The Birth of Moses (it's not all about you)

The story of the birth of Moses, his being placed in a basket and his discovery by Pharoah's daughter is one of the more familiar stories from the Old Testament -- especially for those of us who have Charlton Heston's performance in "The Ten Commandments" to refer to.  As I read this passage as part of the E100 Challenge, though, I was struck by the "frame" of the story.  Exodus begins with the names of the sons of Israel to came to Egypt with Jacob and emphasizes the that the people of Israel were increasing so that Egypt was filled with them.   As a result, the Egyptians feared the people of Israel and the Pharoah commanded that every son born to the Hebrews should die, but the daughters could live.

As the early period of Moses' life unfolds, the Bible talks not so much about him as about the people who made choices and decisions that affected the shape of Moses' life.  The man from the house of Levi (Moses' biological father), the Levite woman (his mother), Pharoah, Pharoah's daughter, Moses' sister, the unnamed Egyptian who he struck and killed, the unnamed Hebrews who were fighting and the priest of Midian and his daughters, especially Zipporah (Moses' wife in the wilderness).

The chapter ends with a return to the "frame."  God hears the cries of the people of Abraham who are enslaved and he remembers the covenantal relationship that he had with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

As the circle of life unfolds, it's often difficult not to see ourselves as the centre of everything.  Yet the writer is clear that all of Moses' ancestors, both those he knew and those who came long before, provide a link to the past -- and to God.  Moses' own development as a "moral compass" who sometimes earns the wrath of his Hebrew brethren ("who made you a prince and judge over us?") was shaped as much by his Egyptian upbringing as by his Jewish genes.

I cannot help but think of the millions of choices that were made by my ancestors that led me to being born and living here in this place.  What have I been able to learn by the good (and the bad and the ugly) experiences which have come my way?  Would I have been as ready as Moses to pull all of this knowledge and wisdom together when confronted by God in the shape of the burning bush?  What do I still have left to learn?

I am not sure that I have all of the answers, but this passage reminds me that I have closer links with the living and the dead than I often realize -- and that my relationship with God is not just a "two-way street" between the deity and myself but more of an inter-connected spider web of relationships.

The Story of Joseph - Life Isn't Fair, but God is able to work great things inspite of the unfairness

The story of Joseph is probably one of the most well known stories of the Old Testament.  As a story alone, it has all the makings of a great narrative.  Joseph teaches me many things.  One of them is how to deal with the injustices of life.  The whole story has twists and turns, few of them which favour Joseph.  Yet God uses his servant, Joseph, for incredible good.  The good of the people he ultimately served and the good of his family.  His father didn't help things by playing favourites with him.  His brothers needed to repent of their evil deeds and Joseph provided a way for that to happen. The reconciliation at the end speaks of God's providence and care in the midst of a world filled with evil, some that we perpetuate, much that is just thrust on us.

The evil things that happen in our life God can use to incredible good.  How many people have looked back on a bad event like losing a job, getting sick, or any number of other things that can happen, as the best thing that ever happened to them.  Sometimes this is how God gets our attention because it is the most effective way to help us see that something is radically wrong in our lives.

There is a Christ-like nature to Joseph.  As Christians reading the story it is hard not to see this.  Joseph is righteous, wrongly rejected by his people, but God works through all of this to bring a restored and better life to those who first rejected him.

 What do you think?  What is in the Joseph story that appeals to you?  Why has this been one of the favourite stories of the Bible for generations?

Jacob and Esau

The story of Jacob and Esau is full of twists and turns, with human trickery and deception, human triumph and forgiveness.  In the midst of these very human, very sinful characters is God who is setting up and working through the characters.  The triumph of the story is that in spite of the many human failings and schemes, in the end there is reconciliation.  It was no easy forgiveness, no cheap grace, it came, rather, out of suffering, deep discernment and hurt.  This is a story with so many layers, so many incredible events.  As with Abraham and Isaac, God works with his chosen ones, sometimes in spite of them, sometimes alongside them, and always God's purposes are ultimately fulfilled. 

Abraham and Isaac

As a parent, this is a story that always disturbs me. The image of building a sacrificial altar and tying your child to a pile of wood with the intention of setting them on fire is almost so frightening that I can't even process the next image, that of Abraham wielding the knife to slaughter his son. What kind of God tests the obedience of his followers by asking them to be prepared to kill their children?

Of course this story has a happy ending since God intervenes and provides Abraham with a ram to sacrifice once it is clear that Abraham was indeed prepared to kill his son. God goes on to promise that Abraham's descendants will be blessed as a result of his faithful actions.

Looking back from the vantage of the New Testament, it is tempting to see this passage as prefiguring the sacrifice of Jesus...but the Jews who wrote this part of the Torah couldn't know what was coming in the future.

What then is the meaning of this story of testing faith? I've always had to look at this passage in a way that says that your actions should flow from your faith, but I continue to struggle with this story. I'm not sure that I agree with the statement in the The Essential Bible Guide that "God's tests build our faith like nothing else can and produce blessings in our lives far greater than we'll ever be able to see at the time."

What's so great about Abraham?

When I re-read the stories of the people who are held up as the great people of the Bible I am struck both by their faithfulness and human failings.  Abram (Abraham) is incredible in that he left his home and took his whole household with him to follow God on a promise of a new land and a new nation made great out of Abram.  He is quick to follow, quick to give thanks and praise to God.  But he, like many that God chooses, is also far from perfect.  God saw potential in Abram (Abraham).  We are not long into the story of this man, that God is going to make great, before he is telling his beautiful wife to lie and say she is his sister to save his life.  What a nice thing to do to your wife sending her to Pharaoh so that Pharoah can have his way with her.  God afflicts Pharoah and his household with great illness as a result and in the end Abram, Sarai and their household are set free. Not exactly a perfect happy ending.

The comfort I find in this story is that God sees potential in me as well, despite my failings, despite my ill conceived plans to put my own needs first.  God made a great nation out of Abraham, sometimes inspite of him, sometimes because of his faithfulness.  God takes us from where ever we are and transforms us just like he did Abraham and so many others who have been born or adopted into his great nation.  Sometimes it is two steps forward and one step back, but God is always calling us forward.

poor animals

I just always feel bad for the animals in the flood. I mean, I totally agree that us humans bring God's anger on us by our actions, but what did these animals do wrong? They were just getting by. As always, I defer to God's wisdom. Maybe it speaks to our connectedness to creation - how humans and creation must share the same fate. But really it's our fault, not the animals.

Maybe I'm a little morbid, but I like seeing these scary, sad parts of the Bible. In fact, a whole lot of the Bible is very hard reading. Like Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet, it's sad but true.

I wonder how exactly we are to take the flood? I wonder if water really covered the whole globe? Was it just that a massive number of people died in a huge flood? And if people started sinning all over again, what was the point of all that carnage? Are we not quite as bad as people were before the flood? Are things a little better now?

Noah and the Ark

Perhaps some of the answer to Ann's good questions about the end of Eden can be found in this passage.  I find Walter Brugemann most helpful on Genesis.  He says this:

" If the beginning of the flood narrative claimed only that, the text would be flat and one-dimensional. But there are two other matters here that enrich and greatly complicate the beginnings. First, with amazing boldness the narrative invites the listening community to penetrate into the heart of God . What we find there is not an angry tyrant, but a troubled parent who grieves over the alienation. He is growingly aware that the "imagination of the thoughts" of the human heart are iiiirelievedly hostile (v. 5). The conjuring, day dreams, and self-perceptions of the world are all tilted against God's purpose. God is aware that something is deeply amiss in creation, so that God's own dream has no prospect of fulfillment. With that perverted imagination, God's world has begun to conjure its own future quite apart from the future willed by God .
As a result, verse 6 shows us the deep pathos of God. God is not angered but grieved. He is not enraged but saddened. God does not stand over against but with his creation. Tellingly, the pain he bequeathed to the woman in 3:16 is now felt by God. Ironically, the word for "grieve" is not only the same as the sentence on the woman ("pain" 3:16), but it is also used for the state of toil from which Noah will deliver humanity (5:29). The evil heart of humankind (v. 5) troubles the heart of God (v. 6). This is indeed "heart to heart" between humankind and God. How it is between humankind and God touches both parties. As Ernst Wiirthwein suggests, it is God who must say, "I am undone" "

In this passage God seems to have changed God's mind on humanity, and as we move forward we discover that God is not as unchangable and unmovable as some of our categories like to make God.  The God of Israel is not static but it some ways like the creatures fashioned in the image of God, "God hurts and celebrates, responds and acts with remarkable freedom," just like those heart breaking creatures called humans. 

The question will come up again and again as to why the God of the Old Testament seems so different than the God of the New Testament.  God may not be as different as we might think.  God's determination to stick with these creatures fashioned after God is remarkable when these creatures disappoint, disobey, walk away, kill and mame each other and the creation, causing great hurt and pain to the holy parent who is God.

Perhaps the judgement we see in God in Eden or in the Ark narrative is more descriptive than prescriptive, something we bring on ourselves. 

What do you think?  Do you think of God as vulnerable, as one who grieves and hurts?