Tag: spiritual life

Fear vs. Faith (Numbers 13:1-2, 17-33; 14:1-9)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
The Spies Return with Discordant Views, by Yoram Raanan

The Lord said to Moses, “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders”…

When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, “Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)

So they went up and explored the land from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath. They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. (Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 

When they reached the Valley of Eshkol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. That place was called the Valley of Eshkol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there. At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land.

They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this account:

“We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them:

“If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

Then Moses and Aaron fell face down in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there. Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly:

“The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” (New International Version)

“Pessimism has done infinitely more harm than atheism.”

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Fear can be debilitating. At its core, we fear either what we don’t know, or believe to be bad. For example, if I am convinced that my boss does not have my best interests at mind, then I will likely be afraid and hold back.

The majority of the ancient Israelites were paralyzed by fear because of the anxiety and fearfulness of those who came back from spying out the Promised Land. They had a low view of God. Yet Caleb, and only a few others, acknowledged that God is good for divine promises, and so, trusted the Lord completely in confidence, not fear.

If we view God as being angry all the time, then we will not use the incredible gifts given to us for fear of messing up and bringing divine wrath upon us. We will be plagued with uncertainty and only see giants in the land who we cannot begin to deal with.

Yet, if we commit ourselves to knowing God through seeking the divine will and trusting in divine promises, then we understand that God is gracious and generous, always having our backs. We live by faith, not by sight, and discern that giants in the land are really nothing more than gnats.

Fear is maybe the devil’s greatest tool to prevent God’s people from being productive and responsible in serving the church and the world. Beneath that fear are powerful feelings of inferiority, inadequacy, and a low view of self – which is really born of a low view of God. Being afraid wastes what impact a person could have for God, and waters-down life so that it’s ineffective.

Enjoy the Lord, and he will give what your heart asks.

Psalm 37:4, CEB

We are to enjoy the gracious and generous God; and in our enjoyment, the Lord places within us godly dreams that are a delight for God to fulfill. Our enjoyment of the Lord gives us the security and confidence to act upon those godly desires and wed them to divine promises from Holy Scripture.   

But put fear in the mix, and it dilutes and destroys everything. It makes you do nothing. And the fear is a result of not knowing the Lord, of not seeking God’s mind or will.

God had a grand vision and a big dream for the Israelites to enter the Promised Land. But ten of the twelve spies who came back after checking out the land were paralyzed by fear, feeling like grasshoppers next to the people in the land. 

Caleb and Joshua, however, had a different view of taking the land because they had a different view of God. They didn’t see giants – they saw a gracious and generous God who could easily take care of whoever might be in the land, and they wanted to act on the faith they had in a mighty and merciful God. 

The God of the other spies wasn’t big enough to handle the giants. Their low view of themselves as grasshoppers betrayed their low view of God.

“We wrap a lot of our fears in morbidly sanctified self-belittling.  We piously cover this self-despising and call it consecration and self-crucifixion.”

David Seamands

Too many people feel good about feeling bad – and then use those feelings to make spiritual excuses for not exploring what God promises, expects, commands, and dreams for them. 

It is high time for us to get into the world with our witness in a far greater way because we serve a God who sees giants as gnats; and we will, too, if we have a high view of God.

Yet, holding us back, is fear of criticism, of taking a risk, of going outside of the way we’ve always done it, and of what others may think or say. 

If you once dreamed something and you think your dream is dead because you destroyed it by your sins or bad habits, you are wrong. Dreams are destroyed by fear, by being tricked into thinking that we are nothing but grasshoppers and God doesn’t care, and so we do nothing.

Unfortunately, it appears the most common way of coping with feelings of fear, insecurity, and inferiority is by withdrawing from other people – because you cannot give yourself fully to your family, church, neighborhood, vocation, and the world without a healthy robust view of and relationship with God. 

Give God a chance to work in and through your life. May you step up and step out because you have a God behind you that is gracious and generous. Amen.

Facing Racism (Numbers 12:1-9)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Moses and his wife Zipporah, by Flemish painter Jacob Jordaens, c.1650

When they were in Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses on account of the Cushite woman whom he had married—for he had married a Cushite woman. They said, “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” The Lord heard it. Now the man Moses was humble, more so than anyone on earth.

Immediately, the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “You three go out to the meeting tent.” So the three of them went out. Then the Lord descended in a column of cloud, stood at the entrance of the tent, and called to Aaron and Miriam. The two of them came forward. He said, “Listen to my words: If there is a prophet of the Lord among you, I make myself known to him in visions. I speak to him in dreams. But not with my servant Moses. He has proved to be reliable with all my household. I speak with him face-to-face, visibly, not in riddles. He sees the Lord’s form. So why aren’t you afraid to criticize my servant Moses?” The Lord’s anger blazed against them, and they went back. (Common English Bible)

I have three observations about today’s Old Testament lesson I want us to notice and lift-up, because they are crucial considerations for us in our present world.

First, the older siblings of Moses – Miriam the eldest and Aaron the other brother – had a problem with their sister-in-law (whose name was Zipporah). She was a Cushite. Cush was an ancient country which encompassed present day northern Sudan and much of Ethiopia in Africa. In other words, Zipporah was black, and Miriam and Aaron were critical of their little brother for marrying her.

Second, although having a black sister-in-law was the real issue, Miriam and Aaron confronted Moses not about this, but went after him concerning his role as a prophet. In other words, the siblings engaged in the age-old practice of ostensibly presenting a concern which was not really the matter on their hearts.

Third, the omniscient God knew what was happening. God was fully cognizant of Miriam and Aaron’s cloak-and-dagger attack at Zipporah through her husband Moses. The Lord was incensed with this coup attempt because it was unjust, unfair, ungodly, and frankly, racist. And so, the text states that God, with divine anger aroused, “immediately” addressed the situation.

Racism is insidious. It tends to get expressed most often through the methods similar to those used by Miriam and Aaron by criticizing another somewhat related issue. So, I offer the following questions with as much humility from Moses I can muster:

  • Are we aware of our own inheritance of centuries, and even millennia, of dominance language which keeps other human beings docile and subservient to another’s authority?
  • Have we chosen to challenge points of order and procedure in the attempt to marginalize certain persons?
  • Are we detached from our own needs, and so, unable to listen well?
  • Is there secret fear in our hearts, believing that we must maintain our hegemony, or else there will be chaos?
  • Is the goal for others to become like us, as if we were the Borg who talk about how resisting us is futile?
  • Are we willing to do the hard work of pulling out our own roots of racial segregation and injustice?
  • Do we want cheap diversity or true solidarity?
  • Will we work toward creating a new liberated humanity, championing equity in all things for all people, instead of attempting to sanitize existing systems?

For far too long, too many individuals, institutions, and even faith communities, have relied upon individualism and anti-structuralism; and it has not served us well in addressing our contemporary problems. Individualism sees only individual racist words and actions and is blind to systemic issues. It views social problems as merely a reflection of broken relationships, and, so, again, makes it impossible to see the systemic nature of our racialized society.

Anti-structuralism (not addressing racism as an organizing structure) is the assumption that racism is only individual racial prejudice and hatred. Thus, the approach in dealing with racism is to always be on the lookout for “bad racists.” This avenue, however, diverts attention from upholding biblical justice, forming policies of liberation, and establishing equitable care and opportunity for the common good of all persons.

As a historian, I tend to view things through historical lenses. So, I resonate deeply with the late twentieth-century essayist James Baldwin when he said, “White people are still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it.”

I want my history to be with Moses and freedom. I want God to show up and put racism to an end. I want to be part of the solution, and not the problem. I want justice and fairness to flow like a river that never runs dry.

Lord, Jesus Christ, you reached across ethnic boundaries between Samaritans, Romans, and Jews. In your earthly ministry you offered fresh sight to the blind and freedom to captives. Gracious Savior, help us to break down walls and barriers in our community; enable us to see the reality of racism and bigotry; and free us to challenge and uproot it from ourselves, our faith communities, our society, and our world. Amen.

All Work Is Spiritual (Exodus 31:1-11)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Bezalel and Oholiab build the ark of the covenant, a woodcut from the Cologne Bible, 1479

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I have specifically chosen Bezalel son of Uri, grandson of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him with the Spirit of God, giving him great wisdom, ability, and expertise in all kinds of crafts. He is a master craftsman, expert in working with gold, silver, and bronze. He is skilled in engraving and mounting gemstones and in carving wood. He is a master at every craft!

“And I have personally appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, to be his assistant. Moreover, I have given special skill to all the gifted craftsmen so they can make all the things I have commanded you to make:

the Tabernacle;
the Ark of the Covenant;
the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement;
all the furnishings of the Tabernacle;
the table and its utensils;
the pure gold lampstand with all its accessories;
the incense altar;
the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils;
the washbasin with its stand;
the beautifully stitched garments—the sacred garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments for his sons to wear as they minister as priests;
the anointing oil;
the fragrant incense for the Holy Place.

The craftsmen must make everything as I have commanded you.” (New Living Translation)

Methinks God cares about worship. After all, chapters 25-31 in Exodus are thoroughly dedicated to God communicating the specifics for the sacred spaces and symbols of worship for the Israelites.

Once the equipment for worship was described in detail, the one matter still needed was an artisan who could actually build and construct the objects. So, Yahweh also planned for the workers, as well. Bezalel was identified and designated as the person who would be divinely endowed for the task. He would be assisted by Oholiab, and together they carried out God’s instructions to the letter.

Although Bezalel and Oholiab were not priests and did not do “spiritual” work, nonetheless they were filled with the Spirit and set apart by God for their gifts to be used. In reality, all work is spiritual work, even the work of our hands. Everything we do is to be consecrated, set apart, and dedicated to the Lord for good and holy purposes.

The Spirit of God inspired and helped the two men in their very physical and mundane work. The Lord was present with them when they drew up the plans for making the objects, carved the wood, did the weaving and needlework of clothes, and the smithing of the gold. God cares about all work, not just the ethereal stuff.

A willing heart is one that follows in doing work for the Lord, and not following their own whims of how they think things ought to go. The craftsmen, Bezalel and Oholiab, were to do their work just as the Lord had commanded them to do it, just like the pattern shown to Moses on Mount Sinai. (Exodus 25:39)

God is concerned about everything, great and small alike.

When it came to the Lord’s will, the Israelites did not so much seek God’s guidance, as they waited for it. When in the desert, the pillar of cloud by day, and pillar of fire by night, determined when they moved and when they stayed put. The people simply observed, then responded. In other words, they were patient and waited for God to move, speak, command, and do whatever God was going to do.

So, when the Lord lays down some very specific instructions, those directives are meant to be followed down to the minutest detail. For the Christian, Jesus is our example. God’s will was made known to Jesus in the daily privilege and discipline of meeting with his heavenly Father and doing exactly what the Father wanted.

The Sovereign Lord has given me his words of wisdom,
    so that I know how to comfort the weary.
Morning by morning he wakens me
    and opens my understanding to his will.
The Sovereign Lord has spoken to me,
    and I have listened.
    I have not rebelled or turned away. (Isaiah 50:4-5, NLT)

All work is God’s work, and is to be done in the way God prescribes. Worship is to be directed to God, and as such, is to be done as God commands – and not any old way we think is good and needed.

No matter who we are, where we are, or what circumstances we find ourselves in, consistency in doing the will of God is imperative. Nobody has any ground for excusing themselves from their God-ordained work and worship. The ancient Israelites were in a desert without a permanent abode, yet they were still expected to follow God’s directives.

In order to embrace the will of God when it comes, and not make excuses, there are some practices we can do to help receive and do what the Lord wants:

  • Don’t fixate on past mistakes. Learn to be present and focus on what is happening in a given moment, and then you will be able to act in doing God’s will. As a result, you can stop making excuses and learn from past mistakes.
  • Take responsibility for your own words and actions. Take charge of what you have control over. If we don’t own this, then the excuses come out for why we failed to do what was needed.
  • Focus on your spiritual gifts and your strengths and skills. By actively doing what God has enables you to do, you can get the most out of each situation, without succumbing to excuses.
  • Don’t compare yourself to others. We are all unique individuals with unique journeys. That’s why it’s unhealthy to compare ourselves to others and make excuses of “not being good enough” or not measuring up to the skills of Bezalel or Oholiab or someone else. The only person you should compare yourself to is you!

By being attentive to your own walk with God, and being responsive to God’s will for your life, you will find your place in this world and discover the meaning and purpose meant for you in blessing others.

Blessed Holy Spirt of God, with God the Father and God the Son, I adore you as the Holy Trinity, the God whom I serve. I give you my heart, and offer my thanks to you for the grace given me in Jesus Christ. Continue to visit me with your grace, and enable me for work and worship in your church and your world. Amen.

God Is Good, Idols Are Bad (2 Kings 17:7-20)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
 An Assyrian solider deporting people from their land (From the Southwest Palace of Tiglath-Pileser III at Nimrud, ca. 730-727 B.C.E.; British Museum.)

The Israelites sinned against the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt and rescued them from the power of Pharaoh (the king of Egypt). They worshiped other gods and lived by the customs of the nations that the Lord had forced out of the Israelites’ way. They also did what their kings wanted them to do.The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that weren’t right:

They built for themselves illegal places of worship in all of their cities, from the smallest watchtower to the largest fortified city.

They set up sacred stones and poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah on every high hill and under every large tree.

At all the illegal places of worship, they sacrificed in the same way as the nations that the Lord had removed from the land ahead of them.

They did evil things and made the Lord furious.

They served idols, although the Lord had said, “Never do this.”

The Lord had warned Israel and Judah through every kind of prophet and seer, “Turn from your evil ways, and obey my commands and decrees as I commanded your ancestors in all my teachings, the commands I sent to you through my servants the prophets.” But they refused to listen. They became as impossible to deal with as their ancestors who refused to trust the Lord their God. They rejected his decrees, the promise he made to their ancestors, and the warnings he had given them. They went after worthless idols and became as worthless as the idols. They behaved like the nations around them, although the Lord had commanded them not to do that. They abandoned all the commands of the Lord their God:

They made two calves out of cast metal.

They made a pole dedicated to the goddess Asherah.

They prayed to the entire army of heaven.

They worshiped Baal.

They sacrificed their sons and daughters by burning them alive.

They practiced black magic and cast evil spells.

They sold themselves by doing what the Lord considered evil, and they made him furious.

The Lord became so angry with Israel that he removed them from his sight. Only the tribe of Judah was left. Even Judah didn’t obey the commands of the Lord their God but lived according to Israel’s customs. So the Lord rejected all of Israel’s descendants, made them suffer, handed them over to those who looted their property, and finally turned away from Israel. (God’s Word Translation)

The Flight of the Prisoners, by James Tissot, 1898, depicting the Babylonian exile from Jerusalem

The prophets had warned the northern kingdom of Israel; but they did not listen, nor did they heed the prophetic utterance. Israel then stood as an example and a warning to the southern kingdom of Judah; yet they, too, refused to learn from their brother’s downfall.

And even before the kingdom was split between Israel in the north and Judah in the south, the ancient Israelites had a troubling tendency to buck the Lord’s instructions and find other more and creative ways of expressing themselves spiritually.

Every generation of people are responsible for their own spirituality and their own actions in life. We, in our contemporary time and place, need to learn the lessons of the past – for we also are not an exception in history, as if we can do whatever we want without attending to the common good of all persons and worshiping in any sort of way we want.

The trouble with the ancient worshipers of Yahweh is that they decided to pick and choose whatever commands they wanted to follow, or not. They went through continual times of idolatry and forgot about God and God’s Word to them.

To respect and revere the Lord is to obey God’s instructions. To worship Yahweh is to have an undivided allegiance to God and God’s commands. The failure to obey is really a failure of faith.

The prophets Amos, Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah specifically called out the sinful practices of the people and their negligence in upholding basic social and economic justice for everyone. They condemned violence and oppression of the poor; and expressed the divine displeasure with taking advantage of the disadvantaged.

How to treat people and live well were explicitly spelled out in the entirety of God’s Law. Yet, the leaders and the people, as a whole, decided to go another way. They kept introducing idolatrous and unhealthy forms of worship and living. And it led to their ruin.

The ancient people were continually offered grace if they would only accept it. They could return to the Lord and come back to the true worship and obedience of the God who had rescued them from trouble again and again. Turning from their unholy practices, and turning back to Yahweh, would reverse God’s impending judgment. Yet, tragically, the people did not listen.

Idolatry is a failure to trust God, and to rely instead on something else which is not able to sustain a life. Unfortunately, those who create a god according to their own liking end up becoming like the thing they worship, that is, worthless.

The tragedy of the Israelites is that they were to be God’s people, the Lord’s treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation which brings blessing to the earth. Instead, they traded their meaning and purpose in life to imitate everyone else around them.

Sadly, people have felt throughout history, and even we ourselves today, that there is something else, other than God, that we need in order to be happy – something more important to your heart than the Lord – whether it is human acceptance and approval, social reputation, political power and control, or financial advantage and privilege.

Idolatry creates an ignoring of the divine in our life. We might even have the chutzpah to think we can challenge God, like some small yippee pup who growls and takes on the big dog, who knows that with an effortless paw across the body, could toss the prideful pup away.

Like a mother bird who scours the land for food to sustain the babies, and brings it back to their gaping mouths, God longs to provide us with a good and beautiful life – if we will but only receive it.

Listen, my people, I’m warning you!
    If only you would listen to me, Israel.
There must be no foreign god among you.
    You must not bow down to any strange deity.
I am the Lord your God,
    who brought you up from Egypt’s land.
    Open your mouth wide—I will fill it up! (Psalm 81:8-10, CEB)

O Lord, as you gave us the greatest commandment, to love you with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, help us to love you above all else, putting you above the potential idols in our lives, including success, fame and wealth. May your benevolent kingdom come, and your moral and ethical will be done, here on this earth for this time, as it is always done in your heaven. Amen.