The Moses Moment: The Children of Israel and Our Children



King Memorial Fountain (Moses Striking the Rock) Washington Park, Albany, NY

As I look at the recent events that flood the News, through the eyes of a young man slowly transitioning into a middle-aged man, I am reminded of the story of Moses. The Scriptures tell us about the life of Moses in two segments: his story as a (below 40) younger man and his story as an (above 80) older man. Even if we are not between those two age groups, we still often find ourselves deciding between which of these two stories (played out within the life of one man) that we want to be. It is in that undecided space that we discover who we are, who we will chose to be and who God is.

One day the younger Moses looked down and saw the injustice inflicted upon an oppressed people... his own people. He saw how generations of Israelites were crushed under the harsh hand of the Egyptian Empire. At that moment there stirred within him the will to act against the inequitable system that allowed for such suffering. When Moses saw an Egyptian beating an Israelite slave he rose his hand in violence and murdered the Egyptian. Then Moses fled as a wandering fugitive in the desert while his Israelite brethren stayed in the House of Pharaoh as slaves.

One day the Lord looked down and saw the injustice inflicted upon an oppressed people... His own people. He saw how generations of Israelites were crushed under the harsh hand of the Egyptian Empire. At that moment there stirred within Him the will to act against the inequitable system that allowed for such suffering. He remembered Moses, the young freedom fighter in Egypt who was now an elderly shepherd in the desert. God remembered the longing for justice that burned within the heart of Moses, for He was the one who placed it there. He would send Moses back to Egypt to free His children from their oppression... but He would not send Moses back to fight with violence. For the Lord Himself would fight for the Israelites. And in doing so He would let the world know that the God of Israel is the God of the Oppressed. The God of Israel is the God of Justice.

You may remember the rest of the story from Bible stories, sermons, cartoons or cinema. I sure do. It is a story filled with mighty feats, miracles and all types of special effects. All things that are hard to believe because none of us have ever seen them occur with our own eyes. Or have we? 

Fredda Brilliant's statue of Mahatma Gandhi
in Tavistock Square London

I remember talking with my grandfather about the mighty acts of God that he had seen in his youth. One day the Lord looked down and saw the injustice inflicted upon an oppressed people... His own people. He saw how generations in India were crushed under the harsh hand of the British Empire.  At that moment there stirred within Him the will to act against the inequitable system that allowed for such suffering. He remembered Gandhi, the young Civil Rights activist for Indians in South Africa who was now an aged freedom fighter in India. God remembered the longing for justice that burned within the heart of Gandhi, for He was the one who placed it there. He would lead Gandhi in India to free His children from their oppression... but He would not send Gandhi to fight with violence. For the Lord Himself would fight for India. And in doing so He would let the world know that the God of India is the God of the Oppressed. The God of India is the God of Justice.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial by Lei Yixin, Washington D.C.

I remember listening to my parents talk about the mighty acts of God that they had seen in their youth. One day the Lord looked down and saw the injustice inflicted upon an oppressed people... His own people. He saw how generations Black Americans were crushed under the harsh hand of Jim Crow Era Segregation. At that moment there stirred within Him the will to act against the inequitable system that allowed for such suffering. He remembered Martin Luther King, Jr., the young Black Baptist preacher in Civil Rights movement who was becoming a middle-aged freedom fighter in the American South. God remembered the longing for justice that burned within the heart of Dr. King, for He was the one who placed it there. He would lead Martin Luther King all across America to free His children from their oppression... but He would not send Dr. King to fight with violence. For the Lord Himself would fight for Black Americans. And in doing so He would let the world know that the God of Black America is the God of the Oppressed. The God of Black America is the God of Justice.

Marco Cianfanelli's sculpture at Nelson Mandela Capture Site outside the town of Howick in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Now that I have grown older. I remember the mighty acts of God that I saw in my own youth. One day the Lord looked down and saw the injustice inflicted upon an oppressed people... His own people. He saw how generations of South Africans were crushed under the harsh hand of Apartheid.  At that moment there stirred within Him the will to act against the inequitable system that allowed for such suffering. He remembered Nelson Mandela, the young freedom fighter for people of Color (both Blacks and Indians) in South Africa who was now an elderly inmate on Robben Island. God remembered the longing for justice that burned within the heart of Mandela, for He was the one who placed it there. He would lead Mandela as the head of the African National Congress and then as the president of the Republic of South Africa to free His children from their oppression... but he would not send Mandela to fight with violence. For the Lord Himself would fight for South Africa. And in doing so He would let the world know that the God of South Africa is the God of the Oppressed. The God of South Africa is the God of Justice.

Trayvon Martin

We live in a world that is rife with injustice. Our Facebook timelines are overwhelmed with stories about Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner. While the cable news programs cover these tragedies, the news ticker at the bottom of the screen slides text by that updates us about the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong. The unifying theme in all of these narratives is the resulting public protests that flood cities. Protests that are led by a younger generation that was inspired by the changes of Arab Spring and that uses the same Social Media tactics to speak out and organize. In the life of every protest movement there comes a Moses Moment: when those whose hearts burn for justice must chose to seek the good of the oppressed with either the means of violence or the measures of peace. Every movement has to chose if it  I 

Michael Brown

am not writing this to dishonor their suffering, dismiss their pain or place unjust judgment on either. The easy thing to do would be to tell you that those who chose to be like the I.R.A. were all bad people. Life is not that simple. They are people with limited power (like me and you) who felt oppressed and wanted it to stop. It would also be easy for me to tell you that those who laid down their weapons like Chief Joseph went off to win the battle... but that would be a lie.  I can, however, tell you that if we continue to react to injustice with violence both the oppressor and the oppressed lose. I can tell you that the Lord has called us to fight with our hearts instead of our hands. As the Lord revealed to Moses, Gandhi, Dr. King and Mandela, we are all God's children. And as much as we are all like the ancient Israelites, we also all have a little ancient Egyptian in us too. The desire to

Eric Garner

oppress our oppressors is still oppression. We live in God's world. We live in a time that He has destined us for. We live in the midst of injustice that He has called us to bring to justice. We live with the mission to comfort the oppressed... but He did not send us to fight with violence. If we refrain from lifting our hand in violence but rather lift our brother in service then God will lift His mighty hand to save us. That is the nature of uplifting the community.

Now is the time that we must live with a mature faith in the future. The faith of the older Moses. So that one day we will all remember the mighty acts that God did for our youth. That day that the Lord looked down and saw the injustice inflicted upon an oppressed people... His own people. When He saw how all of us were crushed under the harsh hands of each other.  We will remember that moment when there stirred within Him the will to act against the inequitable system that allowed for such suffering. That moment when He remembered you and me, the young freedom fighters of every color in this world imprisoned in the age old system of oppression, vengeance and hatred. We will reflect on how God remembered the longing for justice that burned within our hearts, for He was the one who placed it there. We will smile as we think back on how He led us to free His children from their oppression... but He did not send us to fight with violence. For the Lord Himself fights for all of us. Because the Lord fights oppression with freedom, vengeance with forgiveness and hatred with love. And in doing so He lets the world know that the God who rules the whole world is the God of the Oppressed. The God of the Universe is the God of Justice.

Our God is the God of Peace.



Statue by Michelangelo — in Basilica San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome