Chris's Musings

The newly freed Israelites, after having seen God's mighty works in Egypt in rescuing them from slavery and delivering them through the Red Sea... You would have thought that they would be full of worship, praise, and love for God who did this deliverance on their behalf. Well, they did, for a hot second (Exodus 15). Immediately after being delivered, they break out in song on the other side of the Red Sea and sing praises to God. But it's not soon after, that they start complaining. I mean, they complain (or "grumble") a lot. "And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” - Exodus 16:2-3 "Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us ...

Exodus 1:15-21 - Rebelling Biblically Today, in my morning Bible study, the conversation around "what happens when you can't comply with a law?" came up in the conversation. Included in this talk was Titus 3:1 which states: "Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work." This is 99.9% of the time what we are called to do. Romans 13 is also very clear that we are to submit to the authority of the government. However, as we have seen in history and in the Bible, there are cases where God's people are required to righteously rebel. Here are a few Biblical cases: 1. Peter stands before the Sanhedrin and after (again) preaching and teaching in the temple after being told the the authorities (these guys) to shut his pie hole, Peter responds, in a tribunal nonetheless "Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges!" - Acts 4:19 2. Daniel, upon hearing an edict ...

Genesis 42: Hidden Perspectives The sons of Israel find themselves in a predicament. They are standing in front of the Governor of the land of Egypt, starving, with money to buy grain, and getting harassed by this man. He questions their sincerity, demands that their brother Benjamin be sent down, puts them in prison for three days, and then holds their brother Simeon as collateral for them to come back. They say: "God is punishing us for what we did to our brother Joseph!" Reuben quips "I told you not to do what you did!" (Genesis 42:21-22) Meanwhile, the Governor, unbeknownst to them, is Joseph. They go back home to Canaan, less one of them, and find that the money they allocated for the grain purchase was still in their sack. They freak out. I'm sure they are thinking "OH NO! When he finds out, we are hosed!" What they didn't know was Joseph put the money back in the sacks. Jacob, upon hearing the news, is heartbroken and believes he...

  Devotional thoughts for today. "If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." - Romans 12:18 A little about my morning methodology. I typically choose a section of the Bible to meditate on during each year, and this year I'm reading through the "Torah" (or the first five books of the Bible, which are foundational not only to Jews but also to our Christian faith). Today, I was reading in Genesis 26. Genesis 26 mostly covers the life details of the life of Isaac. Isaac doesn't get much press, being sandwiched in between Abraham and Jacob in the Patriarch line, but he is significant nonetheless. More is written about what is done TO Isaac vs. what Isaac himself has done. However, Genesis 26 gives a glimpse into it. Perhaps the reason for the lack of press (if I can speculate) is that Isaac's life was pretty non-dramatic. Other than the circumstances of his birth, the fateful trip to Mount Moriah, and Jacob's act of deceptio...