DOES YOUR APOLOGETIC EXPLANATION MISINTERPRET THE ALMIGHT GOD?
In Exodus chapter 5 we are told the story when and how Moses and Aaron for the first time came to the presence of tyrant Pharaoh asking his favor to let the children of Israel go. It was not a go for the Promised Land. Not yet. It was a request for 3-day journey into the wilderness for a worship time in fear of that God would destroy if they didn’t show up there. Take note that allowing them to do so would cost Egypt at least a week of no brick productivity. Take note that most of us don’t take a full day trip to attend a worship service? How far would it have taken you? Does distance matter to have a worship service? Compare when you do online worship service? How long will it take you to join?
Toward their request Pharaoh questioned them and refused it at all by saying, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, nor will I let Israel go” (Exodus 5:2). Moses and Aaron addressed their God as “the LORD God of Israel” or “the God of the Hebrews.” It was too small for our God to be introduced as such. And even worse, when Pharaoh said that he would not yield to the request, Moses and Aaron asked mercy from Pharaoh by saying bad thing about God, “Please, let us go three days’ journey into the desert and sacrifice to the LORD our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword” (Exodus 5:3). Did they losed their minds? How come they placed God as a cruel God who would not accept any excuse to worship Him?
Moses and Aaron offered two options to Pharaoh and Egyptians: letting them few days off or letting them die? The last option would mean a greater loss to Pharaoh than the loss of three days’ work. But Israelites’ life was not the issue here. Pharaoh and Egyptians were the ones who should pay their stubbornness.
As for us, does our apologetic explanation misinterpret our God and His character? Be careful on how we explain Him. Yes, our vocabulary is very limited in explaining our God. But remember to be careful on how we relate ourselves to Him and how we explain about Him. He is always true about His sublime characters and we need to express them through our words.