not warned. Moses went to Pharaoh time and time again.
Plague after plague had already happened, each one worse than the one
before. Pharaoh would promise to set the people of Israel free, but he kept
going back on his word. God gave Pharaoh plenty of chances, and Pharaoh
did not take them. So, when we look at this story, we can at least say
that God gave Pharaoh plenty of warnings and Pharaoh just would not listen.
But it was not just Pharaoh who suffered. Listen to
this: “The Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the
firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner
who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well.”
Pharaoh may have deserved it. But what about everyone
else? What about the common, ordinary people? They had not done
anything wrong, or at least no more than we or anyone else does. They had
not kept the people of Israel captive. They had no power to set them
free. Yet, all their firstborn died. And the Bible does not give
any ages here. A firstborn might have been a young man in the prime of
life. A firstborn might have been a five-year-old kid. A firstborn
might have been a little baby, the essence of innocence. And what about
the animals, who don’t even have the ability to know right from wrong?
All these firstborn were killed. All these innocent
people and innocent animals. And it’s not like this was an accident or
anything. We’re told, in no uncertain terms, that it was God who killed
them. “The Lord struck down all the firstborn of Egypt” is what the verse
says. There’s not a grey area here. There’s not room for
interpretation. The Bible says pretty clearly that God is the one who
killed all these innocent people, or at least they’re innocent as far as human
standards are concerned.
Why would God do that? How is that right? How
is that fair? How does this square with the loving, caring God we believe
in?
These are questions we ask in a lot of contexts, of course.
Because there are all kinds of things that happen in this world that
don’t seem right. There are all kinds of things that happen that don’t
seem fair. And even if we don’t believe that God directly caused them, we
know that, being all-powerful, God could stop them. Yet, God does not do
that. God allows all these wrong, unfair things to happen. Why?
How does this square with the loving, caring God we believe in?
It’s a question people have been asking for centuries.
I don’t claim to have the answer to it. But part of the answer is
that God allows people to make choices. And the choices we make do not
just affect ourselves. The choices we make affect other people.
Sometimes they affect people who are completely innocent, people who have
nothing to do with anything. Our choices can affect people who did not
cause the situation and had no power to change it. And the choices of
other people affect us, even when we did not make those choices and had no
power to change them.
So what does that mean for us? Well, for one thing,
obviously, it means we need to be careful with the choices we make. We
need to think about the consequences of those choices, not just for ourselves,
but for everyone else.
That’s one of the things that becomes clear in the story of
Moses and the Pharaoh. It looks to me like in all these things, Pharaoh
was not thinking about anyone but himself. He was not worried about what
was happening to his people. I mean, think of all these plagues that happened.
The Nile River becomes so foul that no one can drink out of it and all
the fish die. They have frogs hopping everywhere. They get swarmed
by gnats. They get swarmed by flies. There’s a plague on the
livestock. People get boils all over their bodies. They had a
hailstorm that destroyed their crops. They had locusts come and eat
anything that was left after the hailstorm. They had total darkness for
three days.
Pharaoh could’ve stopped this at any time. All he had
to do was set the people of Israel free. But he would not do it.
That was not because he had any concern for the people of Egypt.
The people of Egypt did not hate Israel. They were not clamoring to
Pharaoh to make sure he kept the people of Israel in slavery. In fact,
we’re told in Chapter Eleven that the people of Egypt liked the people of
Israel. They’d have been okay with letting the people of Israel go.
But Pharaoh would not do it. He made a choice, and his choice had
consequences not just for him, but for all the people of Egypt.
But there’s another aspect to this, too. Sometimes
we’re in the position of Pharaoh, making choices that affect the lives others.
But a lot of times, we’re in the position of the people of Egypt.
We have to accept the consequences of the choices other people make.
People we have no control over. People we don’t even have any
influence over. Sometimes, we don’t even know who those people are.
But their choices affect all of our lives, and sometimes not in a good
way.
So what do we do in those times? What do we do when
we’re suffering because of choices other people made, and there seems to be
nothing we can do about it?
I think that’s when we find out how strong other faith is.
Because even in these situations, we do have choices. It may seem
like we don’t, but we do. We can just accept the situation, accept our
suffering, shrug our shoulders and say, “Well, that’s just the way it is.”
We can sit around and complain about those lousy so-and-sos who are
making our lives miserable. Or, we can pray to God for help.
Because we are never powerless. We may think we are,
but we’re not. Because you and I are children of God. We worship
the almighty, all-powerful, all-loving, all-caring God. We may be
powerless when we try to do things ourselves, but we are never powerless when
we rely on the power of God. God can deal with things we cannot deal
with. God can change situations you and I cannot change. It may
seem like there’s nothing we can do, but there’s always something we can do. We
can pray, and we can ask God for help.
When all of these plagues were going on, the Bible does not
tell us how the common people of Egypt reacted. I’m sure they did not
like it, but what did they do? Did they just accept the suffering and
say, “Well, that’s just the way it is”? Did they sit around and complain
about that lousy Pharaoh? Did they pray to their own gods? We don’t
know.
But it’s pretty sure that they did not pray to the God of
Israel. The people of Israel did. The people of Israel asked God
for help. And God responded. The firstborn of Egypt were killed,
but not the firstborn of the people of Israel. God passed over them.
Again, that’s where the term “Passover” comes from. When the
killing of the firstborn happened, the people of Israel were passed over.
God saved them.
God is in control. And God does love us. But
God allows humans to make choices. And those choices do not just affect
the people who make them. They affect lots of other people, too.
Let’s be careful in the choices we make. And let’s be
sure to pray for God’s help. We are never powerless when we can rely on
God’s power.
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