written by Stephanie Varghese
Read Deuteronomy 7 and Ephesians 2
I’ve decided that THIS will be the
year that I read through the entire bible. I was finally shamed into it by my
husband Eric’s sweet tiny Grandma. She is struggling with old age and spends a
lot of time in bed, but every time I see her we, talk about what she has been
reading and I’m always amazed how quickly she reads through the Bible. She told
me once that she switches every other time she reads between English and her
native language Malayalam, and even though she says she reads much more slowly in
English I don’t think it takes her more than a month or two to read through the
Bible. So, this year I decided it would be the year, and I have an app on my
phone that let me pick from a couple different options and since
stick-to-it-iv-ness is not my forte, I thought I may do better with a short
term goal and go with the read through the Bible in the 3 months plan. I am
supposed to read between 10-15 chapters a day.
Needless to say, I’m a bit behind, but I plug along.
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 believe consider that He will do it again.
Finally Moses has had it and he
says, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor
in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive
all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them
in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore
to give their fathers?.... I am not able to carry all this
people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this,
kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my
wretchedness.”
But God says in Deuteronomy 7: 6-9
“..The Lord your God has chosen
you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are
on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any
other people that the Lord set his
love on you and chose you… but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath
that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord
has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of
slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who
keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his
commandments, to a thousand generations.”
The Lord still makes these promises
after all their unbelief and stubbornness.
This hits close to home. I am also
stubborn. I also have continued to rebel and complain and lose faith at the
tiniest twist in the road. Yet, “But God, being rich in
mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead
in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been
saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches
of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:4-6
What a promise, what a faithful God.
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.
ReplyDeleteWe 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?
Dan,
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate your response to this. Time and again I was frustrated by the Israelites, but also caught myself shaking my head in disbelief at the incredible wrath displayed by God, something I had a hard time reconciling with how I understand God to be. I guess I never put the two together. You have an incredibly good point. Thanks for sticking up for your peeps. :)