Other-Help From God

"I have made you like God to Pharaoh..." Exodus 7:1

Other-Help From God
By Rev. William Dohle

I am not a real big self-help fan.

There's a time and a place for them, true, but so many of the books on helping yourself, especially the Christian ones, turn my stomach.  They seem so...selfish, as if the only thing that really matters in life to God is YOU being the best YOU you can be.  Ultimately at the center of the universe, what really matters is...you!  God's there to help...but to help YOU.  Listen to the titles of some of the popular books today and see if you can't hear that for yourself...

"I Declare!"

"Change Your Words.  Change your Life."

"The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around What You Want"

"What on Earth Am I Here For?"

The reason I struggle with self-help books isn't because God doesn't want us to be happy.  He does.  It's not because He doesn't promise power.  He does.  But why he promises both of these...that's another question.  In today's reading from Exodus, God promises a whole lot of power to a rather powerless Moses and Aaron.

"See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it."(Ex. 7:1-4)
  
Wow!  What power God has given Moses!  "I have made you like God!"  That's pretty powerful.  And Aaron has been made into Moses' prophet, to say what Moses tells him to.  That's real power there!  Between the two of them, they are to free God's people Israel.

But notice who the power is for.  It's not for Moses.  It's not so that Moses can have a comfortable life or that Moses can earn lots of money, have a big house, a gorgeous wife, a nice life, and go to heaven after he dies.  God doesn't give Moses power for himself.  Instead God has empowered Moses to help others.  Its for the people of Israel, for his countrymen, that Moses will be God.  It's for God's people, Israel, that Moses is given such power and authority.  It's for others...not for himself.

Should Moses ever turn and use his powers for himself, that power will disappear.  God is doing this for Israel.  Not just for Moses.  Moses is included in God's redemption, true, but as part of the larger people of Israel.

The same applies to us too.  The Holy Spirit calls, enlightens, sanctifies, and keeps us...but it does so as we are in service to others.  As we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and the imprisoned, and welcome the stranger.  In other words: When we are attending to the needs of others.

When we do this, when we attend to those needs, THEN (and only then I would argue) does the power of God rest upon us.  When we turn that power upon ourselves and center the world on us and our problems and our happiness and our own fulfillment, than God's strength wanes.  God himself is seldom to be found in such self-seeking, self-centered living.  Or God is used as anything else.  A means to the end and not the end itself. 

We have given into self-help too much.  We have forgotten that we cannot help ourselves.  Self-help is a lie!  It is God who helps us.  We have forgotten that the focus of our lives is not ourselves.  It is truly God and others.  As the two greatest commandments say: "Love God...and love your neighbor as yourself."  Those are the greatest commandments and the only thing we are truly empowered for in this world.

So try this...invest your life in others.  Get out of the tragic therapeutic circle that centers your attention on yourself and your problems and see how God steps in.  Feed the hungry at your local shelter and see how good it makes you feel.  Give something to someone in need and see how your own day is brightened.  Reach out to others.  Share the power of God.  It's not easy (it certainly wasn't for Moses)...but it's worth it!

I am trapped, Lord, in only thinking of myself instead of thinking of you and others first.  Release me from this trap and empower me to serve.  Amen.