BLISS SEASONS AND HOW YOU KEEP THEM — THE BOOK OF EXODUS ENDS, THE JOURNEY CONTINUES

By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé

 

There is something about looking back over a study, a story, that so focuses the mind that great clarity is its result.

 

As God’s Book of Exodus draws to a close, this is exactly what Michael and I are viewing. It is the Big Picture of where we have seen God, Moses, Aaron and the Israelites as having been, over the course of this Book, and, also, where they are very likely to be going.

 

Michael speaks so powerfully of the “Bliss Seasons,” of each of the main players in Exodus, when he says,

 

“What are bliss seasons and how do you keep them?”

 

What a concept he is proposing! Aside from the alliteration, one just does not run across the words “bliss” and “Bible,” in the same sentence. Perhaps, were this so, we would see more people pursuing the study of the Bible!

 

How is Michael defining “bliss?” The answer is with its usual definition: “supreme joy, total contentment.” Isn’t this exactly what God promises at the end of the day? Therefore, to better know what it will be, is God not capable of producing it in our lives on the journey to that promised time, that promised land of the soul?

 

God is the author of bliss; He created it. Friends, God is not stingy with joy; He does not withhold contentment. Michael is saying that

 

 “When we are most closely aligned with His will for our lives, we will be in a “Season of Bliss.”

 

Will it be a season without trouble? Is a season of bliss synonymous with a problem-free time? NOT AT ALL. There will actually very likely be considerable trouble in that season. Certainly, this is the case in the Book of Exodus!

 

Let’s look at the main players – God, Moses, Aaron and the Israelites. We will go in reverse order:

 

When Exodus opened, the Israelites were existing in horrific conditions in Egypt. They were slaves who were forbidden the worship of God. One can hardly imagine anything worse.

 

However, the Book of Exodus quickly segues into the beginning of a season of bliss. God starts His rescue mission even as His heart breaks for the Israelites. He turns this into action as He meets Moses at the Burning Bush. This rescue continues with plagues against the Egyptians, as the LORD turns up the heat to persuade the Pharaoh to let the Israelites go.

 

Then came the Passover when the Israelites began to realize, with what had to be bliss, that they were being rescued from the death of the firstborn sons visited on the Egyptians and, ultimately, from slavery. This rescue took place with great power and deep affection by the God of the Universe. This was followed by the bliss of walking on dry ground through the Red Sea.

 

Once safe in the wilderness, their thirst was quenched, their hunger satisfied by God’s supernatural provision. Even after the serious sin of the golden calf, God, in the end, forgave them. His Presence stayed with them. As Exodus ends, God is ensconced with them in covenant; He is encamped in the Tabernacle which the Israelites had “done all the work on as the LORD had commanded Moses.”(Exodus 39:42) NIV. As this, the “Season of Bliss” reaches its apex, the Israelites are established as the very Chosen People of Almighty God. What greater bliss exists in this world!

 

And the other major players in the Book of Exodus…

 

Aaron began the Book as the spokesman for his brother, Moses. Was he downwardly mobile by the end? No, he was appropriately in bliss. Aaron, never envisioned in such a role by God, had that taken from him, as Moses rose to be the unquestionable leader.

 

The bliss for Aaron occurred when he was forgiven his egregious sin of shaping a golden calf and then, was not sent away in shame. Instead, God chose the priesthood for Aaron, a mighty, powerful position of, of all things, holiness and as a leader for the Israelites in their pursuit of it.

 

God didn’t relegate this sinner to a sinner’s obscurity, He put him in charge of carrying out the instructions of God Himself in teaching the Israelites HOW TO ATONE FOR SIN! Now that is BLISS! How mighty is this God of Blissful Seasons!

 

What then, is the story of Moses’ blissful season, as told in Exodus? Who was Moses when we first met him? He was a shepherd of sheep, on the run from having killed an Egyptian and at the top of the Pharaoh’s list of infamy.

 

Who was Moses at our first highly significant encounter with him? He stood at the Burning Bush and tried every way he could think of to convince the Creator of Heaven and Earth that He had chosen the wrong guy to save God’s People from both slavery and not being allowed to worship Him. And, by the way, these enslaved people were of Moses’ own Hebrew heritage,

 

Who was Moses by the end of Exodus? Whom had Moses become? How would Michael and I describe Moses’ Season of Bliss? To begin with, he was the leader of the Hebrews during the Passover, an event so significant that God changed the calendar because of it  —  so important that we still celebrate it today.

 

What is Moses’ resume’? He served his God while the God of all time cut the winning deal with the Pharaoh, who released the Israelites. He held up his arm, while the LORD of all, sent the Egyptians, hellbent on recapturing God’s Chosen People, to a Red Sea grave.

 

He led these Chosen ones faithfully through the wilderness until it was the moment to receive the boundaries of The Ten Commandments. When it came time to intercede for the Israelites, so that God would forgive the golden calf debacle, he became the intercessor of the greatest acumen. God magnanimously forgave all, specifically at Moses’ beseeching Him to do so.

 

By the end of Exodus, God had replaced what Moses, in his anger, had broken —. the two tablets, inscribed by God as The Ten Commandments. Exodus closes out with The Israelites, Aaron and Moses all in Seasons of Bliss.

 

And God? His, of course, is the greatest Bliss Season of all. Exodus chronicles our LORD from the time of His broken heart over His people’s slavery and lack of freedom to know Him, to their becoming free and learning to really follow Him.

 

Michael has such a profound saying about the Bible for us today:

 

“We can learn so much from mistakes. In the Bible, we have a book of them.”

 

What a journey it is from mistakes to bliss. How the story of these lends credibility to Scripture. How powerful is this message to us! How relevant!

 

Michael speaks of the sort of thought the Book of Exodus should prompt:

 

“Thought is not able to be owned. It is for everyone.”

 

Thought, reflection on what the Book of Exodus is saying, is not exclusive. God’s word is given through the open door that He provides. Its true lesson here is that the bliss seasons came to pass when God moved and, in the process, moved man closer and closer to Himself.

 

In so importantly broaching the seasons of bliss, Michael also writes about the seasons AND HOW YOU KEEP THEM:

 

“You don’t have to memorize Scripture. Once you know it, you can be it.”

 

Yes, we keep our seasons of bliss by BEING,  a word denoting action. We can know Scripture inside out, but until this head knowledge translates into action, we are nowhere. Our ships are in the harbor, our boats are in the spiritual doldrums.

 

God had a heart for the Israelites and their predicament in Egypt. He didn’t stop with a broken heart. He then began to MOVE. He put Moses, Aaron and the Israelites into movement around the chessboard of rescue. The result? Bliss! Seasons of it!

 

May each of us move according to the providence and will of the Prime Mover. As we do so, be ready; a Season of Bliss lies in your immediate and beautiful future.