The Fugitive. The Blues Brothers. Catch me if you can. Thelma and Louise. What do all these films have in common? They are all stories of people on the run, who are fleeing, trying to escape. Some of them are innocent of what they are accused of, but most of them are guilty. Either way, the films follow the ups and downs, the near misses, the thrill of the chase.
In our series of services exploring the story of Moses we have come to the time when he fled, chased out of Egypt, in fear for his life.
But how did we get here? Last time we saw Moses, last Sunday morning, he was a little baby, being rescued from the Nile by an Egyptian princess, and being brought up in Pharoah’s household. The Prince of Egypt film and musical fill in the gap between verses 10 and 11 with a whole backstory of Moses and Rameses, the crown prince growing up together, and while it’s plausible it is entirely speculative, there is no suggestion in the Bible that this is what actually happened.
All we are told in the Bible is that Moses grew up and, one day, as an adult he went to visit his people.
We know that he was at least partly brought up by his own mother after he had been rescued from the Nile, so it’s at least possible that he kept in contact with his family and visited them regularly. Whether or not this was one of a series of visits or a one off, we don’t know, but we do know that on this occasion Moses witnessed something happening that made him snap.
He saw one of the Egyptians beating one of his fellow Hebrews, and in his anger he killed the Egyptian. I love that little bit of detail, “Glancing this way and that and seeing no-one.” I can just imagine Moses, furtively checking the surroundings, knowing that if anybody saw him or found out about it this could get him in trouble, only going ahead when the coast was clear.
Not clear enough, as it turns out.
The next day he goes out to visit the Hebrews again (suggesting perhaps that this was a regular thing) This time he sees two of the Hebrews quarrelling, and he challenges the aggressor. It’s but enough that the Egyptians beat you up, why are you beating each other up?
And then Moses world collapses.
What he had done the previous day was not a secret, it was common knowledge, and it is thrown back in his face by the ones he thought he was protecting. “Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?”
What is Moses immediate reaction to this revelation?
“Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”
It turns out that Moses was right to be afraid, what he had done had become known. It had become known to Pharaoh, who ordered that Moses be put to death, but Moses managed to escape, to flee to Midian, where we found a welcome and family that he wasn’t expecting, before, eventually being sent back to Egypt to finally go about the rescue of God’s people in the right way. But those events are for future weeks.
This morning, I’d like us to spend some time exploring Moses’ reaction to being found out.
Moses reaction to being found out is to flee. What is it that he is fleeing from? On the surface this is quite obvious. He is fleeing from the consequences of what he has been done being found out. There is a bill to pay, a punishment due, a judgement to be faced. His life is threatened, and so, quite understandably, he flees. But I wonder if there’s something deeper than this as well. I wonder if he is fleeing from the shame. Maybe because he’s ashamed of what he’s done. Maybe he’s ashamed that he has failed to be the rescuer that he knows his people need. Maybe he’s ashamed that rather than seeing him as a hero his own people have rejected him and informed on him.
Moses is afraid and flees from the consequences and from the shame.
As I was thinking about this, a couple of other situations in the Bible came to mind that seem to me to have similarities.
Right back at the beginning of the Bible we read the accounts of the creation of all things, including human beings, created in the image of God. We read of Adam and Eve and their relationship with God – close and loving.
We read that they were given a garden to live in, to delight in, with only one restriction. Not to eat of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. But they do not trust that God has their best at heart, and so disobey God, and chose to eat the fruit.
God came walking in the garden and they heard him coming, and hid from him, they fled from God. God called out to them, and Adam replied, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
Do you hear the echoes? Fear. Shame. Flight.
Jumping forward many centuries, we come to the night before Jesus died. He had shared a last meal with his friends and followers, and had gone out to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. While he was there Temple guards came to arrest him, and took him to the High Priest’s house to be put on trial. Simon Peter followed behind and went into the courtyard of the house where the trial was happening. Sat around the fire, Simon was challenged and accused of being one of Jesus’ followers. He denied it. Three times he was challenged, and three times he denied it, finishing up with, “I don’t know the man.”
In Luke 22 we read, “Just as he was speaking the cock crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him, “Before the cock crows today, you will disown me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly.
Do you hear the echoes? Fear. Shame. Flight.
I wonder if we recognise these reactions in our own lives when we are found out. When things we have done that we know were wrong come to light?
The good news for Moses, for Adam and Eve, for Peter – for us – is that the stories don’t end there. God doesn’t leave us alone in our fear, our shame, or our running away. He comes after us in love to calm our fears and heal our shame.
In a couple of weeks we’ll see Moses and God, face to face, talking together at a bush in flames. Moses is restored and renewed in his call to be the one who will rescue the people of God from their slavery, and is sent back to Egypt.
After Jesus was raised to life he met with Peter, and over a breakfast of grilled fish on the shores of lake Galilee, he forgave him, restored him, and commissioned him as pastor and shepherd of the church.
And Adam and Eve? Well, they were sent from the garden, but God did not abandon them or their descendents. Throughout the Bible we get messengers from God saying, “do not be afraid, I am with you, I will rescue.”
Jesus is the greatest expression of this. His name – Jesus – means “God rescues.” The other name he was given before his birth, Immanuel, means “God is with us”. The angels announcing his birth said, repeatedly, “Do not be afraid.” Jesus said it again and again. In him is the perfection of God’s love, and perfect love casts out fear.
Whatever fear or shame we are running from, God is after us. The hound of heaven will not relent in his pursuit of us. There is nothing that is done or said in secret that will not become known, for God is light and shines that light into every part of our lives.
That might sound like bad news, but it’s not. It’s good news. We do not need to be afraid or ashamed of our secrets, we do not need to run from them. God knows them already and sent Jesus to deal with the consequences of them on the cross, and the Holy Spirit to help us to step into the freedom that has been bought for us.
So – we can live, free from fear and shame, forgiven and released to be the people God created us to be, and to do the works that God prepared in advance for us to do. All we need to do is stop running. To allow God to catch us, to ask him to help us to face those things, and to deal with them, knowing that we’re not doing so alone, but are held with love and compassion.
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