As Egypt experiences the judgment of God through the plagues, the children of Israel are given a yearly and daily reminder of their time as slaves in Egypt. For what purpose? Why do we remember? Why do we share generational testimony? How does the Lord keep our hearts from becoming hardened, just as Pharaoh’s heart was hardened? What would this hardening produce in us as we carried the Gospel over the mountains to those who need to hear it? Give a listen!
As we open the Book of Exodus, we find the Lord beginning to “attend to” His people as they face dire circumstances. Often, what appears to be an end is a beginning, what appears as a loss, will become a victory. Moses is born under a death decree, but is delivered to be an heir of the very Pharaoh who issued the decree. Why? Moses was saved from death, raised to an exalted status, only to find himself as an unknown shepherd years later. There, out in the nowhere, the “I Am” would meet Moses, even while he wrestled with “imposter syndrome.” When we meet the “I Am” we too leave the imposter behind as He forms us to the image of His Son.
We conclude the opening book of the Torah, Genesis. This portion focuses on the life of Jacob in Egypt with his beloved son Joseph. Yet, in a touch moment of blessing, Jacob blesses and adopts the sons of Joseph in order to give them, and Joseph himself, a future hope. Then Joseph, as the day of his death approaches, uses a phrase that will appear in the calling of Moses, and, according to Rashi, serves as a code word of sorts to the elders of Israel. What does it mean when God “attends to”? What is being signaled by this phrase? We will consider this, and much more, in this episode of Messiah in Life.
the mountain mensch 