Not a Tame Lion

Last night I sat down with David to watch Prince of Egypt. I had never seen it before, and David had the opportunity to pick it up and thought it might be good for Gideon some day long in the future. So, I watched it.

I have heard and heard and heard the story of Moses. I always marvel at the story, but through the same perspectives as I had when I first started hearing it...when I was very young. Wow, the plagues are pretty scary and amazing stuff. Look, he parts the sea! These things are still wonderful, treasured parts of the story. But last night was the first time I have thought about this particular story since having Gideon, and I found I experienced the story in a whole new way. Not only God as the Defender of the enslaved Israelites, but He Who Works All Things According to the Counsel of His Will (Ephesians 1) - a view that left me feeling deeply how much our God is not an easy God, not a "tame lion," (C.S. Lewis).

In the story (the book of Exodus), the Hebrews were enslaved, and "they mutliplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them." Pharoah feared them if they were to rebel, so he ordered that all the newborn sons should be killed - thrown into the Nile. A Hebrew woman bore a son and was able to hide him in safety for three months. Then, she placed him in a basket and sent him down the Nile, a desperate attempt to spare him from being drowned there by Pharoah's men. The story goes on, but that is where I stayed.

The story is painful enough in hindsight, even knowing how the story will end. But to live the reality of it - many, many families lost their newborn sons to the Nile. There was no basket for them, no Pharoah's daughter - just the loss of a child. And for Moses' mother, we have no indication in the text that she was promised by God that Moses would survive. Who knew what would happen to that basket, if he would drown or starve or be otherwise killed? But God was working all things according to the purpose of his will, and he used this situation to bring a Hebrew child into Pharoah's household, to raise up a leader to deliver the Hebrews from slavery, to display his might over all the gods worshipped in Egypt (interesting to note that the plagues often struck at the domain of a given god - the Nile, the crops, etc).

There are many other parts of the story that similarly weigh on me, and all produced an increased awareness that God is at work, and He is good, but He is not easy. He is out to show us that He is mighty and far above all rulers and authorities and power and dominion and to gain the glory which he deserves. What good is it to be happy in this life and miserable for all eternity? (We may not always be happy with our life circumstances, be we are always assured of access to joy in Him that is able to withstand any event or circumstance). It is far better that his greatness should be displayed, even at the cost of suffering for his people, that more may learn to fear the Lord. For, if we do not see Him as great and uncompromisingly just and wrathful against all sin, we may not really believe that we are destined to be objects of his wrath (Eph 2) in the coming days of eternity, unless we have been made righteous in Christ (by trusting in him for the forgiveness of our sins through his death on the cross and resurrection).

But God is working all things according to the purpose of his will - that He might be lifted up and acknowledged for Who he truly is. He worked the evil of Pharoah to his purpose, and He works the suffering in our lives to his purpose. He is a great God, a compassionate One to all who wear Christs' righteousness as a result of having trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. He is both the giver and the one who takes away, something that is not always easy to understand or experience, but which does not detract from the truth of God as holy, holy, infinitely holy. Praise Him that he offers redemption in Christ, that we might be spared his wrath, and that he is at work in our lives to work all our joys and sufferings according to the purpose of his will.