Lent 3
Ex.
8:16-24
3/8/15
Author Keith Hopkins entitled his
book about the conversion of the Roman Empire: A World Full of Gods – The
Strange Triumph of Christianity. The
title is a helpful reminder that the ancient world was a world full of
gods. Hopkins deals with the Roman
Empire from the time of the first century A.D.
However, his title applies just as much to the near eastern world during
the two millennia before Christ in which our text takes place.
The ancient world was a world full
of gods. Their existence was something
that people took for granted and it was assumed that the larger issues of
geopolitics were simply a reflection of the contest between the gods. So, if my nation conquered your nation, it
was obvious that my god is more powerful than your god.
It is widely recognized that the
Passover and the Exodus is a contest between Yahweh and the gods of Egypt in
which Yahweh shows that he alone is the true God. For example, the sun god Ra is rebuked in the
ninth plague as Yahweh brings darkness. And of course Pharaoh himself was
worshipped as a god, and in the tenth plague of the Passover Yahweh kills his
firstborn son.
In our text this morning we see the
reality of Yahweh’s power begin to dawn on the magicians who serve Pharaoh.
They recognize that in the events that involve Moses and Aaron, they have
encountered something that goes beyond their power. It is the power of the true God which is
present in the world. Our Old Testament
lesson this morning helps us to understand better what happened in the ministry
of Jesus Christ – and what continues to happen in the Church today.
When God called Moses at the burning
bush, he said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt
and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,
and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to
bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with
milk and honey.” Israel had been
enslaved by the Egyptians, and Yahweh announced to Moses that he was now going
to act in order to free them and return to the people to the land he had
promised to Abraham. He sent Moses to
Pharaoh with a message: “Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son, and I
say to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve me.’ If you refuse to let him go,
behold, I will kill your firstborn son.”
God sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh
with this message. In order to
demonstrate that Yahweh had sent them and that he meant business, God told
Aaron to perform a sign. He cast his
staff down on the ground and it became a snake. Pharaoh summoned his own
magicians and they were able to do the same thing. We can’t lose sight of the fact that power of
the demonic is very real. And yet
Aaron’s snake ate the snake of the magicians.
Next Moses and Aaron turned the
water of Egypt to blood and sent frogs on the land. In each case the Egyptian magicians were able
to perform the same kind of sign. They were able to stay with the servants of
Yahweh step for step in this contest.
Then, we learn in our text that
Yahweh said to Moses, “
“Say to Aaron,
‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become
gnats in all the land of Egypt.’” Aaron
did so and the Egyptians were afflicted with gnats. Next, the Egyptian magicians attempted to do
the same thing, just as they had on the previous three occasions. Yet this time, there were not able to do
so. And in this experience, they
recognized that there was something very serious going on. They said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of
God.”
In many ways, things were much more
straightforward when the world was full of gods. It made it easy for God’s people to see life
in spiritual terms. The presence of the demonic wasn’t hard to spot – you could
see it in the temples and processions of gods and goddesses like Cybele, Isis,
Sarapis, and Artemis.
In time, the Gospel of Jesus Christ
overcame all of these false gods. And
then, around the year 1700, the devil began using a new approach. Through the intellectual movement we now know
as the Enlightenment, he began to convince people that the world wasn’t full
of gods. Reason became king, and all
that talk about gods – including the God who revealed himself in Scripture –
was dismissed as the superstition of a benighted past.
Through this shift, the devil has
helped to create the world in which you live today. In a brilliant fashion he has hidden himself,
even as he works in incredibly powerful ways. He has hidden himself, even as he
tempts you to return to him.
He tempts you to submit to him by
defining the good life in terms of what you have. He seeks to place you in a gilded cage as you
perpetually strive for the money that will “allow you to be happy” – the money
that will provide the house, the car, the clothes, the vacations you
“need.” He tempts you with the new idea
that you can only be happy when you use sex in ways that please you and define
you. So have sex while dating. Live together without getting married. Define yourself as LGBT or any other letter
you wish to use. He tempts you to create
your own spirituality – to be “spiritual but not religious” – because in this “freedom”
you are actually his slave.
The devil may be selling the idea
these days that he doesn’t exist. But
things have not changed. It is still a
world full of gods. The names have changed but he uses all of these things as
the means to enslave. They are all false
gods because that which you consider to be most important; that in which you
put your trust is your god. And any time you have a god other than the triune
God, it is the devil who is your lord.
In all of these he
uses sin to enslave, for sin separates you from the true God and places you
under the devil’s reign.
In our text today we see God in the
process of freeing his people from slavery. The Egyptian magicians recognize
that they have encountered something different.
They tell Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” Through the Passover, God forced Pharaoh to let
his son Israel go. And when Pharaoh
changed his mind and pursued Israel, God destroyed the Egyptian army in the Red
Sea as he brought Israel through the midst of it on dry ground.
The Exodus is the great Gospel event
of the Old Testament. This dramatic
action by God in rescuing his people from slavery points forward to what God
has done for us in Jesus Christ. In fact
the language of redemption – of being redeemed from sin and the devil – is
first used in describing the Exodus.
In the Gospel lesson for today we
see Jesus in the midst of his saving ministry. Jesus has just freed a man from
demon possession. Those who are critical
of Jesus make the accusation, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of
demons.” They say that Jesus only has power over the demonic because he is in
league with the devil.
Jesus knew what they thought and
said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a
divided household falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will
his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul.” The Lord pointed out the absurdity of saying
that the devil was working against himself.
And then he added:
“But if it is by the
finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon
you.”
Our Lord challenged them to consider
another possibility. If as Jesus said,
he was casting out demons by the power of God, then the saving reign of God was
present in the person of Jesus. God’s
end-time reign was present right there in their midst.
Anointed by the Holy Spirit at his
baptism, Jesus did cast out demons by the finger of God. It was God’s power at work in him that was
turning back the forces of Satan, sin and death as he reclaimed individuals and
creation itself.
The reign of God that was present in
his ministry set Jesus on the path that took him to the cross. For there he received the judgment against
your sin in order to redeem you and give you forgiveness. And then on the third day he rose from the
dead in order in order to defeat death and begin the resurrection of the Last
Day. Sin was defeated. Death was
defeated. And therefore the devil has been defeated.
Jesus Christ carried out this saving
work for you. And then he applied it to you through the water and the
Word of Holy Baptism. In the water of
baptism you were reborn by the work of the Spirit as God’s child. Now, for you, Jesus is Lord, not the devil.
You belong to him, the One who died and rose again for you.
The final act, the return of Christ
on the Last Day has not occurred yet.
The devil knows that his time is short, and so he is the roaring lion
who prowls around looking for someone to devour. He wants to reclaim you. He seeks to tempt you into sin and to draw
you further and further away from Christ, until finally you are his once again.
And so the good news of the Gospel
is that God’s reign is not something that was just there and then in first
century Palestine. Instead, it is also here and now. For through his Means of Grace, Jesus Christ
continues to keep you as his own. Your baptism into Christ’s death continues to
be the means the Spirit uses to give you forgiveness and strength for living in
faith. Through the audible word of preaching and through the visible word of
the Sacrament of the Altar God’s reign in Christ is present here this morning,
keeping you as God’s child. So rejoice
in what God has done for you in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Rejoice in what God is doing right now. Know that in Jesus and his gifts, the kingdom
of God has come upon you.
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