I do not pretend to understand any of it.
Equally strange, is how Moses and Aaron keep falling on their faces to protect the Israelites (who are usually whining about Moses' leadership) from God.
This story line repeats itself at nauseum:
- Israelites complain.
- God gets mad.
- God kills himself some Israelites.
- Moses and Aaron fall on their faces and beg God to stop.
- God stops.
At one point, Aaron races against God's plague, and before he is able to offer the atonement incense in the assembly on behalf of the sinful Israelites, God manages to knock off 147 000 of his own people.
But, in the middle of all the dead bodies, blood and vengeance, there is this beautiful little line: "Aaron offered the incense and made atonement for them. He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped." Numbers:16:47-48
My church is experiencing a plague of its own. I don't know the details, nor do I care to, but as I sat in bible study yesterday morning, I listened to some godly women grapple with the question of how to deal with this grumbling, mumbling, discontent that may very well pull the church apart.
No one had any answers. But after reading Numbers tonight, I can't help but think that we need the holy souls amongst us, to do some face falling. We need gap-standers to call down mercy on the unmerciful and to save our hard hearts from the death we would bring on ourselves.
Kind of like a savior, I guess.
7 comments:
I guess it is pretty hard to understand why God would be so ruthless.
As for saviors. If you find any, send 'em by...
ummmm. i have a hunch, world-traveling dooby, that we are all saviors, hesitant to step up to the plate.
Well put! So we are all doomed?
I've come to think the repetition in Numbers was purposeful, the teaching from God, kinesthetic. Look at yourselves, Israelites; look Moses and Aaron, God may have been saying through these scenes. See what you are like. The people, in general, are faithless. Moses and Aaron, you won't give them up, even when I say go ahead. We readers see the commitments of their hearts.
An important decision follows, though, because people were killed, en masse, at random, and we don't know each individual's heart who died. It's highly likely a few at least longed for God and goodness, but God killed them. If remaining safe and alive is the ultimate good thing, then I think it follows we are all doomed and our creator evil, because God takes those things away. If there's something worse than losing safety and life, then God in goodness could reasonably deny people those things in keeping them from the worst, in leading them to the best. (Jesus said not to fear people in the world who, at most, can only kill you.)
It still sucks to the suckiest degree when people kill each other, or destroy community due to the sinfulness God authored into the story. It's hard to see why plagues still descend, except, maybe, that we deserve more than we often get.
I think I longed for the same sort of Aaronish intervention you mention, Angela, in a church years ago, and the people there gathered together, not so we could fall on our faces, but to thank God for justifying our blood-stained hands. Sorry for my long comment, but that still gets me. I hope your situation turns out differently.
doomed, dooby? i don't know, what did your travels tell you? i like to think we are doomed/blessed to live in a reality that we create - a selfless, sacrificing one, if that's how we live, or, a grasping dissatisfied one if the other way.
of course, most of us exist somewhere in the middle.
deanna,
hey, i love long, thoughtful comments. take all the space you want.
if god went to marriage counseling, he would be told to seek healthiness and independence. drop the co-dependency routine, and take an anger management class.
i mean, really. who keeps on loving after so much rejection? who? oh... i feel a blog coming on!
Amen. No long thoughtful response from me. Just a plain ol' evangelical backwoods agreeance.
i like backwoods amens, so long as they're directed at me!
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