But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” – Psalm 81:16

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 13, 2013): Psalm 81 & 82

President Enrique Pena Nieto proposed sweeping changes to Mexico's social programs earlier this week. While the proposed changed have a lot to do with tax reform for the nation, Nieto stresses that tax reform results in social reform. And when we hear the idea of social reform, what we often think of is a process that deals with making life more livable for those that are ‘the least’ among us – or at least for those close to the bottom of our social ladder. But the basic problem is that these are precisely the people that lack political power. They have nothing to give that our political system craves. So often this kind of reform is hard, because those with political power really don’t want to pay for it.

Minimum wage law is one example of this kind of struggle. The idea of the minimum wage is to ensure that those at the lower end of the pay scale have at least a livable wage. But the reality is that while all developed countries have some sort of version of this law, none of them actually produce what could be called a living wage. The tug of war that exists within our political structure is between those that will have to pay the wage and those that will receive it. And in every case, the ones with the real political power are the ones that in the end will have to pay the wage. For Mexico, according to the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development in 2011, that struggle left the nation at the lowest end of the Minimum Wage Scale with a minimum wage of $0.55/hour. The result is that people who have to live at that end of the spectrum work hard at trying to escape Mexico and find something better.

At the beginning of Israel’s journey through the desert, the people complained because they had no water. Their question was “is God with us?” They had seen the waters of the Red Sea part, but that wasn’t enough. What they needed was water now. And so Moses stood on a rock and with the instruction and power of God struck the rock and water burst forth. It was an unusual thing to see in the desert. So the people had Manna to eat and water from the rock to drink. And they had a guarantee that God would give the minimum the people would need. Manna and water would sustain life, but they would not much more.

But the Psalmist seeks to remind his readers that God does not just want to sustain life. He wants so much more for us. The promise that he made with Israel was that if you follow me into the future, I will give you more than just Manna, I will feed you with the finest of the wheat – or literally ‘the fat of the wheat’ – and it won’t be just water that will gush out of the rock – it will be honey. Some people have worked hard at explaining that in Canaan bees build their hives amidst the rocks and sometimes the honey drips out of the hive and onto the rocks making Canaan a land that flows with honey, but the process really misses the point. The Psalmist wants his readers to understand that God desires to give to his people more than just the minimum to survive – we wants to replace the water of the rock with the sweetest of honey.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 83