Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there. – Numbers 14:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 30, 2018): Numbers 14

In the church of my childhood, it was the Sunday morning ritual. The people would gather in the sanctuary, often with the soft background music which was produced by the organ which sat in the corner of the sanctuary. There was a hush that seemed to take over the room. And then, when the time was right, the pastor, choir director and other dignitaries emerged from a space off to the side of the platform, and they would walk out, pause, and kneel in front of the grand cushioned chairs, which we called the throne chairs, that were spread out in front of the choir loft. Until the platform staff knelt in prayer, the service couldn’t start.

Jesus taught that we need to be careful not to make prayer an act of theater. Admittedly, the scene that I watched every Sunday morning had an element of drama attached to it. But it was also a reminder that everything that would happen that morning was dependent on the will of God. The service itself was an act of performance, but we were not the intended audience. God was.

By this time, Moses and Aaron were the likely the oldest members of the nation of Israel. And they, maybe more than anyone, knew that the origin of the journey that they were on was God. He had been the God of the burning bush, the one who had orchestrated the plagues in Egypt, and the one who had split the Red Sea during their perilous escape from the country. He was the God of the mountain and the law. He was the one who had built the nation around a spiritual focus symbolized by the tabernacle. He had taken them from being a group of slaves and molded them into a nation.

So when the grumbling started to rise against God in this new nation, Moses and Aaron fell on their knees in front of the nation. Maybe more than anyone else, Moses and Aaron understood the gravity of the situation. The nation was in danger, and it might not survive the next few moments. And Moses and Aaron understood that something needed to happen quickly.

Were the leaders falling facedown in prayer in front of the nation a piece of drama? Most definitely. And sometimes we need to find a private place for our prayer times. But sometimes, we need to make our prayer public. Sometimes it is very appropriate to show the nation, or the congregation, just who it is on whom we are depending. And on whom the solution for our problems really depends.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers 15