Today’s Scripture Reading (September
12, 2013): Psalm 80
One of the
things I liked to do when I was younger was to go out and find wild berries.
Back then it seemed that they were everywhere – there were places where berries
just grew wild. Today, at least where I live, I have not seen many of those
good wild berry picking areas. But it was during this time that I was the
closest I would ever be to a hunter/gatherer. For most of us today, all of our
hunting and gathering happens in the grocery store. But that is not the same
thing. When I go to the grocery store and I want some raspberries, I can just
pick up a basket off of the shelf. But that is not the experience in the wild.
In the wild, first I have to find the raspberry bushes, and then I have find
the berries among the branches, but I also have to find them amidst the various
grasses and weeds that are growing all around the bush. It is a bit of a
process.
At some
point, someone got the great idea of taking the raspberry bushes and placing
them together in a garden. The garden provided two things. First, you finally
knew where the raspberries were going to be, you didn’t have to go out
searching for them. But more than that, in a garden you can also pull up the
weeds and grasses so that there is nothing to compete with the berries that you
want. In a garden we get to go out and collect the raspberries and the only
branches that we have to compete with are raspberry branches.
It is this
process that the Psalmist describes for Israel. He reminds his readers that
there was a time when they were a vine in a foreign land. They grew up among
the weeds and the grasses in Egypt. But God saw them and loved them, and God
decided in the fullness of time to take the vine and plant it in a garden.
There they were intended to flourish. God set out to remove the weeds and the
grasses in this garden; taking away anything that would be in competition with
the vine of God. And they did flourish. They grew strong, strong enough that
they began to think that planting themselves in the garden was actually their
idea. They forgot that there was a gardener - the one who had placed them
there.
But the
story did not end there - it was never intended to. Israel had originally been
planted in order to bring beauty to the world – to change the world. In some
ways, Israel had always been intended to be a raspberry plant, because a
raspberry plant spread and sprouts where ever it can. And if you are not
careful, a raspberry plant will take over a garden – and that was the exact
purpose God had for Israel. And so the time came when Israel was taken out of
the garden and planted in other gardens, so that those gardens would not be
without the influence of the people of God.
And history
has shown that God’s plan has worked perfectly. Because the people of God have
been removed from their individual gardens and placed in other gardens and
their presence has spread and they have been an influence. And whether you are
a Jew or a Christian, we need to realize that the spreading of that influence
is the highest purpose that God has place inside of us. We are to go and make a
difference – making this world a better place to live.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm
81 & 82
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