Why was it, sea, that you fled? Why, Jordan, did you turn back? – Psalm 114:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 24, 2013): Psalm 113 & 114

One of my favorite movies (and I admit that I have quite a list of them) is I-Robot. I have seen the movie several times – and I own and have read the Isaac Asimov’s book on which the movie is based. Asimov’s story is based around the idea that we see what it is that we expect to see. All through the movie there are examples of this phenomenon. Long before the viewer realizes that V.I.K.I is the antagonist, we are left with several other possible options – all of which appear quite logical at the time. But the plot hovers around the idea that Del Spooner (Will Smith) voices near the end of the movie. Dr. Alfred Lanning’s (James Cromwell) death which ushers us into the mystery also invites Detective Spooner into the case – and he is the only one that can solve the mystery because he is the only one that is willing to consider that a robot could be a possible criminal. No one else expects to see a Robot fulfill that role – the view of an evil robot just happens to be part of Spooner’s peculiarities.

Sometimes as we read through the Bible, we have an idea that people used to have different expectations of what they would see. But when Newton discovered the Theory of Gravity, it was not the first time that someone noticed that apples fall from the trees to the ground – or that anything that is dropped always moves in a universal direction (down.) Newton was just able to explain why the phenomenon happens. The expectation of people, even in the ancient world, was that something consistently draws the objects to the grounds. Even today I know of people (some very educated) who disbelieve the Theory of Gravity – as unbelievable as that might seem. But what they do believe in is the Law of Repeated Events – the phenomenon which accurately predicts that apples will always fall to the ground.

Miracles in the ancient times were just as surprising to the people then as they are now. They were simply actions that were totally unexpected – that broke the Law of Repeated Events. The Psalmist here remembers back to the early days of his nation. And he has a question – what made you do what you did. Maybe the more pointed question is directed at those who refused to believe in God – if it was not God, then what was it that made the waters move? The dualism in this passage is not just restating of the same principle twice, as is common in Hebrew poetry, but the mentioning of two separate events when something happened to hold the water back – once at the Red Sea (or the Sea of Reeds) and once at the Jordan River. Both were simply unexpected events – things that the people did not expect to sea (and one of the questions I would love to ask Moses is “what did you expect would happen when you held out your staff over the waters of the Red Sea. I would be surprised if his answer was that he expected the waters to part.)

Today we often believe that miracles no longer happen because we do not expect them to happen. And to a certain extent we might be right – after all, the Jordan did not turn back until the soles of the priest’s feet touched the water. But I also know that God is totally able to move even through my disbelief – his movement in this world is not dependent on what it is that I expect to see.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 115