Exodus

It was time for Troop 326’s Fall Camporee. My scoutmaster inquired beforehand if everyone had a decent sleeping bag for the trip. I didn’t know what he meant by “decent”, but this was my very first trip and I wasn’t going to risk looking stupid by asking such a simple question. Besides… my Snoopy sleeping bag had served me faithfully on Cub Scout camping trips. Certainly it was a decent sleeping bag, right?

When I went home after the meeting, I informed my parents of Mr. Thompson’s unusual question. As I packed, my Mom fearfully pinned an extra blanket on the inside of my Snoopy sleeping bag. What happened over the next few days solidified my understanding of the relationship between altitude, air pressure, and geography.

See, I failed to factor in the terrain. Martinsville doesn’t get too cold in the winter. Rarely does it get below freezing until late December. In Martinsville, my Snoopy sleeping bag would have been sufficient. Camp Powatan, however, is in the heart of the Blue Ridge mountains. The temperature dropped well below freezing that Mid-October night. Every time I rolled-over, or wiggled an inch off the area by body had warmed, it was ice cold, so I slept motionless, trying not to fidget.

When I woke up, I felt dizzy and tired, but I dismissed it. I thought it was because I didn’t sleep well. My problem became more apparent when I couldn’t keep my breakfast down. When this happened, my scout leaders became concerned. Turns out, I was experiencing very early signs of hypothermia. Fortunately, Mr. Thompson’s truck was not too far away and my condition was not that serious. After about 20-25 minutes in the truck with the heater on I felt fine.

So, two life lessons learned.
1.) Being in the wilderness is hard.
2.) Experiencing in the wilderness makes me appreciate, long for the comforts of home.

You can only imagine how happy I was to get home after that hard weekend !

Wilderness is a big theme of Exodus. The first few verses of Exodus suggest there is a preexisting story going on. You see, Exodus is part of a bigger, longer story. It is a key part of the story of how God, in His splendor, majesty, and light, created the world out of His pleasure for our good. Despite God’s loving kindness, Man, who had been made in God’s own image, fell. Fellowship with God was broken. The rest of the Bible is the story of God’s redemption; how the Lord delivers, save, protects, and preserves His people. In the end, God creates a new heaven and a new earth, where He reigns supreme and dwells among His people for all time.

On another level, Exodus is a story in and of itself. It is the story of God redeeming a people for His name. We learn quickly that the good times of Joseph’s faithful stewardship ended and were forgotten. What’s worse, the Israelites have been enslaved ! Such brutality and injustice should make any reader pause and consider carefully if God, who in make a covenant with Abraham, would be faithful. So Exodus is the specific story of how God people have become enslaved and how God saved his people from bondage.

Finally, we find that Exodus is composed of smaller stories. It tells the story of how Moses, born as an Israelite slave in a time of racial genocide, was raised as a grandson of the very Pharaoh who’d ordered him killed. It tells the story of how Moses, who considers himself slow of speech, becomes God’s spokesperson. And many more…

The theme that I’ve been meditating on this week is wilderness. These last few weeks, I’ve found myself in the midst of hard, painful,emotional conversations; in situations where my concordance does not help me find clear black and white answers I crave. I don’t know what to say or do. These situations make me feel as if my life is slipping off the tracks; that I’m out of my league. It is as if my soul is experiencing early signs of hypothermia; dizzy and nauseous.

All I can do is live in the moment and acknowledge that this present wilderness is hard. I can look back on the covenants and meditate on promises of God. I can look forward to the day when I enter that happy, promised land of rest! Oh how I long for that happy day!