After having Moses read the Book of the Covenant to Israel, Exodus 20:22-23:19, 24:1-8, God invited Aaron, his sons Nadab and Abihu and the elders of Israel to accompany Moses on one of his several trips up Mt. Sinai. God let them enjoy the Glory of his Presence without destroying them Exodus 24:9-11. Moses left Aaron and Hur in charge of Israel while he and Joshua regained the summit Exodus 24:12.
However, 40 days later, when the rabble tired of waiting for Moses to re-appear from the mountain, they demanded a change of leaders and deities. Aaron, with Hur's compliance, immediately collapsed before their depravity. Where Moses had boldly encouraged a terrified Israel at the Red Sea, "Don't be afraid," Aaron supinely said to rebellious Israel at Sinai, "You scare me." Where Moses earlier told a fearful Israel to "go forward," Aaron cravenly promised, "I'll build you a deity." God obviously chose the right man in Moses to serve in crisis. He exercised his leadership by moving Israel forward into the Sea. Aaron abandoned his leadership by letting apostates carry him into apostasy WITH THEM. Then, having second thoughts, wanted to combine the worship of an obscene calf with submission to Almighty God! A spiritual lesson lurks in their respective experiences. We may take strength from a stronger Christian and think that makes us strong. But we won't KNOW until we STAND ALONE! We can always borrow confidence from others and think theirs includes us. But no...only personally- gained-faith generates personally-strong discipleship when we're challenged to produce the fruit of the Spirit. Then discipleship isn't, "what I've seen in my brothers or sisters," but, "what I've personally learned from and experienced with Jesus." We're not alone as Christians. But we often serve alone. We often face crises alone. We make decisions alone. And when alone we decide how to respond when hearing comments for or against Jesus. We can always be sure God calls the right person to lead—a church, a family, a relationship. As Moses' decision proved when choosing Aaron and Hur to lead in his absence, WE can always, and often do, choose the wrong people. How many times have church leaders hired the "right person" as a minister, only to discover he was "WRONG" for them? Fini
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Taking courage from his younger brother, Aaron stood with Moses as his spokesman before Pharaoh. However, no one in the court had to wonder which originated the demands made on or merely announced to the unrelenting monarch.
So it continued throughout that year as God Almighty fulfilled every threat Moses originated and Aaron announced. Plague by plague marked God's judgment in devastating displays on Egypt's pantheon. So it remained when Moses stood before terrified Israelites at the seashore as Pharaoh's chariots thundered across the Plain, the king determined to retake by force what had been taken from him by force. Aaron standing alongside, Moses raised his shepherd's staff before a quiescent sea and shouted it APART! The winds God had sent throughout the night from the deserts of Arabia had stopped at the sea, piling into a maelstrom of deafening, crashing turmoil upon turmoil, awaiting the divine command. Listening for that very moment to serve the Living God, and hearing it from across the waters, it instantly re-formed itself from towering masses of violence into soaring Wedges of desiccating wind charging into waters with heat that dried the sea floor, acre by acre, into solid earth as they piled waters into countless layers of wet hanging above. Until, across the miles where sea water previously washed, dry land by the mile appeared—a highway to safety for the distressed Israelites, a death trap for the invading Egyptians. That great deliverance just began God's Glories and should have given Aaron his younger brother's faith. And maybe it did, until he faced a crisis all alone. End Part II The tent-loving Jacob offered no competition to outdoorsman Esau in impressing Isaac. The Patriarch openly favored his older son, particularly the savory dishes he prepared when returning from game hunting. In a divided-allegiance household, Mother Rebekah favored Jacob.
The entire family seemed wedded to deceit when crisis occurred or danger threatened. Abram began it, Isaac continued it, Rebekah employed it, Jacob embodied it, Laban perfected it, Rachel adopted it and Jacob's son exercised it. For his first 97 years Jacob earned the sobriquet of deceiver. However, knowing that God himself chose Jacob to carry on the messianic line, Genesis 25:19-23, Isaac refused to accept it. Do not overlook his sin in favoring Esau simply because he loved his culinary skills. In essence, they shared equally in guilt: where Esau merely expressed his godless nature, God-fearing Isaac expressed disrespect of God's explicit will. A heinous forfeiture of his role as Patriarch sworn to observe God's will and impose God's rule in his family. Isaac would have squandered God's will for a bowl of soup as Esau DID! End Part I As a wagon train in 1864 stopped by the Platte River for lunch, they noticed a few Indians in the distance riding back and forth, charging, then retreating. Since the train’s horses had wandered into the valley away from the wagons, the Indians’ behavior seemed threatening. When the few Indians first seen became many Indians rising from hiding places, and racing on ponies towards the grazing herd, it was clear they intended to stampede the horses.
Anna Dell Clinkenbeard’s father stood in front of his wagon, at the head of the rest. Seeing the danger he quietly called his two grazing horses to come, and they instantly obeyed. As he led them back towards his wagon, other horses they passed in transit turned and followed until other men in the train rushed forward to secure their mounts. By the time the onrushing Indians came to the train they found armed men awaiting. Foiled in their desire to steal, they became docile. Had it not been that Anna’s dad coolly and quickly called his horses, then marched them back through the others, disaster may have supervened. We cannot tell when the action of one, or a few, people can change the day. Diary – Anna Del Clinkenbeard – Journey Across Prairies to Oregon. From The Paper, November 28, 2013. On June 22, 1881, a saloon in Tombstone, Arizona, decided a barrel of whiskey was too bad to drink. They rolled the offending barrel into the street to prepare for its return to the manufacturer. They popped the bunghole to measure the amount still in the barrel. Unfortunately, a man in the group lit a cigar and a spark from it fell into the bunghole. A massive explosion began a fire that turned four downtown city blocks of wooden buildings into ruins.
Unscrupulous owners of the Townsite Company immediately hired loafers and drifters to move on the vacant lots—possession being 9/10 of the law—and it seemed that Tombstone would experience another kind of explosion, with fire erupting from pistols. The dispossessed owners demanded protection. Ben Sippy, then town chief of police had left town on June 6 “for a two-week leave of absence.” They turned to Virgil Earp as his temporary substitute. He proved more than adequate for the challenge. With a posse of trusted deputies, including brothers Morgan and Wyatt, Virgil visited every lot in dispute to warn each lot-jumper to vacate and let the court decide who owned it. When some refused and retired to their tent, the posse lassoed the tent poles and dragged the tent into the street. The jumpers grumbled, but complied. For this action, Virgil Earp was hired as permanent chief of police. In addition he kept his part-time position as U.S. deputy marshal. The Last Gunfight, 167-169. The train carrying Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show to winter quarters in 1901 collided with another locomotive. Several persons died in the accident. More than a hundred were injured, among them Annie Oakley, Geronimo’s “Little Miss Sure-Shot.”
Husband Frank Butler pulled her unconscious from the wreckage. In the hospital afterwards he paced the room, always returning to her bedside, watching. She teetered between life and death that night. He saw a remarkable transformation as she did. Her thick chestnut hair began to change color. It continued to change over the next 17 hours. At the end of that time the doctors said she would survive but might not walk or shoot again. At the end of that time, her chestnut hair had turned white. She did walk again. She did shoot again. Two years later she appeared at the traps of a New Jersey gun club. She called, “Pull”, instantly cradled the gun to her shoulder and splintered the target. Annie Oakley smiled and said, “...Good as ever!” But she was never again the chestnut-haired woman. Without her knowledge, under duress she had never before experienced, those 17 hours hovering between life and death aged her body, if not her shooting skill. Crisis can prematurely age us. Great American Folklore, 491-492. |
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