“Son of encouragement/consolation.” That’s the meaning of Barnabas in Greek. Why does that matter? Well, speaking just for myself, the Baranabases in my life are almost unspeakably precious because they enter my life like beautiful lances of sunlight, lighting matters up physically, viscerally, and existentially. Perhaps an example will illustrate what I mean.

Because of my career in the military, I see my family very little. I am separated from them due to my job, and so I only get a few hours with them each week. I love what I have been blessed to do in the military but this lifestyle is not for the weak; it exacts some tolls from one’s life and his family–especially in terms of long periods of time apart. So, the few hours I get with the people I love most are precious. And over the years, my bride has become more and more precious to me. She has grown so much biblically, intellectually, and spiritually (we both have), that our conversations have taken on new levels of depth and meaning and connection.

Today as we returned from lunch at our favorite local Italian place, I was pulling us into the garage and we were talking about Moses in Exodus 14, and what was happening there. In short, this is the chapter where Moses and the children of Israel are caught “between Migdol and the sea” (Ex 14:2, ESV). The people of Israel are at a crossroads. They will either fail to trust the Lord and return to bondage under wicked Pharaoh in Egypt, or they will trust the Lord and see God deliver them and show them–once again–that he is the Lord, and he is faithful.

Response of a people who underestimate and/or fail to trust God: You can probably guess the majority report. Most failed to trust the Lord. Instead they were quite content to return to a position they knew was traitorous to the truth of the God they professed to trust. This is the response recorded in Scripture:

¹¹ They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? ¹² Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” (Ex 14:11-12, ESV)

Here they are, the words of the man who trusts the Lord:

These words from Moses, the very human but largely faithful shepherd, a man who led and loved his people: “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD . . .” (Ex 14:13, ESV).

Did you catch that? Moses trusted the Lord. He knew God would deliver his people. The people’s duties were to trust the Lord rather than the schemes of men, obey God’s servant (Moses) rather than the wicked ways of Pharaoh, Egypt, and the serpentine ways of darkness.

And so there CJ and I were, parked in the car in the garage, still speaking about Exodus 14, of being between Migdol and the sea, and the tears came to my eyes, as they often do when I speak with her about such precious truths, and she said, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD.”

And I knew–yet again–that God sent her to me as a Barnabas in my life.

In Part II, I will write about two friends from church who are likewise Barnabases, men who invariably bring light when the spiritual forces of darkness descend like clouds, but for now, I will pause. Hopefully, Part II tomorrow.

Praise God for the Barnabases in our lives. Grace upon grace.