the God who scares

Read Numbers 12 and Psalm 39

My sister called me this morning to ask if she thought my daughter Stephanie would be offended by my son-in-law Daniel Triestman’s response to her devotional on this blog:

I told her I did not think so for both had presented a well thought out and articulate Biblical perspective. Some people think the Word of God is as simple as: “God said it. I believe it. That settles it.” But the Scriptures were written through the inspiration of God Himself. And just as God’s thoughts are immense and often very complicated (look at how He put our physical bodies together), so His communication to us through His Word can be very deep and very full of meaning. He shows great respect to us, His creatures, by giving us the Holy Scriptures. The Apostle Peter says about the writings of the Apostle Paul, “His letters contain some things which are hard to understand.” But, like all the Scriptures, as we study them, we come to a greater (and more correct) understanding.

So here’s what Stephanie wrote:

As I’ve been reading through the history of the Israelites in the desert for 40 years. I get annoyed when people knock big-mouth Peter, doubting Thomas and the rest, but I think the Israelites deserve any flack they get. The Israelites saw miracle after miracle: were freed from the Egyptians; had food provided for them every morning and every evening; had water supplied in the desert time and again; conquered tribes and cities they never should have been able to; but they never remember what the Lord did the last time, and they never believed enough to consider that He would do it again.

Dan responded:

In reference to God's faithfulness I would agree that all of our doubts and reservations have been proven unwarranted. That being said, I might argue that the Israelites should be extended the same grace given to “big-mouth Peter” and “doubting Thomas.” Israel did not just witness the natural and supernatural blessings of God, but they also saw the natural and supernatural judgments of God. They were witness to history's most terrible demonstrations of God's wrath. The “miracles after miracles” that Israel witnessed were frightening acts of a vengeful God. They saw and experienced numerous plagues. They endured forty years of wandering through hunger and thirst. They buried friends and family. They were given 611 complicated commandments and suffered dire consequences for minor deviations. They did not have a personal relationship with God, but rather a national relationship which meant that people would be judged because of the actions of their representatives. The God they followed seemed constantly angry. He provided bread with worms. He gave quail, but poisoned it. He gave water, but first made the people to thirst. 

We don't experience the miracles that Israel experienced, but we also don't experience the judgments either. We complain, but our complaints are not met with immediate death. We doubt, yet we can always see more than a meal or drink into the future. We disobey, but are not under a burdensome law. We covet, yet have a diet that consists of more than a daily serving of boiled bread. We have a personal relationship with our God and know Him as a God of grace. 

Is it possible that Israel's complaints were not that God was going to let them die by forgetting about them, but rather that God was going to make them die by paying attention to them? How do you love a God that scares you?

Here’s my take:

In all ages, with all people, God is to be feared, Dan writes that we (of the church age?) don’t experience the miracles that Israel experienced, but we also don't experience the judgments either. We complain, but our complaints are not met with immediate death. But one of the first events of the church age was the death of Ananias and Sapphira. All they did was keep some of their own stuff instead of giving everything to the church in Jerusalem. Well, not quite. They lied about what they gave, and conspired to lie, and when questioned, stuck to their lie. Why did they do this? Most likely because they wanted to appear just like everyone else who had given all that they had. But they didn’t quite trust God enough to give away all of their stuff—like everyone else. Was that such a big deal? Nobody messes with God, period. He is always the God of grace, but at all times He is still God, holy, righteous and in charge.

At the end of Psalm 39 David pleads, “Look away from me that I may smile again, before I depart and am no more.” vs 13  But this plea is an anomally from what David typically asks of God. In the verse before he writes, “Hear my prayer. Do not be silent to my tears.” vs 12 Continually throughout the Psalms David is asking God to give him His attention and only rarely does he ask God to look away from him. In asking God to look away here, I believe David is acknowledging his faithlessness and thus the appropriateness of God’s disciplines. But he knows God is so good and so merciful that he also writes, “And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you. Deliver me from all my transgressions.” vs 7&8

Did the Israelites get a bad deal from God? Was His relationship with them all about fear? Was it all about the nation and not at all about the individual? To those who did not respond to Him in His kindness, that was certainly the case, but what about Joshua and Caleb and Rahab, and Moses himself? As God said in the 2^nd commandment, “For I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers to the third and fourth generation to those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands (of generations) to those who love me and keep my commandments.”

The only Israelites who got worms in their manna were the ones who specifically did not trust Him to provide manna for the next day; and the only Israelites who got the plague while the quail meat “was still in their teeth,” were the ones who demonstrated by their weeping for the meat of Egypt, that after all God had brought them through, all they cared about was food.

God said in the 2^nd commandment, “For I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers to the third and fourth generation to those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands (of generations) to those who love me and keep my commandments.”

Always God’s mercy and lovingkindness and faithfulness far surpass His judgments.

“But God commendeth His love towards us in that while we were yet sinncers Christ died for us.

What do you think, did the Israelites get a much worse deal from God than He gave the disciples of Jesus or has given to us?