Tyrades! by Danny Tyree

Even people who don’t celebrate Passover have been exposed to lessons from the Exodus (if only through Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments”), but some of us retain water better than we retain the significance of the parting of the Red Sea.

For example, the very ground on which Moses stood before the burning bush was holy, so God is infinitely holier. Alas, not even religious people always acknowledge that sacredness.

I strive not to be one of those people who invoke God’s name every time someone cuts me off in traffic or offers a contrary political opinion. I enjoy sharing comic strips online, but I balk at the ones portraying the Almighty as a bumbling sitcom dad. Don’t get me started on conversations peppered with ubiquitous, gratuitous exclamations of “OMG!” Perhaps we could spotlight how juvenile this outburst is by replacing it with exclamations based on other objects of worship. (“Taylor Swift! My boyfriend remembered our anniversary!” “72-inch TV! The neighbors finally moved that junker car.”)

God knew exactly who He was when He addressed Moses on Mount Horeb. He is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. The eternal LORD identified Himself as I AM THAT I AM. His revelation of His nature and His expectations were meant to be accepted as an ancient version of “This is the way I roll.”

Nowadays, we let everyone self-identify except God. Tone-deaf declarations of “MY God would never…” or “If I were God, I would…” are blithely dispensed. We self-servingly treat the Almighty like the product of Build-A-Deity Workshop. At our peril, we expect God to act out the lyrics of a 1968 song by The American Breed. (“Bend me, shape me, any way you want me…”)

God instructed Moses to notify pharaoh exactly who had sent him with the message “Let my people go.” Too often, the Creator is an afterthought when we explain our actions. “Shucks, it was nothing” or “It was something my grandpa always said” crowds out giving glory to God for our talents and values.

God had a role to play in the Exodus. So did Moses. So did the other Israelites. Nowadays we go to extremes. We either try to carry the whole world on our shoulders or curse God for not fixing everything for us while we goof off.

A significant portion of Israel’s 430-year sojourn in Egypt was a period of harsh slavery. But God used signs and wonders to upset the status quo of seemingly interminable oppression.

Today, many of us are unable to see the Big Picture or play the Long Game. We become either too comfortable with or too resigned to our situations. But the God who created the law of inertia can (on His own time table) help us break the shackles of an abusive relationship, a dead-end job or a substance-abuse addiction.

These are a few of the disparities that come readily to mind. I’m guessing you could come up with some more of your own.

The lessons of Exodus should be woven into the fabric of our daily lives. But too many people are content to settle for superficial awareness and glib wisecracks about “plagues of locusts.”

We can all do better. Try to be a more reverent person, in spite of bad habits and endless obstacles.

Let your excuses go.

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Copyright 2026 Danny Tyree, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Danny Tyree welcomes email responses at [email protected] and visits to his Facebook fan page “Tyree’s Tyrades.”