2016 Belmont University Lenten GuideSample

All three of the Scripture passages for today reassure us of God’s protection and care for us. Psalm 91 contains beautiful imagery of the divine refuge offered to those who love and seek the Lord. One of the most vivid is the psalmist’s picture of God as a mother bird who protectively covers her chicks under her wings (Psalm 91:4, echoed by Jesus in Matthew 23:37). But humans throughout history, right down to us today, often push this protection away, or fail to recognize it. The Exodus passage is a particularly thought-provoking example. In Exodus 5, Moses first approaches Pharaoh with a request to liberate the Hebrews from their slavery. Pharaoh responds by increasing the enslaved people’s workload; he won’t give them the straw they need to make bricks, but expects the same daily production. Moses, unsurprisingly, is not too impressed by this result; God, after all, had promised Moses that Moses’ mission was to be God’s messenger to free the Israelites, not make their situation even worse. When Moses pours out his anger (even asserting in 5:22–23 that God has mistreated God’s people and “done nothing at all to deliver your people!”), God responds with a restatement of the covenant promises to Israel: God will liberate them from Egypt, give them the land of Canaan, and be faithful as a covenant partner with Abraham and his descendants (5:2–8). The most interesting verse here to me, though, is Exodus 5:9: “Moses told this to the Israelites; but they would not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and their cruel slavery.” No kidding, huh? It’s hard to trust promises of liberty and independence in the midst of oppression. This Lent, let’s consider where in our world people are so trapped by “cruel slavery” and “broken spirits” that they can’t even conceive of God’s love and protection. How am I, how are you, how are we contributing to or participating in that oppression? How might God be calling us to offer liberation and healing to one another? Love and hope are the gifts that God gives to the world, and we accept them when we share them. May we lift the burdens of the slave, the broken-hearted, the refugee, the victim of violence, the homeless, those we have marginalized. May we thus make God’s promise of protection and faithfulness a reality, that the words of Moses might ring true for all people. AMANDA MILLER Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies College of Theology & Christian Ministry