Title: In the wilderness
in the wilderness
words that start
Did you guys sleep peacefully the night you went? I should be able to sleep peacefully, but yesterday I couldn't. Candlelight gatherings were held in 99 cities and counties across the country over the US beef issue. It is probably the first time since the March 1st Movement in 1919 that such simultaneous uprisings have occurred. There is an old saying, 'Don't play with what you eat!', but the government is playing with what you eat, and now it is driving all the people into suffering. It's very sad and frustrating. Today is Environment Day. It is worship that considers the circumstances of our life within the will of God.
Our environment seems to be getting better in the name of civilization, but in reality, although it looks gorgeous on the outside, modern civilization is slowly killing the earth. In a world that is slowly dying, people are also dying together.
What about the United States, which is said to be the most developed country in civilization? Thousands of people die every year in the United States from diet-related reasons. There are more people who suffer from disease because of their diet than there are who suffer from hunger. The majority of Americans suffer from the disease. Especially in the battle against obesity. This is the so-called civilization disease. Behind the scenes, there are huge companies looking for money.
There are people who make money under the name of civilization. Grain prices are skyrocketing due to the pranks of the giant grain merchants who shake the world and turn them into a game board for their money, and poor countries are plunged into a crisis of starvation. The giant oil traders and their speculations are causing people all over the world to suffer. And the giant arms dealers buy power with money and use that power to shake the world. The power and power they have is an invisible power and an empire, so powerful that no single country can defend it. This is the dark side of civilization.
civilization and disaster
Let's listen to the words of Exodus right in this turbulent world. The background of today's message is the great-looking Egyptian civilization. Huge Egypt symbolized by the pyramids and sphinx, the civilized world where people conveniently live with beautiful canals and dams along the Nile River, and another people who groan and suffer behind the splendor. They are people who live a life that has nothing to do with that civilization, and rather that civilization is a pain and suffering for them.
go out into the wilderness
But God called them through Moses. He heard the groans and cries of pain of these Habiru. So he calls them out of the wilderness. He promised a new land, but the new land was not given to them, but he called them into the wilderness first. God calls the Hebrew people to abandon civilization and choose the wilderness. And he brings calamity to Egypt, which is enjoying civilization.
It is a disaster in which the Nile River is stained with blood. It is a disaster in which the river, which he was confident he could control with the power of civilization, could no longer be eaten. “The fish of the Nile will die, and the water will stink, and the Egyptians will not want to drink it” (verse 18).
Gentlemen, this plague on the river is the first of the ten plagues that came upon the Egyptians. It can be seen that the contents of the remaining nine disasters that follow are environmental disasters. In a word, it is a judgment against civilization. I see God's judgment on Egypt as a judgment of civilization.
Let's take a closer look at the contents of the disaster.
- The Nile is turned into blood and it smells and is inedible. They can't get water, so they dig the banks of the river to get water. It is like the logic of building the Grand Canal and digging around the river to get water.
- dead water