When Israel was in Egypt’s land,
Let my people go!
Oppressed so hard they could not stand,
Let my people go!
Go down, Moses,
Way down in Egypt’s land;
Tell old Pharaoh
To let my people go!
Moses was a reluctant savior. Oh, once he had been a fiery young
radical. Back in the day when he wore
the robes of the Egyptian royalty he snapped at injustice. One day when he was out among the Pharaoh’s
work projects watching the overseers…probably wondering to himself how he could
really be a Hebrew and stand by to watch his own people suffer. What did his mother whisper to him as he
nursed from her right under Pharaoh’s nose?
What did his sister say to him about his destiny?
At any rate, as I said, one day Moses
was out and about and he saw one of the Egyptians overseers beating a Hebrew
slave. And he was not reluctant to act
then. He was impulsive. He struck back. Hard.
Killed that Egyptian and then worried about what he had done. Hid the body in the sand. Not such a great place to hide a dead
body. And sure enough his crime doesn’t
stay covered up. But it’s not the
Egyptians who know. It’s the
Hebrews. And they’re not grateful to
him.
The next day he’s out and now he sees
two Hebrews fighting with each other.
And he confronts one man, who was clearly in the wrong. “Hey, why are you hitting your companion?”
The man turns on him. “Who made you a prince and judge over
us? Are you going to kill me like you
killed that Egyptian?” That’s when Moses
knew the game was up. So he fled to
Midian.
Years later he was out in the desert
tending sheep, long removed from Egypt.
He was married now. Had a new
life now. Wandered the wilderness with
his sheep. Not the brave young
instrument of justice. An aging man with
different priorities.
Then he saw the bush. That bush that burned but which was not
consumed. That bush that spoke with God’s
voice. Told him to go to Egypt. Told him that God had experienced the
suffering of God’s people. A new day of
liberation was coming. And who was going
to proclaim this new day?
Go down, Moses!
But Moses was now a reluctant savior. He thought the people would not receive him. He thought the people would not receive
God. He thought he didn’t have what it
took. He couldn’t speak good. Finally after God gave him God’s name, after
God gave him two nifty tricks to do in front of Pharaoh – the stick into snake
trick and the leprous hand trick, after God told him, “I will be with you,
Moses,” after God told him, “I will be with your mouth, Moses, and I’ll even
give you your brother, Aaron, as a mouthpiece”…finally Moses goes down to
Egypt. A reluctant savior.
The showdown was wonderful. Moses & Aaron versus the most powerful
ruler in the most powerful nation on earth. Aaron throws down the stick in front of
Pharaoh and his servants. It becomes a
stick. But the magicians of Egypt were
there and with their secret arts they can do the same thing. They throw down their sticks. They become snakes. But Aaron’s snake eats up all the other
snakes. Pharaoh was unimpressed.
So the plagues begin. First there was the plague of water turned to
blood. As Pharaoh went out to the Nile,
that great river on which all life in Egypt depended, Moses struck the water
with that same staff that had turned to a serpent and the river turned to
blood. All the fish in the river
died. The river stank. The people couldn’t drink from the
river. Some must have wondered what had
happened to the Egyptian gods. To Khnum,
the creator of water and life. To Hapi,
the god of the Nile. To Osiris for whom
the Nile was his very bloodstream. But
Pharaoh did not wonder. He turned his
back on Moses and went back to his palace and God hardened his heart.
Next there were frogs. Frogs in the beds. Frogs in the houses. Frogs in the ovens and the kneading bowls. People must have pleaded to Heket, the
Egyptian goddess of childbirth whose symbol was the frog. But still they came. These cursed frogs. Pharaoh calls in Moses and Aaron and pleads
for a respite. Moses prays to God and
the frogs die. They pile up piles of stinking
dead frogs. And Pharaoh hardened his
heart.
It kept on going. There were gnats and flies. Then the livestock died. Then boils broke out, even on the beasts. Hail. Locusts. Darkness.
Even the great Egyptian gods of the sun, Amon-Re, Atum and Horus, could
not prevent the darkness. Each time the
plague would affect only the Egyptians, not the Hebrews. Each time Moses proclaimed the victory of the
God of the Hebrews. Usually Pharaoh
pleaded for relief, even promised at times to let the people go, but each time
the plague lifted, his heart would harden and the people remained slaves.
Through nine plagues this was the
pattern. Then came the tenth. And the tenth was a horrible plague. At midnight on a certain night, the angel of
death would come to the house of all who lived in the land. And this angel of death would kill the
firstborn of every house.
Through all of this, God had had a
special message for the Egyptians. Now
God had a message for the Hebrews, too.
This night. This horrible night
when so much death would come to Egypt. This was the night that was going to mark the
beginning of a new life for the Hebrew people. It was a night they would remember even in
their calendar. It was now going to be
the first of all the months. And on the
tenth day of that month from now on they were going to remember what they did
on this night.
What did they do on this night when the
angel of death was coming to every house in Egypt? They were to take a lamb. Each household was to take a lamb. A lamb without blemish. A year-old male in the prime of life. And on the fourteenth day of the month, just
as the sun was setting in the west, the whole assembly would kill the lambs.
Imagine the Egyptians watching this
scene. All those Hebrew slaves
simultaneously slaughtering a lamb. Then
they took blood from the slaughter and painted the doorposts of their houses. They dressed for travel. Even though it was night, they dressed as if
they were ready to leave. Their belts
fastened. Their sandals on their
feet. Their walking sticks in their
hands. And they ate their roasted lambs
in haste as if they were going to be called out at any minute.
Later that night, at midnight, the
destroyer came. And the firstborn of
Egypt were struck down, from the captive in the dungeon to the palace of
Pharaoh. But when the destroyer came to
the houses of the Hebrews and saw the blood of the lamb on the doorposts, it
passed over their houses. The death that
came to all Egypt did not come to them. Their firstborn were preserved.
Pharaoh called in Moses and Aaron in the
middle of that night. “Leave. Go.
Serve Yahweh, your god. Take your
flocks and go.” The reluctant savior
went back to tell his people that God had set them free.
O, there was more to come. Pharaoh had a change of heart one more time. There was the dramatic crossing of the Red
Sea. The drowning of Pharaoh’s army. The long journey in the wilderness. But a new day had come. And the Hebrews, who became the Israelites,
were to remember this day on the fourteenth day of the first month of every new
year.
Why do we still tell this story? As Christians we don’t set aside the
fourteenth day of the first month for Passover. We don’t even use the Jewish calendar. What happened to this commandment from
Exodus?
It is still our story. And nowadays you hear it just about every
week in this service. A least a hint of
it. When we come to the baptismal font
and give thanks over the water we remind God and ourselves that “when you saw
your people as slaves in Egypt, you led them to freedom through the sea.” When we come to the table we often hear in
the Great Thanksgiving those words, “you set us free from slavery to sin and
death.” When we say these things we
remember what God has done for God’s
people and we count ourselves among those people that God has claimed and loved
and freed. We remember the Passover.
But as Christians we see it through new
eyes. We count time differently because
of one particular Passover when Jesus gathered with his disciples probably to
eat this meal that is described in Exodus 12. Only now Jesus says something different about
the meal. We don’t slaughter lambs
anymore because Jesus, who was the Lamb of God, laid down his life once for
all. The sacrifice was made once for
all.
It was a perfect lamb in the prime of
his life. Jesus was sinless, in the
prime of his life. Not a bone of it was
to be broken. At his crucifixion the
gospel writers are careful to note that not a bone of Jesus’ body was broken. The lamb’s blood was to be sprinkled on the
doorposts so that its benefits could protect the inhabitants from death. Jesus’ blood is shed for us so that we can
find protection form wrath, forgiveness from our sins, and freedom from death.
Christians look back at this story of
the Passover and they see Christ all over it.
As First Corinthians 5:17 says, “Christ has become our Passover.” And we see a much bigger exodus for us every
time we come to this table. We remember
God calling that reluctant savior Moses and leading a people to freedom from
slavery. But we also remember that
savior who went all the way to the cross to lead us to a freedom that cannot be
taken away from us.
All of life is wrapped up in this story.
There is humor as we think about a land
overrun with frogs and Pharaoh playing his silly game of “You can go; no, wait,
I lied.” There is wonder as we think
about the awesomeness of the plagues and the greatness of God. There is trauma and death and blood – the tragedies
that are part of all of our lives. There
is sacrifice where the strong and the innocent die and those who are unworthy
continue on. And there is deep, deep
mystery as we think that something as simple as gathering around a table and
sharing a meal can somehow make real for us the kingdom of God.
Yesterday Suzanne and Rachel and I made
a trip to Capron in Southampton County. We were picking up several pieces of furniture
that were part of Suzanne’s inheritance from her Aunt Augusta who died earlier
this year. Augusta was the last of her
generation and the house seemed very empty and lonely as we left it for the
last time.
We stopped to eat in Franklin at the
Golden Skillet. Rachel was not
impressed. It is a fast food restaurant
that has seen many better days. Even I
wondered how many extra layers of grease had been added to the walls and
ceilings in recent years. There were
flies.
Why did we go there? We went there because that’s where my
grandparents went to eat. They knew it
had great North Carolina-style barbecue.
And it was one of my Grandma’s favorite places to go. So when I sit down in that place and eat it is
a way for me to commune with the saints. And when I sat there with my wife and daughter
I felt that deep, deep mystery of life and death and life beyond life continuing.
This table is where that happens for
this family. At this table we are
reminded that whatever has a hold on us, whatever Pharaoh is holding us in his
grip…his power is broken by the action of the God of Israel and Jesus Christ. Whatever temptation we have to linger in
slavery is shown up for what it is – a failure to embrace life and the freedom
God gives us through God’s mighty works in Jesus.
So, let us all from bondage flee,
Let my people go!
And let us all in Christ be free,
Let my people go!
Go down, Moses,
Way down in Egypt’s land;
Tell old Pharaoh
To let my people go!
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