Test Time!

And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?"  Exodus 17:7

Test time!
By Rev. William Dohle

One of my least favorite memories growing up was that of pop quizzes!  I hated them...and still hate them.  I still don't understand why teachers will throw a test at you that you aren't prepared for.

Tests are stressful enough when you can prepare for them and when you can see them coming...but tests that you aren't prepared for?  They are terrible!  I can still feel my stomach knotting up, my pulse quicken, beads of sweat forming on my forehead, and the look of dread come across my face.  Reminding me just how terrible a test truly is!

Tests are stressful because, in most cases, there is just one "right" answer for each question.  Try answering a math question with an essay or try contradicting the professor on a piece of his philosophy and you'll be in for a surprise.  Trust me... I've tried the later and it wasn't pretty!

Tests come from above...but have you ever tried to test your professor?  Or your teacher?  Imagine if you, the student, walked into your college class and said,"I want YOU to solve these problems for us!  Let's see you do them yourself!"

That would probably get you kicked out of class...at best.  Maybe even out of the school.  Testing your professor, no matter how much you disagree with them, isn't exactly smiled upon.

This is, though, exactly what the people of Israel do at Massah and Meribah.  The place where the water comes out of the stone is also the place of the greatest test.  Only it's not God testing the people here but rather the people testing God.

"Is the Lord among us or not?"

This place becomes infamous in Scripture.  The place where Israel tested God.  The people are reminded about it again and again...

"Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah." (Deut. 6:16)
"You also made the Lord angry at Taberah, at Massah and at Kibroth Hattaavah."
(Deut. 9:22)
"About Levi he said: “Your Thummim and Urim belong to your faithful servant. You tested him at Massah; you contended with him at the waters of Meribah."(Deut. 33:8)
“Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness..."(Psalm 95:8)

Something happened on that day.  Something, I think, that is greater than even the book of Exodus reveals.  The people tested God, true, but the people closed their hearts to him also.  The people refused to listen to any other answer, except the answer they deemed "right", even if the Professor himself was speaking!

How often we have done the same!  To question God is one thing.  Even the prophets do that!  But to test God, to demand from him the answer we feel is right, will never get us anywhere!  Why?  Because God's ways are not our ways!  God's thoughts not our thoughts!  We must trust, even when the answer we get is unclear or even unheard.  We must hold on, even when it seems hopeless, for there is no one else to hold on to!

Elie Wiesel tells of a time when he and three other rabbis in Aushwitz put God on trial.  In the end they found him guilty of crimes against humanity.  Then they went away to pray.  That event was made into a movie, God on Trial.  I always resonated with that story.  For questioning God is human.  Questioning God is what the prophets and the saints did.  They asked, "Why!?"  Sometimes they admitted they just didn't understand.  Sometimes they said it was all God's fault.  But, in the end, they always ended their whys with worship and with continued faithfulness to God.

Let us put aside our testing as testing.  God might not answer as we think he should.  The answer he chooses might be wrong in our eyes.  But let us trust that, whatever God answers us, He has promised to always be with us, to never leave us, and to be present with us, through death and beyond.

Forgive the times when I have tested you, O God.  I do not understand.  Help me to push through my own trials and tests.  Strengthen me with your grace both now and always.  Amen.

Water from the Rock

"Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people." Exodus 17:6b

Water from the Rock!
By Rev. William Dohle

Yesterday I had the craziest day!

I was sitting in my office in a meeting when the phone rang...twice!  It was my wife who, frustrated, told me that our van had stalled at the corner of University and Lake.  Since we live just down the street from that intersection, I ran down to see what was the problem.

The van had stalled.  Only not just stalled.  It wouldn't start again.  No matter how many times we tried, it just wouldn't work.

So... I told my wife to return home with our infant and I'd work things out.

First I called the insurance company who informed me that somehow they couldn't find that part of my policy.  "But..." she said, "...I'll still hook you up with a tow truck."

That was kind of them.  The heat index was close to a hundred.  And, waiting there, I started to sweat...a lot!

Then, as I waited for the tow truck to appear, I was visited upon by four angels.  First, our youth director Amie came down the hill asking if everything was alright.  She then returned with a glass of water.  A first angel, a messenger of hope, came with water.

Next came my son riding down the street.  He also brought me a bottle of water.  My second angel of the day.

Then my wife to see if everything was alright.  She came with company in our other car.  My third angel.

Finally the tow truck guy arrived with the tow truck.  And here the incident turned humorous!

The truck driver was hillarious!  Simply hillarious!  He tried to teach me how to hook my van up to the tow truck.  He almost let my van roll down the hill into traffic at one point, telling me how his cousin had made the same mistake back in Oklahoma.  He told me the seat belts were out in his truck when I climbed in.  And then, to top it off, he breathed into a breathilizer when an alarm went off in the truck because his insurance required it.

Still, he got me to the car repair shop and gave me the best gift of all.  The gift of laughter!  Laughter at a terrible situation and laughter at life itself.  And with that(and without garnering payment either) my fourth angel left.

And as I rode off, it occurred to me.  I had just received water from the Rock.  The very thing Exodus was speaking about.

The story goes when the people of Israel were thirsty again in the wilderness and crying out to God, that God instructed Moses to give them water.  God told Moses, "Go out in front of the people  Take some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go.  I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb.  Strike the rock, and water will come out  of it for the people to drink."

The people were thirsty.  They cried out for God.  And God sent help.  God made even the rocks watery for the people of Israel.  That was the miracle then.

And that is the miracle now.  God still does this.

We can talk, as Christians, about God bringing living water out of his Rock, who is Christ.  We can speak of the living water and those who drink will never be thirsty.  And we can remember that Christ is the Rock from whom that water flows.

But sometimes we need more than just theology.  We need more than faith.  We actually need water.  We need to be taken care of, just like God took care of Israel.  We need that water from the rock to be, well, literal!

And that's just what happens too.  God continues to make water flow out of the rocky places.  Angels amongst us minister to us, even when the weather is hot and dry and there is no one around.  Familiar angels and messengers of God bring water and good news.  And, sometimes, stranger angels also come with crazy stories to lift our spirits and with kindness that pierces the darkness of our lives.

That's water from the Rock.  That's the gift of God.  It's what God gave the people of Israel way back when.  It's what Christ gives us in his death and resurrection.  And that is what is continued to be given to us in the deserts of our lives.

So...where has God made water flow in your deserts?

Eternal Rock, shower me with your life giving water, even in the wild places of my life.  Amen.
 

Not Just Needs

The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.   Exodus 16:35

Not Just Needs
By Rev. William Dohle

My kids are spoiled.  I will be the first to admit it.

They have more things and most stuff than 98% of the children do in the world.  They have been "blessed" with enough distractions to keep them busy for hours and hours in the day.  Each day three meals are set before them.  There's no wondering where their food will come from.  And they have developed tastes and wants...and preferences beyond what they need.

They are spoiled.  Unlike others in our world, they have all their needs fulfilled.  They can indulge their wants.

I was told, and taught, that God doesn't care for our wants.  He provides for our needs.  His provision is such that some of us are given far more than we need so we can take what we have and share it with others.  God provides for our needs...but never our wants.  Needs are good...wants are somehow evil.

However, if you read the Bible carefully, that statement is only half true.

God does provide for our needs.  Just as he provides for the needs of all creation.  In the wilderness, as God's people of Israel were escaping Pharaoh, God provided for their needs.  He did so in the form of manna, a thin crusty bread, that rained down from heaven six days a week.  "The people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey."  (Ex. 16:31)  This bread would keep Israel alive, even in the wastelands of the wilderness.

But God's people were not happy.  Israel was upset.  How could they live on bread alone?  They could but they didn't want to.  They wanted something else.  They wanted meat.  The people of Israel complained against Moses and Moses brought their complaints to God.  And God listened.

“I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.'"(Ex. 16:11-12).

Did you see what God did?  God gave them what they wanted!  Not just what they needed but what they wanted.  God gave them what they asked for!

God does this quite a bit!  He gives the people what they want...with quail.  He gives them what they want...with a king.  And He gives them what they want...in a savior!

Each time God does this, you'd think the people would be happy.  But alas, we are who we are, and we are never happy.  One want leads to another want leads to another want.  It just never ends!  But God sticks with us the entire time, sometimes answering wants with exactly what we want and sometimes fulfilling our deeper intangible wants, as He did through Jesus Christ, when he gave us salvation from sin and death and the powers of evil, the need under all our wants.

So the next time you pause in prayer, realizing what you're asking for is really not a need but just a want, relax!  God listens to both.  God can sort them all out!   And, who knows, God may give you what you truly want, what is beneath the physical want you presented to him.

Lord God, heavenly king, increase our faith.  Open our eyes.  Make us bold to present all our wants and needs at your feet and trust that you will provide for us.  Amen.