To Stink

Exodus 5:21 ESV

And they said to them, “The Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

There is no shortage of words describing those who would desire to hold to a fixed worldview. I say it this way simply because even atheists, like Richard Dawkins, are finding themselves on the outside of the cultural moment because they unwilling to curb their speech and belief to better align with the current cultural mood. To watch as the threat of “the right side of History” is leveled against all those not willing to bend the knee to Cesar. What can thinking Christians do in such a moment?

As Israel is preparing to leave the promised land such moments come upon the faithful. Moses and Aaron had delivered the good news of salvation only one chapter previous in Exodus 4:31. Now that it was plain that God would expect some sacrifice and work on their part before they would be freed everything changes. The people even called the Lord to judge Moses for his faithful action. You see the idea prevalent among them that work and effort now required of them, obviously mean that a wrong step had been taken. So, men who a few days earlier and been singing God’s praise and worshiping, now are forsaking his prophet.

Moses and Aaron suddenly found themselves on the outside of the cultural moment. They were the cause of hardship in the world of their family and friends. Moses and Aaron’s religious zeal had caused those in power to look less favorably on the Israelites. Judgements were being handed down by the government against them, truly excessive work was being required from them, and they had no answer but to follow Job’s friends and assume sin was in the heart of the one who had caused the trouble. In God’s mercy he was much more faithful than Israel and Moses did not turn from the path clearly laid before him by the living God who had spoken to him. Faithfulness to the leading of God would lead to more and more hard situations, walking in oceans, walking without water, living with no idea were your food comes from, the list of hardships is great, but greater still are his mercies and grace.

To the question at hand, what can thinking Christians do is such a moment? Remain, faithful. The threat of who writes history is just that, a hollow threat, Korah and his 250 leading men (Numbers 16) did not right the Pentateuch God did, through Moses. God writes the final history not those rebelling against him. Hardships come in great heaps in this world for those that are residents of another. The gentleman who works at the dump doesn’t want to smell like it. It is better to stink in the nostrils of this world then to share their odor. To have an accent and speech that simply doesn’t fit in and sounds funny or annoying, is the mark of another home. Thinking Christians are to rejoice that they are not home. This world and life is not their home and the light that shines in the darkness can not be overcome no matter how hard the darkness tries. No matter how often it is de-platformed, unfriended, or censored. The homes of the Israelites were literally taken from them that they might receive a better one in the Promised Land. Are we prepared to lose our homes and be thrust out that we might receive our new home, our inheritance, in the presence of the Living God?

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO