Deepening Your Spiritual Life XIV

Exodus 17:1-7

What an interesting way to tell the story. This could have been told as another "YHWY-jireh" story, "God will provide". But instead the place is named for the testing (massah) of God and their quarreling (meribah) with Moses. I struggled to get my mind around the magnitude of this miracle. If we take the census in Numbers seriously, the water provided would have been for several hundred thousand men and their families. That's a lot of water. A few folks got knocked down by that gush! The other detail not to be overlooked is that Moses strikes the rock with his rod, the symbol of God's miraculous presence with him and the people.

Numbers 20:1-13

It is now 40 years after the Exodus. Miriam, the sister of Moses has just died. At the end of this chapter, Aaron also dies. They are at the same location as they had been so long ago. Their 40 years in the desert have brought them in a giant circle. Had they taken the straight route out of Egypt the children of Israel could have been in Canaan in six months. Sounds like our own lives sometimes, doesn't it; just going around in circles, still trying to get it right. The people grumble as before about leaving Egypt, but the language seems also to make mockery of the idea of the promised land (with all its fruitfulness). Moses loses his cool with the people and strikes the rock twice and again the people are flooded with water to drink.

So what was the problem for Moses? God had told him to speak to the rock, which Moses did not do. This moment is so human and worth our attention. We get used to a certain way that God works or at least the way things work for us. So we get stuck in routines we find familiar, rather than venture with God into unknown territory. When I look at the major changes we face in the 21st century church in the atmosphere in which we do mission (highly secularized), in the way and speed people communicate (digital phones and internet), and in new mixtures of cultures and languages (right in our back yards), I see us still striking rocks rather than speaking to them. Moses leads out of frustration and familiarity rather than by the guidance and power of the Spirit (a ministry hazard for all time for all followers). God's indictment of Moses is that Moses did not lift up the LORD as holy among the people. The punishment is that Moses will not get to enter the promised land. Am I the only one that thinks this punishment is a little (Ok, a whole lot) harsh?

Deuteronomy 34:1-10

The first verses of this chapter show Moses climbing up Mt. Nebo (mountain climbing at 120, not bad!) where he can scan the panorama of "The Promised Land." He sees it, but does not enter it. Some of you may remember that Martin Luther King Jr. preached on this passage the day before his assassination in Memphis. "I have seen the promised land...I may not go there with you. Be we are going to the Promised Land." Ruth Haley Barton, in her outstanding book, "Strengthening the Soul of your Leadership" gives two major insights from this scene. First, we never really finish what God has for us to do. We pass it on to someone else. For many years, I wanted the chance for me and Tina to do a complete piece of work in ministry. That has never happened and I have come to terms that it will never happen. The dreams God plants in our hearts and minds are bigger than we are and they take longer (involving the next generation and maybe more than that). God called me to be a renewal agent for the mainline church. I have done that in my youngest years as a preacher with my own exuberance and personality. Then I did it by helping churches gain new vision and a more relevant ministry for the generation and location in which God has planted us. Now the emphasis has shifted to developing the next generation of leaders - the Joshuas and Calebs who will take the baton from me and take the task further into completion. I believe this is true for us all. God plants dreams in our hearts that eventually must be passed along to those who follow behinds us. Our job is to be faithful for the portion of the race that we run.

Barton's second insight is that Moses is buried by the LORD and no one knows where. He and God had such a relationship that in the end their relationship as friends was all that mattered. She then mentions about how the latter parts of our lives are all about letting go and being content that you and God have had quite a life together. May that be true for you and for me. Have a great day.