Summer Bible Challenge: Moses and Manna

Another in the series ... after Vacation Bible School studied Moses:

“Bread and Water” – June 23, 2013         

Texts:  Exodus 16:(1-10) 11-15 and Exodus 17:1-7

            I completely understand this grumbling thing.  I do it quite well.

First there’s not enough rain.  Then there’s too much rain.  Then it’s too chilly and now it’s too hot and humid. 

            Maybe it’s just in our DNA, but it seems like it is human nature to complain.

Four years ago Bob and I were in the Sinai desert – and I became an expert at grumbling.  And while we may not have been in the same spot as the Israelites, I can attest to the fact that it all pretty much looks alike.  As Bob described it:  “you can drive forever and see nothing.” 

Which is not quite true.  You can see some things.

You can see rocks and sand and dirt and rocks and more sand and more rocks … and sometimes a mountain.  Pretty much as far as the eye can see.

Now Bob and I were not out in the wilderness for 40 years.  Although to hear us tell about it, we might as well have been.  We were on the second day of our 2-day trek through the Sinai when the leader has us all climb out of our Land Rovers (no air-conditioning, but of course I’m not complaining) and then the leader says: “let’s take a stroll over to the other side of that hill.” 

It was about 110 degrees (or so) - not a tree or a patch of shade in sight.  And the “little stroll” took about an hour and a half climbing up this “little hill” only at the top to discover we were actually on top of a steep cliff with a narrow path that went down into a deep, narrow valley.  And we were to hike to the bottom.

At the bottom it was hotter than 110 degrees.  Whatever water we still were carrying in our water bottles felt like it had been in the microwave.  And when we finally slid our way down into this valley with its oven-like heat and no shade, our Egyptian guide showed us how, by whacking the limestone cliffs with a stick it would release pockets of water that had seeped through the stone and gotten trapped. Water really could be released from the rock – although if you ask me, there would have to be a lot of whacking to get enough water for all those Israelites and their animals.

But after all that, standing in this brutally hot valley with no shade in sight, the leader has the audacity to say:  “well, it’s time for worship.”

Bob remembers it as “the worst worship service ever.”  The only thing I remember is thinking that the Israelites had every right to complain.

And while we may question their judgment about thinking that slavery in Egypt was “the good old days,” I can understand why they began to feel as if God had abandoned them out there.

If we’re honest, we are usually ready to believe that God is among us when things go well for us.   

When our health is good, when our children are successful, when everything goes smoothly in our lives – it is deeply rooted in our culture that these are the signs of a “blessed life.” 

Then what about when things don’t go so well?  What about when we don’t have the “outward” signs of success that we often associate with God’s blessing – and when things don’t go the way we thought we had them planned.  What then? 

What about when you don’t have enough money this month to meet the bills?

What happens when nothing seems to go right?

When good people seem to suffer more than others?

Is the Lord among us or not?  Sometimes I think we have every right to complain, to wonder why it is that God may have led us out here where there is no relief in sight. 

From a small infant crying to be fed … to a child’s complaint about a bully at school … to the very real abuses that we can experience at work or at home … or the very real concerns of entire communities left behind in poverty or the debris of war … complaining, grumbling, murmuring … this is how we make our concerns  … and our very legitimate needs known. 

Our complaints can be heartfelt and real. And when they are, we stand in a long line of faithful people who have complained to God.  The “lament” in Scripture – particularly in the Psalms - is a powerful tradition that gives voice to the very real times we have known abandonment, suffering, fear and danger.

Our laments call upon God to see and act, to listen to us, to do something.

Our laments do not mean that we lack faith – but it is the cry of faith that knows that this is not the way that things should be.

A complaint does not have to be about turning away from God, but instead can be a turning to God – trusting that God will not ignore us in our need.

Which just might be why the stories of Israel in the wilderness have always been so important not only to Israel, but to us. 

What better example of God’s grace could there be than knowing that even when we quarrel with and test God … God will hear and will answer us with “bread from heaven” and “water from the rock.”

But it can’t just end there, because it is so small a step from welcoming the blessings of God to demanding and expecting those blessings to be “on tap” –  to expect that God should respond to our demands and desires when and where we want.

That is the lesson of the manna and the water too.  For God doesn’t just whisk the Israelites out of danger – moving them right from Egypt to the Promised Land.

In fact, the very next verses in this chapter show the Israelites having to defend themselves from an attack by the Amalekites.  If we are sure of nothing else, we can be sure that dangers, toils, and snares do not magically disappear for the children of God – regardless of what others might want to convince us.

But the lessons of the wilderness remind us that through them all, God is faithful and the grace of God will be sufficient and will provide … sometimes in surprising ways and in surprising places. The answer the Israelites got in the wilderness was neither the death they thought would come, nor was it a quick and easy return back to Egypt.

Instead they got this white flaky substance that doesn’t look like anything at all.  They got water from a blank wall of rock in a barren wilderness.

It was nothing they had ever seen before … and certainly not what they thought they asked for.

But it became a reminder to them … and to us … that sometimes what God provides is new and a little strange, but it always ends up being just enough … sufficient for the day … even if it comes wrapped in a gift we didn’t even realize we had asked for. Even if sometimes it is only later that we look back and then realize what it was.

Is God among us or not?

We keep telling this story of the Israelites in the wilderness so that we might remember and believe that the answer to that question is a loud YES. 

Even though we may find ourselves deep in a wilderness that is not of our making, we are promised and we can trust and believe, that God will always be at work among us and through us.

Now there are several other passages in the books of Exodus and Numbers that describe times that Moses is called upon to find water for the Israelites – and the places that are named are different places.

Scholars provide several reasons for that: 

·      one tradition is that it happened multiple times – after all the Israelites would have needed a lot of water;

·      another tradition says that much of what took place in the Sinai is theological rather than historical, so it doesn’t matter where it took place;

·      another tradition says that because this is all from an ancient oral tradition, it is the same incident simply remembered in several different places (like each of us remembering different parts of Vacation Bible School). 

And then there is another explanation that is my new favorite: apparently it became a tradition among some ancient interpreters that it was all one rock, but that the rock itself must have moved with the people. A “traveling rock” that went with them to provide all the water they would need while in the wilderness – their own traveling water supply.[i]  It brings a whole new meaning to all the places in Scripture where God is described as our “rock” and our salvation. But what an image to help us imagine and remember that God’s goodness and mercy surely follow us all the days of our lives.

            I have mentioned before about the role of poets in traditional Bedouin culture.  The task of the poet is to remember the watering places ….  The survival of the whole group depends on whether you can find the waterholes in the desert.[ii]

            Maybe, just like those poets, our work in telling others about Christ is simply to remember the places where water can be found, to recall and recognize the manna that God provides. 

For a neighbor, a friend, a community that is hungry for the bread of life, and thirsty for God’s justice and wholeness and peace, for a world that wants to know:  Is the Lord among us or not? 

So where is it we have found manna and water?

Amen.

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[i] Prof. James Kugel, “The Traveling Rock,” http://www.jhom.com/topics/stones/traveling.html

[ii] Antjie Krog, Country of My Skull (Cape Town, South Africa: Random House, 1998), p. 222.

Another in the summer Bible Challenge series - the winner was the story of Deborah and Jael.

“The God of Surprises” – June 16, 2013

Text: Judges 4:1-9, 18-21

            Introduction: The book of Judges is part of the historical material that was most likely collected into one book during the time of Israel’s exile in Babylon – which was about 400-600 years after the events in the book of Judges were supposed to have taken place. But this is not a history book as we might think of it.

Biblical historians have pointed out that in Judges there are inconsistencies in names, dates, places and events that leave lots of question marks about what might have really happened. Biblical archaeologists have also pointed out that there is no definitive archaeological evidence for much of what is reported in the book of Judges.

That’s not meant to say that we therefore throw it out.  But it does help us to realize that the book of Judges is not meant to be read as an eyewitness news report.

Rather, these traditions about Israel’s origins were important for the faith of Israel during a time in Israel’s life when the question that was foremost on their minds while they were in exile in Babylon was:  “Has God forsaken and forgotten us?”

So to answer that question Israel turned to remember times when as God’s people they had been faithful … as well as times when they were not.  And then to remember how they had experienced God in all of those moments.

That’s where the book of Judges come in.

“Judge” is a term used to describe individuals who were raised up by God to help lead the people. Now this is all before the time of the kings.

Each tribe is pretty much on its own, choosing their own local leaders, living primarily as nomadic sheepherders.

            But no matter which tribe it is, somewhere along the way … and more than once … the people of Israel forget all about God.

            They forget about Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea; they forget about the 10 Commandments and the manna in the wilderness.

            Instead, as the Book of Judges tells it, the people end up “doing evil” in the sight of the Lord: that is, forgetting God’s blessings, ignoring God’s promises, and especially, worshiping other gods.

Lured by the illusion of becoming like their neighbors who lived in the cities – the tribes of Israel would pursue wealth and power and prestige.  But instead of bringing them riches, time and again, the tribes fell victim to the politics of the time, invaded by their enemies, and betrayed by their own failures of morality and faith. 

            Disaster after disaster falls upon Israel until the people repent of their sins and “cry out” in distress to the Lord to be saved from their crisis.

            God hears their cries and raises up from the people a “judge” to deliver them and return them to a “righteous” way of living – that is, a right relationship with God.  Then, the people return to obeying God’s commandments and faithfully worshiping God.  And they are faithful again … for a while… until they forget once again.

Now before I read our passage, I want to say a few words about this text.

The book of Judges is often why people give up on the Bible – or it’s why they decide that they’ll have nothing to do with the Old Testament. And I admit – it is challenging to read about so much violence, particularly when it seems to attribute it to God or it seems to have God’s blessing.

What are we supposed to do with all of that?

            Well, I don’t believe the answer is to throw the Bible out.  Nor can it become an excuse for our own use of violence, although throughout history it has become that for some people who are convinced that God sanctions their violence, particularly against people it sees as outsiders.

            We also cannot simply pick and choose which texts we like and which we don’t and ignore the ones we don’t like.

            Rather, we should seek to understand the context in which the texts are written.

            In reading these texts we need to be aware that we cannot assume that if there is violent action in it that somehow that endorses violence in and of itself.  Some of these texts are written as religious explanations for what people were experiencing in their lives.

            We are called as people of faith not to reject these parts we don’t like, but to struggle with these texts, to see them in the context of the whole Bible, and sometimes to live with the ambiguity of them, even as they might give us insights into our own time and place. In our lifetime we have come through a century of violence that is unprecedented in history. And we can ask what we can learn from the deeper lessons of these texts.

Okay – enough of the lecture! As chapter 4 in the Book of Judges begins, the judge Ehud has died and Israel once again has strayed from their path of following God’s commandments. 

For 20 years they languish under the oppression and slavery of the Canaanite King Jabin – but God hears the cries of Israel and raises up a judge to help them.  This is the narrative account of the victory that was celebrated in “The Song of Deborah” that Christina just read.  Judges, chapter 4, verses 1 through 10, then also verses 18 through 21.

READ verses 1 through 10.

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that Ehud was dead. 2 So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Sisera, the commander of his army, was based in Harosheth Haggoyim. 3 Because he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord for help.

4 Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. 5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. 6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor. 7 I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’”

8 Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.”

9 “Certainly I will go with you,” said Deborah. “But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 There Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali, and ten thousand men went up under his command. Deborah also went up with him.

In between verses 10 and 18, there is a small note in verse 11 about Heber the Kenite  setting up his tent apart from the rest of the tribe of Kenites (which is NOT one of the tribes of Israel).  That will be important as we are about to hear because Jael, the wife of Heber is in that tent.  The other verses describe the battle that results in the defeat of Sisera. His army is killed and Sisera runs away on foot.

READ verses 18 through 22.

18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come, my lord, come right in. Don’t be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.

19 “I’m thirsty,” he said. “Please give me some water.” She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.

20 “Stand in the doorway of the tent,” he told her. “If someone comes by and asks you, ‘Is anyone in there?’ say ‘No.’”

21 But Jael, Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.

22 Just then Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. “Come,” she said, “I will show you the man you’re looking for.” So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple—dead.  And the story ends:  on that day God subdued Jabin, the Canaanite king, before the Israelites.

I can’t quite bring myself to say “This is the word of the Lord” after all that.

You may have noticed that I waited to read this part of the lesson until after all the children had left for Sunday School. 

When I had listed this as one of the options for a sermon in the “Summer Bible Challenge” one person wrote to me in an email that they were voting for Deborah and Jael simply because they could not even begin to imagine a sermon about driving a tent peg through someone’s head. 

To be honest, I’m not sure I can imagine it either.

This is the only passage from the book of Judges that appears in the lectionary (which is a 3-year cycle of readings from Scripture).  Not too surprising, given that the book of Judges is filled with scenes of war and atrocities, rape and genocide.

But even in the lectionary, the suggested reading stops at verse 7 and completely skips over Barak’s hesitancy in taking leadership, the battle itself, and of course, the ending.  Or should I say, Sisera’s ending.

Without all of that, this simply becomes the story of the heroine judge – Deborah. And given that many of our children know all about Princess Leia from “Star Wars” or Disney princesses Mulan or Merida – Deborah becomes a story that we can all recognize, even the children.  Deborah rises to the occasion and protects the future of her people, saving them from the enemy.

Now that’s a sermon that can preach! And a story we can tell our children.

But when you look at the whole picture, there is more to it than that.

On the one hand it is the story of heroes – but there are three of them, not just one.  And one of the ambiguities of the text is that it never really tells us which one saves Israel.

Deborah of course is judge and prophet – in some ways the “bearer of the word of God.”

But is Deborah, then, the one who saves Israel?  After all, she hints that in the end a woman will defeat Sisera, not Barak.  Could it be her?

But then Barak, for all his hesitation for heading off into battle, he is the one who is able to defeat the superior forces of Sisera with their 900 iron chariots.

So could he be the one who saves Israel?

Except that Sisera escapes from Barak.

So then there is Jael.

A non-Israelite woman (or at least she is married to someone who is not an Israelite) who kills the enemy of Israel.

In a book I have that is a biblical “who’s who” there are sketches of some of the people named and the sketch for Jael shows her looking like someone’s granny next door with an apron and a flowered print dress, her hair pulled up in a bun, half-lens reading glasses and sensible shoes – and a hammer in her hand.[i] 

How ordinary can you get.

And maybe in part that is why we tell this story.

All throughout Scripture we keep being reminded that God is the one who ultimately saves us – who ultimately saved Israel that day against the armies of Sisera.  But we are always being reminded that God is a God of surprises who does it through the most unlikely people in the most unlikely ways. 

Like Moses and Abraham and Sarah and those fishermen by the sea of Galilee and countless others through the ages whom God has called, many of them never seemed the likely candidates for accomplishing great purposes.

And yet, God calls us and claims us and stands by us, not because of what we can do on our own, but because of what God can do through us. 

I found a video clip on the Internet from a Christian ministry for youth that has made Deborah and Jael two of their “Action Heroes of the Faith.” In this animated video of different Bible Heroes, there is Deborah clutching a copy of the Torah and Jael with a bloody hammer and spike – both of them dressed in super-hero costumes. 

I must admit I found it a little over-the-top, particularly the bloody hammer and the spandex Wonder Woman costumes. 

I don’t think that somehow Deborah and Jael had super-human abilities.  And I don’t believe that this text is commanding us to come out swinging and beat our enemies into pulp in the name of God. 

But what the “action hero” clip had right was their reminder that heroes must face their greatest fear.

And in the end, maybe that is also a lesson we need to hear.

We are a people raised on the “can-do” spirit of America.  There’s no job too big, no challenge too difficult that can’t be overcome. 

            But real life isn’t always clear-cut and straightforward, simply one more opportunity to succeed.  And sometimes life doesn’t just depend on pulling yourself up by your boot-straps or being fearless. 

Just ask anyone who is facing a mountain of grief, or a marriage that’s failing.  Talk to someone who is losing their job, or who is battling cancer. 

Fearlessness doesn’t always come with a super-hero costume nor should it come with a hammer and a spike.

But it does come with a willingness to take a risk. That risk is to be willing to bear witness to God’s faithfulness even when good seems like the least likely outcome and the last thing we imagine. 

But we bear that witness not because we have any special abilities or because we are bigger or stronger or have more weapons, but because we trust in a God who will still be faithful, who cares about what happens to us, even in spite of all evidence to the contrary.

We believe that God still hears us when we pray, even if the answers are not what we want. 

We believe that through the events in our lives, small and great, momentous and insignificant, terrifying and mundane and sometimes even senseless, in the mistakes we make and in our stumbling efforts to do things right – God is at work in and through them all, redeeming the moments –  even redeeming us. 

God works through events and people, through super heroes and reluctant heroes, through people who seem to have it all together and through the rest of us who aren’t sure which way to go. 

The witness of Deborah and Jael, the testimony of faith that lies within this story is the unfolding testimony of Scripture to God who is with us, who is always redeeming … from creation to the cross and even now.

May it always be so. Amen and amen. 

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[i] Frederick Buechner, Peculiar Treasures: a Biblical Who’s Who, illustrations by Katherine A. Buechner (New York: Harper & Row, 1979), p. 58.