All Things Work Together ...
Sermon
Object:
Perhaps one
of the harder lessons which Christians have to learn is that bad things happen
to everybody. Just because we are Christians doesn't mean that our lives are
always full of joy and delight and happiness. For Christians just as much as
for anyone else, awful things can occur apparently out of the blue and throw
our lives into turmoil.
But one of the differences for Christians is that our faith tells us that even when awful things happen, God still holds us in the palm of his hand and shelters us under the shadow of his wings. If we're able to cling on to that assurance, when the awful time has passed or is accepted, we can usually look back and see a pattern in the events that have occurred. And we can often see a pattern for good and a gentle nudging which pushes us in the direction which is best for us.
When we were buying a new home last year, the deal fell through on the eve of signing the contract. We were angry and frustrated and considerably out of pocket, and life felt awful. But a month or two later we came across another property which seemed exactly right for us. Six months after we'd bought the new property, we discovered just how exactly right it was because our circumstances dramatically changed and my aging and frail mother moved in with us. The new property was perfect for just that circumstance.
When Moses first approached the Pharaoh and requested permission to lead the Hebrew slaves to a new and better life in another land, everything went wrong both for Moses and for the people. The Pharaoh's response was to make their life of suffering even worse for the people. Their daily, degrading, hard labour was doubled and the Egyptian overseers were viciously cruel.
God's response of sending plagues on Egypt undoubtedly affected the Hebrews just as it affected the Egyptians, apart from the final plague when the Angel of Death passed over all the Hebrew dwellings which had blood smeared on the lintels. So during the softening up period when God was working to change the Pharaoh's mind, the awfulness and suffering of Hebrew life must have been immense.
In today's story, just when the Hebrews are finally escaping, the Pharaoh has been cowed at last and the promise of an amazing new life really is on the horizon, everything collapses once again. The Pharaoh sends his army after the fleeing slaves, who find themselves in the worst possible spot backed up against the sea.
But the Hebrews know that God is with them throughout their ordeal, because God leads them by a pillar of cloud which is clearly visible. And when they camp by the sea, God moves the pillar of cloud between the Egyptian army and the Hebrews, preventing the Egyptians from attacking during the night when God's people were most vulnerable.
Nobody could have guessed what would happen next, for God produced a new way forward which no human being could have considered. With a mighty wind, God drove the sea back so that the Israelites could cross over to the other side on dry land. But when the Egyptian army made to follow them, the sea returned and the marauding Egyptians were drowned.
There have been a number of explanations for this miraculous event. It is widely believed today that the "sea" referred to was not the Red Sea as we know it today, for that would have taken the Hebrews many miles from their most obvious and straightforward route. Instead it may have been the Sea of Reeds, a lake in Northeast Egypt, for the traditional references to the Red Sea are thought by some scholars to be wrong.
That may be the correct scientific explanation, but it denudes the story of its colour and makes the story fall completely flat! And the 2002 BBC documentary, "Moses", does offer an alternative explanation which allows us to keep all the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea intact.
The documentary suggest that all these events might have been linked, and that the parting of the Red Sea was caused by a tsunami. There was a huge volcanic eruption on the Greek island of Santorini in the 16th century BCE and both the parting of the Red Sea and the ten plagues of Egypt could have been triggered by the eruption, which would have been a thousand times more powerful than a nuclear bomb.
Computer simulations by Mike Rampino, a climate modeller from New York University, show that the resulting ash cloud could have plunged the area into darkness, as well as generating lightning and hail, two of the ten plagues.
The cloud could have also reduced the rainfall, causing a drought. If the Nile had then been poisoned by the effects of the eruption, pollution could have turned it red, as happened in an environmental disaster in America. And the same pollution could have driven millions of frogs on to the land, the second plague. On land the frogs would die, removing the only obstacle to an explosion of flies and lice - the third and fourth plagues. The flies could have transmitted fatal diseases to cattle (the fifth plague) and boils and blisters to humans (the sixth plague).
The parting of the Red Sea, which allowed Moses to lead the Hebrews to safety while the pursuing Egyptian army was drowned, may have its origins in the eruption. Computer simulations show that the Santorini eruption could have triggered a 600ft-high tidal wave, travelling at about 400 miles an hour, which would have been 6ft high and a hundred miles long when it reached the Egyptian delta.
Such an event would have been remembered for generations, and may have provided the inspiration for the story as we know it.
With God, all things are possible. God holds us and supports us at all times, even when it seems as though God has long since deserted us because our lives are so awful. When our backs are to the wall and there is apparently no way forward out of our difficulty, God finds a new way, even if it means parting the waters for us.
God saved his people way back in the time of Moses, God saved all human beings through Jesus Christ, and God continues to save us today. So if you need saving from some disastrous event or pain in your life, rely on God. Hold fast to your faith and know that God finds new ways that we could never imagine and that God always holds us in the palm of his hand.
But one of the differences for Christians is that our faith tells us that even when awful things happen, God still holds us in the palm of his hand and shelters us under the shadow of his wings. If we're able to cling on to that assurance, when the awful time has passed or is accepted, we can usually look back and see a pattern in the events that have occurred. And we can often see a pattern for good and a gentle nudging which pushes us in the direction which is best for us.
When we were buying a new home last year, the deal fell through on the eve of signing the contract. We were angry and frustrated and considerably out of pocket, and life felt awful. But a month or two later we came across another property which seemed exactly right for us. Six months after we'd bought the new property, we discovered just how exactly right it was because our circumstances dramatically changed and my aging and frail mother moved in with us. The new property was perfect for just that circumstance.
When Moses first approached the Pharaoh and requested permission to lead the Hebrew slaves to a new and better life in another land, everything went wrong both for Moses and for the people. The Pharaoh's response was to make their life of suffering even worse for the people. Their daily, degrading, hard labour was doubled and the Egyptian overseers were viciously cruel.
God's response of sending plagues on Egypt undoubtedly affected the Hebrews just as it affected the Egyptians, apart from the final plague when the Angel of Death passed over all the Hebrew dwellings which had blood smeared on the lintels. So during the softening up period when God was working to change the Pharaoh's mind, the awfulness and suffering of Hebrew life must have been immense.
In today's story, just when the Hebrews are finally escaping, the Pharaoh has been cowed at last and the promise of an amazing new life really is on the horizon, everything collapses once again. The Pharaoh sends his army after the fleeing slaves, who find themselves in the worst possible spot backed up against the sea.
But the Hebrews know that God is with them throughout their ordeal, because God leads them by a pillar of cloud which is clearly visible. And when they camp by the sea, God moves the pillar of cloud between the Egyptian army and the Hebrews, preventing the Egyptians from attacking during the night when God's people were most vulnerable.
Nobody could have guessed what would happen next, for God produced a new way forward which no human being could have considered. With a mighty wind, God drove the sea back so that the Israelites could cross over to the other side on dry land. But when the Egyptian army made to follow them, the sea returned and the marauding Egyptians were drowned.
There have been a number of explanations for this miraculous event. It is widely believed today that the "sea" referred to was not the Red Sea as we know it today, for that would have taken the Hebrews many miles from their most obvious and straightforward route. Instead it may have been the Sea of Reeds, a lake in Northeast Egypt, for the traditional references to the Red Sea are thought by some scholars to be wrong.
That may be the correct scientific explanation, but it denudes the story of its colour and makes the story fall completely flat! And the 2002 BBC documentary, "Moses", does offer an alternative explanation which allows us to keep all the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea intact.
The documentary suggest that all these events might have been linked, and that the parting of the Red Sea was caused by a tsunami. There was a huge volcanic eruption on the Greek island of Santorini in the 16th century BCE and both the parting of the Red Sea and the ten plagues of Egypt could have been triggered by the eruption, which would have been a thousand times more powerful than a nuclear bomb.
Computer simulations by Mike Rampino, a climate modeller from New York University, show that the resulting ash cloud could have plunged the area into darkness, as well as generating lightning and hail, two of the ten plagues.
The cloud could have also reduced the rainfall, causing a drought. If the Nile had then been poisoned by the effects of the eruption, pollution could have turned it red, as happened in an environmental disaster in America. And the same pollution could have driven millions of frogs on to the land, the second plague. On land the frogs would die, removing the only obstacle to an explosion of flies and lice - the third and fourth plagues. The flies could have transmitted fatal diseases to cattle (the fifth plague) and boils and blisters to humans (the sixth plague).
The parting of the Red Sea, which allowed Moses to lead the Hebrews to safety while the pursuing Egyptian army was drowned, may have its origins in the eruption. Computer simulations show that the Santorini eruption could have triggered a 600ft-high tidal wave, travelling at about 400 miles an hour, which would have been 6ft high and a hundred miles long when it reached the Egyptian delta.
Such an event would have been remembered for generations, and may have provided the inspiration for the story as we know it.
With God, all things are possible. God holds us and supports us at all times, even when it seems as though God has long since deserted us because our lives are so awful. When our backs are to the wall and there is apparently no way forward out of our difficulty, God finds a new way, even if it means parting the waters for us.
God saved his people way back in the time of Moses, God saved all human beings through Jesus Christ, and God continues to save us today. So if you need saving from some disastrous event or pain in your life, rely on God. Hold fast to your faith and know that God finds new ways that we could never imagine and that God always holds us in the palm of his hand.
