Faith: The Exodus

I have been studying Exodus recently in my quiet times with God – and wow, what a book this is.  It is not just about the parting of the red sea, or of a burning bush or whatever else we learned about the book as kids.

Exodus is a story of economic migrants, who are initially welcomes into Egypt, but as they prosper, people start to resent and fear them and oppressive measures are imposed.  The fear that the Egyptians have of the Israelites is that they will grow and outnumber them and change their way of life.

“Then a new king came into power over Egypt. He did not know Joseph.  He said to his people, “See, the people of Israel are too many and too powerful for us.  Come, let us be wise in how we act towards them, or they will become more in number. If there is a war, they might join with those who hate us. They might fight against us and then leave the land.”   Exodus 1 v 8-10

This makes me think of what is actually happening in our world today. People are fearful of immigrants/migrants coming into their countries – be in America or the United Kingdom – and am sure other countries may be fearful of the same happening with them.

This fear has been the same throughout history – just look at Hitler in his attempt to eradicate Jews from Germany et al.  This was driven by jealously of the Jewish race and fear that they would do better than the Aryan Germans who he believed were the true and rightful residents of the country he loved.  And what came out of this fear and jealousy – oppression.

In June people in the UK voted to leave the European Union and after speaking to people, watching the news etc. it sounds like many who voted to leave did so out of fear – fear to the migrants/ immigrants and refugees coming into the UK and fear that they would steal their homes and jobs. 

However after the decision was made to ‘Brexit’ instead of ‘Remain’ many people are now fearful about what will happened in terms of ‘Brexit’ and how we will survive.  Questions are being raised about many issues throughout the four countries of the UK – Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England.  Questions like, will there be physical borders put into place between Northern and Southern Ireland? or will ‘Brexit’ affect trade with different countries? And what will happen to all the European players in the English football premier league, will they have to leave?  So many questions, so many fears.

BUT looking back at Exodus we can take hope – God was with them and He knew what He was doing – He thwarts all of Pharaoh’s plans to eradicate the threat posed by ‘the foreigners in his land’.

“So they put men in power over them to make them work hard. And they built the store-cities Pithom and Raamses for Pharaoh the king.  But the more the Egyptians made them suffer, the more they became until they spread throughout the land. So the Egyptians were afraid of the people of Israel.  The Egyptians made the people of Israel work very hard.  They made their lives bitter with hard work building with stones and with all kinds of work in the field. They made them work very hard.  Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew nurses. The name of one was Shiphrah. The name of the other was Puah.  He said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth, and see the baby before the mother does, if it is a son, kill him. But if it is a daughter, let her live.”  But the nurses feared God. They did not do what the king of Egypt told them. They let the boys live.  So the king of Egypt called the nurses and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the boys live?”  The nurses answered Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. They are strong. They give birth before the nurse comes to them.” So God was good to the nurses. And the people became many and strong. Because the nurses feared God, He gave them families.  Then Pharaoh told all his people, “Throw every son who is born to the Hebrews into the Nile. But keep every daughter alive.”  - Exodus 1 v 11-22

God’s hand is in everything and despite the Israelite's being in Egypt, despite them being oppressed and despite being threatened, God’s people prosper because of the promised God made to Abraham in Genesis chapters 12, 15 & 17 – the promise to bless all nation, by fulfilling all his purpose through the family of Abraham.

And the man whom God had chosen to help the Israelite's leave Egypt and flee the oppression of Pharaoh was called Moses who was a descendant of Abraham:

Abraham’s son Isaac had two sons Esau and Jacob. Jacob had twelves sons (who became the twelve tribes of Israel), one of whom was called Levi (the Levites were the ones who became the priests). Levi had three sons, one of whom was called Kohath who in turn had four sons, one of whom was Amram who was the father to Moses and Aaron. 

So the whole connection is:

Abraham -> Isaac -> Jacob -> Levi -> Kohath -> Amram -> Moses.

Exodus Chapter 2 tells the story of Moses birth to how he became exiled from Egypt by Pharaoh for killing an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew (despite being brought up Pharaoh’s daughter in the Egypt court, Moses was a Hebrew because he was born to a Hebrew family).

“Now a man of the family of Levi married a daughter of Levi. She was going to have a baby, and she gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months.  But the time came when she could hide him no longer. So she took a basket made from grass, and covered it with tar and put the child in it. And she set it in the grass by the side of the Nile. His sister stayed to watch and find out what would happen to him.

Then the daughter of Pharaoh came to wash herself in the Nile. Her young women walked beside the Nile. She saw the basket in the tall grass and sent the woman who served her to get it. She opened it and saw the child. The boy was crying. She had pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”  Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and call a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?”  Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me. And I will pay you.” So the woman took the child and nursed him.  The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter. And he became her son. She gave him the name Moses, saying, “Because I took him out of the water.” 

One day after Moses had grown up, he went out to his brothers and saw how hard they worked. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people, so he looked this way and that way. He did not see anyone, so he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.  The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He said to the man who did the wrong, “Why are you hitting your neighbour?”  But the man said, “Who made you a ruler and a judge among us? Do you plan to kill me like you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid. He thought, “For sure the thing I have done is known.”

 When Pharaoh heard what had happened, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses ran away from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian.  (Exodus 2 vs 1-15)

Exodus 3 tells the story of how God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and spoke to him saying

"Now come, and I will send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3 v 10)

Through Moses, God was planning to bring the Israelite's out of slavery and oppression, and through this he was fulfilling his promise he made to Abraham.  So in the face of our future, and what may or may not happen, we need to find confidence that however bleak the setting, God is at work in our lives – he has a bigger picture and we only get to see his plans come to fruition in bite size bits. 

The fear, the worries and the oppression is part of Satan’s on-going rebellion against God’s people so that he might defeat God’s promise of setting his people free and delivering them from oppression. But the good thing is that God is never thwarted by Satan because God is Sovereign and this has been proven throughout history.

We need to have confidence and faith in God and trust Him. God has promised to fill the earth with the glory of Christ.  Christ has promised to build His church.  God is still on the throne, and He is the one we should fear and no one else.

Faith: You are Chosen

There are times in my life and I am sure in your lives too that we feel overlook by others:

• We didn’t get the job we interviewed for
• The boy we liked didn’t see us in the same way we liked him
• In school we were last to be picked for football / netball teams
• We didn’t get to be prefect in our final year at school
• We didn’t get accepted to the University of our Choice
• We didn’t get invited to a party that everyone else you knew was going to
• Someone you thought of as a friend declined your Facebook invite

It can be very difficult to be overlooked and feel rejected.  But it happens to everyone at sometimes in our lives.

In the Old Testament David was overlooked by his father Jesse, when Samuel was looking for someone to be the new king, because he was the youngest son, not as strong as his older brothers and he was only a shepherd boy.  However God told Samuel David was the one he had chosen to be King after Saul because he saw something in him that no one else saw  (1 Samuel 16) - God looks at the inside and the state of our hearts whereas man only judges on the outside.  

David was overlooked by others but handpicked by God. And it is the same as us, we may feel overlooked by others but we were hand-picked by God – God chose us, He organised for us to be here on earth.  As John 15 v 16a says “You did not choose me, but I choose you and appointed you”.

So the next time you don’t get the job you really wanted, or someone walks past you and ignores you, or the boy you liked said no – or whatever it is you didn’t get picked / chosen for – remember it doesn’t really matter as you were chosen to be here by God – he organised for you to be here.  You were chosen and you are wanted by God. 

Life: Friendship

Friends are good to have, they make us laugh, and they cry with us, they rejoice with you.   Friends are there for you.  Although friendship is a great gift in life, the road to friendship is not always smooth – relationships are good but they need work, they need to be nurtured.

As a child we have many friends - some of these are real and some are imaginary – but almost everybody is our friends, except maybe for the annoying boy in class who always disrupts everything.  As a child I had friends at school, at church and on my street.  My friendship circles as a child overlapped as some friends I saw in all three places.  I even had a best friend, someone who and known me all her life but I only met her when I was six months old – her name was Helen and she was two months older than me but only met me when I was adopted into my family. Helen went to my church, and my school and she lived across the carriageway from me so most Saturdays were spent at each other’s houses.

Helen is still my friend though I have not seen her for years, but she is the type of friend that If I saw have, it would not be awkward, it would be like we had seen each other every day – the friendship would pick up right where we left it. I like friendships like that.

We didn’t stop being friends, we never fell out, the friendship is still there but due to my Dad’s job I had to leave Belfast and all my friends there and move to Bangor to a new school, a new street (which was more like a road, and had no houses either side of me!) and a new church.  I was 11 and I had to make new friends.

We feel that we need many friends around us, we want everyone to like us, but in reality that cannot happen – as people are people, we are imperfect and personalities clash. As children this isn’t really the case as we all seem to like each other, but as teenagers, wow does this change.

In my teenage years I struggled with making friends, it was hard – not sure why, maybe it was just the person I was, but school was hard – I did have friends but one day you are friends and the next day you are fighting. It was hard.  I had friends at church as well, but also felt I was the intruder as they all grew up together. But there was one friend, her name was Michelle - she was my best friend at school and at church – yes we fought but we were still friends after that.  We are still friends today though we live in different cities – but again if I bumped into Michelle in the street it would pick up where we left off.   I see her on Facebook so still feel I am part of her life, as she will always be in mine.

With Helen and Michelle, the friendship stays even though we have moved on and gone different ways.  That’s what I call true friendship – when you can go for ages without seeing someone but when you do see them you pick up where you left off.

We have friends for life, friends for a season and friends for a reason.

After school I left Northern Ireland and went to England for University – again a new place and having to make new friends again.  I had left my friends at home and it was hard. I made friends at university through the Christian Union, but it was hard for me to make friends in my classes – I spoke to people but friendships were never forged, but I did have good friends to do like with at university – but again after we finished our degrees we all moved away from Sunderland and went our separate ways. But with the aid of Facebook some of us still keep in touch.  These friends I never see but I believe that some were friends for a season while with others if I met up with them now, it would not be awkward – it would feel natural again as we have a common bond.  

We were there for each other at university, when a school friend of mine died suddenly at home, aged 21, my friends rallied around me and supported me through my grief. That is love and friendship.   With those friends I truly believe that it was orchestrated by God that we would meet each other and do University life together.

After University, I left Sunderland and moved to London – during this time I lived in three houses in three different parts of London, I attended two different churches and was employed in five different jobs as well as doing my Masters at university. Again I had to make new friends in a new place – and several times forge new relationships with colleagues etc.

Friendship as an adult is different from those as a child, a teenager and at university – as adults we have different priorities – friendships start but then sometimes instead of growing and flourishing, they stop dead.

Friends are good but sometimes friendships can be bad as you can live in each other’s pockets and suck the life out of each other. I had a friend like this in London and it wasn’t good, it was unhealthy.

As I said before, in my eight years in London I lived in three different houses, and within these houses I managed to do life with sixteen different people who all reigned from seven different countries – England, Singapore, Hungary, Germany, Japan, USA and Slovakia. From them I learned about different cultures. Friendship can educate us.

I had friends in my churches and again these were with people from different countries – England, Northern Ireland, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Hungary, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia, Bolivia, France and Egypt.

I made friends in London that are still friends today even though I left London four years ago and now live back in Northern Ireland. I don’t see these friends often but again when we do the friendship comes alive again and we pick up where we left off.  These friends have moved on as well with some still remaining in London but one has moved to South of England while one is back in Northern Ireland but in a different city than me, so don’t see her very often.

Life moves on as we move on but friendships can continue – I pray for my friends, we email, we Facebook each other, we text each other and talk on the phone.

After eight years in London I decided to go and live for a year in Peru and this year saw me making more friends – more international friends.  Friends I may never see again but friends who made a year away from home special and friends who I will always love and will always be in my heart.

Don’t get me wrong, I love all my friends and they will all be in my heart always, but the Peruvians were there for me when I was away from my family – they were my family in a foreign land – they put up with me not being able to speak their language every well. I laughed with my friends, laughed at them laughing at me and my language blunders and cried with some of them when their father died. 

There is one person who I met in Peru who has a special place in my heart and that is my friend Alejandro who has Down’s syndrome and is one of the best friends I have had even though he was unable to talk to me, but we clicked.

I didn’t just have Peruvian friends in Peru, I made friends with the Cuban pastor and his family as well as making friends with fellow missionary Cecily who was from Scotland. I love having international friends.

When I left Peru after a year there, around 20 people came to the airport to see me go – either they were sad to see me leave or they wanted to make sure I left.  

Moving back to Northern Ireland to a different town from the one I left 13 years previously I was at the point again where I had to remake my life – finding a job, finding a church and making new friends.  As I have said before making friends in adult life in harder than in childhood.

I have been home three years and I have friends – those who kick me in the butt when I need it, who pick me up when I am down, who pray for me, who get me out of pity parties and who are there for me as I am for them. 

We are called in life to live in community, and especially so as a Christian.  We are made to be in relationships and not do life alone – doing life alone is very lonely and hard.  We need to be there for all of our friends, for those we do life with on a regular basis as well as those we may not see all the times and we need to reach out, pray for and me there for our friends when they fall apart.

I once thought I had to have loads of friends but now I realise it is not about how many friends you have, it is about who has got your back and catches you when you fall ad vice versa.

I have friends who come into my house and treat it like it is their own - they make themselves tea, take over the kitchen, move tables, etc etc. This is good as means they feel at home.

I have friends who have seen me in my PJ's and who have seen me cry and in my sickbed. They have seen me at my worst yet they are still around.

That to me is friendship - when you feel comfortable around people and can just go round to their, kick off your shoes, put you feet up or even lie down on the couch and watch TV which some friends have done. Friendship is good.