It Gets Worse
Before It Gets Better
A Sermon by the Rev. Nathan Cole
Lessons: Exodus 5:1-6;14-23; Mark 1:9-3; Arcana Coelestia 7163
I
And Moses returned to Jehovah, and said, “Lord, why hast Thou done evil to this
people? Why is it that Thou hast sent me?
f you are familiar with the story of the Exodus, you will know how the
Children of Israel eventually escaped from Egypt but that it was not an
easy escape. They had been slaves for so many years to the point that it seems
they didn’t seem to consider leaving on their own. Moses had to convince the
people that they should leave and that the Lord would help them.
But the first thing Moses asks is to be allowed to lead the people out of
Egypt to worship Jehovah. Now in the literal story it seems like Moses isn’t
asking for Pharaoh actually to let them go but just to leave for a few days.
Still Pharaoh immediately punishes the people with harder work, and then
beatings when they don’t complete the work quickly enough.
This has the opposite effect of the initial goal of escaping to follow the
Lord; the people rebel against Moses and the Lord in response to this added
hardship. The continued refrain for the rest of the book of Exodus is the people
complaining that they ever left Egypt.
Unfortunately this is a warning about what happens when we try to get out
of some evil. It gets worse before it gets better. As depressing as that sounds,
we also know that no matter how bad things get, once we start fighting, we can
eventually escape to the promised land.
Is it always darkest before the dawn? Whether that saying is actually true it
does relate to this spiritual fact. When we try to fight an evil it usually appears
worse and worse the harder we try. Like Moses or the Children of Israel we
might be inclined to complain to the Lord as things get worse when we try
to do the right thing. But it is not the Lord’s fault. There are multiple facets to
this dynamic. The first is something of an illusion. It seems like evil gets worse
when we try to shun it because it doesn’t fully appear until we recognize that
it is evil.
All evils are born delightful; because man is born into the love of himself, and that
love makes all things delightful that are of his proprium, thus whatever he wills
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