Today’s
Scripture Reading (December 2, 2018): Deuteronomy 9
Everyone has a price, at least that is the cynical understanding of many.
Everyone will sell out the things that they value most if the price is right. It is just that for some of us, the
price is higher than for others. So the real negotiation has nothing to do with
whether you will sell, it is all about your price.
And the Bible is filled with people who sold something of value, and
sometimes for not all that much money. Judas sold Jesus out for his thirty
pieces of silver. Rahab sold Jericho out for the promise of a future with
Israel after the city fell. Jonah went to Nineveh, a place that he had vowed
that he would not go, for the price of not having to spend a fourth night in
the whale. Stories of selling abound within the pages of our Holy Book.
Then there are some who maybe didn’t really
sell anything out, but they were unwilling to put up any resistance. During the
days of Noah, God decided to destroy the world and rebuild it from the
descendants of Noah. Noah was game, and
he decided to build the ark and allow God to start over again with him. The
price paid for the destruction of the world was the salvation of Noah and his
family. Abraham was told that God had
decided to destroy Sodom, Gomorrah and the Cities of the Plain. The man of God
argued with the Creator and established the price of the cities about to be
destroyed; the established price was ten righteous men. But there weren’t ten
righteous men in the cities, and the
cities were destroyed.
And then
there was Moses. In many ways, God was establishing Moses’s price. The deal
that he offers Moses is eerily similar to the one that he offered to Noah. Let
me destroy these people, and I will start
over again with you. And if Moses were
Noah, he likely would have said: “go
God.” But Moses might have been one of those rare people who was without a
price. Moses refuses to acquiesce to the
request of God. Instead, he decides to wrestle with him. He pleads with God for
the salvation of his people. I think that Moses would have agreed with the sentiment
of Walter Wink when Wink argued that “I for one do not abandon scripture, but neither do I acquiesce. I
wrestle with it. I challenge it. I am broken and wounded by it, and then in defeat I sometimes encounter the living God.”
Moses was willing to wrestle with God, and in the process have a close
encounter with the Creator of the World.
Here, Moses
remembers that encounter. And, maybe, there is an element of pleading with
Israel in this moment. Remember when God
wanted to destroy you. Remember, it was then that I stood up for you. Now as
you enter into the land that God has promised to you, don’t prove me wrong. Now
is the time to prove to God that you are worthy of redemption and salvation.
Of course, we
aren’t worthy of redemption and salvation. At least, not on our own power. We all seem to have a price for
which we are willing to sell out everything that we hold dear, including God.
And so God remembered Moses and sent us Jesus to pay the price for our shortcomings.
And he became our price.
Tomorrow’s Scripture
Reading: Deuteronomy 10
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