So we have arrived at the end of week 1, and have covered both Genesis and Exodus. What are my impressions this time through?
- Patience is such a big theme. There is such a long period of time between some of God's promises and their fulfilment. How did Abraham keep going without losing his faith that God would keep his promises? The reaction of the people who build a golden calf when Moses disappears up the mountain is so much more typical of my response.
- Moses appreciates that what makes the people special is not anything they have, but the fact that God is with them - "if you do go with us, everyone will know that you are pleased with your people and with me. That way, we will be different from the rest of the people on earth" (Ex 33:16).
- I am struck by something very obvious, but which I all too often ignore. God is holy and not to be taken lightly. The priests had to purify themselves every time they came into the tent (tabernacle), only Moses could go into the tent of meeting, noone can see God and live, and even Moses could only see God's back.
- God is a personal God. In Ex 33, God tells Moses, "I am your friend". Elsewhere we read that Moses talked to God face-to-face. God, even though He is holy , is knowable.
Ex 40:38 - "No matter where the people tracelled, the Lord was with them."
Footnote: I will update the list of promises when I have time. I agree that the categories of promises I started with is not necessarily clear cut or ideal.
1 comment:
I've never been good with numbers, and this is the classic week for getting the January blues, but is anyone else feeling overwhelmed by all that never-ending misery in the desert?
I'm frightened to grumble, of course, because God makes it pretty clear he doesn't like complainers. But who hasn't complained about school dinners, camp-food, or even the local produce available when on a service mission in a developing country? What is that for a punishment - the arrival of quail as opposed to manna, and then a plague to strike you down. It's like offering moaning boy-scouts a carry-out from McDonalds and then lacing it with poison.
Whose faith would not be shaken after being moved around, subjected to plagues of fire and told of giants in the promised land? Today they call it the Stockholm theory - that is when people who have been taken hostage start to feel affection for their captors, even when they have been badly treated. No wonder they remembered the good food in Egypt. Today's East German's remember the happy good old times - "Ostalgia". I definitely would have had to die in the desert...
Imagine being told to drive out all the people in the land you are going to? It's hardly in keeping with modern international relations. "But if you fail to drive out the people who live in the land, those who remain will be like splinters in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will harass you in the land where you live. And I will do to you what I had planned to do to them." That's not what I'm learning about motivation at my positive parenting course...
One glimpse of light for me. Even despite being unpromised entry into the promised land, Moses intercedes again successfully for the people. "Give them someone who will lead, so the people of the Lord will not be like sheep without a shepherd."
It must be very wrong of me, though, to end up liking Moses, and feeling terror, despair and I must confess, aversion to this God of Numbers.
Any shepherds out there to help?
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