The second in the Lenten Midweek series:  Coming Home From Exile:   the Exoduses of the Scriptures.  (Theme and theme text by Rev. Carl C. Fickenscher II, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, IN).

 

Today’s Scripture

Our Lord’s Passion – John 13:1-38, The Upper Room

Psalm 139       Genesis 12:10-20        Luke 19:1-10

 

            Have you ever left one place to go to another?  Have you ever had to leave whether it is your residence, your job, your school, to go to another place?  How does it feel to have to move?  What is it like when you make a move and it does not turn out as you thought it would?

 

            Last week our theme was Adam and Eve, and our selves, being banished from the Garden of Eden.  Today we see Abram as he is kicked out of Egypt. In fact, we have a couple of exoduses with Abram today.

 

            First God called Abram from Haran to Canaan.  God promised this new land to his offspring.  God made this promise to Abram from the start.  But a famine occurred.  Abram then leaves Canaan to Egypt where there is no famine and Abram sees the opportunity to provide for his community.  Note that Abram does not consult with God nor God to Abram about this move.  Abram is concerned also for his wife, Sarai, and his own life.  That is why he concocts this half-truth about Sarai being his sister.  While living this lie, the Pharaoh gave special consideration and wealth to Abram.

 

            Even while living this lie, and living away from the land God promised to Abram, God continues to protect and to provide for Abram and Sarai.  God sends serious diseases to Pharaoh and his household.  This leads Pharaoh to confront Abram about this lie.  Instead of executing Abram, Pharaoh exiles Abram and Sarai and allows them to keep all of their wealth.  Abram is in another exodus.  This time it is from Egypt back to Canaan.

 

            As God did to Abram, what are those times God provided for you, called you to be and do as he commanded?  Then, when following God’s will goes a little rough in your life, maybe even as threatening as that famine, did you leave God and follow your own sinful instincts, to do things as you thught they should be?  Even then, God continues to protect you as he did Abram and Sarai.  And, he calls you back to him again, and again, and again. 

 

            God gives us these straightforward accounts of Abram and other Biblical heroes, so we know his love and his forgiveness and his never leaving or forsaking us.  We find that Abram was a sinner.  He lied.  He deceived.  And he was found out.  Still, God protected him and for these purposes.  One was to save Abram because he loved Abram.  The other was to save his people throughout all time which God did through Abram and his offspring. 

 

            God wants you to know that whatever it is you did yesterday, he is there to forgive and restore you as he did Abram.  God wants you to know that even though you left him like Abram, not trusting in his promises, he still loves you and wants you to be his dear child for eternity.  He wants you to know that through the trials and hardships you will experience in this world, he is still in command and his will is to save you.

 

            Today, at the cross, we see Jesus’ suffering and death.  That suffering and death is to take you on one more exodus, from a life of sin to a life made holy again in the blood shed on this cross.  In your baptism is an exodus from the lures of a life away from God’s grace to knowing that he will always provide, as he did for Abram in Egypt and throughout his life through yours today.

 

            As we experience each exodus and return in our lives, God continues to sustain and strengthen each one in faith in him as he continues to provide, to protect from Satan’s evil grasp for eternity, and to restore you to enter his promised land.

 

            At the time Abram did not understand all that God had for him and how it would eventually play out.  Likewise, in the upper room, the disciples did not know what all was happening as Jesus washed their feet.  Peter started to get a grasp of this as he requested Jesus then to wash all of him.  They did not understand why one would betray Jesus.  They did not understand that Judas left to “seal the deal” that would seal them forever in God’s graces.  They did not understand what it meant that Jesus would be with them only a little longer and that they could not follow him where he was going, to suffer hell on their behalf, on your behalf, on the behalf of all sinners in this world.  Jesus was about to make an exodus that would bring all believers back to the promised land, eternity with him in heaven.

 

            Zacchaeus followed in the exodus of Abram as he confessed his sin that was stealing from the tax payers.  Zacchaeus heard and believed Jesus’ words, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost,” [Luke 19:10].  Zacchaeus believed that promise and trusted Jesus, returning more than what he had stolen knowing that not just his earthly life, but his eternal life was provided by God.

 

            Isn’t that what our exoduses in life are all about?  We get lost in those departures from God’s commands.  And Jesus comes to seek and to save us.      Amen.