Meribah Redux

It seems to me that one problem with humility is that it can get lost in the written word.

Case in point - the Apostles (Peter especially). Peter's portrayal in the gospel is so unpretentious, so "everyday", so genuine, that I have a hard time not taking him for granted. It wasn't until I read other, later writers (names escape me just now - sorry), who were converted by Peter's preaching & example, and who refer to him as "the glorious apostle Peter" that I had a better idea and sense of the man as he stands in relation to me.

Recently, I'm finding a similar deal with the Israelites of the Exodus.

Like the gospels, the books of the Pentateuch are so bluntly honest about their "failures" that it's easy for me to miss what was being asked of them.

This morning I got up early and felt inspired to read a little bit of the Book of Revelation (haven't read it in a while). So, I flip to the back of my bible and wind up in the Book of Jude (lt's the second-to-last book - just before Revelation). Now, I don't read Jude very often (I can't quote it, etc.). For those who don't know, Jude has one chapter and a total of 25 verses. I get three verses into it and I read this:

Jude 1: 3-5 - "Beloved, although I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I now feel a need to write to encourage you to contend for the faith that was once for all handed down to the holy ones. For there have been some intruders, who long ago were designated for this condemnation, godless persons, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. I wish to remind you, although you know all things, that (the) Lord who once saved a people from the land of Egypt later destroyed those who did not believe."

There is a footnote reference to that last, rather ominous, line that took me to the Book of Numbers where, in Chapters 13 & 14 I found the following verses (below). The context is that the people have made it through the desert and arrived at the Promised Land. Scouts are sent to "re-connoiter" the land and come back with a distressing report that the land is inhabited by "giants". Here is the account:

Numbers 13:26-33 - "After reconnoitering the land for forty days they returned, met Moses and Aaron and the whole community of the Israelites in the desert of Paran at Kadesh, made a report to them all, and showed them the fruit of the country. They told Moses: "We went into the land to which you sent us. It does indeed flow with milk and honey, and here is its fruit. However, the people who are living in the land are fierce, and the towns are fortified and very strong. Besides, we saw descendants of the Anakim there. Amalekites live in the region of the Negeb; Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites dwell in the highlands, and Canaanites along the seacoast and the banks of the Jordan." Caleb, however, to quiet the people toward Moses, said, "We ought to go up and seize the land, for we can certainly do so." But the men who had gone up with him said, "We cannot attack these people; they are too strong for us." So they spread discouraging reports among the Israelites about the land they had scouted, saying, "The land that we explored is a country that consumes its inhabitants. And all the people we saw there are huge men, veritable giants (the Anakim were a race of giants); we felt like mere grasshoppers, and so we must have seemed to them."

Continuing...

Numbers 14:1-24

"At this, the whole community broke out with loud cries, and even in the night the people wailed. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, the whole community saying to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt, or that here in the desert we were dead! Why is the LORD bringing us into this land only to have us fall by the sword? Our wives and little ones will be taken as booty. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?" So they said to one another, "Let us appoint a leader and go back to Egypt." But Moses and Aaron fell prostrate before the whole assembled community of the Israelites; while Joshua, son of Nun, and Caleb, son of Jephunneh, who had been in the party that scouted the land, tore their garments and said to the whole community of the Israelites, "The country which we went through and explored is a fine, rich land. If the LORD is pleased with us, he will bring us in and give us that land, a land flowing with milk and honey. But do not rebel against the LORD! You need not be afraid of the people of that land; they are but food for us! Their defense has left them, but the LORD is with us. Therefore, do not be afraid of them." In answer, the whole community threatened to stone them. But then the glory of the LORD appeared at the meeting tent to all the Israelites. And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people spurn me? How long will they refuse to believe in me, despite all the signs I have performed among them? I will strike them with pestilence and wipe them out. Then I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they." But Moses said to the LORD: "Are the Egyptians to hear of this? For by your power you brought out this people from among them. And are they to tell of it to the inhabitants of this land? It has been heard that you, O LORD, are in the midst of this people; you, LORD, who plainly reveal yourself! Your cloud stands over them, and you go before them by day in a column of cloud and by night in a column of fire. If now you slay this whole people, the nations who have heard such reports of you will say, 'The LORD was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them; that is why he slaughtered them in the desert.' Now then, let the power of my Lord be displayed in its greatness, even as you have said, 'The LORD is slow to anger and rich in kindness, forgiving wickedness and crime; yet not declaring the guilty guiltless, but punishing children to the third and fourth generation for their fathers' wickedness.' Pardon, then, the wickedness of this people in keeping with your great kindness, even as you have forgiven them from Egypt until now." The LORD answered: "I pardon them as you have asked. Yet, by my life and the LORD'S glory that fills the whole earth, of all the men who have seen my glory and the signs I worked in Egypt and in the desert, and who nevertheless have put me to the test ten times already and have failed to heed my voice, not one shall see the land which I promised on oath to their fathers. None of these who have spurned me shall see it. But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me unreservedly, I will bring him into the land where he has just been, and his descendants shall possess it."

Now, avoiding the anecdotal issue as to whether giants actually existed in the Promised Land, nevertheless, the scouts were convinced that based on a reasonable assessment of the observable factors, the Israelites could not win the Promised Land by battle. These are experienced men giving their opinion. And the reaction of the people really strikes me - repeatedly bringing up a desire to "return to Egypt". It's humbling to admit this, but I recognize in myself the same propensity, a desire to "return to Egypt". The irony, of course, is that the Israelites cried out to God to take them OUT of Egypt. I see parallels in my own life. In the face of the earthly assessment by reasonable men, God gives the command to go forward. What a spiritual message. Sometimes I find the Christian faith to be impossible - I can't imagine finding the strength to endure a martyrdom like those of the Roman persecution, or even those that happen today. At times, I wonder: why did I ever take up this religion that involves so much sacrifice? I was better off the "old way" (a lie of course)! At times I am reduced to saying "Thy will be done".

Authentic faith in God asks Him to enable us to do the seemingly impossible. I can't be reminded of this often enough.