Indeed...So Now, Go

"One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. " (Exodus 2:11)


Moses had grown up in Pharoah's palace, removed from the suffering of his own people.  This tells us of the moment that Moses saw that suffering with his own eyes.  We know he was angered by what he saw because the next verse says that he killed the Egyptian.  This is the incident that led him to flee from Egypt into Midian where God would later speak to him.


Cue the burning bush.


"The Lord said, 'I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.  So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.  And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.  So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.'" (Exodus 3:7-10)


This may be one of my favorite passages in the Bible.  The first thing that catches my intention is God's use of the word "indeed".  "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt."  It gives me the feeling that Moses had passionately questioned God about whether he had any idea about what was happening to His people in Egypt.  Moses had seen it.  Had God?  Did He care?  Why wasn't He doing anything about it.  I think these questions burned in Moses' heart the whole time he had been in Midian.  They were probably questions all of the Israelites in Egypt had asked at some point in their lives.  And here's God's answer:  I have indeed seen.  I have indeed heard. AND I AM CONCERNED!


Now here's the kicker!  God tells Moses that He has come down to rescue the Israelites from Egypt and bring them to a good land.  And then He tells him, "Ok, now go, 'cause I'm sending you to go do all this."  With His help, of course.


Perhaps before Moses asked God if He saw, if he heard, if he cared, God was asking Moses the same questions when he allowed him to see the suffering of his people.  Perhaps when we learn of some injusticeand it burns in our hearts and we ask God those questions He is asking them of us.  Perhaps He is revealing His heart to us and preparing us for a time when He plans to do something about it through us.  But He needs us to go into it with a heart like His.


Have you ever had that feeling?  Do you have it now?  Are you open to joining with God in doing something about it in whatever way He leads you?

The Veil Of Ignorance

Philosopher John Rwls proposed that justice is determined by asking what kind of society we would create from behind a hypothetical veil of ignorance.  This hypothetical veil of ignorance would prevent us from knowing anything about what our position in society would be, for example, whether or not we would be male or female, what our skin color would be, how much money we would have, etc.  Knowing nothing about our position in life other than having the possibility of ending up in the worst position would cause us to strive to create a society that would benefit even the people in the worst off situations.  This, according to Rawls, would lead to a just society.


Would it really, though?  Or is there something about knowing injustice through experiencing it either directly or indirectly that gives us  stronger reason to fight for justice?  Even though the veil of ignorance isn't a real possibility, I'd like to give a little thought to theses questions.


While I had been praying for Christians being persecuted in other countries and have acknowledged the persecution as horrific, there was still some disconnect emotionally.  That is, until Nigerien Christians got attacked and friends I had made there were filling my Facebook feed with prayer requests for loved ones, knowing that there are people that I care about serving over there, and seeing familiar sights in the pictures of burnt and looted churches.  That is, until I think of Burma and the others like the refugees I've helped while they've tried to adjust here in the States.


While I was in Niger, my mentor and I went through Kelly Minter's Nehemiah Bible study as Beth Moore went through it on her blog.  In one part of the study, Kelly invites the participants to get to know names and faces and emphasizes the importance of that.  I think what I am realizing is the impact of knowing names and faces.  There are many types of suffering in the world and by the grace of God not one us will experience all of them.  But there will be someone who will.  Numbers are overwhelming.  Mere descriptions in an article or some other form of media are impersonal and we may forget them with much of the other information we take in everyday.  It's a lot more difficult to forget a face, or a name, a story of suffering shared face to face.  The more you know and care about the people involved, the harder it pulls at your heartstrings and makes you want to do something about an injustice that has been done or try to alleviate suffering from natural causes.  This is why people tend to fight for causes that have personally affected them or some close to them.  Knowledge, as in intimate knowledge, combined with love packs a much bigger punch than ignorance about one's possible position in society.  It's difficult to imagine what it would like to be in any given position until we have lived it or known people that have, listened to their stories, and cared about them.


Jesus' ministry here on Earth was one of stepping into our stuffering and dwelling among us.  It was highly relational.  He didn't preach about what suffering was like and ask His disciples to imagine themselves in the worst possible position they could be in and go from there.  Not even close!  He commanded them to go out and misister to those who were suffering injustice.  This involved some kind of personal contact.  It involved names and faces and testimonies.  It involved experiencing other people's suffering to some degree.  Bearing other people's burdens.  It meant fighting injustice not merely because you could have been in the same position, but because there are people that God loves and died for that are in that position and loving them because He loves them and because He loves you.  It seems to me like this is a more accurate description of how justice prevails.