Which God is yours?
Today, I want to contrast the lesson from Exodus and the lesson from Matthew.
They couldn’t be more different.
Oh, I know Moses and Yahweh wanted to bring the people of Israel back to their homeland. They had to get away from the Egyptian army—but the pillar of cloud had been doing a good job of that, night, and day.
And when God made the sea part and the Israelites had passed through, the text tells us the Egyptians were going to turn back. Listen: “He clogged their chariot wheels so they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, “let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt’.”
They were turning back. So why did God tell Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back on the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers.”
If they were turning back, why drown the Egyptian army and their innocent horses?
It seems like ‘over-kill’ to me, if you’ll excuse my choice of words….
Now let’s look at God in Matthew’s gospel today.
Jesus tells Peter to forgive sins against him 77 times.
Can you forgive that many times?
He then tells his disciples a parable about a King who forgives a debt of 10,000 talents and then that slave seized a man by the throat that owed him a hundred denarii.
10,000 talents would be over 226 million dollars and a hundred denarii would be $1000.
Just forgiven a fortune, the slave wanted his thousand dollars!
Quite a difference.
So the master turns the evil slave over to be tortured.
And Jesus says his heavenly Father will do the same to every one of you if “you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
So, which God is yours?
The one who drowns Egyptians—and their horses too, I can’t get over that--who were turning back or the one who says to forgive and forgive and forgive?
I think I know your answer.
And I agree.
Forgive and Forgive and Forgive.
Always. Always. Always.
Shalom and Amen.
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