An Intersection of Sorts

I have found myself at a pretty cool intersection of sorts. I am still making my (slow) way through Exodus, yet we are now in Lent. One 40 year journey will now coincide with a 40 day journey. Funny how life works out that way. There is more though, these two events both coincide in that in Exodus I imagine God thought that He had finally freed His people and things could continue on from there. It was not that simple though, so Jesus’ sacrifice was eventually needed to bring us back to God.

I’m reading through the Bible now with a bit of a more focused attention. I am looking for clues as to what God wants me to know about Him, and what is so important about His story. The Bible is God’s love letter to man (take that Valentine’s day), so where are we now?

Things started pretty good in Genesis when God made man, then man sinned and it has been a struggle since then. When Joseph rose to power, the future seemed very bright, however the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites setting back God’s plan to reclaim what was once His. In freeing the Israelites God had won His people back to Him. They could not possibly doubt His awesome power and love, could they? They saw the Red Sea part, the plagues, surely they knew God and things were ok, right?

As you know the Bible does not end at Exodus 20 (or whatever chapter), things go downhill quite quickly and the plot thickens as God continues to reveal Himself in hopes that He could show His people who He is and what He requires, hoping that could work. That’s why we have the law, so that we may know what God is like, and what He demands. If you could be perfect then you would have a perfect relationship with God because you would be with Him completely. We aren’t perfect though and no amount of plagues, wars, or prophets can change that fact.

Enter Jesus from stage right. That’s why He came here, because He is the only thing that can fix the mess we got ourselves in. I have been battling patellar tendonitis for the past year and a half, I tried everything—ice, rest, RICE, physical therapy. You name it I tried it. I have now faced a last resort in hopes of fixing my knee (which better work otherwise my baseball days are over). Our story is like that, we try and try but nothing quite remedies what we have. Finally Jesus came and stopped the bleeding.

I’m at a point where I can see the beginning and the end of God’s story to win us back. It’s not the romantic love story of the Shakespearean sonnet or the forlorn sonnets of Wyatt (points to those literary scholars who get the references); it is a love story of a Creator and creation, one of the best in my opinion.