Be Still And Know

Matthew 8:26 Jesus responded, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm. The Sea of Galilee is not large. It is about 13 miles from north to south and only about eight miles at its widest point from east to west. Its location in the Jordan Rift Valley means that winds can quickly build up, and there are many accounts of sudden violent storms on the lake. We could assume that Jesus’ disciples, many of whom were experienced fishermen, would have taken such a storm in their stride but on this particular occasion, they were terrified. They thought they might die and, in their terror, cried out to Jesus to save them. Jesus was fast asleep but, woken up by their cries, he duly rebuked the wind and the waves and the storm died down. The disciples were amazed but Jesus was appalled by their lack of faith; they clearly still had a lot to learn about the kind of authority that Jesus had. It isn’t only on the Sea of Galil

Matthew 8:19-20 Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.” I’ve heard some speakers talk about the Christian life as if it was a life of peace and happiness characterised by sunshine and blue skies. Jesus never spoke about it in that way. If anything, he went to exactly the opposite extreme. He spoke about the huge costs and demands of being one of his followers. In this encounter, he was particularly blunt. You might have thought Jesus would respond to this teacher by saying how delighted he was that he was so committed to following him. But no, he launched into a description of his own vulnerability. Even though he was the Son of Man he had no secure home. Later on, when a man asked if he could bury his father before following Jesus, he was told to leave the dead to bury their own. It was all very blunt language. I a

Matthew 8:8 The officer said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed.” The officer in question was a Roman Centurion. He was a powerful person in the army that was occupying Israel at the time and was, therefore, much hated by the population who longed to be set free. However, it’s difficult not to warm towards this particular soldier. He approached Jesus because of his concern for his servant. This, in itself, was remarkable because servants were viewed as property and had no legal rights of their own. The fact that the Centurion was concerned about his servant and was going out of his way to seek his healing is impressive. But, more than that, we note his huge respect for Jesus. He didn’t believe that he was worthy to have Jesus visit his home and, in any case, he had such great faith in Jesus’ healing ability he didn’t consider that such a visit would even be necessary. He was sure that all that was needed was for Jesus

Exodus 18:24-25 Moses listened to his father-in-law’s advice and followed his suggestions. He chose capable men from all over Israel and appointed them as leaders over the people. He put them in charge of groups of one thousand, one hundred, fifty, and ten. Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, paid him a visit in the desert and was thrilled to hear about the amazing way in which God had brought the Israelites out of Egypt. But he was not so thrilled when he saw the way in which Moses handled disputes. From morning till evening Moses would listen to the people’s problems and give them a ruling from God. It was all very impressive, but Jethro could see that it was unsustainable. He suggested that Moses was not only going to wear himself out, but also the people as well! He needed to change, and Jethro encouraged him to recruit other people to consider the simpler cases and to retain for himself only the more difficult ones. It was a straightforward recommendation and Moses was happy to take his father-in-law’s ad

Exodus 16:29 They must realise that the Sabbath is the Lord’s gift to you. That is why he gives you a two-day supply on the sixth day, so there will be enough for two days. On the Sabbath day you must each stay in your place. Do not go out to pick up food on the seventh day. It was vital that the weekly rhythm of life was maintained in the desert. On the face of it, this was going to be difficult to achieve with God’s miraculous provision of daily food in the morning and evening. But God knew this and so he provided the people with twice the normal supplies of food on a Friday in order to allow the Sabbath to be a day of rest. True to form, some of the people went out on the Sabbath to look for food only to find there was nothing there. The principle of a day of rest was foundational to their life together. A day of rest continues to be of crucial importance to us today. Sundays have become progressively busier in recent years. The days when most of the people travelling on a Sunday were going to ch

Exodus 16:19-20 Then Moses told them, “Do not keep any of it until morning.” But some of them didn’t listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell. Moses was very angry with them. The rule couldn’t have been simpler. The bread or manna that God gave to his people every morning would sustain them for the day ahead, but it couldn’t be kept overnight. Formed by the secretion of insects, if it was left it would soon become mouldy and inedible. All the people needed to do was to obey this very simple rule and all would be well. But people will be people, and some decided that it was a silly rule that didn’t apply to them and that they would try to hang on to the food. Moses was understandably angry with them. Why is it that human beings find it so hard to obey? The story of humanity from the Garden of Eden onwards is one of persistent disobedience. This is tragic because all the blessings of this life are on offer to those who will obey, and disobe

Exodus 16:17-18 So the people of Israel did as they were told. Some gathered a lot, some only a little. But when they measured it out, everyone had just enough. God’s miraculous provision of food for the people of Israel throughout their 40 years in the wilderness is breathtaking. I particularly love these verses because of the wonderful detail. Although the families had very different needs, everyone had just enough. Enough is a precious word. Wouldn’t it be great to live in a world where everyone was content with just enough? Sadly, although there is plenty of food for everyone, there are millions of people who go to bed hungry each night. In the UK approximately 9.5 million tonnes of food are wasted every year, which is horrifying when you consider that there are 8.4 million people here living in food poverty. It is estimated that around 9 million people in the world die of starvation every year. It is a terrible fact that a child dies of hunger every ten seconds. But this is completely unnecessar

Exodus 16:11–12 Then the Lord said to Moses: “I have heard the Israelites’ complaints. Now tell them, ‘In the evening you will have meat to eat, and in the morning you will have all the bread you want. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’” We cannot be sure how many Israelites left Egypt, but it was certainly many thousands. Feeding such a group of people would have been a massive logistical exercise in any location, but to do so in a desert would seem an impossible task. But God had an answer and, miraculously, throughout their 40 years of wilderness wanderings, the people were fed. In the evening, they fed on quails, which are migratory birds belonging to the partridge family. On their long flights quails would often become exhausted in the evening and large flocks of them would land on the desert floor and be easy to catch. In the morning the people were supplied with bread which was called manna, a word that literally means “What’s that?” because that’s what the people said when they fir

Exodus 15:23–24 When they came to the oasis of Marah, the water was too bitter to drink. So they called the place Marah (which means “bitter”). Then the people complained and turned against Moses. “What are we going to drink?” they demanded. Pressure. Every leader knows what it is to face discontented people. I hasten to add that I haven’t faced a huge number, but then I’ve never taken tens of thousands of people on a walk through a desert! It’s easy to understand why they were complaining. Life in a desert is hard enough work even when there is a good supply of water, so arriving at an oasis and finding its water was too bitter to drink must have been a shattering experience for everyone. Moses could have apologised or tried to put a positive gloss on the experience by saying that everything had gone all right until now, or he could have joined the people in complaining. The choice he made was a good one. He prayed (v25). When a crisis breaks, it is very easy to get sucked into the whirlpool of c

Exodus 15:2 The Lord is my strength and my song; he has given me victory. This is my God, and I will praise him— my father’s God, and I will exalt him! This is part of a wonderful song that Moses sang after the people of Israel had crossed the Red Sea. After 400 years they had finally left Egypt; 400 years is a very long time, and the people could easily have stayed there for ever. But there was a deep longing to be free from the persecution and slavery that they had experienced in Egypt. Moses’ song of victory beautifully expressed a national sigh of relief that the suffering was now at an end. At last they were free. The people’s exodus from Egypt was a defining moment in the nation’s story because it told them so much about their God. They learned that God is, by his very nature, a God who loves to set people free. He’s a God of salvation. It’s not surprising that throughout the Bible there are frequent references back to the crossing of the Red Sea. If God was able to overcome an obstacle as grea

Exodus 14:13–14 Moses told the people: “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” This was a crunch moment in the history of the people of Israel. After the long succession of plagues, they were finally heading out of Egypt and it is said that they did so with fists raised in defiance. Surely Pharoah would at last be glad to see them go! But no, he changed his mind yet again and sent out his army to stop them. It must have been a truly terrifying moment. We are told that Pharaoh sent 600 of his best chariots after the people, which must have been an incredibly intimidating sight for them. The people immediately panicked and lashed out at Moses, blaming him for bringing them out into the desert to die. They argued that it would have been much better to have continued as slaves in Egypt than to be corpses in the wilderness. It's never easy for leaders when people pani

Exodus 4:21 And the Lord told Moses: “When you arrive back in Egypt, go to Pharaoh and perform all the miracles I have empowered you to do. But I will harden his heart so he will refuse to let the people go.” God sometimes asks people to do extraordinarily difficult jobs. But this must be one of the toughest. As we know, Moses was feeling very inadequate and ill-equipped for the task. He was now told that when he went to plead with Pharoah to let the people of Israel leave Egypt, he would fail. Time and again, Moses would go to Pharaoh and beg him to release the enslaved people, and repeatedly Pharaoh would say no. God sent one plague after another and even though, at times, Pharaoh seemed to be weakening, he continually refused to let the people go. Even after the tenth plague, in which the firstborn sons and livestock were killed throughout Egypt, Pharaoh withdrew his permission to the people of Israel to leave the land. What amazes me about this period in the history of the people of Israel is Mos

Exodus 4:16 “Aaron will be your spokesman to the people. He will be your mouthpiece, and you will stand in the place of God for him, telling him what to say.” Moses felt sure that his speech difficulties disqualified him from serving God. How could someone who was tongue-tied possibly lead the people of Israel and negotiate with Pharaoh? The answer was simple. His brother Aaron could fulfil that part of the role, and Moses could be the person who kept close to God and listened to his voice. In an ideal world, Moses would have been a perfect communicator and would have been able to do to the job himself, but in the real world he needed help. We don’t live in an ideal world! This means that we need to be continually light on our feet and ready to adapt to new circumstances. The pandemic forced us to change and adapt in all sorts of different ways. In our churches, we had to look at everything we do with new eyes. Meeting together online had all sorts of downsides, but it had many blessings too. It was

Exodus 4:13 But Moses again pleaded: “Lord, please! Send someone else.” I wonder if you can identify with Moses. I certainly can. Time and again God has clearly asked me to do something and, like Moses, I have pleaded with him to find someone else. Moses would quickly have recognised that going back to Egypt was going to be hard enough, let alone to become the leader of his people and negotiate with the mighty Pharaoh. Anyone would have shaken at the knees to have taken on such a role. The reasons that people use for objecting to God’s call are many. Some, like Moses, are overwhelmed by the challenge and feel that their lack of skills makes them a poor choice. Others object to God’s call because they feel that the job they have been offered is beneath them. God calls them to be involved in youth work when they would much rather be in the worship band; or God calls them to do cleaning in the church when they would rather become a leader. What Moses had to learn was that God knew what he was doin

Exodus 4:10 But Moses pleaded with the Lord: “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.” I feel a bit sorry for Moses. I have often heard people suggesting that Moses was just looking for excuses to turn down God’s job offer. However, Moses’ reply to God sounds to me like a perfectly reasonable objection. He clearly had significant problems with speaking and this would, it seems to me, make him a far from ideal candidate for a job that would be all about effective communication. But God was having none of it. He had decided that Moses was the man for the job and no objections, however substantial, were going to cause him to change his mind. When God chooses someone to work for him, he equips them with the ability to do it. In the New Testament we are introduced to Peter who, throughout Jesus’ ministry, consistently blundered with his words. Time and again we wince at his foolishness, and we squi

Exodus 3:15 God also said to Moses: “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh, the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.” I wonder what you would say if God asked you to lead his people at a time of desperate need. I suspect that you, like Moses, would have a string of questions to ask! The first thing that he needed to know was who was sending him. The people of Israel were bound to ask, and he needed to have a good answer for them. God told him that he should say that “I am” had sent him to them, and then spelt out that this was God’s eternal name and that he was the God of their forefathers. We can be sure that the stories of the great fathers of the Jewish faith would often have been told among the people of Israel, and they needed to know that Moses stood in that line of succession. At the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, a similar situation occurred. As Jesus sent out his disciples he recognised that they would need to know with what auth

Exodus 3:11–12 But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?” God answered, “I will be with you.” Moses was about 80 years old when God spoke to him from the burning bush. He was in the desert of Midian, on the eastern side of the Red Sea, which is where he had fled to after he had murdered an Egyptian. The idea of returning to Egypt and appearing before Pharaoh must have seemed crazy to him. And, given his upbringing in the royal palace, he hardly had the common touch to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. It is little wonder, therefore, that Moses questioned God’s decision to appoint him as the people’s leader. When God calls people to serve him, they almost always ask the same question, “Who am I?” I certainly did. I was 18 years old when a man in our church asked me to go and preach in a village church near our home. I was amazed that he thought I would be suitable. It sounded like a terrifying responsibility. What would happen

Exodus 3:4 When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied. Moses’ life was remarkable. He was born in Egypt when the people of Israel were in slavery there, and Pharaoh had gone to extraordinary lengths to kill off all Israelite baby boys. Moses had miraculously survived and was brought up as a member of Pharaoh’s household. Years later he saw one of his own Israelite people being abused and, in his anger, killed the perpetrator. Moses soon recognised that his own life was in danger and so he fled from the country. He got married to Zipporah and in our reading today we find him looking after his father-in-law’s sheep. The life of a shepherd was a tough one. The heat could be intense and Moses continually needed to be alert to the threat from wolves and other wild animals. Much of what happened was familiar and predictable. However, in the midst of his working day he was suddenly aware of a burning bush. That in

Philippians 4:19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. Generosity is a beautiful thing. I had the blessing of a very generous aunt. She never married and was a devoted follower of Jesus. She was generous with her time, especially to neighbours who were in need. Although she held a very senior executive role she was always happy to do the most menial jobs and would think nothing of it. She died in retirement while taking a neighbour to hospital and that seemed to sum up her life. She was always very generous with her money and was always looking for creative ways to help people and planted firmly in my teenage mind the blessing of being generous. Christians are not automatically generous, and the apostle Paul noted that the generosity of the Philippian church stood in marked contrast to that of many others. As he came towards the end of the letter, he thanked them once again for their gifts and described them

Philippians 4:11–13 I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Advertising is a major influence in the modern world. Its deliberate intention is to stir up discontent. We are continually urged to buy newer, trendier, brighter, faster and more efficient products. Being consistently pounded with these messages it can be difficult to live contentedly with what we already have but that must surely be the most desirable life of all. To live with contentment is to live a life without strain and stress. Epicurus, the Greek philosopher, said, “He who doesn’t find a little enough, will find nothing enough.” There is wisdom in this quotation, but Paul wouldn’t have agreed with it. His contentment didn’t flow from a particular philosophical understanding of life but f