"Thank you Croak but I'll take the rest from here if you don't mind. The next day I had a drive in my heart and a pit in my stomach. It's not like I intentionally set out to test God or anything but there I was! I knew that the only reason no one laughed at my journey was because my dad wanted to set me up for failure just so he could use my misfortunes as a lesson what not to do and that God had something way better for everyone to do. He did that every time and I.....too young; never was able to counteract what he said. But that was in the past. Today we live in the now!
My dad never lost an argument because no one was ever on his level. I've done the research and put in the studies so that now I can confidently say I...am...ready!!!!!!
"Moses, are you ready to lead these people to the promised land? I'll be your Joshua if you need."
I had no time for his jokes so I slipped a small Bible in my pocket; and walked past him without a word.
"Wait," Mom said, blocking the door and my only chance of escape.
"I don't know how long you two'll be gone this time, but if it is like last I won't let you eat mana for weeks straight."
"Hun, we ate dying flies not stale bread."
"Nevertheless, I picked up on Hopper's sneaking out so I baked batches of snacks and goodies for you all to take."
"Mom, hopefully we won't be gone as long as usual. I promise when we get back dad may be old when we started the journey but he won't be ancient when we get out. He's already old enough!"
Dad scowled at me and mom smiled as she opened the door, gave us our bags, kissed dad goodbye and shot me a wink.
We didn't have to go far, before the whole town was on our doorstep. Dad gave me a push like he always did and went to join the others. This state was never new and I knew what to do.
"Friends, family, and neighbors alike. Now I don't know if Moses gave a speech to his people before freeing them or if he went in guns blazing, wreaking havoc with the plagues then walking out like a boss with his people. But I do know that he wasn't well liked before his journey. Growing up, everytime he would try to lead and tell people something new they wouldn't listen, so when God spoke to him and told him to lead His people someplace new he immediately thought of his bad past experiences and said the people wouldn't listen to him because so and so. Then he told God to send his brother instead. God said fine and sent both but said his brother would be in the spotlight more.
"Anyways the point of this story is to say I've tried to lead you to new places in the past and none of them have gone well, but this time I know I may be faulty in speech so I will let Him guide us to our new home. Can you all trust me on this please?"
"Trust!" Someone yelled out from the crowd.
"Trust you! Others may not know about the time when you were with that girl but I do. It may not be as horrendous as Moses killing that guard just because he angered him the wrong way but you just want us to forgive that? Yea right. Did it ever occur to you that maybe the Israelites followed Moses because of his apprentice Joshua? Maybe they trusted him more instead of a scrawny and old man with a stick. Did you ever think about that? The only reason we've been following you on your ridiculous plans is because we trust your dad and believe in him. What makes you so different?"
"NOBODY'S PERFECT," I yelled!!
"That was in the past," I said, heavily catching my breaths. "I've changed and you know that. But if you want to stay here in this everdying hot, dry, sticky pond then by all means you can stay. No ones stopping you. What if Maybe Moses had to entice the Israelites to get them to go with him? Did you ever think about that one?
The crowd died down and he shut right up.
"I can see not many people liked you. I had no idea. Sorry that it felt like the whole town was out to get you," Croak chimed in.
"It's okay buddy. Let's just say growing up as a pastor's kid is its own kind of preset. When you have a last name you are looked at like, 'oh that person shows characteristics of that last name but it's more apparent when you're a pastor's kid. You can't just do whatever and walk halfways in your names shoes. You're either in or out. No inbetweens on this one so every action I did was looked at closely from both my parents and people that were watching. On top of that I had a dad that was firm in his beliefs so he expected me to follow his lead and when I didn't he didn't like it and others looked at me like how dare you. This was especially bad when it looked like I was "testing: God and failed but those are stories for another day.
It's like when you're a pastor's kid then your parents want you to not do the same things they did when they were a child and only live a certain way but it's like..I'm still a kid. How can I grow closer to Christ or even just in mind without making my own mistakes then have to turn to God so I can trust in Him to get me through. Needless to say we set off later that day about to embark on our tireless adventure.
For days we trekked and covered lots of ground. It didn't take long before the people started grumbling and complaining to go back home.
"Are we there yet? Someone shouted out."
"We'll get there when we get there," I shouted back.
"The Israelites only had to go to one promised land. Why do we have to go to four?"
"If you remember correctly all the Israelites didn't stay long in the promised land before they split," I said, turning around and the campaign came to an abrupt stop.
"They may have gone as one into the promised land but they split back up into the 12 tribes of Judah. While some stayed others left but they had to go somewhere so if none of you like the one land we settle on you can just camp at one of the others because they're way better than the one we just left. There was one tribe in particular though that was so bad they had to be kicked out of and were never seen or heard from again. They were called...the Lost Tribe of Judah!! Stick with me and I promise you will not be one of the lost."
"Guys, Guys. Haven't we learned anything from the Israelites on what not to do? It says in Philipians 2:14-15, 'Do everything without grumbling or complaining so that you may become blameless and pure "Children of God" without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky."
"What the..Dad, you can't just spit verses on people just for good reasons, especially when taken out of context. I read that chapter and it does not start off well. That's the problem with your kind. People want to hear something that will empower them so pastors go to well known passages and read out of context."
"Son, what are you doing? We both want to help these people so why are you trying to blow things out of proportion?"
"I'm not blowing out of proportion. While you spit verses I spit truth. If I'm going to test God then why not go all in and change how the church teaches? Although Moses is talked about more he wasn't capable enough; so two others had to accompany him. I don't know how the journey personally went but I'm sure even those three butted heads once in a while when they talked scripture."
"Why are you doing this?"
"I want to spin the world on its head. Yes, I'll take you to new homes but along the way I want you to question what you believe is real."
"Ooooeeee! This is getting good," Croak said, full of excitement.
"Not only did you want to take on the church and God but the whole town and your dad as well. Bro, I don't know what ball size you have but they have to be big if you took on a mission like that. You may be thick skinned but you had the brain of a pea. How is one little frog going to take on both the visible and invisible?"
"Croak, I wasn't thinking straight. In my mind it made sense but in the real world it didn't. All I knew was that I was an outlaw in my own town and getting my reputation back didn't work so I decided that I could still cause the greatest havoc before I left for people to remember me by. Testing people let alone everybody was not on my to do list but I had an opportunity and I would've been stupid not to take it. Right?"
"So what happened next?"
"Listen! I've been rambling on and on for a while and making little sense so I think it's time for a ten minute brownie intersession break. What do you think?"
"Hops, you know I can't say no to that."