7.6.25 ~ A Rocky Lesson
Good morning!
Welcome to the 36th day of counting towards the first fruit of the wine, wherein God has faith in you by giving you breath in your lungs. Huh? In other words, He has faith that you will accomplish today what He needs you to do. He trusts you with His mercies that are new every morning (Lam. 3:23 :-).
This morning we will conclude with our 'Miriam' thoughts for the week and I want to challenge you to go back and read the passage in Numbers 2121-35 where Sihon and Og (the giants are confronted and defeated)...
Shabbat morning zoom call: Moses' disobedience to God's command is the key to your victory over Sihon and Og
Miriam has died. The rock/tzur is no longer giving water. Moses strikes the rock/ha sela and it brings forth water for the people and cattle (Num. 20:11,12). Have you ever asked yourself the question, "How does He, speaking of God, relate to nature in the wilderness? How does He relate to nature when everyday Manna comes down? How does He relate to nature when water comes from a rock? Is this normal? It's not normal. What is happening"? It's almost as if when miracles happen what He’s doing is 'beating nature into submission'. Nature doesn't have a choice, He's beating it, He's forcing - nature wants to do something, He's forcing it to do something that it normally wouldn't do. He's twisting nature's back, His arm is around its back, He's twisting, He says okay, now I want you to give water out of this rock. That is what nature is doing.
And to piggy back on those thoughts: "How do we relate to Yahweh in an era of miracles"? It would be easy in a world of miracles - why? Because He would be twisting our arms. If you ask what the main issue with Israel was in the desert, the main locus of their activity in the desert was not whether they would listen to the particular commands that Yahweh says, because when you see miracles yesterday and every day then that is less of an issue. When He says jump, will I jump?
What then is the issue? In a world of miracles what then is the arena in which I do have challenges in my relationship with Yahweh? It's not the arena of action. I believe it's the arena of faith. Faith is always an issue even in a world of miracles. Particularly in a world of miracles faith is an issue, because in order for the miracle to happen I have to place myself in His hands, otherwise the miracle doesn't happen. It is difficult to place yourself in His hands. It is always difficult. Faith is not believing that Yahweh exists. This is not faith. Faith is once you know that He exists then faith begins. Then the question is I know that You're there but am I going to place myself in Your hands? Am I going to trust You? Am I going to be vulnerable and let You call the shots? That's what faith is.
If you look at all the times Israel disobeyed in the desert, it all boils down to will they make themselves vulnerable? Are they going to be willing to place themselves in His hands? Or would they rather not make themselves so vulnerable? I think if you analyze almost every act of disobedience that the Israelites do in the desert, it all boils down to, on some level, they're not willing to place themselves in His hands in that kind of faith.
That is what life is about in the desert. Action is not such an issue. Faith is an issue. But all that is going to change because the miracles are going to go away. Miriam is dead, Aaron has died, Moses is going to die, they're going to go into the land and Israel needs something else. What is the spiritual challenge once you get to the land of Israel? Is it to have that faith to make miracles happen? No.That's not the issue any more. Miracles are not the order of the day, that's not your main challenge as a human being.
Do you know what your main challenge as a human being is? It's action. Am I going to do what He wants of me? It's hard. It's hard because I've just been in the desert. Because in the desert what do I do when I have an issue that encourages me to act contrary to His Word? I remember the fact that I've just seen a miracle. Did He twist my arm like He twists nature's arm? Once I get out of the wilderness I have no more external motivations once I get to the Land. I harvest my crops, I sow my crops, and now the question is what am I going to do? Why am I going to listen to Yahweh? I've got to find some other kind of motivation.
That was the challenge facing Israel with the spies (Num. 13 & 14) and at this moment in time. Could they make the transition to the new world? Now that Yahweh is no longer breaking the back of nature, no longer breaking their back, are they going to listen? How are they going to listen? What are they going to find inside them that's going to make them listen? Speaking to the rock was the answer to that (Friday night's zoom call).
In the old world, in the world of food, water and comfort miracles, how did you get water from the rock? You took your staff and you beat the rock into submission, you broke the back of nature. That's what miracles always do, they break the back of nature. When people see nature's back is broken, their back is broken, they don't really have free will to be able to choose or not.
In the old world you hit the rock and that's how you get water from it. In the new world you speak to the rock. In the transition between hitting the rock and speaking to the rock is the lesson. This is what the people were supposed to learn, they were supposed to say the following. If a rock that does not need to make a living, that does not get punished when it doesn't listen to Yahweh, that does not get rewarded when it does listen to Yahweh, still obeys Yahweh and gives water when He speaks to it, when you speak to it, then for sure people who do get rewarded when they listen to Yahweh and who do get punished when they don't listen to Yahweh, for sure they should find it within themselves to be able to listen to Yahweh too.
What's the meaning of this ‘heavy to light’ statement? Let's talk about the rock. The rock does not get rewarded, does not get punished, it still listens to Yahweh when you speak to it not when you hit it. You don't have to be twisting its arm for it to give off its waters, it can listen to Yahweh even if its arm is not twisted. Why? Why would the rock give of its waters? Nature ALWAYS listens to Yahweh, in daily life too. Every time a stream obeys the laws of physics and goes down instead of going up, it's listening to Yahweh. He set in motion the laws of physics, it is listening to those laws. When nature lives its regular life it is listening to Yahweh. Now it may seem more obvious to us when its back is broken that it's listening to Yahweh, but it listens to Him all the time.
Why does it do that? If you think about it for a moment theologically, why does a stream like to listen to laws of physics? The answer is because it is natural. What is the stream? It's a part of nature, it has a creator, its creator said there's unchanging laws, it's time to go down now. It's natural to listen to Yahweh. It is not just that my back is broken and I listen to Him. Every time nature acts it listens to Yahweh because it is natural. A rock does not have to be struck to listen to Him. If you speak to a rock and the rock listens, and it's not being punished, and it's not being rewarded, so ask yourself why is this rock listening? I'm not hitting it, it's not being rewarded, it's not being punished. Yahweh’s aide is just talking to it and it is giving of its waters. It’s not that you are taking water from the rock by hitting it, you are speaking to it and it is, so to speak, deciding to give up its waters. Why would it do that? For only one reason. Because it is natural for it to want to listen to the will of its creator.
Well if rocks find it natural, if nature finds it natural to listen to its creator, then people who are part of nature, and who are also creatures and created by Yahweh Elohim, who, in addition to all of that also get rewarded by listening to Him, and also get punished if they don't listen to Him, for sure they should find it within themselves to be able to listen to Him. Why? Not because they get rewarded, not because they get punished - that's just icing on the cake. The reason why they should listen is because they're fundamentally similar to rocks. Why? Because they are part of nature too, they are creatures too. They have to find it within themselves to say I too am part of the natural world, I too have a creator, I too want to listen.
Why is hiking in the Rockies a spiritual experience? What is so spiritual, it's a natural experience? Why is it a spiritual experience? It's spiritual because when you see nature all doing His will just naturally and it's so wonderful. It's this whole symphony of doing the His will, you say, one second, I want to be part of it. I want to be drawn into it. Take me into the woods, I'm part of this nature too, I want to become part of it, I too am natural, I too am a creature, I want to do His will. Why? Because I need to be punished, I'm rewarded? No. Because I'm part of His creation. I have a part of me - if I look inside me and I look at all my desires, I say okay, I have a Yetzer Harah/evil inclination, I want to do this, I want to do that, I have all my desires, but there is a part of me that I need to see inside, a part deep inside that wants to do what He wants naturally. Because I'm part of His creation and a creature wants to do what the Creator wants.
That is the motivation for listening to Yahweh in a world where there are no miracles. Because you don't get your back broken anymore. You have no more external motivation. You've got to find an internal motivation. The internal motivation is a realization that there is a part inside me that really wants to do this. Plus, I happen to get rewarded, great, I'll take the reward too. But I'm a part of nature. That was the lesson that needed to be learned.
But for some reason Moses couldn't teach that lesson. He was overcome with despondency, Miriam was dead, there was no more faith, it was gone and the people don't have any faith. He looks at them and says, ‘listen you rebellious ones, it's impossible, I can't get water’. There were two cards Moses looked at but he didn't look for the third, anomalous card. There was another card in the deck that he didn't realize, which maybe there's a new world where you don't have to have that faith anymore to get water. In the new world maybe you don't hit rocks anymore, you speak to them. Maybe there's a whole new lesson. Miriam's well even after her death had one last lesson to teach and the lesson that Miriam's well could teach was that there is a new kind of world which works on a whole different principle and the rock can listen and you people can listen too. It was an anomalous card, it wasn't revealed to Moses.
But Moses is overcome with despondency in the situation and sees no way out, just like the Israelites, perhaps, at the Sea of Reeds saw no way out. There's no way out, Miriam is dead, there is no faith, you people are rebels. All he can do is hit the rock and try to restart that last process.
But that process won't be restarted, and then Yahweh says to him, ‘you didn't have enough faith in Me to sanctify My name, the way My name needed to be sanctified. This lesson needed to be learned now. There's a transition going on, they have to be taught this lesson to be able to go into the land. You didn't have enough faith in Me to sanctify Me that way and to teach that lesson (Num. 20:12). I need another leader who can teach that lesson, and Moses can't go into the land. Why? Not because he is being punished. There is no way he's being punished. You can't take a man who has done all this and say you hit a rock and I'm punishing you and you can't go into the land. There's only one reason why Moses doesn't go into the land; because the Israelites need something else and Moses can't provide it now.
Moses cannot go in the land as just a regular person so he dies and Yahweh says I'll take you to the mountain and you can see the land of Israel from here, but you can't go into the land.
This, I think, is how the story ends. It's a vision of the partnership, the beautiful partnership, between Miriam and Moses in the leadership of the Israelite people and, I think, it says something to us about the nature of faith as well for the days ahead. It's time for a new default setting.
We are in the days of faith!
Shalom!
This morning we will conclude with our 'Miriam' thoughts for the week and I want to challenge you to go back and read the passage in Numbers 2121-35 where Sihon and Og (the giants are confronted and defeated)...
Shabbat morning zoom call: Moses' disobedience to God's command is the key to your victory over Sihon and Og
Miriam has died. The rock/tzur is no longer giving water. Moses strikes the rock/ha sela and it brings forth water for the people and cattle (Num. 20:11,12). Have you ever asked yourself the question, "How does He, speaking of God, relate to nature in the wilderness? How does He relate to nature when everyday Manna comes down? How does He relate to nature when water comes from a rock? Is this normal? It's not normal. What is happening"? It's almost as if when miracles happen what He’s doing is 'beating nature into submission'. Nature doesn't have a choice, He's beating it, He's forcing - nature wants to do something, He's forcing it to do something that it normally wouldn't do. He's twisting nature's back, His arm is around its back, He's twisting, He says okay, now I want you to give water out of this rock. That is what nature is doing.
And to piggy back on those thoughts: "How do we relate to Yahweh in an era of miracles"? It would be easy in a world of miracles - why? Because He would be twisting our arms. If you ask what the main issue with Israel was in the desert, the main locus of their activity in the desert was not whether they would listen to the particular commands that Yahweh says, because when you see miracles yesterday and every day then that is less of an issue. When He says jump, will I jump?
What then is the issue? In a world of miracles what then is the arena in which I do have challenges in my relationship with Yahweh? It's not the arena of action. I believe it's the arena of faith. Faith is always an issue even in a world of miracles. Particularly in a world of miracles faith is an issue, because in order for the miracle to happen I have to place myself in His hands, otherwise the miracle doesn't happen. It is difficult to place yourself in His hands. It is always difficult. Faith is not believing that Yahweh exists. This is not faith. Faith is once you know that He exists then faith begins. Then the question is I know that You're there but am I going to place myself in Your hands? Am I going to trust You? Am I going to be vulnerable and let You call the shots? That's what faith is.
If you look at all the times Israel disobeyed in the desert, it all boils down to will they make themselves vulnerable? Are they going to be willing to place themselves in His hands? Or would they rather not make themselves so vulnerable? I think if you analyze almost every act of disobedience that the Israelites do in the desert, it all boils down to, on some level, they're not willing to place themselves in His hands in that kind of faith.
That is what life is about in the desert. Action is not such an issue. Faith is an issue. But all that is going to change because the miracles are going to go away. Miriam is dead, Aaron has died, Moses is going to die, they're going to go into the land and Israel needs something else. What is the spiritual challenge once you get to the land of Israel? Is it to have that faith to make miracles happen? No.That's not the issue any more. Miracles are not the order of the day, that's not your main challenge as a human being.
Do you know what your main challenge as a human being is? It's action. Am I going to do what He wants of me? It's hard. It's hard because I've just been in the desert. Because in the desert what do I do when I have an issue that encourages me to act contrary to His Word? I remember the fact that I've just seen a miracle. Did He twist my arm like He twists nature's arm? Once I get out of the wilderness I have no more external motivations once I get to the Land. I harvest my crops, I sow my crops, and now the question is what am I going to do? Why am I going to listen to Yahweh? I've got to find some other kind of motivation.
That was the challenge facing Israel with the spies (Num. 13 & 14) and at this moment in time. Could they make the transition to the new world? Now that Yahweh is no longer breaking the back of nature, no longer breaking their back, are they going to listen? How are they going to listen? What are they going to find inside them that's going to make them listen? Speaking to the rock was the answer to that (Friday night's zoom call).
In the old world, in the world of food, water and comfort miracles, how did you get water from the rock? You took your staff and you beat the rock into submission, you broke the back of nature. That's what miracles always do, they break the back of nature. When people see nature's back is broken, their back is broken, they don't really have free will to be able to choose or not.
In the old world you hit the rock and that's how you get water from it. In the new world you speak to the rock. In the transition between hitting the rock and speaking to the rock is the lesson. This is what the people were supposed to learn, they were supposed to say the following. If a rock that does not need to make a living, that does not get punished when it doesn't listen to Yahweh, that does not get rewarded when it does listen to Yahweh, still obeys Yahweh and gives water when He speaks to it, when you speak to it, then for sure people who do get rewarded when they listen to Yahweh and who do get punished when they don't listen to Yahweh, for sure they should find it within themselves to be able to listen to Yahweh too.
What's the meaning of this ‘heavy to light’ statement? Let's talk about the rock. The rock does not get rewarded, does not get punished, it still listens to Yahweh when you speak to it not when you hit it. You don't have to be twisting its arm for it to give off its waters, it can listen to Yahweh even if its arm is not twisted. Why? Why would the rock give of its waters? Nature ALWAYS listens to Yahweh, in daily life too. Every time a stream obeys the laws of physics and goes down instead of going up, it's listening to Yahweh. He set in motion the laws of physics, it is listening to those laws. When nature lives its regular life it is listening to Yahweh. Now it may seem more obvious to us when its back is broken that it's listening to Yahweh, but it listens to Him all the time.
Why does it do that? If you think about it for a moment theologically, why does a stream like to listen to laws of physics? The answer is because it is natural. What is the stream? It's a part of nature, it has a creator, its creator said there's unchanging laws, it's time to go down now. It's natural to listen to Yahweh. It is not just that my back is broken and I listen to Him. Every time nature acts it listens to Yahweh because it is natural. A rock does not have to be struck to listen to Him. If you speak to a rock and the rock listens, and it's not being punished, and it's not being rewarded, so ask yourself why is this rock listening? I'm not hitting it, it's not being rewarded, it's not being punished. Yahweh’s aide is just talking to it and it is giving of its waters. It’s not that you are taking water from the rock by hitting it, you are speaking to it and it is, so to speak, deciding to give up its waters. Why would it do that? For only one reason. Because it is natural for it to want to listen to the will of its creator.
Well if rocks find it natural, if nature finds it natural to listen to its creator, then people who are part of nature, and who are also creatures and created by Yahweh Elohim, who, in addition to all of that also get rewarded by listening to Him, and also get punished if they don't listen to Him, for sure they should find it within themselves to be able to listen to Him. Why? Not because they get rewarded, not because they get punished - that's just icing on the cake. The reason why they should listen is because they're fundamentally similar to rocks. Why? Because they are part of nature too, they are creatures too. They have to find it within themselves to say I too am part of the natural world, I too have a creator, I too want to listen.
Why is hiking in the Rockies a spiritual experience? What is so spiritual, it's a natural experience? Why is it a spiritual experience? It's spiritual because when you see nature all doing His will just naturally and it's so wonderful. It's this whole symphony of doing the His will, you say, one second, I want to be part of it. I want to be drawn into it. Take me into the woods, I'm part of this nature too, I want to become part of it, I too am natural, I too am a creature, I want to do His will. Why? Because I need to be punished, I'm rewarded? No. Because I'm part of His creation. I have a part of me - if I look inside me and I look at all my desires, I say okay, I have a Yetzer Harah/evil inclination, I want to do this, I want to do that, I have all my desires, but there is a part of me that I need to see inside, a part deep inside that wants to do what He wants naturally. Because I'm part of His creation and a creature wants to do what the Creator wants.
That is the motivation for listening to Yahweh in a world where there are no miracles. Because you don't get your back broken anymore. You have no more external motivation. You've got to find an internal motivation. The internal motivation is a realization that there is a part inside me that really wants to do this. Plus, I happen to get rewarded, great, I'll take the reward too. But I'm a part of nature. That was the lesson that needed to be learned.
But for some reason Moses couldn't teach that lesson. He was overcome with despondency, Miriam was dead, there was no more faith, it was gone and the people don't have any faith. He looks at them and says, ‘listen you rebellious ones, it's impossible, I can't get water’. There were two cards Moses looked at but he didn't look for the third, anomalous card. There was another card in the deck that he didn't realize, which maybe there's a new world where you don't have to have that faith anymore to get water. In the new world maybe you don't hit rocks anymore, you speak to them. Maybe there's a whole new lesson. Miriam's well even after her death had one last lesson to teach and the lesson that Miriam's well could teach was that there is a new kind of world which works on a whole different principle and the rock can listen and you people can listen too. It was an anomalous card, it wasn't revealed to Moses.
But Moses is overcome with despondency in the situation and sees no way out, just like the Israelites, perhaps, at the Sea of Reeds saw no way out. There's no way out, Miriam is dead, there is no faith, you people are rebels. All he can do is hit the rock and try to restart that last process.
But that process won't be restarted, and then Yahweh says to him, ‘you didn't have enough faith in Me to sanctify My name, the way My name needed to be sanctified. This lesson needed to be learned now. There's a transition going on, they have to be taught this lesson to be able to go into the land. You didn't have enough faith in Me to sanctify Me that way and to teach that lesson (Num. 20:12). I need another leader who can teach that lesson, and Moses can't go into the land. Why? Not because he is being punished. There is no way he's being punished. You can't take a man who has done all this and say you hit a rock and I'm punishing you and you can't go into the land. There's only one reason why Moses doesn't go into the land; because the Israelites need something else and Moses can't provide it now.
Moses cannot go in the land as just a regular person so he dies and Yahweh says I'll take you to the mountain and you can see the land of Israel from here, but you can't go into the land.
This, I think, is how the story ends. It's a vision of the partnership, the beautiful partnership, between Miriam and Moses in the leadership of the Israelite people and, I think, it says something to us about the nature of faith as well for the days ahead. It's time for a new default setting.
We are in the days of faith!
Shalom!
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