Nougat 1

As a child growing up with several siblings and extended family members around most of the time, life was good. But, as is often the case, we had our moments of petty squabbles. Sometimes, they didn’t seem so petty to us (usually me) and resolution was very hard to come by. At those times, my mom was obliged to help us (me) determine how big a deal the issue was. Usually, the first (often the last) warning would be, “Don’t let me come over there” (i.e. wherever we were). And, while it was not a warning to take lightly, I also knew that if someone did one of her girls wrong, thinking that it was only my mom, they were in for it! Because my mom does NOT play when it comes to her children!

The thing is – NEITHER does God!

It may not always feel that way, but today’s Holy Nougat provides the assurance that when God says enough, then we really ought to hear, “Don’t let me come over there!”

“Then the Lord told him, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live.” Exodus‬ ‭3:7-8‬ ‭NLT‬‬

And that’s how it seems to work also. God sees us, gives ‘the Look’, and continues watching. (I tell you – if you don’t know the Look, consider yourself either well behaved or a lot spoiled. The Look stopped us in our tracks when misbehaving in church or in public. And no, this is NOT about child abuse.) In many cases when the Look was not noticed or ignored, and far often when that happened, there would soon be a wail. Someone did not enjoy the horsing around.

When the wail sounded, we often got busy, trying to look innocent (failing miserably). And no one ever knew what really happened. And, if my mom didn’t seem to be in earshot, we’d try to shush the wailing child. Sometimes even using bribes. How often do we attempt to cover up our wrongs before God ‘hears’ the cries of the innocent pleading for justice. We even delude ourselves that God’s apparent inaction means that we are justified in our wrongs, or that God is deaf and cannot/will not intervene.

No no no. Remember Isaiah 59 which says God is neither deaf nor suffering from a short hand. The God who saves is also the One Who disciplines wrongdoers, so if God saves us and we then are guilty of wrongdoing, well …

That cry, the cry of Ishmael in the wilderness, the desperation of Hagar in her distress, the groans of the Hebrews under pharaoh, the desperation of women, girls, men and boys in situations of oppression throughout the ages does not get ignored. That cry is NOT ignored.

And just like my mom and many other parents the world over, God comes down to establish justice. That’s when ‘story come to bump’. We may even get an opportunity to ‘prove’ our innocence, our transformation, as pharaoh and his cohorts did. What do we then do with those opportunities – for sometimes they are many – do we ignore the warnings, or do we blithely continue with the knowledge that God is ever-loving and will not hold us accountable for our actions?

When we are the one awaiting God’s justice, it may seem like forever (Psalm 13:1 captures that for us). But let us hold to the assurance, ‘weeping endures for a loooooooooooooooooooooong night, but there is hope and scope for a new day when Joy will arrive. (Psalm 30:5)

The even greater assurance/comfort we find is in God’s promise to lead us out of the situations of oppression. For there are moments when we can’t even see our way out. Moments when we are too weak to take the freedom or rescue that God effects on our behalf. Especially when our rescuer is in hiding.

So I pray today that if we are in situations of oppression, that we will experience God’s comfort and intervention, leading us out of our current situation into spaces of life and freedom. And if – God forbid – we are the ones effecting oppression against another, then let us STOP, take stock and repent of our actions, for we really don’t want God to have to come down there.

May God’s grace be with us all.

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May all we seek be found in Christ