Tangible Darkness

For the week of February 1, 2025 / 3 Shevat 5785

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Bo
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 10:1 – 13:16
Haftarah: Jeremiah 46:13-28

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.” So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived. (Shemot/Exodus 10:21-23)

People like to explain away the unusual happenings in the Bible. Some of these happenings are easier to explain as natural occurrences than others. Among the ten plagues, take the locust infestation, for example. While such infestations happen, it was the timing that was unusual. On the other hand, the fly infestation was a little more unusual as it only affected the Egyptians, though I imagine natural causes can be involved when one community doesn’t attract flies. The darkness, however, is another story. How could Egypt be thrown into such utter darkness to the extent that the people couldn’t see each other while the people of Israel had light?

I wish we knew more about the nature of this darkness. From the Torah’s description, it sounds as if it was at ground level, something like a dust storm or dense fog. It’s probably better that we don’t know its exact nature because that would distract us from an important life lesson, which is when the leaders of a community resist the clear directives of God, the result is a penetrating darkness that encompasses all of society. When leaders insist on doing their own thing in their own way for their own benefit, their people begin to behave like a crowd of blind people trying to escape a burning building.

When a community is built on lies, everything it produces is tainted and destructive. And because of the all-encompassing darkness, the permeating negatives can’t be identified, resulting in further harm. It’s not until light is restored that our misguided ways can be seen for what they are. Tragically, the longer we live in darkness, the more resistant we become to the light.

Israel’s having light while Egypt was thrown into darkness reminds us that those who truly know the God of Israel needn’t be affected by the pervading darkness. And yet, the nature of the darkness can be intimidating. Out of concern for those groping in the dark, we may tone down the brightness of God’s light to avoid harsh reactions. More and more, our communities’ ideals distract people from life’s realities, encouraging them to treat their fantasies as if they are real. We point out a weakness in someone’s life philosophy, and they get angry at us. Instead of thanking us for illuminating their issues, they blame us for making them uncomfortable. So, instead of turning up the light, we tone it down to preserve our relationships. But can a valid, meaningful relationship exist in the dark?

Remember, the Messiah said,

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:14-16).

Unlike the Israelites in Egypt, whom God protected as part of his process of rescuing them, we haven’t been called to simply sit in our lighted rooms. Instead, we have been called to head out into the dark as light bearers. It’s time to dispel the darkness.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

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Rejection Fear

For the week of January 25, 2025 / 25 Tevet 5785

Message information over an photo of a man showing fearful hesitation

Va-era
Torah: Shemot / Exodus 6:2 – 9:35
Haftarah: Ezekiel 28:25 – 29:21
Originally posted the week of December 28, 2013 / 25 Tevet 5774 (revised)

You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. (Shemot / Exodus 7:2-4)

When we study the Bible, we should not let our knowing how the stories end get in the way of our learning the lessons God wants to teach us. Knowing how stories end provides an overall perspective and encourages us to face similar challenges. At the same time, we need to remember that the characters in these stories didn’t know how things would turn out, just as we can’t see how our circumstances will unfold. To learn how to navigate life effectively, we should pay close attention to how Bible characters navigated theirs.

In the case of Moses, we know how things turned out. The people of Israel left Egypt after years of harsh servitude due to the signs and wonders God performed at Moses’ hand. But this didn’t happen in a moment. Pharaoh was far from accommodating. It took much arm twisting, so to speak, on God’s part to secure the release of his people. Have you ever thought about what this must have been like from Moses’ perspective?

Moses’ primary role was that of a messenger. He was to tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, that the God of the Israelites demanded their release. As long as he could secure an audience with the king, his task was straightforward: deliver a message—except for one thing. God made it clear from the beginning that Pharaoh wouldn’t listen. This is where we have to stop for a second and not jump to the end of the story. Moses knew before performing his assigned task that he would get a negative response, yet he did it anyway. But didn’t God encourage him by informing him it would all work out in the end? Yes, but let’s be honest. How many of us would be sufficiently motivated by that kind of information? It apparently worked for Moses because the inevitable negativity didn’t stop him. And that’s the point. Even though Moses knew how Pharaoh would respond, he confronted him anyway, just as God directed.

One way to respond to this is to think, “Better Moses than me!” This is what we may call “the viewing-of Bible-characters-as-heroes” approach. We read the exploits of these men and women and are wowed by their seemingly super-human abilities. We cheer their exploits and perhaps take comfort in our being on the same team as them. But this completely misses the point! These people are to be our examples. While we are not all given the same tasks or scopes of influence, people like Moses demonstrate to us what it is like when the reality of God works in and through human beings. Through the Bible, God wants to teach us what it means to know and follow him.

One of the challenges I face—I know I am not alone in this—is the fear of negative reactions. Many years ago, soon after my wife and I were married, just before our senior year in college, I got a summer job selling (or tried to sell) encyclopedias door-to-door in Toronto. I lasted two weeks. I actually sold a set my last door! During those two weeks, I struggled so much with both the anticipation and experience of rejection. What made it all the more difficult was my observing how the successful salespeople didn’t let the reactions of potential customers get to them. Temperament aside, it appears that they really believed (and rightly so!) that if they didn’t get overwhelmed by rejection, potential rejection, I should say, and keep to their task, they would be successful. For some reason, I couldn’t fully grasp that and quit.

Whether or not I did the right thing by quitting, I mention this as an illustration of how crippling the fear of rejection can be. Becoming successful at selling encyclopedias was not a priority to me at the time, and I eventually landed a far more suitable job, not to mention that God met all our needs. Still, I guess like most people, I have faced the challenge of negative reactions many times since then. I share this here, wondering how many of you are debilitated by this same fear.

It’s wonderful when God tells us that things will work out in the end, but sometimes, he doesn’t. We don’t know how much of a difference this made for Moses. All we know is that he did what God told him to do despite anticipating rejection. Rejection can be a scary thing, but does it need to get in our way?

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

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Your Story

For the week of January 18, 2025 / 18 Tevet 5785

Shemot
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 1:1 – 6:1
Haftarah: Isaiah 27:6 – 28:13; 29:22-23

Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves. (Shemot/Exodus 1:8-14)

I remember years ago, reading John Eldredge’s book, Epic, in which he suggested that our love for story is due to our being in a story –  God’s story. I have thought a lot about that since then, and I couldn’t agree more. Over the years, I have grown in my understanding that Scripture is given to us within a framework of a grand, complex story. Despite being a collection of a wide variety of writings written by multiple authors over a period of centuries, an epic tale unfolds within its pages. I became convinced that the better we grasp the big picture of the Bible’s story, the better we’ll understand its details and find our place in God’s plan. You may be aware that I have a seminar where I unpack this. Please contact me, if you are interested.

More recently, I realized that not only is Scripture revealed within a storied framework, but so is life itself. Our existence as participants in God’s creation is a storied one. Contrary to popular philosophies, we are not random particles meaninglessly bouncing off each other, but human beings made in God’s image on purpose and for a purpose, each one of us, in some way, contributing to God’s epic.

One of the things I love about life is when unusual so-called coincidences happen. You know what I mean, I am sure. It’s being far from home and surprisingly bumping into an old friend. It’s sitting next to a stranger on an airplane and you or they or both have a life-altering experience as a result. It’s going to a friend’s house to say goodbye to their out-of-town cousin, not knowing I was going to meet God that day (this is a key component of my own story. If you don’t know it, check it out here). Moments like these remind us that there is more going on than mere happenstance. Of course, not all such occurrences are positive, but whatever is going on, it’s still a story.

While I love getting a peek into my life’s story, most of the time, it doesn’t look like there’s much of a story going on at all. This week’s parsha (weekly Torah reading portion) helps me with that.

The book of Bereshit (Genesis) closes with Israel finding safety and provision in Egypt due to the strange and difficult circumstances surrounding Joseph and his brothers. What a story that was! Israel prospers in Egypt. But at some point, the Egyptian rulership changes and begins to oppress the Israelites. Eventually, with God’s call of Moses, great drama will return with the ten plagues, the Passover, the Red Sea, and so on. But until then, I wouldn’t blame the Israelites for losing sight of the divine saga they were part of. The reader gets to see what was happening behind the scenes with the birth of Moses, which should encourage us that God is working even when we are unaware of it.

Now, Israel’s suffering as slaves didn’t make them any less part of a story, let alone God’s story, but as they endured their painful existence day by day, I wouldn’t blame them for not being aware of it. Many Israelites were born slaves and died slaves. Not too much plot development there. Our own circumstances may not be as dire as that, but much of the time, our daily lives don’t feel like much of a story, let alone an epic one. But it is.

Knowing we are part of God’s epic story doesn’t make every moment of our lives exciting and meaningful. But knowing we are part of something way bigger than ourselves and our immediate circumstances helps us gain perspective. In fact, the supposedly futile aspects of our lives may not be as futile as we think. You never know when the Author’s next plot twist is about to happen.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

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