Hard to Love? Bible Study blog for November 20

Photo courtesy of Arvind Balaraman / freedigitalphotos.net

As the desert journey continues, so does the cycle of tensions between God, Moses, and Israel.  Since God set apart Moses to deliver the people, the Israelites have grumbled against him time and time again.  Despite all that God promises to do, and all the miraculous signs that God performs, the people continue to distrust God and rebel. 

Tonight’s study proved no exception.  The people once again rebel, this time in disgust over the lack of food, water, and fear that they cannot take possession of the Promised Land.  God’s wrath breaks out against the people.  He vows that those who were twenty years of age or older will not enter the Promised Land.  Later, God sends venomous snakes against the people, and many die.  Even Moses, in his frustration, strikes a rock with his staff—instead of speaking to it, as God commanded.  God punishes Moses for what would appear as a very minor offense.

All told, the God revealed in the Exodus narrative can be very hard to love.

It bears keeping in mind something we learned a while back—the name Israel, in the Hebrew languages, means “wrestles with God.”  No three words could better describe what is happening in the desert.  The people are wrestling with God—because there is nothing else upon which to rely for mere survival, let alone a safe arrival in the Promised Land.  Trusting God’s Word is the only option, save for returning to Egypt, as they often express a desire to do.  But there is so much to fear, so much time that passes, and so much difficulty with every passing day.

Each of us can identify with the people’s struggles.  At some point or another, each of us will find ourselves in a desert of our own—when normal life vanishes away, and all the sudden we find ourselves in a desert of pain, fear, and need.  It is most difficult to love God and trust God.

At the same time, we know the reality of our sin; that we are, in fact, hard for God to love!  But for all the people’s rebellion—and God’s seemingly harsh and brutal punishments for the people’s sin—God never abandons Israel.  God is determined to bring them into the Promised Land—and not just for their own sake, but for the sake of God’s name in all the world.  God is revealing himself, the gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love—through God’s gracious acts—in, through, and on behalf of Israel. God acts for the sake of a relationship between himself, the Israelites, and ultimately, the world.

This relationship is indeed born in struggle.  It grows in a cycle of struggle, sin, rebellion, discipline, forgiveness, and grace.  But God never leaves. 

We are right there with the Israelites in the desert, because their struggles with God mirror our own.  God will be hard to love as we face down our worst fears; when God appears absent; when God appears angry; and when God’s promises feel so far off.  But God never gives up on us.

Part of the challenge of reading these texts is learning to see a gracious God, including when God’s wrath breaks out against the people.  It comes only out of God’s fervent desire to be in relationship with God’s own people—and for God’s gracious purposes to come to fulfillment.  We always need God—and God will always be here.

The only way to the Promised Land is through the desert.  That is a geographic truth—and a spiritual truth.  God can use the desert experiences of our own lives to form and transform us, and nurture us in a right relationship with God.  Though the wilderness is a place of struggle (just as faith is a thing of struggle), it is ultimately a place for God’s power and love to be revealed in the face of overwhelming fears.  The vast emptiness and perils of the desert are tremendous, but in the desert we see that God is bigger, more powerful, and more loving than anything or anyone else.  It is a place of testing—and God will always prove faithful.