All That Glitters Is Not Gold
Moses and the Burning Bush (Exodus 3:7-22)
7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you[b] will worship God on this mountain.”
13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.[c] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord,[d] the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.
16 “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
18 “The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.
21 “And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.”
Worthiness and Entitlement
But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you." - Exodus 3: 11-12
It's interesting to think about, that we feel like we don't deserve bad but at the same time we feel unworthy to receive good, I wonder if they are two sides of the same coin.
"If you work hard and are kind, amazing things will happen." I grew up with this quote, and was always taught that if I wanted something I just hard to work hard for it. And when I do work hard and things don't go my way, it almost feels like I've been betrayed. We feel this sense of entitlement, that we deserve to be repaid for our efforts.
I think the more accurate statement would be that if you work hard and are kind, amazing things could happen. If you don't work hard, amazing things could also happen. Some people are handed a golden ticket, some aren't. If you don't believe in a higher power, these things just appear to happen at random, like winning the lottery. We are all just one tiny part of a very big world, and this isn't a fair world.
If you on the other hand do believe in God, then who are you to think that you know better than Him in what your life should look like? Who are you to question the life He has designed for you? If you believe that He loves you, that he desires to embody a relationship with us, shouldn't you just trust in His plan for you and all of us?
Either way, I think it's time to let go of this sense of entitlement, to work hard and be kind, regardless of whether amazing things happen.
All that glitters is not gold
“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” - Exodus 3:5
If you've read some of my previous writings, you will know that I grew up in a Catholic church. I've always loved the grandness of a cathedral - if you've been to the Vatican or any big Catholic cathedral you will know what I mean. Actually I wonder if this feels different depending on what background you grew up in. Would it feel different to someone who's not religious?
When I walk into a cathedral, I feel this immense air of sanctity. It's so quiet and I almost feel the need to whisper. I also feel this fear because I am scared to doing something wrong, of not knowing about the rituals and the practices. There's this formality but also this sense of detachment, it feels so big and grand that it's completely out of my reach. Looking at the statues of Jesus on the cross, of Mother Mary holding baby Jesus, of all the Saints, the Holy Trinity feels like an entity I can marvel at and worship from afar, but not someone who's intimately involved.
Church these days for me is no longer a cathedral with hundreds of people, but a small room on the twelfth floor of an ordinary building with twenty or so people. But I walk into church now and I feel this warmth of the community, and in so many ways I feel God's presence and His love in a way that I haven't felt before. Maybe this is why people say that church is anywhere that God is present, that anywhere can be Holy ground.
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