Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12 NIV)
My Bible Recap readings in Numbers recently have told the story of Aaron, brother to Moses and Miriam, and the first of the priests of Israel. As you probably remember, through most of the Biblical narrative Aaron is largely a supporting character to the life and leadership of Moses – the leader of the Israelites after they left Egyptian slavery. Aaron would have grown up in a Israelite household in Egypt, one of the last generations to be enslaved to the Egyptians. His younger brother Moses, the baby pulled from the river by Pharaoh’s daughter, would have raised in the Egyptian Pharaoh’s household with all the educational, societal, and cultural advantages of that upbringing. After Moses killed someone abusing another Israelite, he fled to the wilderness, married, shepherded flocks, and lived apart from his people for forty years. The next time we hear of his brother Aaron is after God calls Moses to deliver the Israelites from slavery, Moses balks and says he’s not able to speak well, and God tells him that Aaron is coming to visit with him and Aaron will be the spokesperson.
This raises questions for me. Had Moses and Aaron known each other as children/youth? Did they have a relationship or friendship as adults? I assume that Moses knew he was a wanted man, and he would not have tried to go to Egypt to visit family. Would the Egyptians have allowed their slaves to go outside Egypt and visit other people? That seems unlikely, yet when God is speaking to Moses at the Burning Bush, he says, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you.” (Exodus 4:14 NIV). God had already worked it out so that Aaron was on his way to meet Moses.
I’m guessing they must have had some sort of relationship as youth or adults, because why else would Aaron be open to being “already on his way” to see Moses? But, think about that for a moment. Even if they had somehow grown up knowing each other, Moses had spent the past 40 years in Midian. Midian is an area scholars believe to be in modern day Saudi Arabia, while Aaron was in Egypt – either the part of Egypt on the African continent or the part in the Sinai Peninsula. Either way, visits were probably not frequent. Yet, God worked it out so that the two brothers could be reunited and fulfill the plans and purposes God had for them.
This story led me to thinking about siblings who are estranged, or families with prodigals. Not everyone grows up in a healthy nuclear family with good sibling relationships. Sometimes by the time we are adults our relationships with siblings are strained, estranged, or even severed. And sometimes the choices one makes are to leave the family completely – much as the younger son did in Jesus’s story of the Lost Son.
Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.” (Luke 15:11-13 NIV)
Not all prodigals choose to squander their lives in wild living, but factors like severe differences in worldview and subsequent choices can lead to great hurt and disappointment in relationships.
Irrespective of HOW relationships arrive at a point of estrangement or prodigal status, let us continue in hope that healing can happen in these situations. Let us pray:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Thank you that you are the perfect example of how relationships are to be lived out – in love, grace, and mutual humility. Thank you for the wonderful ways in which you teach us your best and guiding principles for our lives, through your Word and other wise counsel. Today we pray for sibling relationships. We pray for those that are strained, estranged, or even severed, and we pray for those individuals whose life choices have made them prodigals in their families or communities. May these prodigals and estranged ones know they are dearly loved, and may they be met with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. May your Spirit lead them to relationship-healing conversations that are filled with grace, truth, mercy and renewed unity through the bonds of peace. Knit together your precious children so that you are honored in their restoration, we ask in the strong name of Jesus Christ our Lord, AMEN.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13 NIV)
Out of [Jesus’s] fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. (John 1:16-18 NIV)
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:2-3 NIV)
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13 NIV)