Lent 3/Oculi
(March 15, 2020)
“The Finger of God” (Exodus
8.16-24)
Gnats and
flies all over the place. On man and
beast. All the dust of the earth became
gnats. Swarms of flies on and around
everyone, even inside houses. It’s bad
enough when you hear a lone mosquito buzzing around your ear. Just imagine what it would be like to be
surrounded by a solid swarm of flying, nasty, disease carrying insects.
And what
was the government’s response? Pharaoh,
the king of Egypt, steps up to the podium and says, “Don’t worry about it. Relax.
This will soon pass, just like other plagues that have come our
way. We can deal with it.” Later, more information comes to light. “This is much worse than we thought. No gatherings over 250 people, except for
those of you who worship Geb, our Egyptian god of the earth whose dust has
produced these gnats, or those of you who worship Khepri, our god with the head
of a fly. You should visit temples and
offer prayers and sacrifices to them.”
Finally, Pharaoh declares that all sporting events and public schools in
Egypt must be shut down until either the magicians can make the insects go away
or someone develops a good fly spray.
Now, of
course, that’s not exactly how things happened.
And the magicians were not busy trying to come up with an antidote. They were busy trying to produce gnats,
too. But they were unable and admitted
that “This is the finger of God.” And
not just any old run of the mill Egyptian god.
This is the finger of Elohim, the God of the Israelites. The two previous plagues the magicians were
able to reproduce … turning the water of the Nile to blood and causing the land
to produce frogs. But this one was
different. And so was the fourth plague,
the flies. Same for the rest of the ten
plagues that God sent upon the Egyptians.
They were unable to duplicate what Yahweh Elohim was doing among them.
God used
the plagues to cause Pharaoh to let the people go and to prove his superiority
over all the other Egyptian gods. And
not just his superiority, but the fact that he is the only true God. The Israelites had been in Egypt for close to
400 years, away from the land which God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. It seemed as if their God had
abandoned them. Many of the Israelites
felt that way. But when Moses began to
bug Pharaoh (if you’ll pardon the expression), Pharaoh imposed a travel ban on
these plague-causing Jews. They were his
slaves. He was not about to lose such a
significant population in his kingdom, vital to the economic success of his
many building projects. Yet time after
time, after each of the plagues, Pharaoh hardened his heart against the
Lord. There even came the time after the
sixth plague where Moses records that the Lord began to harden Pharaoh’s
heart. The finger of God reached out and
confirmed Pharaoh in his unbelief and stubborn rebellion.
Events
like this current coronavirus outbreak don’t necessarily come from “the finger
of God.” We just don’t have that
information. It’s dangerous to speak for
God in times like these, other than speaking what we already know from his
revealed Word. And what we do know from the
Scriptures is that we live in a world terribly marred, disfigured, broken by sin. Disease is part of the curse that the world
is under because of Adam’s sin, which is really all of our sin. It’s called “original sin” … that sin that
originated with Adam … but each of us is held accountable for it. We can’t just place the blame on Adam. St. Paul writes in Romans 14:12 that “each of
us will give an account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12).
How does
God use challenging times and events like these, though? There are people whose hearts are softened. They become more open to hearing about the truth
about God and his Son Jesus in times of uncertainly, anxiety, in times of grief
and sadness. There are others who harden
their hearts, like Pharaoh did. In fact,
times like these can bring out the worst in people. Politicians trying to score points in an
election season at the expense of people who are suffering and scared. People buying up hand sanitizer and then
selling it online for exorbitant prices.
Hucksters selling supposed cures on TV or online, which are the modern
version of snake oil in the Old West. Verbal
and physical attacks directed toward Asians simply because this virus
originated in China. Our job, instead, is
to live and love as God’s baptized people and do the best we can with the
information we have to care for each other and for our neighbors. This is the way God works in times like
this. He uses us as his hands, as his
fingers (okay, maybe with protective gloves on), to love and serve each other
in a time of crisis, and to be a witness to Christ’s love to our neighbors.
Jesus
encountered some people who had hardened their hearts against him. They claimed that the power by which he was casting
out demons was from “Beelzebul, the prince of demons.” Beelzebul was a Philistine god sometimes
called Beelzebub, which means “the Lord of the flies” … interesting since we
met a fly god in our reading from Exodus.
Jesus recognized what they were saying.
They were saying that Jesus is working by the power of Satan. And Jesus calls out the foolishness of this
claim. He corrects them by saying that
it is by the finger of God that he casts out demons. In so doing, he shows that he is the “stronger
man” who binds the “strong man.” Yes,
Satan is powerful and is a cunning adversary.
But he is no match for Jesus. Jesus
came to overcome the devil and to defeat him.
Jesus
came to solve a greater plague … the plague of sin and its deadly consequences. When the Lord threatened Pharaoh with the plague
of flies, the Lord said, “But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen,
where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may
know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.” Goshen was the region to the east of the Nile
delta where the Israelites lived. The
plague of flies and the following plagues did not affect them there. Except for the very last one. The firstborn in all of Egypt would die, from
the royal throne room to the slums of the poor.
But God gave special instructions to the Israelites. They were to take the blood of an unblemished
lamb, paint it on their doorposts, and the destroying angel would pass over their
home. The firstborn would be spared.
No place
on earth has apparently been spared from this present pandemic. But remember that as God’s New Testament Israel,
you are a set apart people … baptized, chosen, forgiven, holy, sanctified to
the Lord. Even in places where disease
strikes – whether our own community or our own homes – your status before God
will not be changed. Nor does it mean
that he has abandoned you in a time of crisis.
The blood of the Lamb of God has been shed for you. Jesus came to rescue you from your slavery to
sin and death and the devil’s grasp. And
he did so with his fingers. He reached
out and touched those who needed healing with his merciful grasp. He allowed his precious, holy hands with the
fingers of God upon them to be nailed to the cross for you and to bleed for you. And the fingers of God still reach out today
to touch you and hold you close.
The Lord has spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “Fear
not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen
you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).
And the Lord Jesus said, “I give them eternal
life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand”
(John 10:28).
INI
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