Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Exodus 33:12-23   Bold Prayers   If one find’s oneself in the presence of the British Monarch, one better behave appropriately.   In such rarified company, a guest is expected to arrive in advance of the monarch and leave before the royal exits the room.   In doing so, the guest must never turn their back to the monarch; such behavior is considered quite rude.   Do not initiate physical contact; that is not your place.   Shake only if shaken.   Do not speak unless spoken to; do not sit unless the monarch first sits; and do not eat unless you first witness food enter the mouth of the sovereign.   And ladies, if you curtsy, please remember to limit your curtsy to a short bob, “ keeping the back straight, hands by the side, dropping the knees slightly and bowing the head. ” [1]   Above all, be polite and civilized; you are meeting a royal after all.      Fortunately for him, Moses ...

  The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Exodus 32:1-14   Seen   They were afraid.   And they felt alone and abandoned.   They were stranded in that vast and hostile desert when Moses just walked away.   He left them.   And now, there was no one left to lead the way.   No one left to escort them to the Promised Land.   No one left to walk out in front, to hear and execute the divine navigation.   No one to rescue them from hot sands and parched skin, from this scorching purgatory.     They were shriveling in the sun, wasting away day by day, stuck in neutral.   They were miserable.   But it wasn’t their fault that Moses ditched or died.   It was just clear that Moses was out of the picture.   And so there was nothing to do, nothing to see.   And they desperately needed to catch a glimpse of something.   Aaron was the one Moses left in charge.   He was the backup, the placeholder. ...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Exodus 17:1-7   Water in the desert   The desert was dry The anxiety sky high The question was: why?   Why did God rescue them from slavery in Egypt only to leave them to die a more terrible death: a death of thirst, parched mouths terrorized by the ubiquitous dust, lips broken, organs failing?   Why would Moses and his miraculous staff hatch a brilliant escape plan but not map out the vast wilderness?   Why did it have to end this way?   Egypt wasn’t good.   But also it wasn’t death.   There they were abused by their taskmasters.   They were slowly erased, ground into the sandy ground.   It was suffering but suffering with water and food and so suffering they could, at least, survive.   In Egypt, they cried out to God in desperation but not this desperate; out in that dry desert the sands of time poured through the hourglass much more quickly.   In Egypt, the future was bl...