Mattie confronts the marshall in the corridor of the courthouse in Fort Smith. Though she halts him in the hall and explains her purpose for seeking his assistance, Cogburn brushes her aside and strides away, leaving the girl standing.
I wondered today if, perhaps, God's people experienced similar disheartenment in the days & years leading up to their exodus from the land of Egypt. God had used Egypt as a sort of giant incubator to grow his people from a family of 70 to a nation of about 2.5 million in a little more than four centuries. But in the last years, fear directed a new Pharaoh's treatment of God's people and they were increasingly oppressed, hindered, and hand-cuffed. They confronted God in the hall of His justice and, it must have seemed, He brushed them aside and strode away.
But, as we learn in Exodus 3:7-10, that is not the case. God finds a fugitive named Moses on the other side of the desert and lays out His plan:
The Lord said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey... And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."
The truths found in this brief, yet powerful, assertion not only apply to those thwarted in Egypt more than two thousand years back, but are relevant to you and me on this day. Five of them:
1. God Sees - verse 7a - You may be going though some awful things. The Israelites were and it crushed their hearts. But remember, there is no place we can go, there is nothing that can be forced upon us, nor is there anything dark or devastating enough to be able to be hidden or to hide us from our Creator.
2. God Hears - verse 7b - Have you ever had a bad connection on your phone and, thinking the call may have dropped, you asked (perhaps repeatedly), "Are you there? Can you hear me, 'cause I can't hear you?" - - only later to find out that the person on the other end was able to hear your questions even though their responses were never audible to you? I know it seems like that with God a lot of times. I have said so publicly on numerous occasions. Doesn't matter. Keep talking to Him.
3. God Cares - verse 7c - "Concerned" sounds a little distant to me. But the Hebrew word that God spoke to Moses is a word that can carry a very high level of passion. You see, God hates it when we ourselves, or anyone else, shackles and enslaves you and me.
4. God Delivers - verse 8a - God's love for you goes beyond liberating you. He also wants to transport you to a place where you can really live.
5. God Blesses - verse 8b - The "milk and honey" imply a place where there is abundant water and rich, fertile soil that would produce the green pastures and sweet, aromatic flowers necessary for each item. God wants you there - - in that place - - where He will quench your thirst and make you productive and fulfilled.
Mattie Ross rides with Cogburn as they track Chaney. After much adventure, they stumble upon him and bring justice upon him. However, in doing so, Mattie is bitten by a poisonous snake and it appears all will end in tragedy. It is in this moment that the old "one-eyed fat man" of a marshall scoops the girl into his arms, mounts their only remaining horse (Blacky), puts the spurs to the animal, and rides.
They race through the morning. The lathered horse pushes on through afternoon and evening. Non-stop, both riders and steed are propelled through the dark, cold night until the cadence of Blacky's hooves slows, then falters - - then stops. In a distant, isolated, and barren meadow, horse and riders collapse to the ground. So it is.
But it is not.
The marshall lifts the child into his arms and, again, begins the race against time - - the race for Mattie's life. But now, rather than the clomping of horses hooves, it is the clinging of an old man's spurs that penetrates the darkness until the outpost is finally spotted and Mattie is saved - - by the very one she thought had ignored her and brushed her aside.
Haven't seen the movie? I'd recommend it. I don't think I've told you anything that would spoil it.
Haven't been delivered from that which threatens to suck the life out of you? Remember this: God sees right where you are and He hears you when you call out to Him. He cares - - very deeply - - about you. He wants to deliver you and bless you.
Listen! That's the sound of God's spurs.
This is Challenge Pointe.
Semper Fidelis.
Doug
