March 11                                                           Exodus 5:  1-6:1; Mark 9:  42-50

 

 

The passage from Exodus shows how hard it can be to follow the Lord.   The Israelites were in slavery under the Egyptians.  God told Moses and Aaron to tell Pharaoh "Let my people go, that they may celebrate a feast to me in the desert."  Pharaoh did not like to hear such talk and did not want his slaves taking time off from work to celebrate the Lord in the desert.  He then punished them by not providing straw for them to make their bricks.  They had to go get their own straw and still provide the same quota of bricks.  Pharaoh thought that by doing this they would keep their mind on work and pay no attention to the Lord.   Thus life was getting even harder for the slaves.  Moses and Aaron continually went back to the Lord asking why they should endure even more hardship.

 

The Lord continued to send them back to Pharaoh with messages to heed the Lord, and that the Israelites will be leaving the land to go to their new land.   The passage ends with Moses protesting to the Lord "Since I am a poor speaker, how can it be that Pharaoh will listen to me?"

 

The passage from Mark 9 discusses the importance of following the Lord. The Lord tells the twelve, "But it would be better if anyone who leads astray one of these simple believers were to be plunged in the sea with a great millstone fastened around his neck.  If your hand is your difficulty, cut it off!  Better for you to enter life maimed than to keep both hands and enter Gehenna with its

unquenchable fire."

 

Gehenna is not a good place but a bad place, a place of torment one could say.

 

We are human and can be weak.  These passages remind us to listen to the Lord and follow His teachings.

 

 

 

~ Teresa Olio