Irony

Day 11: Exodus 1–5; Psalms 19–24; Mark 1–3


I love a good laugh. Irony is especially the joy of those with a sharp wit.  Ironic humor is delivered with a pause waiting for the audience to "get it."

One of my favorite quotes about irony comes from the film ConAir in which a psychotic serial killer muses while watching the newly liberated criminals drinking and dancing in celebration to Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama."  He says, "Define irony. Bunch of idiots dancing on a plane to a song made famous by a band that died in a plane crash."

This is how I understand irony: what is said is something more than what is literally conveyed.  Just a few Sundays ago my wife, Michele, was commissioned as a Stephen Ministry Leader (www.stephenministries.org).  The senior pastor asked me as one of the other pastors if I would love her. And he interjected "as I know you do."   The ironic comedic pause was just too much for me to pass up.  I turned my gaze ever so slowly outward to the congregation and the laughter erupted.  Something more was being implied than what the liturgy had said. 

As I began Exodus and the gospel of Mark today, irony is what I see all over the page.  Joseph saved all of Egypt, but a new Pharaoh didn't know about him?  How can that happen?  Of course, I know how short our memory is.  There are many people who do not know the Beatles.  How can that be possible?  It's the music of "yesterday."  (smirk)  Let the reader understand (Mat. 24:15).

More irony: Moses is raised by his own mother and paid to do so by the daughter of the king who would have had him killed just because he was a Hebrew baby boy. 

More irony: Moses' mother placed Moses in a basket to float above the river of death, the Nile, where Hebrew boys were being drown by the Egyptians.  I see an echo of God placing Noah and his family in the ark to float above the great flood in which all living creatures and wicked humanity perished.  But the deliverance is not simply from Moses' mother hope.  His saving is through the river's current, the watchful eye of his sister and her courageous choice to approach the Egyptian Princess, and of course the princess' compassion for the baby.  Clearly more is going on here than meets the eye.  God is at work.

Moses grows up in the palace of the king of Egypt as an adopted grandchild. And as a young man Moses confronts two Hebrews fighting one another and calls them to account.  They ask him, "who made you ruler and judge over us?"  How ironic indeed!  God is doing just that. 

In every synagogue that Jesus entered there is the seat of Moses (Matthew 23:2).  The ruler of the synagogue represents the authority of the law as given through Moses.  God speaks to Moses and Moses is as god to Aaron (Ex. 4:16) who carries out the priestly duties and teaches the law of Moses to Israel.

Moses runs from Pharaoh because he murdered an Egyptian taskmaster in a rage over the injustice he witnessed against Hebrew slaves.  He runs to Midian to take refuge.  Again more irony!  The Midianites, future enemies of Israel (Judges 6:1-6), are the very ones who sold Joseph as a slave in the markets of Egypt.  The Midianites are descendants of Abraham through his wife Keturah.  By the time they carry Joseph away they are known also by the name Ishmaelites (Gen. 39:1), the first born of Abraham through the Egyptian slave Hagar!  Isn't that ironic? 

Now the prince of Egypt, a Hebrew born to slaves, descendant from Levi (future tribe of priests), one of the 70 Hebrews who traveled to Egypt during the 7 year famine, takes refuge among the people who had a hand in his people's oppression!

Moses lives in the household of the priest of Midian, Jethro/Reuel, and takes his daughter as his wife.  He become a shepherd and is called by God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Like a shepherd leads a flock of sheep into the wilderness to find pasture, Moses is empowered to lead the people of Israel out of slavery and into a land flowing with milk and honey (Ex. 3:8b).

Even Moses' name is ironic.  Pharaoh's daughter names him Moses, because she drew him out of the water (Ex. 2:10).  Moses sounds like the Hebrew word for "drawing out."  Now God will draw the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt through His servant Moses.

Moses sees a bush burning in flames of fire, but it does not burn up.  It is the holy fire of God.  That same fire burns in Jesus, but for Him it is a gentle dove that lights on Him at his rising up out of the waters of the Jordon River.  Moses, the deliverer who leads the people of Israel out of slavery, prefigures, Jesus, the deliverer of all humanity out of slavery to sin and death.

Jesus' early ministry experiences are like a little exodus story.  Moses is drawn out of the river, a prince of Egypt.  Jesus is baptised in a river, the king of Israel.  Moses flees the ire of Pharaoh into the desert for a time of 40 years, then is sent as deliverer for the slaves.  Jesus is driven into the wilderness by the gentle dove-like Spirit to fast, pray, prepare and endure the temptations of Satan before he begins His ministry of deliverance.  Both are servants of God and claims His reign and authority in the midst of cruel oppression (Egypt and Rome). 

Even though he feared, Moses grabs the serpent by the tail because God was with him.  Jesus resisted the devil, that serpent from old (Rev. 12:9).  And Jesus, the new Adam, fairs better than Adam.  His self control and obedience to God is rewarded with help from angels.  Adam was driven from paradise and angels guarded the way back to the Tree of Life with flaming swords.  Now Jesus, "the Way" to eternal life faces down the old serpent in the wilderness and opens for us the opportunity to taste of the Tree of Life (Rev. 2:7).

God is the owner of all the earth and its inhabitants (Psa. 24:1) and the one to whom kingship belongs (Psa. 22:28).  So it I celebrate the greatest irony!  God is ruler and judge over us all whether we recognize that something more is going on or not.  He appoints obedient servants like Moses to share in His work to deliver and save us from every oppression. Ultimately God comes to us in Jesus to deliver us from our greatest enemy...Death.