Healing and Hope

Read Exodus 6:1–13

Moses told this to the Israelites, but they would not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and their cruel slavery (v. 9).

In this passage from Exodus 6 Moses has just finished telling the enslaved Israelites in considerable detail all that God has promised to do for them, such as delivering them from their bondage, taking them as God’s special people, and leading them into the land God had promised their ancestors as a homeland. But the writer demonstrates his insight into the human condition in recording their response: “They would not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and their cruel slavery” (v. 9).

The Israelites have a problem. Because of their physical slavery, their bodies are so downtrodden that their minds have fallen into bondage as well. The writer says that they would not listen to Moses’s declarations of God’s good intent, but I would go a step further. I would say that they cannot hear these assurances and take them at face value. Their downtrodden minds cannot conceive of any meaningful help coming their way; they hear these promises as no more than gibberish. They are stuck in their mental and emotional slavery and cannot perceive of a God of delivering love.

There are people in this world—I would go so far to say that there are very likely people in your own life—whose minds and hearts are enslaved. There are many possible reasons for their condition: mental illness, crippling anxiety, addiction, past or present abuse, and more. But whatever the cause, the result is that they are unable to accept love and help. They retreat into their “lizard brains”—that primordial part of our brains where the “fight or flight” response is located—and view everything external with suspicion or fear. They may lash out, they may withdraw completely, or they may take preemptive action to sabotage relationships. They are particularly ill-equipped to hear and respond to the good news of God’s love and forgiveness. It can be extraordinarily frustrating to try to deal with such persons with compassion and perseverance.

So what will make the difference for them? What makes the difference for me when I have one of my depressive episodes is the memory of past deliverance. God has always been faithful to outlast the darkness, so I can hold on until the light starts breaking through again. For the Israelites, it took a stunning demonstration of God’s power on their behalf. For the person in your life who is held in bondage, it may take professional help. It may take strong doses of tenacious and tough-minded love. It may take a demonstration of God’s power, witnessed in your life if they cannot see it in their own.

Whatever else it takes, it will undoubtedly take time. The Israelites were so scarred that an entire generation passed before they were ready to accept God’s promises as real. It may not take that long for our hypothetical friend, but we should not expect instantaneous miracles. We must be invested in the friend’s life over the long haul, the way Moses was for the Israelites. The way God is for all of us.

As disciples of Jesus we are called to love, and we are called to remind others that they too are loved deeply. Unconditionally. Permanently. Eternally. And the best way to remind them is by loving them ourselves with the unconditional, eternal love we have received.

To God be the glory, the Source of all healing and hope.

Grace and peace,
bob