Pharaoh?? Pharaoh Who??

 I have to come clean.  Sometimes, the Bible frustrates me.

 

Now before you call me heretic, burn me at the stake, or burn me social-media style, hear me out. 

Sometimes, there are parts of the Bible I wish would have been written to appease my need for historical accuracy.  Basically, I wish it would have told me what and who and where and when EXACTLY how the story went with all the details – like a filmed documentary.  EXACTLY how it was. 

One such example that has always bothered me, is why the “Pharaoh” (King of Egypt) who is featured in the beginning of the book of Exodus is never actually named.  He is just called “Pharaoh.”  It would be like saying “King.”  “King” would not let the Israelites go free out of Egypt.  “King” endured horrible plagues.  “King” finally let them go and then changed his mind. 

     King who?

         Pharaoh who?

             Which Pharaoh was it?! 

Was it Rameses the III, the powerful ruler? Was it Tutemos the II, the world influencer?  Or was it even Pharaoh Atun, the "Unitarian"?   

Who exactly was this Pharaoh? And why don’t we know for sure which one?  If God had included that one little detail, we could have learned so much more about that exact point in history when God led his people out of Egypt's hand...

 

But God doesn’t give that detail.  We are told over and over again how important names are in the Bible yet Pharaoh is anonymous. Nameless Pharaoh remains a mystery, and I am left frustrated at why we aren’t given these kinds of details… 

Yet it was after spending some time in Egypt that it finally sunk in why that detail was left out.  What I saw as an historical biblical hiccup, God was using to make a powerful point...

We were in the Valley of the Kings: the famous sites of tombs of Pharaoh after Pharaoh after Pharaoh.  By this point, we had been in Egypt a few days.  We had seen so much wealth and power in all these sites.  Monstrous statues, adorned temples, massive structures – all to show the power of the Pharaoh.  And with each statue, each temple, each structure, one Pharaoh tried to outdo the next, making their name live on and making their name great.  

And here we were, in the Valley of the Kings, the greatest example of each Pharaoh in Ancient Egypt trying to outdo the Pharaoh before by making a bigger and better tomb for himself.    And then the thought struck me.

God was making a powerful point by omitting Pharaoh’s name in the Bible in the book of Exodus.  Here this Pharaoh was abusing Israelite slaves by working them to the bone.  And what were they doing?  Building.  Building statues and structures and temples to make the Pharaoh look powerful.  To make Pharaoh immortal.  To make Pharaoh’s name live on forever.

But God doesn’t give Pharaoh’s name.  God intentionally leaves him as generic “Pharaoh”, a simple “King” because God wants to make sure this Pharaoh gets no recognition.  This mere man is not immortal.  This man’s name does NOT live on.  No-name Pharaoh is mortal and human, and it’s the true God – the Israelites’ I AM WHO I AM that gets named.  The name of the one and only powerful God who defeats Pharaoh with plagues and takes these meager slaves out of Egypt and makes them into a great nation. 

And God wanted to remind his people when they recounted the story who really mattered, who was truly the powerful and immortal God who saved his people.   God wanted the people to remember it wasn’t nameless Pharaoh who protected them, saved them, and brought them out. It was the I AM.

The same I AM who protects you, saves you, and enfolds you into his people.   

Sometimes the big and powerful in this world like to make us feel small, insignificant, like we matter to no one.  But this Exodus story reminds us of the truth.  The truth is that the big and powerful rise and fall, but it is God who remains the same, and God who gives us purpose and significance.  Not fame, not money, not power, but GOD who gives us worth and saves us from serving mere objects and material things that don’t last and don’t matter.

So even though I was at first frustrated with my question, “which Pharaoh?” “Pharaoh who?”  I was satisfied with an almost too-easy answer.

Pharaoh who??

Pharaoh who clearly wasn’t God.  

New Year's Bandwagon -- "Lighter" in 2016!

January 2.  The day after New Year’s.  And now the oh-so-trendy new year resolutions are starting to take shape.  Smokers are throwing out their lighters; drinkers are locking up their liquor cabinets.  It’s the day gym memberships are sold in droves and junk food aisles don't need restocking. 

And this year, I’ve made my resolution too.  I've decided I'm going to be lighter in 2016.  Yes, lighter.  And I need you to help me. 

“Lighter.”

Brighter.  

Glowing in the darkness,

Radiant in the shadows.

Lighter.

We briefly in our mideastern travels the biblical story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace.  Remember this story?  It shows up in that obscure book of Daniel.  These three God-worshipers refuse to worship the foreign king of Babylon’s statue of himself (talk about the definition of narcissism!) and so the king’s punishment is to incinerate them.  What a torturous and horrible way to die.

But for those of us who know the story, we don’t cringe because we know what happens.  These men survive. And not only do they survive, they thrive.  An angel appears to protect them and the fire does nothing to them.  It does not even touch them.  It says, “the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.” They were completely untouched.  The fire did not burn them up.

Hmmm… a fire that didn’t burn?  flames that didn’t scorch?  That sounds familiar.

Oh right- that bush.

That burning bush.  The one that was on fire but never actually burned.

 That burning bush that talked to Moses, representing the presence of our God.

And that’s what these furnace-enduring men became too.  The fire that didn’t burn them up was the presence of God, and they carried with them that presence. They became a representation of God’s presence.  Their very lives became these radiant lights, these bright lamps of God’s presence in this Babylonian king’s dark empire.  These men could easily have died, but God spared them to be bearers of his light…

And I wonder if that’s what God desires are for us as well.  God spared us and granted us salvation so we can be bearers of his presence.  So we can be light to a dark world.

So 2016 I’m going to try to be “lighter” and I’d love for you to join me…  I’m going to try be lighter, shining brighter with the light of God’s presence to those around me. 

In a world where politics and terror divide neighbours and countries…

     Be the light in God’s world.

In a world where drugs and addictions destroy relationships and  lives,

     Be the light in God’s world.

In a world where the pace of life hardly allows for patience and understanding,

     Be the light in God’s world.

In a world where selfishness, bullying, and thoughtlessness seem to reign,

     Be the light in God’s world.

And in a world which has rejected God yet they continue to wonder where he is,

     Be the light and be the presence of God to God’s world.

2016 is the year to become lighter.  And let’s not make this one like most New Year’s resolutions, going up in smoke after 6 weeks…  Let’s continue all year--and the next and the next-- to be the light, the radiant fire that flames but never burns up.