Preached 2/28/10

Second Sunday in Lent / Exodus #5

Preached by Dr. Paul R. Smith

West Side Presbyterian Church

Contact: office@wspc.org

GOD’S OWN TIME

The Road to Redemption

[Exodus 4:18 - 6:12]

Introduction to the Scriptures: I’m not going to read the text all at once right now. We’ll read it as we go. It is a continuing story and we will read a fair share of this text from chapter 4 through chapter 5 into chapter 6. But this is all one portion of the unfolding story which I have titled, “God’s Own Time.” It is the story of the road to redemption on which God’s people now find themselves, at least preparing to launch out on that road. We’ll be beginning in verse 18 momentarily, but let me just ask God for His power unleashed as we look at His word and reflect on it together.

Prayer for Illumination – Gracious God, as we look into your word, as we listen to this story, may we recognize its truth, its authenticity. May we recognize its power. More importantly, may we experience its power as the same God who moved Moses, the same God who moved your people, now moves us, to launch out on that road to redemption with you at our side. We pray it in Christ’s name, AMEN.

Message

If your experience of life is like mine, there are days when we just wish God would step in and get it done. We know His promises, things keep going wrong and we say, God, Why don’t you just step in and take care of all this? What we must remember is that one day He will. Will you be ready? Ah, that is another question, isn’t it?

It has been centuries since God had made some remarkable promises to His people – or more precisely, to their forebears. By any measure we might use today, God’s people might be forgiven for coming to the conclusion that either God had forgotten, or their ancestors had mis-understood the promise. Nothing had been happening, it seemed to them, for centuries. We, today, are at enormous risk because we have lost all discipline, which is essentially the ability to delay gratification. We are not good at that. We want everything, and we want it right now. We don’t have the time or the patience to wait weeks, let alone centuries or even millennia for God to keep His remarkable promises – though we do know that for God one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Don’t you wish God kept time the way we keep time instead?

But this is the God Who Is, as we have learned, and He does what He does whenever and however He wants to do it – without, unfortunately, consulting you or me. His promises are indeed remarkable. His promises are, in fact, astounding! But they are for those who learn to trust Him to act in His own time and in His own way.

Now of course the reality is that God is not simply sitting around silent and uninvolved in our lives for centuries on end. Those who learn to trust Him begin to see Him active in their lives in remarkable ways moment by moment, as we have seen Him at work in the life of Moses even when Moses didn’t see it, as well as in the lives of His slave-children. In our introductory message we saw Him caring for them over the centuries though they did not know it. But trust involves letting God be God, and that means letting Him do things in His own time.

As we have begun to look closely at the book of Exodus, however, we have seen a significant flurry of activity. God has revealed that the time anticipated for centuries was about to commence. His mighty act of deliverance is about to begin, and you and I have ringside seats!

There is a beautiful phrase in the New Testament, in the book of Galatians, which describes the coming of the Messiah. It is the phrase, “in the fullness of time.” I love that phrase. “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive adoption as sons.” [Galatians 4:4,5] In the fullness of time He is going to end our slavery and adopt us as His children. If you look closely at all the circumstances which surrounded the birth, life, and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, you come increasingly to realize that it was indeed “the fullness of time.” Everything – the time and place in history, the condition of society at that very moment, the opening of new doors and windows on the world, a common language, the pax Romana, the Roman road system – everything was perfectly aligned for the accomplishment of God’s perfect purposes, anticipated for centuries, even for millennia by God’s people.

And in our story from Exodus, that moment has also arrived! His people are ready, the conditions in the world are ready, He has called and equipped and (as we saw last week) finally convinced His key servant. The fullness of time had come. Chapter 4, verse 18:

Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, [I think there is an element of resignation here – you remember the conversation last week. He says] “Let me go back to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.” Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.” Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead.” [Remember he was in trouble with the law there.] So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And [as God had reminded him – the last thing he had said] he took the staff of God in his hand.

[Exodus 4:18-20]

Convinced that God is not going to leave him alone – if not yet convinced that God has fully equipped him for the job – Moses drives his flocks back home to Jethro and asks permission of his father-in-law to return to Egypt. God’s instructions in verse 19, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead,” has a surprising and significant echo in the New Testament in Matthew 2:20 (did you notice that?) as God is preparing another deliverer. He tells his father: “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead.” God has prepared the way. God’s timing is best. The time has fully come.

So the “Road to Redemption” begins with a simple, inauspicious peasant family, riding on a donkey, traversing a lonely desert road on the way to change the world! Let that image jog quietly across your field of vision, an image you usually have at Christmastime – the Holy Family, after Herod’s death, wending their way back home, and Moses’ family, after the Pharaoh’s death, wending their way back to the place of Moses’ birth.

Then look more closely! In Moses’ hand is a simple shepherd’s staff, an appropriate implement. We see it in our “Incarnation window,” the children sang about the Good Shepherd – “The Lord is my Shepherd.” It was a simple shepherd’s staff, but it represents the power of the Lord of the Universe! And, 1400 years later, in Mary’s arms is the Lord of the Universe Himself! Things are not always what they seem; things are not always what they appear to be. It’s a theme that returns again and again in the Scriptures. It is Gideon with a tiny band of terrified warriors armed with clay pitchers, torches, and trumpets to meet the mightiest army in the territory. We know how that’s going to come out, don’t we? It is the shepherd boy, David, in his tunic, carrying a sling shot to meet the giant Goliath on the field of battle. But if we can see what is really happening here as he walked onto that field of battle in the valley Elah, with him, stride-for-stride, walks the mighty Spirit of God! It is a scattered and disheartened band of disciples, hiding behind barricaded doors, suddenly finding themselves in the presence of their Risen Lord! Things are not always as they seem. One thing appears, but who is accompanying this inauspicious group?

Verse 21: “The LORD said to Moses, ‘When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do.’” That is what that staff is all about. “‘But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.’”

Remember the Hebrew word “wonders” from our last week’s study. It is a word that speaks of extraordinary power directing natural and quite ordinary forces. We are going to learn more about this a little further on in the story. But keep this in mind because it is how God works and they knew that.

But I want to pause for a moment on the second half of this verse. God says, “But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.” I have heard that phrase quoted, perhaps as much as, or even more than any other phrase in scripture, quoted rather critically or at least with very genuine questions. It appears to raise for us a moral dilemma. It seems entirely unfair for God to harden the pharaoh’s heart and then hold him accountable for it. I mean, did he really have a choice? But one thing I have learned in a lifetime of studying the Bible is that the most difficult passages normally harbor the most profound truths. And that, once again, is true here.

What is important for us to see here is that when we compare this sentence about God hardening Pharaoh’s heart with descriptions of the same event in later chapters, we find that the Bible describes this event three different ways in this same story without any sense of internal contradiction. Sometimes, like here, it says that God hardens Pharaoh’s heart. Sometimes it says that Pharaoh hardens his own heart. And sometimes it just says that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened – a simple statement of fact that singles out no particular cause.

Now it is quite clear that the pharaoh is stubborn and hard headed, and that he was that way long before Moses came on the scene. Is God responsible for this? Even the apostle Paul, in Romans 9 in the New Testament, struggles with whether this might appear to be injustice on God’s part. But clearly the Hebrew writer saw no problem here. Really, it is the same thing we explored last week with the word “wonders.” The Hebrew drew no distinction between natural events and miracles. They knew God was behind them all. One could call them all natural events, or one could call them all miracles. It is just what God was doing. So the crossing of the Red Sea, which we’ll come to in a few more weeks, was certainly an act of intervention by a sovereign God. No doubt about that. But at the same time it was the result of a simple conjunction of wind and tides – very natural events. The Hebrew was simply acknowledging that the Sovereign God they knew was behind everything.

Likewise here, you could say that Pharaoh did it, or you could say that God did it. After all, the pharaoh couldn’t draw a breath without God. To say it one way or the other made no particular difference to the Hebrew. God was sovereign, that’s what He is saying. He was in control of the universe. Nothing happened without His active involvement. Yet every Hebrew knew himself to be entirely accountable for his own actions. There is no sense that God is intervening and changing the course of natural events to harden the pharaoh’s heart. This is the natural outcome of the heart that Pharaoh has himself cultivated throughout his life. He is doing exactly what he wants to do. It is just the experiences of life and will, operating through the principles and character of human nature, the nature we all share. But it is not a factor which has escaped God’s control. He will use it to accomplish exactly what He set out to accomplish. And of course, He will do the same thing with all of your free choices and with all of mine. It seems simple and straight-forward until we begin to muddle it by applying theological words like “election” and “predestination.” But things do proceed naturally. It is just that a sovereign God is behind the whole of nature, and the Hebrew knew that.

God also knows what will ultimately break the pharaoh’s hard heart, and that would be the death of his firstborn son. And God will use that vulnerability to help the pharaoh understand and to help his people understand the unique character and purpose of Israel’s God. We’ll see more about firstborn sons further in the story, but it is Moses who learns this first, moving on to verse 22 in chapter 4: “Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what [Yahweh] the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me. But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’” There is no injustice here – I asked you to care for my firstborn son and you didn’t do it (lex talionis, “an eye for an eye”).

It is a marvelous revelation of God’s character here in this designation of the people of Israel as His firstborn son, a marvelous picture of His relationship to us, His children. It is not like the pharaoh’s relationship to his people – the relationship of a master to a slave. Rather it is like the relationship of the pharaoh to his own precious son. That is the point He is getting across here. “Israel,” Moses will explain on God’s behalf, “is my firstborn son.” These people, God says, are my firstborn son. This tells us so much about God’s relationship to us, His children. It tells us we are His own offspring. It reveals His natural compassion for us. As He says, “could a mother abandon a child at her breast?” Could I abandon you? It assures us of His protection, His nurture, His care. It reminds us that we bear the family name. It warns us that He will be teaching us discipline. It guarantees us an incomprehensible inheritance. We will be, as the New Testament says, “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.” It introduces us to a position of supreme privilege as His firstborn son.

Implicit within this identification of the nation as His firstborn son is a warning concerning the consequences for those who would presume to interfere with His intentions for his firstborn. And as we look at the Scriptures, He continues to keep that promise and that warning before the world. The pharaoh here has been put on notice. He will lose his own firstborn in the bargain. And yet, one day millennia hence, God will sacrifice His own firstborn son to redeem His people, indeed, to redeem the children of any nation which will acknowledge His authority and receive His invitation to grace.

It is here that this troubling little paragraph beginning in verse 24 fits in. I don’t know how many sermons have been preached on this paragraph, but a number of you anticipated it and asked, Are you going to talk about chapter 4, verses 24 and following? Yeah. It’s God’s word. Let’s look at it. It is a strange incident. I confess I had thoughts of skipping over it, but on closer review, it has a significant role in helping us understand what God is doing. Moses is on his way, but, “At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah [his wife] took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. ‘Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.’ she said. So the LORD let him alone.” A little word of explanation from the writer: “(At that time she said ‘bridegroom of blood,’ referring to circumcision.)” [Exodus 4:24-26]

The only reasonable interpretation of this passage is that Moses had not taken seriously the sign of the covenant that God had given his ancestor, Abraham. And this is all about the promise to Abraham, isn’t it? You will remember from Genesis that God was very strict in requiring that every man who entered into this covenant with Him must receive the sign of the covenant, otherwise he would be cut off from His people. That sign of the covenant was circumcision, and he was also to mark his sons with the same sign. So here was Moses, on his way to assume the duties of the enforcer of the covenant, if you will, and he had apparently neglected to obey God and place his own family under the sign of the covenant. And God says, we have to fix that or this is going nowhere. So Moses is struck down, perhaps with an intense illness, we don’t exactly what but he seemed to be at death’s doorstep, and his wife Zipporah, who you will remember was not Hebrew, realizes what is going on. Perhaps she had even resisted that covenant sign, we don’t know the reason, but it hadn’t been done. Now she realizes it and takes the initiative with Moses near death to circumcise their son. Obviously that was the issue because God responded immediately by letting Moses live.

By the way, one of the things I found during my summer on an archaeological dig in Israel was a 3,000 year old flint knife. I’m not suggesting it was the same one, but it was still sharp enough to slice my finger. Some things just can’t be improved upon. It wasn’t titanium; flint works very well.

The point here, however, is that God has indeed made some incredible promises to us. But, friends, we may not be casual about those promises. The promises are for those who accept the terms of the covenant, and who by their lives show that they have accepted the terms of the covenant, and it is for them alone.

So Moses is allowed to continue along the Road to Redemption. Aaron meets him in verse 27, they talk over God’s plan in verse 28, the two of them journey together to Egypt, they meet with the elders of their people who, just as God had predicted, are elated to hear that God had seen their misery and was concerned about them. Moses was concerned they might not hear, but they did. They express their gratitude through heart-felt worship.

But if they, or we, think that there will be no hurdles, or set-backs on the road to redemption, there is much yet to learn. For the sin, over against which the forces of redemption are unleashed, is a powerful and tenacious force. Redemption must be, and is, greater. But there will be enormous and sometimes frightening spiritual battles to be fought along this road to redemption. Some of you are involved in those battles in your own personal lives right now. God has reached out in salvation for you, but we are not at the end of the road. The outcome, of course, is not in doubt, but the way is strewn with difficulties.

So in chapter 5 the long-awaited confrontation with the pharaoh begins. By the way, the Bible never tells us the pharaoh’s name. We mentioned that before. We cannot be certain, within about a 200-year span, exactly when the exodus took place, so the pharaoh could be the well known and powerful Ramses II, the formidable warrior-king Thutmose III, or the matchless Amenhotep II. But we don’t know. In God’s Word, where names are of utmost importance, the pharaoh remains nameless. There is an irony in that, is there not? Everybody in God’s family has a name, from YHWH himself to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, remember them? But the pharaoh has no name. The pharaoh has no significance in God’s kingdom, for he has no respect for God. And we begin to see this in the 5^th chapter.

Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what [Yahweh] the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.’” Pharaoh said, “Who is [Yahweh], that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know [Yahweh] and I will not let Israel go.” [Exodus 5:1-2]

Who is YHWH? Oh, never fear. You are about to meet Him. This is not so much ignorance on the king’s part as it is incredulity at the sheer audacity of this challenge to his absolute authority, the most powerful man in the world. “Who is YHWH? I don’t know YHWH. I have no intention of obeying YHWH.” But Moses and Aaron warn him in verse 3 that there are likely to be severe consequences for failing to acknowledge this God.

The king, however, is dismissive. “Get back to work!” he says in verse 4. The Hebrew slaves’ work has been the manufacture of mud bricks, still done in many part of Asia and Africa, reinforced with straw and baked in the sun. It isn’t just that the straw binds it together, but even as it deteriorates there is a chemical reaction in the brick that strengthens it. So now, to prove that he has the power to be as arbitrary and demanding as he wishes, he decides to punish the Hebrew slaves by setting impossibly high quotas and withholding the necessary ingredients – they’ll have to get their own straw. The people are frantic. They try to comply, but it is impossible, and the pharaoh will show them no mercy. When they fail to meet his demands, he has their Hebrew foremen beaten. It is clear that he intends to break their spirit, and most particularly it is clear that he intends to drive a wedge between them and these two upstart rebels that God has raised up, Moses and Aaron.

And he succeeds in this endeavor. Look at the paragraph beginning in verse 19.

The Israelite foremen realized they were in trouble when they were told, “You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day. [Get your own straw, make it happen, but no reduction in the requirements].” When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, and they said, “May the LORD look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” [5:19-21]

They had started this hopefully enough, but it’s not coming out the way they had hoped, and now a wedge has been driven between them and God’s servants. Even though God has told Moses several times now that Pharaoh will be very reluctant to respond, in fact that he will not respond until God forces him to do so, Moses was hoping that maybe he would encounter something better, something different from what God had said. But Moses is never shy about complaining to God. So in verse 22, again just very real, we find this in all of God’s conversations with Moses and his with God,

Moses returned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.” [5:22-23]

Now it’s not an entirely legitimate complaint because God told him Pharaoh wasn’t going to let them go until the very last of the wonders He performed. Moses would like him to say “yes” before He performed any of the wonders. It’s not going to happen. At the same time we understand Moses’ frustration. Here he is sacrificing everything to be God’s servant and nobody appreciates it. But, God can handle it as he complains. God doesn’t even reprimand him for it. He just goes right on and says, Well, I’m going to be doing something about it.

Once again, it’s a dispute about God’s timing, isn’t it? We want Him to do things on our timetable. But God is doing exactly what He said He would do from the very start.

And never forget, however long we may have to wait, however many difficulties we may encounter, however disappointed, fearful, anxious, frustrated, angry, or hopeless we may become, the time for God’s action will eventually come. One day we will hear His voice, as Moses heard His voice, saying, [Exodus 6:1] “Now you will see what I will do . . .” Can you imagine it? When the sins of our own world are finally ripe for judgment? When God’s time has finally come to its fullness? “Now you will see what I will do . . .” He has told us. Like Moses, we haven’t believed Him, we wanted Him to change His mind, do it a little differently, at a different time. One day He will say, “Now you will see what I will do.” “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh [he says here]: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go.” In fact, God says, He’s going to be so anxious, once I am done with him, that it won’t be a matter of reluctant permission, he’s going to expel you from the land; he’s going to be pretty excited to do what I asked him to do.

But before He launches His deliverance, He reviews the whole deal with Moses, and this is very worthwhile as we begin to make this application with our own experience. Moses remember this. Verse 2, “I am YHWH.” I am Who I Am. I am the God Who Is. I am the God who has brought all things into being, and who takes all things to their destiny. “I am [Yahweh] the LORD,” He says. I am the same God who appeared to Abraham, the God who appeared to Isaac and the God who appeared to Jacob, although I did not use this name I have now revealed to you. They knew me as El Shaddai – another great name, God Almighty, the God who is all-powerful and irresistible. But I established a covenant with them concerning the Land of Promise, and it is that covenant which I am now going to fulfil. You will see this with your own eyes.

Now we come to the grand climax of this passage. Look at verse 6, “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.” If you are listening, it is a beautiful and powerful statement. Knowing what we have come to know about “I AM,” about the God who is who He is, and will be who He will be, these words become an incredible and compelling reason for faith. In verses 6ff. God says simply, “I AM, . . . and I WILL.” That is the formula for the rest of this passage. I am the God who is. I am the source of all being and all power. And I will do what I will do, I will do what I set out to do in the very beginning.

“I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians,” He says first of all. “I will free you from being slaves to them” – I am and I will. “I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. [I am and] I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am [and I will] . . .” [Exodus 6:6-8]

What a powerful statement! I AM and I WILL. I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians, I will free you from being slaves, I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, I will take you as my own people, I will be your God, I will bring you to the land I promised, and I will give it to you as a possession. Any questions? I AM and I WILL do this.

Do you remember that overwhelming promise in Isaiah 46, “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. . . [I will summon] a man to fulfill my purpose. [As he has done here, as he did in the time of Christ, as he will continue to do.] What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do. . . . I will grant salvation to Zion.” All that through the prophet Isaiah.

And He did precisely that – against all odds. It is a matter of historical record. Now consider what power and conviction that brings to the account in the New Testament from Galatians 4, printed in your bulletins this morning. “So also, when we were children, we were in slavery [here is the God who delivered these slaves, keep this in mind], under the basic principles of the world. But when the time had fully come [when God’s time had finally been fulfilled], God sent his son . . . to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” We might be adopted into His family. Do you see that God’s offer of salvation to us is an absolute parallel to His deliverance of Israel from Egypt? We all have become slaves to the basic principles of our fallen world. This is what frustrates us. As much as we desire it, we seemingly cannot break free of the tyranny of sin in our lives. How many times did the Hebrews want to escape from the Egyptians, but they couldn’t do it. They didn’t have the power to pull it off. “But when the time had fully come,” God sent his own Son, to redeem us from that slavery, to buy us back at the cost of the blood of His firstborn son, in order that we might be adopted into His family with the full rights, the full inheritance of a natural son or daughter. “What wondrous love is this, O my soul?” that our God should die for us to let us participate in His family. Didn’t I tell you the gospel we celebrate at Easter is all contained in the book of Exodus?

It is, after all, the very same God, I AM, the God who is. As He assured Moses, I am the very same God who appeared to your ancestors many centuries ago. I am the God who is now appearing to you. And I have a plan which will carry us through all future generations.

Nor does it end with our commitment to Jesus Christ. That simply marks the moment when we enter into that all-encompassing covenant with God which was marked by circumcision in the Old Testament and now by baptism in the New Testament. But the full salvation which you and I still anticipate is still to come. The God Who Is has promised it, and He Will bring it to pass.

Let me end with these verses from the apostle Peter. 2^nd Peter 3:8-13. You have these promises. The world is going to scoff and say, whatever became of those promises, Peter writes. Verse 8, “Do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord [time operates in a different way] a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise[s], as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” He is going to take precisely the right amount of time to give every one of us the opportunity to join that covenant family in that exodus from our slavery.

Then verse 10 of 2 Peter 3: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.” That day is going to come when He says, now you will see the wonders I will perform. “The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way [absolutely a certainty – since this is going to happen, here is the final question with which you and I are sent from this place today], what kind of people ought you to be?” What kind of people ought you to be, since this absolutely will happen. Peter begins to answer it. He says, “You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.” Our obedience speeds its coming. “That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation.” [3:12b-15a] That is where we find ourselves in this story of deliverance. If God has made this promise to us, His children – and He has – what is required of us in order that we may be assured of sharing His promises is what He has said right here: live a holy and godly life, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with Him.

He has promised. He will bring it to pass. Will you be prepared?

Closing prayer – Father, you have spoken so powerfully, not just in words but in your acts. We have been following this in this story. There is more to come, and we’ll learn more. But I pray that you would help us to see that this ultimately is not just a story about some dim and distant past. It is a story with great immediacy, for you are the God who is in the process of accomplishing your will and purpose in our lives, in our world, in your universe. So help us to take seriously this command to be prepared. Thank you that you are a God who will fulfil your purpose and your promise. We pray this in Christ’s name, AMEN.