From Bondage to Quiet Trust

Pharaoh asks, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice?” That question runs through all these readings. The tyrant hardens labor, demons drive a man among tombs, fear fills a house of mourning, and the careless sit at ease while ruin draws near. Yet against all of this stands the Lord who delivers, judges, and restores.

Israel groans under bitter service; the righteous man in the psalm hides in God as in a rock and fortress; Isaiah speaks of a king reigning in righteousness, of quietness and assurance joined to justice; and in the Gospel Christ enters uncleanness, tumult, and death itself without being mastered by them. He permits no bargain with evil. He casts out the legion, he makes the unclean woman whole, he takes the dead child by the hand. Therefore faith is not idle speech but obedience that comes to him, touches him, cries to him, and then walks in the peace he gives.

The psalm also warns us about the tongue. In oppression and panic, men lie, boast, murmur, and wound with words. As it is written, “Let the deceitful lips become silent,” [and “let the Lord destroy all the lying lips,] and the boastful tongue of those who have said, Let us magnify our tongue;” (Irenaeus, First Epistle to the Corinthians). And Isaiah will not let the comfortable remain soft: “Rise up, you women that are at ease, and hear my voice — that He might prove them first as disciples, and then as assistants and helpers: Daughters, hear my words in hope;” (Tertullian, Against Marcion).

So let us not serve Pharaoh, nor our passions, nor the praise of men. Let us serve the Lord with steadfast prayer, merciful deeds, guarded speech, and courage before death.