Lenten blog | March 12, 2024

Threw the baby away with the bath water

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 12th:  Numbers 20:1-13; Psalm 107:1-16; and 1 Corinthians 10:6-13.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

As we encountered this past Saturday, the people of Israel complain again during their time in the arid Sinai of a lack of water.  They turn against Moses and Aaron for liberating them from the verdant flood plains of Egypt’s Nile River.  It is written in Numbers:  “‘Would that we had died when our kindred died before the Lord! Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die here? Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to bring us to this wretched place? It is no place for grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates; and there is no water to drink.’”  However, this is more than a complaint about the inhospitable conditions of the Exodus.  They have forgotten the Promised Land.

The people blame Moses and Aaron for bringing them to a place in which they cannot settle down and establish themselves.  Their references to fields of grain and orchards of figs, vines and pomegranates are based on the false belief that this arid place is where the journey ends.  They have assumed that where they are is where they are supposed to be.  They have abandoned hope in God’s Promised Land.

We need some background here.  In Numbers 13, a small party was sent to reconnoiter the Promised Land.  They return bearing news of a land that “flows with milk and honey” (13:27), but also of formidable inhabitants who cannot be displaced.  As punishment for their lack of trust, Yahweh vows that the Exodus generation will perish in the wilderness and that their children will be the ones to enter the Promised Land (Read Numbers 14).

It appears as if this willful generation rejects this divine decree, that they must wait for fulfillment in the generation of their children.  This is why in today’s passage they complain about the impossibility of long-term settlements in the wilderness.  This is not merely an uprising based on physical hardship.  This is a societal, psychological and spiritual rejection of hope and trust in God’s promise.  They can see no further than themselves.  They blame God for where they are and give God no credit for where they are going.

Moses and Aaron, in this passage, are also judged less than faithful.  They speak directly with Yahweh at the Tent of Meeting where water is promised by God.  Numbers relates what follows:  “‘Listen, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock?’ Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff.”  We can fill in this story a bit more.  Moses proclaims that waters shall flow as he strikes the rock, but nothing happens, at least immediately.  The people must have seen this as a failure, and Moses and Aaron seem to have agreed with them.  So Moses strikes the rock a second time because he doubted God, and now water flows abundantly.  When immediate gratification does not occur, Moses and Aaron lost trust in God.

It is at the waters of Meribah, the waters of Quarrel, that the people and their leaders demonstrate a lack of conviction in God’s promise.  This prevented them from being the ones God could usher into the Promised Land.  Numbers shares a God of miracles, but even such an awesome God cannot act without a people who trust and who hope.  There is a profound warning here about confusing where we are with where we are going, where we are supposed to be, where God promises us we will be.  Lent is a time to think and meditate upon the journey and the destination.  What are we doing in our lives to bring us forward to the Promise? 
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.