Death of the Renaissance Man

When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?” Exodus 18:14

Death of the Renaissance Man
By Rev. William Dohle

When I was growing up, my father tried very very hard to expand my horizons and talents.

It started with cars.  We had a VW bug out back and he tried very hard to teach me how to change a tires and the oil...but that didn't interest me.  He tried and tried...and finally gave up.

He tried with construction... we had a playhouse out back and my father did half the work on it and left the other half for me to finish.  It never got finished.

He tried electronics, and though I did enjoy playing video games and eventually programming and stuff, I never got into the hobby quite like he would have liked.

Sorry, Dad...  Guess your son is just mechanically challenged...:)

Everyone has different gifts, but sometimes we forget this.  Everyone has different interests and different talents, but sometimes we wish not.  Sometimes we wish we(and everyone around us) could do everything!  Every need we can fulfill.  Every problem we can fix.  We can do it!

Our ideal is the Renaissance Man, a modern concept out of the 1600's that imagined a man who was totally self-sufficient.  He needed no one to do anything for him.  He could grow his own food, kill and cook up his own meat, build his own house, tend his own family, and do everything that needed to be doing all by himself.

Such an ideal is still alive and well in the world around us.  I myself have encountered it in many places throughout my travels.

But this ideal is not biblical.  It is, in fact, what Moses was counselled against.

Back when the people of Israel were wandering in the desert... before they received the commandments at Sinai...Moses had the task of judging the people of Israel.  With so many people, you can imagine the job that was, and Moses took it well.  The people would line up outside and Moses would tell them what God had in mind.

At that time, Moses' Father-in-law came with Moses' wife and children in tow to visit his son-in-law and return Moses' family to him.  When Jethro saw what Moses was doing, he saw beside himself!

"What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you.” (Exodus 18:17-22)

Moses had good reason.  He saw these people needed help and he wanted to help them, but in helping them, Moses was taking on too much.  He couldn't do it alone!  He needed help!

We too need to realize that we need help.  Even the greatest Renaissance Man cannot operate on himself.  They may have built their own homes, but they do not diagnose their own illnesses.  They may have built their own cars, but they still need someone to make their clothes.  And at the end of their lives, even the most self-sufficient man cannot bury themselves.

We need others to do things that we cannot.  We need them.  We need mechanics to fix our cars and plumbers to fix our pipes.  We need famers to grow our food and truckers to bring the food to the store and store keepers to put it out on the shelves for us.  We need construction workers of all varieties to do their individual jobs that they do so well.  We need them to be specialized, not generalized.  We need each other.

No one would want a construction worker on the street doing brain surgery.  You want a brain surgeon.  Unless that construction worker has hidden talents and has gone to school, we don't place a scalpel in their hands.  But we do trust them to build our roads and our schools and the very hospitals we are in.  We need them to do what they were called to do.

May we remember Jethro's words to Moses and not demand or expect others to have the gifts that we do, but instead may we use the gifts that God has given each of us for the common good and to the glory of His Name.

God you have given me with unique gifts and talents that no one else has.  Help me use them for others.  Humble me too that I may see where I need other people as they need me.  Amen.

God Against My Enemy

"The Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation."  Exodus 17:16

God Against My Enemy
By Rev. William Dohle

This past year I had the privilege of studying with a group of God's faithful here at St. Paul Lutheran Church, where I serve.

Our class began last August and finished up this July.  In addition to reading four spiritual books, we each read through the whole Bible, writing in a journal as we read. When we arrived in the middle of our study, when the verses took us back to the Hebrew Bible, we heard a common refrain: "These passages are just so bloody and violent!  How could God allow them to do that?!  Why are these stories in our Bible?"

I've heard it before when people discover how human the Bible truly is.  Passages where God commands the Israelites to slaughter every man, woman, child, and animal surprise many people.  They want God to be loving toward everyone.  They see a difference, as the ancient Marcian did, between the New Testament and the Old and they want to isolate the New Testament from the writings they feel portray God too tribal.

But, what if you were persecuted, struck down, chased from place to place, hated, abandoned, and wandering?  What if you were former slaves facing down a group of slavers?  What would you want God to do?  Love them?  Or would you want God to stand up to them because you can't?

The Amalekites, sworn enemies of God's people Israel, are as ancient as they are.  Abraham himself is said to have fought against them.  Throughout the years, as Israel grew stronger and larger, these two people became hostile toward each other.  Wars against the Amalekites started in Genesis continued to rage for centuries to come.

So...what makes them so different from the Israelites?  Why were they fought against each other?  No one really knows.  What is known is that the Amalekites become the devils and demons of their day.  They are, in the biblical writers view, the enemies of God!  They are remembered to be those who disobeyed God and who hunted down God's people.  In Deuteronomy we read:

“Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget."

So what do we make of this today?  Well, contrary to what we might think of our "peaceable" New Testament, God is still raging against our enemies even there.  Only difference is that our enemies are not people of flesh and blood, but things of the spirit.  In the New Testament, God rages against... sin!  It is said that God will defeat death!  God will trample down the devil and his minions.  In the New Testament, we are told that nothing can separate us from God.  Not any enemy that we can think of.  Nothing!

This is the same message, I think, we ought to take from this story in Exodus.  God doesn't give up!  He never stops fighting for our cause.  God will never stop fighting cancer or depression.  He will not give up the war against despair and heartache.  God wrestles down to the ground the forces of selfishness.  He wipes away the scars brought about by injustice.

These are our Amalekites.  These are our enemies!

I take great hope in knowing that God doesn't abandon his people.  He didn't abandon them in the desert to the Amalekites who hunted them down.  He didn't abandon them to exile or to the sinfulness of their ways.  And he won't abandon us too.

That's comfort for the ages...right there!

Good God, though we are separated by centuries from your people and their wars against the Amalekites, we struggle with enemies ourselves.  Open our eyes that we might see you fighting beside us on our behalf.  Amen.

About the photo:  "Davidster" (Star of David) by Dick Stins is a World War II memorial in The Hague. The text at the side (in Dutch and Hebrew) is from Deuteronomy 25:17,19 - "Remember what Amalek has done to you...do not forget."

Held up by others

"Is the Lord among us or not?"  Exodus 17:7b

Held up by others
By Rev. William Dohle

One of the most beloved poems of our time was one written by that author of authors, that poet of poets, anonymous.  It's called "Footprints in the Sand."  Its a poem so loved and cherished that it has been made into quilts and throw rugs, posters and greetings cards.  It's literally everywhere!

The last phrase, though, is usually the most remembered.  After the poet has struggled with seeing just one set of footprints in times of distress in his life, he asks why Christ stopped carrying him then.  Christ answers...

"My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you."

Carried by Christ.  Cherished by God.  Such images help us through times of turmoil, pain, stress, and tragedy.  Carried by Christ is a common theme in most Christian circles because we cannot face the tough times alone.

And that is true that Christ carries us.  But there's more.  Much more.

You see, God doesn't work outside of humanity but through it.  Christ has no hands other than ours.

In other words... when Christ was carrying you... he was carrying you through others!

We see God working this way in the book of Exodus.  As the Amalekites come attacking the Israelites at Rephidim, Moses sends Joshua and a few men to fight them while "...tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands."

So... the battle ensues.  Joshua goes to fight.  Moses stands on the hill with the staff of God raised in his hands.

Only he discovers its really hard to do.  Anyone who's ever had to hold up something in the hands has learned that your hands and arms get tired...real fast!  And Moses learns this too.

"As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning."(Ex. 17:11)

Tough thing there, holding up an army by yourself!

But Moses doesn't have to do it all by himself.  Moses has help.  Aaron and Hur come to Moses' aid.

"When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a tone and put it under him and he sat on it.  Aaron and Hur held his hands up--one on one side, one on the other--so that his hands remained steady till sunset."(Ex. 17:12)

And so Moses and the Israelites defeated their enemies...with everyone helping one another.

We find the same thing happens with us too.  When we are faced with tragedy or trials, we find that others tend to rally around us.  Friends come to hold up our hands for a time.  Family too.  Prayers from near and far go to support us in our time of need.  And Christ carries us through.

Christ's work is done when we all rally together.  As it was done when Aaron and Hur came to Moses' aid and held up his hands for the people, so too God's work is done when others come to our aid and we to theirs.  In that way, Christ carries us through.

God as friends held up Moses' hands, may we hold up one another that through our hands, your work is done.  Amen.

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. 

Our Daily Bread

"I will rain down bread from heaven for you."  Exodus 16:4

Our Daily Bread
By Rev. William Dohle

I would not have made a good ancient Israelite.  I just wouldn't.

In my cupboard at home there is enough food to last for a week.  Maybe more.  Our freezer has meats and veggies and other things in it that would feed us for almost a month.  And we have enough stockpiled in our house that, if push came to shove, we wouldn't have to go out to the store, at least for a little while.

In other words:  My "bread" isn't gathered daily but bought weekly.  I store up my bread.

Now, to us 21st century people, we might not think that's a big deal.  You probably do the same.  Seldom to people go to the store every day for that day's meals.  We usually go for a few days, a week, or even a month at a time.  We stock up our fridges and our cupboards and only go out when we need to.  We don't "gather our bread" daily.

But for ancient Israel on their way to the Promised Land, stocking up wasn't possible.  Not because they didn't have food or were starving, but because God had designed their manna to last just for that day.

(God said) "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days."(Exodus 16:4-6)

Do you hear what God is saying?  Each day he would rain manna down on Israel.  And each day the Israelites would gather it up.  The only day they'd have enough for two days would be the day before the Sabbath, so they'd have enough the next day to carry them through.

Just enough for that day?  Wow!  I don't know if I could do that!  I don't know if I could gather just enough for me and my family that day, trusting that God would provide enough for the next day.  I think I'd be tempted to gather just a little more.  Just in case God forgot about us the next day.  Or just in case I needed a little more than I thought.

Some Israelites thought the same thing.  Some of them didn't listen to God's instruction and decided to "stock up."

"However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell."(Exodus 16:20)

They learned the hard way.  Manna doesn't keep until the next day.  God will provide what is needed for each day, our daily bread, and anything more will just go to waste.

We live in a world set between the two.  On the one hand, we store up enough food in our homes to feed a small village.  On the other hand, there are some things that we enjoy day to day.  Our "daily bread" blessings.

At the center of the Lord's Prayer is the petition: "Give us this day our daily bread."  It's an odd thing to pray for, daily bread, but it harkens back to the ancient Israelites.  Each day their daily bread was sent from heaven.  And each day we too are given our daily bread as well.

And what might that bread be?  What might we need to be given daily from God?  It's not food perhaps as we've seen.  It's something more.

Martin Luther, who lived at a time between as well, a time when gathering your food each day was unnecessary, expanded out "daily bread" to include other things we need.  He asks, "What is meant by daily bread?"

Everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as meat, drink, clothing, shoes, house, homestead, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful magistrates, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.

These are all things we need to be given daily.  They are not things that we can store up for ourselves.  Our cupboards cannot contain them.  Our freezers cannot hold them.  But they, like the manna the ancient Israelites gathered, are gifts from above, given to us daily by our God who loves us enough to provide for our every need.\

Give us grace, Lord, that we might see and know your good gifts and give you thanks each and every day.  Amen.