A New Thing

April 7, 2020

Nearly 3,000 years ago, the psalmist asked the question, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3) I suppose the answer depends on what the foundations are. It’s easy to imagine that as followers of the Cornerstone Jesus Christ, he is of course, our Foundation for life, but times like we are experiencing have a way of exposing reality and imagination. 

For people who have known a good life, it’s hard to imagine a better one, and if we cannot imagine a better future, how is it possible to get there? Life has been pretty good to me. I have been blessed with salvation, family, friends who would do most anything for me, health, and financial resources that we imagined would carry us through to the end of this life. It’s easy to talk about faith when you don’t really have to trust God for tomorrow. Now that the false foundations are being destroyed, we must ask where we find those that are real and eternal.

This coronavirus, terrible as it is, may be God’s wake up call to examine our foundations. We are like the children of Israel enslaved in Egypt. It was bad, but they couldn’t see it because it was all they had ever known. Then along comes Moses, casting a vision of a new, different, and better life. At first, it sounded good, until Pharaoh refused to let them go and increased their burdens. Moses did his best, but they still couldn’t see. Finally, the Scriptures tell us that Pharaoh “thrust them out.” (Exodus 12:39) This was so sudden, they didn’t even have time to et their bread for the journey rise. 

In the Biblical narrative of the Exodus, Moses towers over the story. However, in the. Haggadah, the Jewish ritual for the Passover Seder feast, Moses’ name only appears once, so in the retelling of the story, there would be no temptation to ascribe their deliverance to human initiative. God is the actor, the Protagonist in this drama. He is the One who through the strength of his arm set his people free—even when they weren’t sure they wanted to be. 

I suspect God is doing a similar thing today, tearing us from our habits and lifestyles and thrusting us into a wilderness where we have no alternative but to trust him. It’s not easy trudging through the desert, but when we aren’t willing to let go of the familiar voluntarily, God isn’t above pressing the issue. If you know the story, you know that very few of the escapees actually made it to the Promised Land. Their stubborn longing to return to Egypt kept them from experiencing the joy of God’s promise. I don’t know what that future will be like for us, but I do know the God through whose hand it comes. May we cease resisting, cease clinging to what we have known, and learn to cooperate with the New Thing God is bringing forth.