“Turn to the Lord in Your Need, and You Will Live” by Melanie Rigney (@melanierigney)

James Tissot [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons 

Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Pharaoh’s daughter was moved with pity for the baby in the basket and said,) “It is one of the Hebrews' children." Then Moses’) sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and call one of the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?" "Yes, do so," she answered. So the maiden went and called the child’s own mother. (Exodus 2:6-8)

Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live. (Psalm 69:33)

(Jesus reproached Capernaum, saying:) “For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.” (Matthew 11:23-24)

Piety

Lord, may I always turn to You. You are all the refuge I need.

Study

Talk about mercy. The daughter of Pharaoh, the ruler who had ordered the death of all Hebrew male infants, was moved enough by the sight of Moses in the bulrushes that she risked her father’s wrath and saved the baby’s life. It makes us feel warm and fuzzy, doesn’t it, to think that a woman with so odious a father had such tender feelings for someone she was supposed to hate?

Jesus, however, is less than warm and fuzzy when he talks about the unrepentant towns, the very places where he had done so much of his work. It’ll be worse for you at the end than Sodom, he says, and we all know how despicable Sodom was with its ruthless raping and pillaging and lack of regard for the most basic of respect for other human beings.

The difference, perhaps, is in the awareness that something greater than the temple of ourselves is at work here. Pharaoh’s daughter recognized it in rescuing Moses. She recognized the value of a human life, regardless of her father’s edicts, regardless of the fact that the baby was not an Egyptian. The land of Sodom did not and, even worse, Capernaum did not recognize the Lord when He was in their midst.

Do we?

Action

Pray with the Lord today about where you need to reflect His mercy—and live.