Old Testament for September 3, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Exodus 3:1-15
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The lectionary reading for the Old Testament this week is one of the most significant moments in Biblical history — Moses encounters Yahweh on Mount Horeb for the first time.  When we read last week’s Old Testament passage, we left off with Moses as an infant, adopted by the Pharaoh’s daughter in Egypt.  In our current passage, Moses is a grown, married man working for his father-in-law as a shepherd in the wilderness of Midian.  How did he get there?

Although Moses was raised in the aristocratic palace of an Egyptian princess, he did not lose his identity as a Hebrew.   When he had become a man, he witnessed an Egyptian assaulting a Hebrew man, and Moses covertly murdered the Egyptian and buried him in the sand.  Soon, though, his crime became known and he was forced to flee Pharaoh’s justice (cf. Exodus 2:11-15).

His flight from Egypt led Moses into the wilderness of Midian where he defended the seven daughters of Reuel (also known as Jethro) from aggressive shepherds contesting their water rights at a well.  Moses is invited to eat with Reuel, who eventually offers his daughter Zipporah to Moses as his wife.  Zipporah bore Moses a son named Gershom (whose name is indicative of Moses’ sense of displacement: alien or foreigner. Cf. Exodus 2:16-22).

Meanwhile, while Moses is establishing his family and working as a shepherd, Pharaoh has died.  And the people of Israel are suffering:

The children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.  God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.  God saw the children of Israel, and God was concerned about them (Exodus 2:2-25).

As our lectionary reading begins, Moses is herding his father-in-law’s flock near Horeb, which is named God’s mountain.  Interestingly, we are told that Jethro (Reuel) is the priest of Midian.  His particular beliefs aren’t disclosed.

It soon becomes apparent that God is seeking Moses’ attention.  Somewhere on this mountain:

Yahweh’s angel appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middle of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.  Moses said, “I will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.”

The phenomenon is not explained.  Nor are we told why God didn’t speak to Moses in some other way.  What we do know is that Moses follows his sense of wonder and curiosity, and it leads him to God.

There are several key points in this account that tell us volumes about the nature of God.

First, God is personal.  He knows Moses by name.  He is not abstract. God is immanent, which means that his presence pervades his creation:

When Yahweh saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the middle of the bush, and said, “Moses! Moses!”

Second, God is holy.  Though he is immanent, God is also transcendent and separate.  When Moses answers God’s voice from the burning bush, God warns him:

 Don’t come close. Take your sandals off of your feet, for the place you are standing on is holy ground.

Removing one’s shoes is a sign act that suggests that there is a boundary between the sacred and the profane.  These sandals would have been worn in all terrains, some of them unclean and defiled.  Moses is made aware that he is in the presence of holiness.

Incidentally, the fire that burns in the bush yet doesn’t consume the bush is also a reminder of the holiness of God. Fire is described as a purifying agent (Malachi 3:2).  Later in Exodus, God will guide the children of Israel in the form of a pillar of fire (Exodus 13:21).

Third, God is Lord over history.  He reminds Moses of his historical context:

 I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

God’s self-revelation is consistent with what he has done in the past with the Patriarchs, and his covenants with them are still intact.  And God has a unique relationship with Israel.

Fourth, God is compassionate.  He tells Moses that he is aware of the affliction of Israel as slaves in Egypt.  Moreover, God is revealing his plan of deliverance to Moses, that he will bring them:

up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.

We are reminded that when God names those who now occupy the land that was promised to the Patriarchs (the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite) that they are only temporary tenants.  The land belongs to Abraham’s descendants.

Sixth, God chooses to work through people in fulfilling his purposes.  He says to Moses:

Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

And we also catch a real glimpse into the character of Moses.

First there is his humility.  Humility in the presence of a holy, omnipotent God is certainly appropriate!  In verse 6 we are told:

Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look at God.

This is a typical response for anyone in Scripture who has a genuine encounter with God.  In fact, God warns Moses later in Exodus 33:20 that no one can look upon God’s face and live. However, we learn later in the Torah that humility is a defining aspect of Moses’ character:

Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all the men who were on the surface of the earth (Numbers 12:3).

And we see this in his humble response to God’s call:

Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

He doesn’t see anything unusual or extraordinary about himself.

Second, when God reassures Moses that his own presence will go with him and promises to confirm his presence by leading Israel back to this very mountain, Moses is still timid.  This may be understandable apprehension — or it may be doubt.  After all, up until this moment Moses has had no direct experience of God.  So his question may not seem that unreasonable:

Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you;’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ What should I tell them?

What Moses is really asking is — who are you?  Can I trust you?

This next moment is one of the peak moments in Scripture, that will define the nature and character of God from henceforth and forever — including Jesus’ understanding of himself in the New Testament, especially in John’s Gospel.

God reveals his identity through the Tetragrammaton — the four Hebrew letters that we transliterate into English: YHWH.  God says:

 “I AM WHO I AM,” and he said, “You shall tell the children of Israel this: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

Note that God does not offer an anthropomorphic name, or a personal name — like Zeus or Baal or Odin.  What he offers is a description of his character.  He is the living God who truly exists, and upon whom all existence depends.

This enigmatic response is not an attempt to be evasive — in Hebraic thought, words and names are more than just words.  They connect with the very being of their subject.  And knowing the name of someone provides a measure of power.

This is why Jacob asked God his name in their famous wrestling match, and why God didn’t give it to him.  No one can manipulate or command the Almighty.  The God of Israel whom Moses encounters is not one of many gods and goddesses that can be named.  He is the God, the One who Is.

This name of God — I Am, translated into English as Yahweh — is so sacred that most Hebrew scholars substitute Adonai (Lord) when they write about God.  And Lord is the usual translation of Yahweh in most English translations.

Finally, God gives Moses his “marching orders”:

God said moreover to Moses, “You shall tell the children of Israel this, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations.

This is a promissory note, a check, that God is writing to the people of Israel.  They are the heirs of God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and he is also their God.  Yahweh is the same God who revealed himself to their Patriarchs and has now revealed himself to Moses.  And Moses will be sent to his oppressed people in Yahweh’s name.

APPLY:  

How does one encounter God?  Although this may occur in an instant, with a dramatic experience — Moses and the burning bush; Saul on the road to Damascus — God frequently seems to draw us prior to those dramatic breakthroughs.

I speculate that Saul, despite his threats and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord (Acts 9:1) must have had a nagging doubt as he remembered the faith and courage of Stephen as he died a martyr’s death.  Was the Holy Spirit already working on Saul even before Christ appeared to him while he was on the road?

Moses only encounters God when he turns aside to see this wonder — why the bush burns but isn’t consumed.

What this reminds us is that wonder is the first step toward enlightenment.  Plato said:

Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.

Albert Einstein said of unlocking the secrets of the physical universe:

The important thing is not to stop questioning… Never lose a holy curiosity.

Our sense of wonder, about the world around us, the universe, the meaning of life and our own place in it, are likely to bring us to God if we keep on seeking those answers.

Of course, in theological terms, our encounter with God begins with God’s initiative, not ours.  We always find ourselves responding to God’s presence that is already there in our lives. In my own theological tradition, we call this prevenient grace — the grace that precedes our awareness that God is near.

And then there is the theological mountain peak of God’s self-disclosure.  God identifies himself as I Am.  In my opinion, theology, philosophy and even physics probably touch at this point more than anywhere else in all of Scripture.

I’m tempted to use Paul Tillich’s famous term, suggesting that God reveals himself as the Ground of Being.  Tillich said that God is Being Itself.   Obviously, there is a lot of baggage packed into such terms.   Paul Tillich’s theology, like all attempts to explain the unexplainable, comes up short. The bottom line is that God is the source of all Reality, all that exists.  God transcends his created world. God can and does exist without creation, but creation cannot exist without God.

To experience and know the I Am is to be in touch with Someone who is Reality Himself. And as Christians, we experience and know this Reality through Jesus, who identifies himself as I Am multiple times, particularly in John’s Gospel:

Most certainly, I tell you, before Abraham came into existence, I AM (John 8:58).

RESPOND: 

For people of a certain age, it is nearly impossible not to think of Charlton Heston when we read these stories of Moses.  Charlton Heston’s characterization of Moses in Cecil B. DeMille’s film The Ten Commandments was dramatic and majestic.  Sometimes I have to shake my head and clear my thoughts when I read of Moses so I can let the text speak to me instead of my memories of the movie.

In some ways, Charlton Heston did a disservice to the Biblical Moses.  Moses could be a man of impulsive action, to be sure — he murdered an Egyptian overseer in a reckless moment.  But when he encounters God, he is reduced to quivering jelly.  Perhaps at this moment he is more like Don Knotts as he portrays the nervous gunfighter in The Shakiest Gun in the West. Again, I know that this analogy only speaks to a certain age and demographic.

The point is, all who come into contact with the living God become immediately aware of how insignificantly small we are in contrast to the great I AM.  However, at the same time, this I AM does reveal himself to us. There is wonder on Mount Horeb. There is God’s real presence through the person of Jesus. And there is the presence of the Spirit of God bearing witness with our spirits that we are children of this awesome God.

We were made in God’s moral and spiritual image — and when we damaged and defiled that image by our sin, he came to us in Jesus in order to renew that image in us.  I am reminded of Psalm 8, that describes this paradoxical balance between our insignificance and our value to God:

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have ordained;
 what is man, that you think of him?
What is the son of man, that you care for him?
 For you have made him a little lower than God,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
 You make him ruler over the works of your hands.
You have put all things under his feet (Psalm 8:3-6).

Our status is entirely dependent upon the greatness and mercy of God.

Lord, when we encounter you — truly encounter you — we are aware that we are in the presence of Something beyond our understanding.  And yet you come to us, and call us, and even choose to work in us and through us to accomplish your purpose.  We can’t be anything but humbled by that — for it is you at work in us, and not ourselves.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“Exodus 3-14 a” by New Life Church Collingwood is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for June 26, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

We are witnesses in this passage to a transition from the ministry of Elijah to Elisha.

Elijah has been instructed by God on Mount Horeb to anoint Elisha as his prophetic successor (1 Kings 19:16).  In 1 Kings 19:19, Elijah begins to fulfill this charge when he finds Elisha plowing. Elijah throws his mantle over Elisha’s shoulders.  This was a sign that he was claiming Elisha for God’s mission.

Elisha then slaughters his oxen and offers them as a sacrifice, and begins to follow Elijah as his servant.

Elijah gives Elisha several opportunities to back out of his call.  When Elisha asks permission to say goodbye to his parents after the initial meeting, Elijah seems casual:

 “Go back again; for what have I done to you?” (1 Kings 19:20).

In today’s lectionary passage, Elijah is traveling from place to place — from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho and then across the Jordan River.  Three times Elijah tries to deter Elisha from following him, telling him stay here.

Each time, Elisha declares his intention not to leave Elijah’s side.  This seems to be a kind of test.  Elijah is giving Elisha the opportunity to renounce this difficult calling to prophecy.  And Elisha passes each test.

Finally, there is the moment of truth.  Elijah rolls up his mantle — the same mantle that he threw over Elisha’s shoulders as a kind of claim on him — and strikes the river Jordan.  Just as the Red Sea had parted before Moses and his staff  (Exodus 14:15-25), and the Jordan had stopped flowing for Joshua and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant (Joshua 3:7-17), Elijah reprises these miracles:

the water was parted to the one side and to the other, until the two of them crossed on dry ground.

Elijah seems to realize that Elisha’s devotion to the Lord and to himself is sincere, and he rewards Elisha:

“Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you.” Elisha said, “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.”

This seems an audacious request.  Elijah isn’t sure this is possible, but he promises that if Elisha can see the supernatural phenomenon about to take place, it will be granted:

 As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven.  Elisha kept watching and crying out, “Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” But when he could no longer see him, he grasped his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.

Like the experience of Elijah on Mount Horeb, this is another theophany — a moment when God “shows up.”  Like Ezekiel’s fiery wheels (Ezekiel 1), this chariot is beyond normal human experience.  It is different, however, in that this heavenly chariot becomes a means of conveyance for Elijah.

Elisha’s request has been granted.  Although he tears his garment as a sign of mourning (common in that time), Elisha begins to exercise the authority that Elijah has conferred.  He crosses back over the Jordan River, using Elijah’s discarded mantle:

He took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, saying, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” When he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha went over.

The mantle of authority and prophecy has been passed to Elisha.

APPLY:  

Transitions of authority are an important part of life.  When there has been an especially effective or prominent leader, like Elijah, this would seem difficult to accomplish. Elijah was a tough act to follow.

Transitions are made easier when it is very clear that the successor is up to the job.

Elisha’s appointment to this role is confirmed by two things:

• First, God has clearly set him aside as Elijah’s successor when God tells Elijah to anoint Elisha.
• Second, Elisha is aware that he will need twice the prophetic spirit that Elijah has; and asks for it. It is a wise person who has the humility to know what they need, and ask for it.

In spiritual leadership, the call of God is usually discerned by the individual, but it is also confirmed by the community of faith.  Perhaps that explains the role of the fifty members of the company of prophets  who stand at a distance and watch Elijah and Elisha cross the Jordan.  When Elisha crosses back over the Jordan alone, they acknowledge what has happened in his life:

 When the company of prophets who were at Jericho saw him at a distance, they declared, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.”  (2 Kings 2:15).

Although the call to serve God can be very personal and unique in each individual’s life, recognition of that call by the community of faith is very important.

RESPOND: 

C.S. Lewis makes a statement in his Christian fantasy book, Prince Caspian, about which I am undecided.  Aslan the lion is the Christ figure.  Young Lucy is disappointed that Aslan won’t rescue the children like he had in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.  Aslan explains to her:

“Things never happen the same way twice.”

I think I understand what he means.  God doesn’t get in a rut.  Even though events may resemble previous experiences, each one is unique.

Elijah experienced God’s presence in different ways in his own life — the fire that consumed his sacrifice on Mount Carmel; the sound of sheer silence on Mount Horeb; and now this fiery chariot.

On the one hand, this should remind us to watch for God’s self-disclosure in different ways.  We shouldn’t allow our spiritual discernment to grow stale.

On the other hand, there are patterns and common themes that recur — otherwise, how could we possibly learn to identify the signs that God is near?

The trick is not to turn a burning chariot or a burning bush into an expectation.  God will speak as God chooses to speak.  Our part is to be open and listening.

Lord, choosing to follow you requires every bit of my resources. Ironically though, as Elisha discovered, no matter how much I give, you always give a double-portion in return.  Thank you for the privilege of sharing and serving, and for the blessing that has been received.  Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Ascension of Elijah” by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for June 19, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Kings 19:1-15a
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Elijah has been the point man and the “lightning rod” in the struggle between the prophets of Baal/Asherah and Yahwism.  He has enjoyed a dramatic victory over these pagan prophets at Mt. Carmel that resulted in their wholesale slaughter — 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah.

Jezebel was not the kind of queen to let that pass without consequences — after all, these were the prophets of her own religion, who had eaten at her own table.  So she sends a solemn warning to Elijah:

 “So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.”

Elijah reacts the way any normal person might react to a threat by a very powerful adversary — he flees in terror.  He travels as far south as he possibly can to escape the jurisdiction of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel in Israel.  His first stop is in Beer-Sheba, which is near the farthest boundaries of Judah, and then beyond that into the wilderness.

Remember that Judah was a separate kingdom at this time, under King Jehoshaphat, who was by and large a good and Godly king.  So, Elijah had nothing to fear from him.

Still, Scripture tells us:

he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree.

Elijah has gone off by himself in complete solitude — we have the impression of deep depression:

 He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep.

However, there is supernatural intervention, as an angel wakes him with a touch and instructs him to eat fresh bread and drink water.  This happens twice, until the Angel of The Lord gives him direction:

“Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there.

Elijah’s destination is quite significant.  It was at Mount Horeb that Moses, some 500 years earlier, had first encountered YHWH at the burning bush (Exodus 3).  According to most authorities Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai, famous as the place that Moses received the Law following the escape of Israel from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 20).  Surely, Elijah returns to Horeb as one might return to a sacred place, especially in this time of danger and persecution.

While Elijah cowers in the cave, the Lord addresses Elijah — not with a statement, but with a question:

“What are you doing here, Elijah?”

We can assume that the Lord already knows the answer — but this forces Elijah to confess that he is seeking refuge from his adversaries:

 He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”

The Lord instructs him to stand on the mountain while the Lord passes by.  We are reminded of the experience of Moses on Mount Sinai after the Ten Commandments had been given, and when the Lord was instructing Moses to lead the Israelites in their further journeys.  Moses also appears to be experiencing some self-doubt, for he tells the Lord that if the Lord’s presence does not go with them, the Lord should not lead them up from there; and he asks the Lord to reveal himself to Moses. The Lord does cause his glory to pass by the cave where Moses hides, but the Lord also warns Moses:

“you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.” (Exodus 33:20).

Similarly, the Lord tells Elijah that he is about to pass by.  What happens next is quite dramatic — a mighty wind breaks rocks, but the Lord isn’t in the wind; and an earthquake shakes the mountain, but the Lord isn’t in the earthquake; and then a fire rages over the mountain, but the Lord isn’t in the fire.

Only after all these phenomena are finished does Elijah hear:

a sound of sheer silence.

This is counter-intuitive, of course.  The prophet should have expected the Lord to reveal himself in the dramatic effects of wind, earthquake and fire.  Instead it is in the sound of sheer silence, stillness, that the voice of the Lord is heard:

 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

For a second time, the Lord asks the question:

“What are you doing here, Elijah?”

We can hear the plaintive self-pity of Elijah, and perhaps a hint of blame against the Lord, as well as his self-justification:

He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”

Despite all of his successes — feeding the widow of Zarephath with an endless supply of oil and meal, raising her son from the dead, and then vanquishing the prophets of Baal and Asherah —Elijah is still feeling discouraged.  Even after his rest under the broom tree, and the provision of food by the angel, and the spectacular divine manifestation on this mountain, Elijah is still experiencing a “pity party.”  He feels very much alone.

I take issue with our lectionary editors, who leave off a key piece of information in the suggested text.  The part they leave out that I think is so important is underlined:

 Then the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. . . Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” (1 Kings 19: 15, 18).

Yes, Elijah is given specific instructions about the political, religious and military future of the region — Hazael shall be anointed king of Aram; Jehu over Israel; and Elisha shall be anointed prophet as Elijah’s successor.  And there will be war.

But to me the most significant message to Elijah is that he is not the last or the only Israelite who is faithful to the Lord.  At least seven thousand in Israel remain — and that is likely a symbolic number indicating that there are many more than that number.

APPLY:  

Anyone who has ever attempted to serve as a pastor, a Sunday School teacher, a church leader, or even a responsible, faithful civic leader or politician, has likely experienced discouragement and burn-out.

All the symptoms are there in Elijah’s case — he flees as far from responsibility and threat as he possibly can; he withdraws into himself, alone; and he seems to seek refuge in sleep.  I can’t imagine that sleeping under the broom tree in the desert was a comfortable experience.

And the Lord responds to Elijah’s depression in a dramatic way.  First, Elijah is fed.  Second, he seeks real refuge in one of the holiest places of Hebrew history — Mount Horeb.  There, the Lord does encounter him.

We notice that the Lord’s communication with Elijah isn’t necessarily through signs and wonders, although they are certainly manifested in the wind, earthquake and fire.  No, the Lord is a bit more subtle than that — asking Elijah questions like “Why are you here, Elijah?”  And then the Lord communicates his own mystery through the sound of sheer silence.  We can’t help but think of the Lord breathing his name I Am that I am (Yahweh) to Moses in Exodus 3.

Don’t we sometimes need to be asked why are you here? — and to answer in God’s presence?  And don’t we sometimes need to follow the counsel of Psalm 46:10:

Be still, and know that I am God!

And the Lord gives Elijah something to do and reminds him he’s not the only one out there who is faithful.  And if we listen to the Lord, we will also be given a task to do; and we must remember that we are not alone.

RESPOND: 

I have a good friend who used to say, “No good deed goes unpunished.”  There are consequences for our bad actions; but there are also consequences for our good actions.

Sometimes our faithfulness may bring criticism or worse down upon us.  That doesn’t mean we stop being faithful.  It means that we may need to follow the pattern of Elijah — get away with God for a while, let God ask us “why are you here?”, and listen to his quiet voice.  And then obey it.

Lord, I thank you that I am not alone in following you.  Sometimes, as I look at the crazy world around me, I begin to think that way.  Lead me to quiet, holy places where I can listen to your voice; and then give me the faith and the energy to obey your word, however challenging it may be.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“Elijah Alone” by Matt Gullett is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for August 30, 2020

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Exodus 3:1-15
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The lectionary reading for the Old Testament this week is one of the most significant moments in Biblical history — Moses encounters Yahweh on Mount Horeb for the first time.  When we read last week’s Old Testament passage, we left off with Moses as an infant, adopted by the Pharaoh’s daughter in Egypt.  In our current passage, Moses is a grown, married man working for his father-in-law as a shepherd in the wilderness of Midian.  How did he get there?

Although Moses was raised in the aristocratic palace of an Egyptian princess, he did not lose his identity as a Hebrew.   When he had become a man, he witnessed an Egyptian assaulting a Hebrew man, and Moses covertly murdered the Egyptian and buried him in the sand.  Soon, though, his crime became known and he was forced to flee Pharaoh’s justice (cf. Exodus 2:11-15).

His flight from Egypt led Moses into the wilderness of Midian where he defended the seven daughters of Reuel (also known as Jethro) from aggressive shepherds contesting their water rights at a well.  Moses is invited to eat with Reuel, who eventually offers his daughter Zipporah to Moses as his wife.  Zipporah bore Moses a son named Gershom (whose name is indicative of Moses’ sense of displacement: alien or foreigner. Cf. Exodus 2:16-22).

Meanwhile, while Moses is establishing his family and working as a shepherd, Pharaoh has died.  And the people of Israel are suffering:

The children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.  God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.  God saw the children of Israel, and God was concerned about them (Exodus 2:2-25).

As our lectionary reading begins, Moses is herding his father-in-law’s flock near Horeb, which is named God’s mountain.  Interestingly, we are told that Jethro (Reuel) is the priest of Midian.  His particular beliefs aren’t disclosed.

It soon becomes apparent that God is seeking Moses’ attention.  Somewhere on this mountain:

Yahweh’s angel appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middle of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.  Moses said, “I will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.”

The phenomenon is not explained.  Nor are we told why God didn’t speak to Moses in some other way.  What we do know is that Moses follows his sense of wonder and curiosity, and it leads him to God.

There are several key points in this account that tell us volumes about the nature of God.

First, God is personal.  He knows Moses by name.  He is not abstract. God is immanent, which means that his presence pervades his creation:

When Yahweh saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the middle of the bush, and said, “Moses! Moses!”

Second, God is holy.  Though he is immanent, God is also transcendent and separate.  When Moses answers God’s voice from the burning bush, God warns him:

 Don’t come close. Take your sandals off of your feet, for the place you are standing on is holy ground.

Removing one’s shoes is a sign act that suggests that there is a boundary between the sacred and the profane.  These sandals would have been worn in all terrains, some of them unclean and defiled.  Moses is made aware that he is in the presence of holiness.

Incidentally, the fire that burns in the bush yet doesn’t consume the bush is also a reminder of the holiness of God. Fire is described as a purifying agent (Malachi 3:2).  Later in Exodus, God will guide the children of Israel in the form of a pillar of fire (Exodus 13:21).

Third, God is Lord over history.  He reminds Moses of his historical context:

 I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

God’s self-revelation is consistent with what he has done in the past with the Patriarchs, and his covenants with them are still intact.  And God has a unique relationship with Israel.

Fourth, God is compassionate.  He tells Moses that he is aware of the affliction of Israel as slaves in Egypt.  Moreover, God is revealing his plan of deliverance to Moses, that he will bring them:

up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.

We are reminded that when God names those who now occupy the land that was promised to the Patriarchs (the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite) that they are only temporary tenants.  The land belongs to Abraham’s descendants.

Sixth, God chooses to work through people in fulfilling his purposes.  He says to Moses:

Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

And we also catch a real glimpse into the character of Moses.

First there is his humility.  Humility in the presence of a holy, omnipotent God is certainly appropriate!  In verse 6 we are told:

Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look at God.

This is a typical response for anyone in Scripture who has a genuine encounter with God.  In fact, God warns Moses later in Exodus 33:20 that no one can look upon God’s face and live. However, we learn later in the Torah that humility is a defining aspect of Moses’ character:

Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all the men who were on the surface of the earth (Numbers 12:3).

And we see this in his humble response to God’s call:

Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

He doesn’t see anything unusual or extraordinary about himself.

Second, when God reassures Moses that his own presence will go with him and promises to confirm his presence by leading Israel back to this very mountain, Moses is still timid.  This may be understandable apprehension — or it may be doubt.  After all, up until this moment Moses has had no direct experience of God.  So his question may not seem that unreasonable:

Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you;’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ What should I tell them?

What Moses is really asking is — who are you?  Can I trust you?

This next moment is one of the peak moments in Scripture, that will define the nature and character of God from henceforth and forever — including Jesus’ understanding of himself in the New Testament, especially in John’s Gospel.

God reveals his identity through the Tetragrammaton (the four Hebrew letters that we transliterate into English: YHWH).  God says:

 “I AM WHO I AM,” and he said, “You shall tell the children of Israel this: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

Note that God does not offer an anthropomorphic name, or a personal name — like Zeus or Baal or Odin.  What he offers is a description of his character.  He is the living God who truly exists, and upon whom all existence depends.

This enigmatic response is not an attempt to be evasive — in Hebraic thought, words and names are more than just words.  They connect with the very being of their subject.  And knowing the name of someone provides a measure of power.

This is why Jacob asked God his name in their famous wrestling match, and why God didn’t give it to him.  No one can manipulate or command the Almighty.  The God of Israel whom Moses encounters is not one of many gods and goddesses that can be named.  He is the God, the One who Is.

This name of God — I Am, translated into English as Yahweh — is so sacred that most Hebrew scholars substitute Adonai (Lord) when they write about God.  And Lord is the usual translation of Yahweh in most English translations.

Finally, God gives Moses his “marching orders”:

God said moreover to Moses, “You shall tell the children of Israel this, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations.

This is a promissory note, a check, that God is writing to the people of Israel.  They are the heirs of God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and he is also their God.  Yahweh is the same God who revealed himself to their Patriarchs and has now revealed himself to Moses.  And Moses will be sent to his oppressed people in Yahweh’s name.

APPLY:  

How does one encounter God?  Although this may occur in an instant, with a dramatic experience — Moses and the burning bush; Saul on the road to Damascus — God frequently seems to draw us prior to those dramatic breakthroughs.

I speculate that Saul, despite his threats and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord (Acts 9:1) must have had a nagging doubt as he remembered the faith and courage of Stephen as he died a martyr’s death.  Was the Holy Spirit already working on Saul even before Christ appeared to him while he was on the road?

Moses only encounters God when he turns aside to see this wonder — why the bush burns but isn’t consumed.

What this reminds us is that wonder is the first step toward enlightenment.  Plato said:

Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.

Albert Einstein said of unlocking the secrets of the physical universe:

The important thing is not to stop questioning… Never lose a holy curiosity.

Our sense of wonder, about the world around us, the universe, the meaning of life and our own place in it, are likely to bring us to God if we keep on seeking those answers.

Of course, in theological terms, our encounter with God begins with God’s initiative, not ours.  We always find ourselves responding to God’s presence that is already there in our lives. In my own theological tradition, we call this prevenient grace — the grace that precedes our awareness that God is near.

And then there is the theological mountain peak of God’s self-disclosure.  God identifies himself as I Am.  In my opinion, theology, philosophy and even physics probably touch at this point more than anywhere else in all of Scripture.

I’m tempted to use Paul Tillich’s famous term, suggesting that God reveals himself as the Ground of Being.  Tillich said that God is Being Itself.   Obviously, there is a lot of baggage packed into such terms.   Paul Tillich’s theology, like all attempts to explain the unexplainable, comes up short. The bottom line is that God is the source of all Reality, all that exists.  God transcends his created world. God can and does exist without creation, but creation cannot exist without God.

To experience and know the I Am is to be in touch with Someone who is Reality Himself. And as Christians, we experience and know this Reality through Jesus, who identifies himself as I Am multiple times, particularly in John’s Gospel:

Most certainly, I tell you, before Abraham came into existence, I AM (John 8:58).

RESPOND: 

For people of a certain age, it is nearly impossible not to think of Charlton Heston when we read these stories of Moses.  Charlton Heston’s characterization of Moses in Cecil B. DeMille’s film The Ten Commandments was dramatic and majestic.  Sometimes I have to shake my head and clear my thoughts when I read of Moses so I can let the text speak to me instead of my memories of the movie.

In some ways, Charlton Heston did a disservice to the Biblical Moses.  Moses could be a man of impulsive action, to be sure — he murdered an Egyptian overseer in a reckless moment.  But when he encounters God, he is reduced to quivering jelly.  Perhaps at this moment he is more like Don Knotts as he portrays the nervous gunfighter in The Shakiest Gun in the West. Again, I know that this analogy only speaks to a certain age and demographic.

The point is, all who come into contact with the living God become immediately aware of how insignificantly small we are in contrast to the great I AM.  However, at the same time, this I AM does reveal himself to us. There is wonder on Mount Horeb. There is God’s real presence through the person of Jesus. And there is the presence of the Spirit of God bearing witness with our spirits that we are children of this awesome God.

We were made in God’s moral and spiritual image — and when we damaged and defiled that image by our sin, he came to us in Jesus in order to renew that image in us.  I am reminded of Psalm 8, that describes this paradoxical balance between our insignificance and our value to God:

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have ordained;
 what is man, that you think of him?
What is the son of man, that you care for him?
 For you have made him a little lower than God,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
 You make him ruler over the works of your hands.
You have put all things under his feet (Psalm 8:3-6).

Our status is entirely dependent upon the greatness and mercy of God.

Lord, when we encounter you — truly encounter you — we are aware that we are in the presence of Something beyond our understanding.  And yet you come to us, and call us, and even choose to work in us and through us to accomplish your purpose.  We can’t be anything but humbled by that — for it is you at work in us, and not ourselves.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“Exodus 3-14 a” by New Life Church Collingwood is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for June 30, 2019

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

We are witnesses in this passage to a transition from the ministry of Elijah to Elisha.

Elijah has been instructed by God on Mount Horeb to anoint Elisha as his prophetic successor (1 Kings 19:16).  In 1 Kings 19:19, Elijah begins to fulfill this charge when he finds Elisha plowing. Elijah throws his mantle over Elisha’s  shoulders.  This was a sign that he was claiming Elisha for God’s mission.

Elisha then slaughters his oxen and offers them as a sacrifice, and begins to follow Elijah as his servant.

Elijah gives Elisha several opportunities to back out of his call.  When Elisha asks permission to say goodbye to his parents after the initial meeting, Elijah seems casual:

 “Go back again; for what have I done to you?” (1 Kings 19:20).

In today’s lectionary passage, Elijah is traveling from place to place — from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho and then across the Jordan River.  Three times Elijah tries to deter Elisha from following him,  telling him stay here.

Each time, Elisha declares his intention not to leave Elijah’s side.  This seems to be a kind of test.  Elijah is giving Elisha the opportunity to renounce this difficult calling to prophecy.  And Elisha passes each test.

Finally, there is the moment of truth.  Elijah rolls up his mantle — the same mantle that he threw over Elisha’s shoulders as a kind of claim on him — and strikes the river Jordan.  Just as the Red Sea had parted before Moses and his staff  (Exodus 14:15-25), and the Jordan had stopped flowing for Joshua and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant (Joshua 3:7-17), Elijah reprises these miracles:

the water was parted to the one side and to the other, until the two of them crossed on dry ground.

Elijah seems to realize that Elisha’s devotion to the Lord and to himself is sincere, and he rewards Elisha:

“Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you.” Elisha said, “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.”

This seems an audacious request.  Elijah isn’t sure this is possible, but he promises that if Elisha can see the supernatural phenomenon about to take place, it will be granted:

 As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven.  Elisha kept watching and crying out, “Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” But when he could no longer see him, he grasped his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.

Like the experience of Elijah on Mount Horeb, this is another theophany — a moment when God “shows up.”  Like Ezekiel’s fiery wheels (Ezekiel 1), this chariot is beyond normal human experience.  It is different, however, in that this heavenly chariot becomes a means of conveyance for Elijah.

Elisha’s request has been granted.  Although he tears his garment as a sign of mourning (common in that time), Elisha begins to exercise the authority that Elijah has conferred.  He crosses back over the Jordan River, using Elijah’s discarded mantle:

He took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, saying, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” When he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha went over.

The mantle of authority and prophecy has been passed to Elisha.

APPLY:  

Transitions of authority are an important part of life.  When there has been an especially effective or prominent leader, like Elijah, this would seem difficult to accomplish. Elijah was a tough act to follow.

Transitions are made easier when it is very clear that the successor is up to the job.

Elisha’s appointment to this role is confirmed by two things:

• First, God has clearly set him aside as Elijah’s successor when God tells Elijah to anoint Elisha.
• Second, Elisha is aware that he will need twice the prophetic spirit that Elijah has; and asks for it. It is a wise person who has the humility to know what they need, and ask for it.

In spiritual leadership, the call of God is usually discerned by the individual, but it is also confirmed by the community of faith.  Perhaps that explains the role of the fifty members of the company of prophets  who stand at a distance and watch Elijah and Elisha cross the Jordan.  When Elisha crosses back over the Jordan alone, they acknowledge what has happened in his life:

 When the company of prophets who were at Jericho saw him at a distance, they declared, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.”  (2 Kings 2:15).

Although the call to serve God can be very personal and unique in each individual’s life, recognition of that call by the community of faith is very important.

RESPOND: 

C.S. Lewis makes a statement in his Christian fantasy book, Prince Caspian,  about which I am undecided.  Aslan the lion is the Christ figure.  Young Lucy is disappointed that Aslan won’t rescue the children like he had in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.  Aslan explains to her:

“Things never happen the same way twice.”

I think I understand what he means.  God doesn’t get in a rut.  Even though events may resemble previous experiences, each one is unique.

Elijah experienced God’s presence in different ways in his own life — the fire that consumed his sacrifice on Mount Carmel; the sound of sheer silence on Mount Horeb; and now this fiery chariot.

On the one hand, this should remind us to watch for God’s self-disclosure in different ways.  We shouldn’t allow our spiritual discernment to grow stale.

On the other hand, there are patterns and common themes that recur — otherwise, how could we possibly learn to identify the signs that God is near?

The trick is not to turn a burning chariot or a burning bush into an expectation.  God will speak as God chooses to speak.  Our part is to be open and listening.

Lord, choosing to follow you requires every bit of my resources. Ironically though, as Elisha discovered, no matter how much I give, you always give a double-portion in return.  Thank you for the privilege of sharing and serving, and for the blessing that has been received.  Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Ascension of Elijah” by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for June 23, 2019

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Kings 19:1-15a
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Elijah has been the point man and the “lightning rod” in the struggle between the prophets of Baal/Asherah and Yahwism.  He has enjoyed a dramatic victory over these pagan prophets at Mt. Carmel that resulted in their wholesale slaughter — 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah.

Jezebel was not the kind of queen to let that pass without consequences — after all, these were the prophets of her own religion, who had eaten at her own table.  So she sends a solemn warning to Elijah:

 “So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.”

Elijah reacts the way any normal person might react to a threat by a very powerful adversary — he flees in terror.  He travels as far south as he possibly can to escape the jurisdiction of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel in Israel.  His first stop is in Beer-Sheba, which is near the farthest boundaries of Judah, and then beyond that into the wilderness.

Remember that Judah was a separate kingdom at this time, under King Jehoshaphat, who was by and large a good and Godly king.  So, Elijah had nothing to fear from him.

Still, Scripture tells us:

he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree.

Elijah has gone off by himself in complete solitude — we have the impression of deep depression:

 He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep.

However, there is supernatural intervention, as an angel wakes him with a touch and instructs him to eat fresh bread and drink water.  This happens twice, until the Angel of The Lord gives him direction:

“Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there.

Elijah’s destination is quite significant.  It was at Mount Horeb that Moses, some 500 years earlier, had first encountered YHWH at the burning bush (Exodus 3).  According to most authorities Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai, famous as the place that Moses received the Law following the escape of Israel from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 20).   Surely, Elijah returns to Horeb  as one might return to a sacred place, especially in this time of danger and persecution.

While Elijah cowers in the cave, the Lord addresses Elijah — not with a statement, but with a question:

“What are you doing here, Elijah?”

We can assume that the Lord already knows the answer — but this forces Elijah to confess that he is seeking refuge from his adversaries:

 He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”

The Lord instructs him to stand on the mountain while the Lord passes by.  We are reminded of the experience of Moses on Mount Sinai after the Ten Commandments had been given, and when the Lord was instructing Moses to lead the Israelites in their  further journeys.  Moses also appears to be experiencing some self-doubt, for he tells the Lord that if the Lord’s presence does not go with them,  the Lord should not lead them up from there; and he asks the Lord to reveal himself to Moses. The Lord does cause his glory to pass by the cave where Moses hides, but the Lord also warns Moses:

“you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.” (Exodus 33:20).

Similarly, the Lord tells Elijah that he is about to pass by.  What happens next is quite dramatic — a mighty wind breaks rocks, but the Lord isn’t in the wind; and an earthquake shakes the mountain, but the Lord isn’t in the earthquake; and then a fire rages over the mountain, but the Lord isn’t in the fire.

Only after all these phenomena are finished does Elijah hear:

a sound of sheer silence.

This is counter-intuitive, of course.  The prophet should have expected the Lord to reveal himself in the dramatic effects of wind, earthquake and fire.  Instead it is in the sound of sheer silence, stillness, that the voice of the Lord is heard:

 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

For a second time, the Lord asks the question:

“What are you doing here, Elijah?”

We can hear the plaintive self-pity of Elijah, and perhaps a hint of blame against the Lord, as well as his self-justification:

He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”

Despite all of his successes — feeding the widow of Zarephath with an endless supply of oil and meal, raising her son from the dead, and then vanquishing the prophets of Baal and Asherah —Elijah is still feeling discouraged.  Even after his rest under the broom tree, and the provision of food by the angel, and the spectacular divine manifestation on this mountain, Elijah is still experiencing a “pity party.”  He feels very much alone.

I take issue with our lectionary editors, who leave off a key piece of information in the suggested text.  The part they leave out that I think is so important is underlined:

 Then the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. . . Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” (1 Kings 19: 15, 18).

Yes, Elijah is given specific instructions about the political, religious and military future of the region — Hazael shall be anointed king of Aram; Jehu over Israel; and Elisha shall be anointed prophet as Elijah’s successor.  And there will be war.

But to me the most significant message to Elijah is that he is not the last or the only Israelite who is faithful to the Lord.  At least seven thousand in Israel remain — and that is likely a symbolic number indicating that there are many more than that number.

APPLY:  

Anyone who has ever attempted to serve as a pastor, a Sunday School teacher, a church leader, or even a responsible, faithful civic leader or politician, has likely experienced discouragement and burn-out.

All the symptoms are there in Elijah’s case — he flees as far from responsibility and threat as he possibly can; he withdraws into himself, alone; and he seems to seek refuge in sleep.  I can’t imagine that sleeping under the broom tree in the desert was a comfortable experience.

And the Lord responds to Elijah’s depression in a dramatic way.  First, Elijah is fed.  Second, he seeks real refuge in one of the holiest places of Hebrew history — Mount Horeb.  There, the Lord does encounter him.

We notice that the Lord’s communication with Elijah isn’t necessarily through signs and wonders, although they are certainly manifested in the wind, earthquake and fire.  No, the Lord is a bit more subtle than that — asking Elijah questions like “Why are you here, Elijah?”  And then the Lord communicates his own mystery through the sound of sheer silence.  We can’t help but think of the Lord breathing his name I Am that I am (Yahweh) to Moses in Exodus 3.

Don’t we sometimes need to be asked why are you here? — and to answer in God’s presence?  And don’t we sometimes need to follow the counsel of Psalm 46:10:

Be still, and know that I am God!

And the Lord gives Elijah something to do and reminds him he’s not the only one out there who is faithful.  And if we listen to the Lord, we will also be given a task to do; and we must remember that we are not alone.

RESPOND: 

I have a good friend who used to say, “No good deed goes unpunished.”  There are consequences for our bad actions; but there are also consequences for our good actions.

Sometimes our faithfulness may bring criticism or worse down upon us.  That doesn’t mean we stop being faithful.  It means that we may need to follow the pattern of Elijah — get away with God for a while, let God ask us “why are you here?”, and listen to his quiet voice.  And then obey it.

Lord, I thank you that I am not alone in following you.  Sometimes, as I look at the crazy world around me, I begin to think that way.  Lead me to quiet, holy places where I can listen to your voice; and then give me the faith and the energy to obey your word, however challenging it may be.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“Elijah Alone” by Matt Gullett is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for September 3, 2017

Start with Scripture:

Exodus 3:1-15

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The lectionary reading for the Old Testament this week is one of the most significant moments in Biblical history — Moses encounters Yahweh on Mount Horeb for the first time.  When we read last week’s Old Testament passage, we left off with Moses as an infant, adopted by the Pharaoh’s daughter in Egypt.  In our current passage, Moses is a grown, married man working for his father-in-law as a shepherd in the wilderness of Midian.  How did he get there?

Although Moses was raised in the aristocratic palace of an Egyptian princess, he did not lose his identity as a Hebrew.   When he had become a man, he witnessed an Egyptian assaulting a Hebrew man, and Moses covertly murdered the Egyptian and buried him in the sand.  Soon, though, his crime became known and he was forced to flee Pharaoh’s justice (cf. Exodus 2:11-15).

His flight from Egypt led Moses into the wilderness of Midian where he defended the seven daughters of Reuel (also known as Jethro) from aggressive shepherds contesting their water rights at a well.  Moses is invited to eat with Reuel, who eventually offers his daughter Zipporah to Moses as his wife.  Zipporah bore Moses a son named Gershom (whose name is indicative of Moses’ sense of displacement: alien or foreigner. Cf. Exodus 2:16-22).

Meanwhile, while Moses is establishing his family and working as a shepherd, Pharaoh has died.  And the people of Israel are suffering:

The children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.  God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.  God saw the children of Israel, and God was concerned about them (Exodus 2:2-25).

As our lectionary reading begins, Moses is herding his father-in-law’s flock near Horeb, which is named God’s mountain.  Interestingly, we are told that Jethro (Reuel) is the priest of Midian.  His particular beliefs aren’t disclosed.

It soon becomes apparent that God is seeking Moses’ attention.  Somewhere on this mountain:

Yahweh’s angel appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middle of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.  Moses said, “I will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.”

The phenomenon is not explained.  Nor are we told why God didn’t speak to Moses in some other way.  What we do know is that Moses follows his sense of wonder and curiosity, and it leads him to God.

There are several key points in this account that tell us volumes about the nature of God.

First, God is personal.  He knows Moses by name.  He is not abstract. God is immanent, which means that his presence pervades his creation:

When Yahweh saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the middle of the bush, and said, “Moses! Moses!”

Second, God is holy.  Though he is immanent, God is also transcendent and separate.  When Moses answers God’s voice from the burning bush, God warns him:

 Don’t come close. Take your sandals off of your feet, for the place you are standing on is holy ground.

Removing one’s shoes is a sign act that suggests that there is a boundary between the sacred and the profane.  These sandals would have been worn in all terrains, some of them unclean and defiled.  Moses is made aware that he is in the presence of holiness.

Incidentally, the fire that burns in the bush yet doesn’t consume the bush is also a reminder of the holiness of God. Fire is described as a purifying agent (Malachi 3:2).  Later in Exodus, God will guide the children of Israel in the form of a pillar of fire (Exodus 13:21).

Third, God is Lord over history.  He reminds Moses of his historical context:

 I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

God’s self-revelation is consistent with what he has done in the past with the Patriarchs, and his covenants with them are still intact.  And God has a unique relationship with Israel.

Fourth, God is compassionate.  He tells Moses that he is aware of the affliction of Israel as slaves in Egypt.  Moreover, God is revealing his plan of deliverance to Moses, that he will bring them:

up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.

We are reminded that when God names those who now occupy the land that was promised to the Patriarchs (the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite) that they are only temporary tenants.  The land belongs to Abraham’s descendants.

Sixth, God chooses to work through people in fulfilling his purposes.  He says to Moses:

Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

And we also catch a real glimpse into the character of Moses.

First there is his humility.  Humility in the presence of a holy, omnipotent God is certainly appropriate!  In verse 6 we are told:

Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look at God.

This is a typical response for anyone in Scripture who has a genuine encounter with God.  In fact, God warns Moses later in Exodus 33:20 that no one can look upon God’s face and live. However, we learn later in the Torah that humility is a defining aspect of Moses’ character:

Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all the men who were on the surface of the earth (Numbers 12:3).

And we see this in his humble response to God’s call:

Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

He doesn’t see anything unusual or extraordinary about himself.

Second, when God reassures Moses that his own presence will go with him and promises to confirm his presence by leading Israel back to this very mountain, Moses is still timid.  This may be understandable apprehension — or it may be doubt.  After all, up until this moment Moses has had no direct experience of God.  So his question may not seem that unreasonable:

Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you;’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ What should I tell them?

What Moses is really asking is — who are you?  Can I trust you?

This next moment is one of the peak moments in Scripture, that will define the nature and character of God from henceforth and forever — including Jesus’ understanding of himself in the New Testament, especially in John’s Gospel.

God reveals his identity through the Tetragrammaton (the four Hebrew letters that we transliterate into English: YHWH).  God says:

 “I AM WHO I AM,” and he said, “You shall tell the children of Israel this: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

Note that God does not offer an anthropomorphic name, or a personal name — like Zeus or Baal or Odin.  What he offers is a description of his character.  He is the living God who truly exists, and upon whom all existence depends.

This enigmatic response is not an attempt to be evasive — in Hebraic thought, words and names are more than just words.  They connect with the very being of their subject.  And knowing the name of someone provides a measure of power.

This is why Jacob asked God his name in their famous wrestling match, and why God didn’t give it to him.  No one can manipulate or command the Almighty.  The God of Israel whom Moses encounters is not one of many gods and goddesses that can be named.  He is the God, the One who Is.

This name of God — I Am, translated into English as Yahweh — is so sacred that most Hebrew scholars substitute Adonai (Lord) when they write about God.  And Lord is the usual translation of Yahweh in most English translations.

Finally, God gives Moses his “marching orders”:

God said moreover to Moses, “You shall tell the children of Israel this, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations.

This is a prommisory note, a check, that God is writing to the people of Israel.  They are the heirs of God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and he is also their God.  Yahweh is the same God who revealed himself to their Patriarchs and has now revealed himself to Moses.  And Moses will be sent to his oppressed people in Yahweh’s name.

APPLY:  

How does one encounter God?  Although this may occur in an instant, with a dramatic experience — Moses and the burning bush; Saul on the road to Damascus — God frequently seems to draw us prior to those dramatic breakthroughs.

I speculate that Saul, despite his threats and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord (Acts 9:1) must have had a nagging doubt as he remembered the faith and courage of Stephen as he died a martyr’s death.  Was the Holy Spirit already working on Saul even before Christ appeared to him while he was on the road?

Moses only encounters God when he turns aside to see this wonder — why the bush burns but isn’t consumed.

What this reminds us is that wonder is the first step toward enlightenment.  Plato said:

Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.

Albert Einstein said of unlocking the secrets of the physical universe:

The important thing is not to stop questioning… Never lose a holy curiosity.

Our sense of wonder, about the world around us, the universe, the meaning of life and our own place in it, are likely to bring us to God if we keep on seeking those answers.

Of course, in theological terms, our encounter with God begins with God’s initiative, not ours.  We always find ourselves responding to God’s presence that is already there in our lives. In my own theological tradition, we call this prevenient grace — the grace that precedes our awareness that God is near.

And then there is the theological mountain peak of God’s self-disclosure.  God identifies himself as I Am.  In my opinion, theology, philosophy and even physics probably touch at this point more than anywhere else in all of Scripture.

I’m tempted to use Paul Tillich’s famous term, suggesting that God reveals himself as the Ground of Being.  Tillich said that God is Being Itself.   Obviously, there is a lot of baggage packed into such terms.   Paul Tillich’s theology, like all attempts to explain the unexplainable, comes up short. The bottom line is that God is the source of all Reality, all that exists.  God transcends his created world. God can and does exist without creation, but creation cannot exist without God.

To experience and know the I Am is to be in touch with Someone who is Reality Himself. And as Christians, we experience and know this Reality through Jesus, who identifies himself  as I Am multiple times, particularly in John’s Gospel:

Most certainly, I tell you, before Abraham came into existence, I AM (John 8:58).

RESPOND: 

For people of a certain age, it is nearly impossible not to think of Charlton Heston when we read these stories of Moses.  Charlton Heston’s characterization of Moses in Cecil B. DeMille’s film The Ten Commandments was dramatic and majestic.  Sometimes I have to shake my head and clear my thoughts when I read of Moses so I can let the text speak to me instead of my memories of the movie.

In some ways, Charlton Heston did a disservice to the Biblical Moses.  Moses could be a man of impulsive action, to be sure — he murdered an Egyptian overseer in a reckless moment.  But when he encounters God, he is reduced to quivering jelly.  Perhaps at this moment he is more like Don Knotts as he portrays the nervous gunfighter in The Shakiest Gun in the West. Again, I know that this analogy only speaks to a certain age and demographic.

The point is, all who come into contact with the living God become immediately aware of how insignificantly small we are in contrast to the great I AM.  However, at the same time, this I AM does reveal himself to us. There is wonder on Mount Horeb. There is God’s real presence through the person of Jesus. And there is the presence of the Spirit of God bearing witness with our spirits that we are children of this awesome God.

We were made in God’s moral and spiritual image — and when we damaged and defiled that image by our sin, he came to us in Jesus in order to renew that image in us.  I am reminded of Psalm 8, that describes this paradoxical balance between our insignificance and our value to God:

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have ordained;
 what is man, that you think of him?
What is the son of man, that you care for him?
 For you have made him a little lower than God,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
 You make him ruler over the works of your hands.
You have put all things under his feet (Psalm 8:3-6).

Our status is entirely dependent upon the greatness and mercy of God.

Lord, when we encounter you — truly encounter you — we are aware that we are in the presence of Something beyond our understanding.  And yet you come to us, and call us, and even choose to work in us and through us to accomplish your purpose.  We can’t be anything but humbled by that — for it is you at work in us, and not ourselves.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“moses and the burning bush” by mararie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for June 26, 2016

Start with Scripture:

2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14

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OBSERVE:

We are witnesses in this passage to a transition from the ministry of Elijah to Elisha.

Elijah has been instructed by God on Mount Horeb to anoint Elisha as his prophetic successor (1 Kings 19:16).  In 1 Kings 19:19, Elijah begins to fulfill this charge when he finds Elisha plowing. Elijah throws his mantle over Elisha’s  shoulders.  This was a sign that he was claiming Elisha for God’s mission.

Elisha then slaughters his oxen and offers them as a sacrifice, and begins to follow Elijah as his servant.

Elijah gives Elisha several opportunities to back out of his call.  When Elisha asks permission to say goodbye to his parents after the initial meeting, Elijah seems casual:

 “Go back again; for what have I done to you?” (1 Kings 19:20).

In today’s lectionary passage, Elijah is traveling from place to place — from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho and then across the Jordan River.  Three times Elijah tries to deter Elisha from following him,  telling him stay here.

Each time, Elisha declares his intention not to leave Elijah’s side.  This seems to be a kind of test.  Elijah is giving Elisha the opportunity to renounce this difficult calling to prophecy.  And Elisha passes each test.

Finally, there is the moment of truth.  Elijah rolls up his mantle — the same mantle that he threw over Elisha’s shoulders as a kind of claim on him — and strikes the river Jordan.  Just as the Red Sea had parted before Moses and his staff  (Exodus 14:15-25), and the Jordan had stopped flowing for Joshua and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant (Joshua 3:7-17), Elijah reprises these miracles:

the water was parted to the one side and to the other, until the two of them crossed on dry ground.

Elijah seems to realize that Elisha’s devotion to the Lord and to himself is sincere, and he rewards Elisha:

“Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you.” Elisha said, “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.”

This seems an audacious request.  Elijah isn’t sure this is possible, but he promises that if Elisha can see the supernatural phenomenon about to take place, it will be granted:

 As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven.  Elisha kept watching and crying out, “Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” But when he could no longer see him, he grasped his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.

Like the experience of Elijah on Mount Horeb, this is another theophany — a moment when God “shows up.”  Like Ezekiel’s fiery wheels (Ezekiel 1), this chariot is beyond normal human experience.  It is different, however, in that this heavenly chariot becomes a means of conveyance for Elijah.

Elisha’s request has been granted.  Although he tears his garment as a sign of mourning (common in that time), Elisha begins to exercise the authority that Elijah has conferred.  He crosses back over the Jordan River, using Elijah’s discarded mantle:

He took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, saying, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” When he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha went over.

The mantle of authority and prophecy has been passed to Elisha.

APPLY:  

Transitions of authority are an important part of life.  When there has been an especially effective or prominent leader, like Elijah, this would seem difficult to accomplish. Elijah was a tough act to follow.

Transitions are made easier when it is very clear that the successor is up to the job.

Elisha’s appointment to this role is confirmed by two things:

• First, God has clearly set him aside as Elijah’s successor when God tells Elijah to anoint Elisha.
• Second, Elisha is aware that he will need twice the prophetic spirit that Elijah has; and asks for it. It is a wise person who has the humility to know what they need, and ask for it.

In spiritual leadership, the call of God is usually discerned by the individual, but it is also confirmed by the community of faith.  Perhaps that explains the role of the fifty members of the company of prophets  who stand at a distance and watch Elijah and Elisha cross the Jordan.  When Elisha crosses back over the Jordan alone, they acknowledge what has happened in his life:

 When the company of prophets who were at Jericho saw him at a distance, they declared, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.”  (2 Kings 2:15).

Although the call to serve God can be very personal and unique in each individual’s life, recognition of that call by the community of faith is very important.

RESPOND: 

C.S. Lewis makes a statement in his Christian fantasy book, Prince Caspian,  about which I am undecided.  Aslan the lion is the Christ figure.  Young Lucy is disappointed that Aslan won’t rescue the children like he had in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.  Aslan explains to her:

“Things never happen the same way twice.”

I think I understand what he means.  God doesn’t get in a rut.  Even though events may resemble previous experiences, each one is unique.

Elijah experienced God’s presence in different ways in his own life — the fire that consumed his sacrifice on Mount Carmel; the sound of sheer silence on Mount Horeb; and now this fiery chariot.

On the one hand, this should remind us to watch for God’s self-disclosure in different ways.  We shouldn’t allow our spiritual discernment to grow stale.

On the other hand, there are patterns and common themes that recur — otherwise, how could we possibly learn to identify the signs that God is near?

The trick is not to turn a burning chariot or a burning bush into an expectation.  God will speak as God chooses to speak.  Our part is to be open and listening.

Lord, choosing to follow you requires every bit of my resources. Ironically though, as Elisha discovered, no matter how much I give, you always give a double-portion in return.  Thank you for the privilege of sharing and serving, and for the blessing that has been received.  Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Ascension of Elijah” by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for June 19, 2016

Start with Scripture:

1 Kings 19:1-15a

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OBSERVE:

Elijah has been the point man and the “lightning rod” in the struggle between the prophets of Baal/Asherah and Yahwism.  He has enjoyed a dramatic victory over these pagan prophets at Mt. Carmel that resulted in their wholesale slaughter — 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah.

Jezebel was not the kind of queen to let that pass without consequences — after all, these were the prophets of her own religion, who had eaten at her own table.  So she sends a solemn warning to Elijah:

 “So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.”

Elijah reacts the way any normal person might react to a threat by a very powerful adversary — he flees in terror.  He travels as far south as he possibly can to escape the jurisdiction of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel in Israel.  His first stop is in Beer-Sheba, which is near the farthest boundaries of  Judah, and then beyond that into the wilderness.

Remember that Judah was a separate kingdom at this time, under King Jehoshaphat, who was by and large a good and Godly king.  So, Elijah had nothing to fear from him.

Still, Scripture tells us:

he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree.

Elijah has gone off by himself in complete solitude — we have the impression of deep depression:

 He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep.

However, there is supernatural intervention, as an angel wakes him with a touch and instructs him to eat fresh bread and drink water.  This happens twice, until the Angel of The Lord gives him direction:

“Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there.

Elijah’s destination is quite significant.  It was at Mount Horeb that Moses, some 500 years earlier, had first encountered YHWH at the burning bush (Exodus 3).  According to most authorities Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai, famous as the place that Moses received the Law following the escape of Israel from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 20).   Surely, Elijah returns to Horeb  as one might return to a sacred place, especially in this time of danger and persecution.

While Elijah cowers in the cave, the Lord addresses Elijah — not with a statement, but with a question:

“What are you doing here, Elijah?”

We can assume that the Lord already knows the answer — but this forces Elijah to confess that he is seeking refuge from his adversaries:

 He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”

The Lord instructs him to stand on the mountain while the Lord passes by.  We are reminded of the experience of Moses on Mount Sinai after the Ten Commandments had been given, and when the Lord was instructing Moses to lead the Israelites in their  further journeys.  Moses also appears to be experiencing some self-doubt, for he tells the Lord that if the Lord’s presence does not go with them,  the Lord should not lead them up from there; and he asks the Lord to reveal himself to Moses. The Lord does cause his glory to pass by the cave where Moses hides, but the Lord also warns Moses:

“you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.” (Exodus 33:20).

Similarly, the Lord tells Elijah that he is about to pass by.  What happens next is quite dramatic — a mighty wind breaks rocks, but the Lord isn’t in the wind; and an earthquake shakes the mountain, but the Lord isn’t in the earthquake; and then a fire rages over the mountain, but the Lord isn’t in the fire.

Only after all these phenomena are finished does Elijah hear:

a sound of sheer silence.

This is counter-intuitive, of course.  The prophet should have expected the Lord to reveal himself in the dramatic effects of wind, earthquake and fire.  Instead it is in the sound of sheer silence, stillness, that the voice of the Lord is heard:

 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

For a second time, the Lord asks the question:

“What are you doing here, Elijah?”

We can hear the plaintive self-pity of Elijah, and perhaps a hint of blame against the Lord, as well as his self-justification:

He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”

Despite all of his successes — feeding the widow of Zarephath with an endless supply of oil and meal, raising her son from the dead, and then vanquishing the prophets of Baal and Asherah —Elijah is still feeling discouraged.  Even after his rest under the broom tree, and the provision of food by the angel, and the spectacular divine manifestation on this mountain, Elijah is still experiencing a “pity party.”  He feels very much alone.

I take issue with our lectionary editors, who leave off a key piece of information in the suggested text.  The part they leave out that I think is so important is underlined:

 Then the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. . . Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” (1 Kings 19: 15, 18).

Yes, Elijah is given specific instructions about the political, religious and military future of the region: Hazael shall be anointed king of Aram; Jehu over Israel; and Elisha shall be anointed prophet as Elijah’s successor.  And there will be war.

But to me the most significant message to Elijah is that he is not the last or the only Israelite who is faithful to the Lord.  At least seven thousand in Israel remain — and that is likely a symbolic number indicating that there are many more than that number.

APPLY:  

Anyone who has ever attempted to serve as a pastor, a Sunday School teacher, a church leader, or even a responsible, faithful civic leader or politician, has likely experienced discouragement and burn-out.

All the symptoms are there in Elijah’s case — he flees as far from responsibility and threat as he possibly can; he withdraws into himself, alone; and he seems to seek refuge in sleep.  I can’t imagine that sleeping under the broom tree in the desert was a comfortable experience.

And the Lord responds to Elijah’s depression in a dramatic way.  First, Elijah is fed.  Second, he seeks real refuge in one of the holiest places of Hebrew history — Mount Horeb.  There, the Lord does encounter him.

We notice that the Lord’s communication with Elijah isn’t necessarily through signs and wonders, although they are certainly manifested in the wind, earthquake and fire.  No, the Lord is a bit more subtle than that — asking Elijah questions like “Why are you here, Elijah?”  And then the Lord communicates his own mystery through the sound of sheer silence.  We can’t help but think of the Lord breathing his name I Am that I am (Yahweh) to Moses in Exodus 3.

Don’t we sometimes need to be asked why are you here? — and to answer in God’s presence?  And don’t we sometimes need to follow the counsel of Psalm 46:10:

Be still, and know that I am God!

And the Lord gives Elijah something to do and reminds him he’s not the only one out there who is faithful.  And if we listen to the Lord, we will also be given a task to do; and we must remember that we are not alone.

RESPOND: 

I have a good friend who used to say, “No good deed goes unpunished.”  There are consequences for our bad actions; but there are also consequences for our good actions.

Sometimes our faithfulness may bring criticism or worse down upon us.  That doesn’t mean we stop being faithful.  It means that we may need to follow the pattern of Elijah — get away with God for a while, let God ask us “why are you here?”, and listen to his quiet voice.  And then obey it.

Lord, I thank  you that I am not alone in following you.  Sometimes, as I look at the crazy world around me, I begin to think that way.  Lead me to quiet, holy places where I can listen to your voice; and then give me the faith and the energy to obey your word, however challenging it may be.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“Elijah Alone” by Matt Gullett is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.