Blogging Bible Study: Digging in the Desert - Psalms, Part 4

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I didn't make a note of it, but last week ended the first year ('first' year...ha ha ha!) of the current Friday series (Facepalm; I just realized today is Saturday.  I worked from home all day yesterday and it didn't even register that it was Friday...).  We are looking at the word 'desert' through the entire Bible.  Starting year two with the biggest topical grouping of 'desert' verses in the Psalms...those that reflect on Israel's history.

The largest concentration of these is in Ps. 78:

He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas; (v. 15)

But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High. (v. 17)

They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the desert? When he struck the rock, water gushed out, and streams flowed abundantly.  But can he also give us food?  Can he supply meat for his people?"  (v. 19-20)

How often they rebelled against him in the desert and grieved him in the wasteland! (v. 40)

But he brought his people out like a flock;  he led them like sheep through the desert. (v. 52)

I highly recommend going back and reading through the whole psalm;  it is a full discussion of all the ways Israel rebelled...and what happened.    I am skipping 95:8 for now...it fits better at the end of the discussion...and the next cluster of verses is in Ps. 105 - 106:

He opened the rock and water gushed out; like a river it flowed in the desert. (105:41)

He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; he led them through the depths as through a desert. (106:9)

In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wasteland they put God to the test. (106:14)

So he swore to them with uplifted hand that he would make them fall in the desert, make their descendants fall among the nations and scatter them through out the lands.  (106:26-27)

Again, to get the full scope of the confession of Israel's rebellion and God's faithfulness, both Psalms need to be read in full.  The distilled version of the Exodus...and what happened, with the repeated rebellion and complaining of the people and God's repeated visitation of consequences upon the people while still maintaining his promise to bring the nation out of the desert...is sobering. There are three roots of rebellion that are laid to view in those Psalms...1) they craved stuff from their former life  2) they were jealous of their leaders and 3) they didn't trust God to do what he said he would do.

Appetite, jealousy and lack of faith....any one of those three can wreak havoc in one's spiritual walk; taken as a combo, well, there's not much spiritual walk happening at that point.  And here's what hit me afresh as I read through it...God's plan and God's purpose are not thwarted by man's disobedience.  God will do what he said he would do...but the ones who choose rebellion risk being culled from those who see the promise. God did not disqualify them...they disqualified themselves.  

Ps. 136 starts off with a declaration:  'Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good.  His love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods.  His love endures forever.  Give thanks to the Lord of lords; His love endures forever' (vs 1 - 3).  The rest of the psalm is a litany of different descriptions of the God to whom they are giving thanks, and verse 16 is the one that mentions the desert:

to him who led his people through the desert; His love endures forever.

The Psalm ends with verse 24: 'Give thanks to the God of heaven.  His love endures forever'.

We tend to forget sometimes that the Psalms really are poems and songs.  136 is clearly poetic, with the repeated phrase.  A good reminder.

But the verse I saved for last in the Psalms seems to reflect so much from this set, especially.  Ps. 95:8 (with context):

 "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,  as you did that day at Massah in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did."  (Ps. 95: 7b - 9). 

God woos the hearts of mankind, calling us to himself.  Such a wooing provokes a response...and the response is either to turn to him and draw ever closer, or to reject the invitation.  Oh, we tell ourselves we're not rejecting him...we're just...putting it off to a more convenient season.  Or maybe we convince ourselves that what we felt wasn't really God.  Maybe like the rich young ruler, we perceive the cost as too high...whatever.  Resisting the heart-pull to come to God is the very definition of hardening one's heart.  And every time that hardening happens...it gets harder to hear and respond differently to that call.  

God calls each of us to Him.  Each of us responds...in one way or another.  Choose wisely.

Post number 1, 000 - Reader Appreciation

I happened to look at the post counter tonight and it read '999'....

 One thousand posts in a little over 12 years at Beer Lahai Roi. It's been a journey. 

To those of you who have been here all the way...thanks for hanging with me. 

To those of you who have joined along the way...thanks for hanging with me, too, lol. 

Seriously, this is a 'talking to myself outloud' kinda blog, so I know it's not the kind of thing that really appeals to the masses. The dozen or so of you who stop by faithfully are greatly appreciated. 

If I could, I'd have a party for all of us together. That would be fun. But...I'm just going to have to say 'Thank you all!!!' :-)

Has 'Church' Become an Idol?

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

This is something that has been percolating in the back of my head for a while now.

Now, by 'Church' I am not talking about the universal body of Christ.  I mean...our routine, typical Sunday Worship Experience...however that looks in whatever denomination.  The building and its accoutrements.  Stained glass windows?  Cushioned Pews?  LED Wall and smoke and lights?   Robed choir?  Orchestra?  Sister Bertha on the organ?  The jammin' rock band behind the worship team?  First, Second, and Last verse?  The latest [Bethel Worship, Hillsongs, etc] displayed phrase by phrase on the overhead screen?  You know...church.

It really doesn't matter because every one of those styles represents something that is COMFORTABLE to folks, even if it would be uncomfortable to others.  Too loud, too long, too boring, too predictable, too unorganized...whatever.  We all gravitate to what feels right to us.

I wonder...did we stop thinking about what God meant when he said we were not to forsake gathering together?  

Now, please don't take this as a criticism.  I'm not after being critical or judgmental.  I enjoy and am blessed by the worship experience at my church, as I am sure you are by the worship experience at yours.  

But the events of the last few months has really got me thinking...and wondering.

Particularly when I hear folks getting vehement about their 'right' to have church services in the manner in which they are accustomed.

Here's something to consider.

Now, this is the United States, where we are guaranteed the right to worship and the right to assemble.  But what happens when we, the body of Christ, begin to demand our constitutional rights in the face of a potentially devastating condition?  Not wanting to get into a discussion of whether Covid is a threat or  a hoax; even the folks studying it are not sure of its long-term implications.  But it has killed folks, and it is unusually contagious in that a fair percentage of folks can be ill with it and either be asymptomatic or have such mild symptoms that they don't even realize they are carrying it...and so spread it to others, who may not be so fortunate.  Which is why I used the phrase 'potentially devastating'.  Because we just don't know.  And I agree that it is hypocritical...at best...to allow folks to congregate for protests and deny permission to folks to congregate for worship.  But are 'our rights' worth making followers of Christ sound petulant and concerned only with themselves?

Paul addresses the idea of legal rights somewhat; granted, it's not the same situation (and Paul was known to play the 'rights of a Roman citizen' card at times...but always as a last resort, never as a way to show up those in authority), but I think the principle applies.  "Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?" he writes in 1 Cor 6:7b; imploring with the Corinthian believers to consider what their actions said about Jesus in front of an unbelieving world.

Which brings me back around to my title question...has doing church in our accustomed fashion become an idol?  So that it is more important to stand on our rights as Americans and go to church than it is to actually worship the Father in spirit and in truth?  Are we giving too much importance to organized church programs?  Am I only able to worship God if I am sitting in my church?  Can my kids only learn about the faith in the kids' ministry programs?  Is the only place a person can come to faith a legit sanctuary?  If that is true, then church is a necessity.  But if it is not true...then maybe church has become a substitute for an actual relationship with God.  And if that's the case...then it's an idol, my friend.

God is in control.  Covid 19 did not take Him by surprise, and I don't think the closures of activities...including church services...has offended Him.  Maybe...he's even allowing this to shake us out of our comfort zone and reliance on church services and programs instead of personally seeking to spend time in his presence one-on-one.  Maybe it's time for the body of Christ to dig into scripture individually and pray for personal discernment on how to deal with the current season.  Maybe this is even training for days ahead, when we will need to be able to seek and hear from God continually... instead of, you know, a couple times a week at church.

I don't know.  I honestly don't know. But I do know that it DOES MATTER how we represent Jesus in this season...and that responsibility to faithfully represent him supersedes our 'rights'.

Food for thought.

Blogging Bible Study: Digging in the Desert - Psalms, Part 3

  Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

The next topical group of verses that mention the desert in Psalms seem to be to be talking about the Provision of God...starting with the verse that I had originally grouped w/ verses about the emotions of the psalmist, then realized it really didn't work well there once I read it in context, which I will include here.

You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly.  The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it.  You drench its furrows and level its ridges; you soften it with showers and bless its crops.  You crown the year with bounty; and your carts overflow with abundance.  The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness.  The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing.  (Ps. 65: 9-13)

Even the desert is included in the joy of God's blessing, which is not normally the way one thinks of the desert.  Grasslands in the desert?  Yet...sheep were grazing in the area when we visited the overlook pictured above; if you look closely, you can see the faintest sheen of green on the hilly foreground.  Grasslands in the desert, indeed.

The other verses are in Ps. 107.  There are several different situations mentioned in that psalm, with the refrain, 'Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered (saved) them from their distress." (Ps. 107: 6,13,19, and 28), followed by another repeated thought, 'Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men.' (Ps. 107: 8, 15,21, and 31).  So, with that in mind, we find the following desert references:

Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle.  The were hungry and thirsty and their lives ebbed away.  Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.  He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle.  (Ps. 107:4-7)

He turned the rivers into a desert, flowing springs into thirsty ground, and fruitful land into a salt waste, because of the wickedness of those who lived there.  He turned the desert into pools of water and parched ground into flowing springs; there he brought the hungry to live and they found a city where they could settle.  Ps. 107:33-36

Taken together, it seems that the city to which  God led the group mentioned in v. 4 was a city that had been populated by wicked folks mentioned in v. 33, who had been starved out of the area by a drought, which then was reversed so the wanderers found a suitable place to live, given the repetition of the phrase at the end of both passages. 

Talk about long range planning.  The drought would have had to hit the area well in advance of the sojourners looking for a place to settle...so that the folks there left, and then the rains came and the area became fertile again just in time for the newcomers.  The drought may even have hit the area before the wanderers were wandering.

This reminds me of the earlier passage we looked at in 2 Kings, in which the rain likely was falling in the mountain watershed well before the instruction was given to dig trenches to hold it...the concept that God has the provision worked out and on its way before we even know we need it.  

Kinda crazy for me to worry about where and how when God has it all arranged ahead of time.

Blogging Bible Study: Digging in the Desert -- Psalms, Part 2

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

So, the next group of verses mentioning 'desert' that we encounter in the Psalms are verses that mention, for want of a better description, the emotions of the Psalmist.  There are only three two..(on further consideration, I moved one to another category) but I have included some extra verses for context.

Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me.  I said, "Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!  I would fly away and be at rest -- I would flee far away and stay in the desert; I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and the storm." -- Ps. 55: 5-8

My heart is blighted and withered like grass; I forget to eat my food.  Because of my loud groaning I am reduced to skin and bones.  I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins.  I lie awake; I have become like a bird alone on a roof. --  Ps. 102: 4 - 7

David is identified as the Psalmist in the 55th Psalm, but the 102nd Psalm is not attributed to anyone more specific than 'an afflicted man'.  Which could easily have been David, but I won't assume anything.

We see two different applications of the desert; in Ps. 55, the desert is a refuge; a safe place away from 'the storms'.  'Storms' could be severe weather, but I am thinking it's more likely the storms are just the stresses and the pressures of government; there are meteorological storms in the desert but the solitude of the desert would be far, far away from human interaction and responsibilities. That's an appealing thought...go to the desert, where the air is clear and the stars are bright and the other demands are laid aside and spend time just listening for the voice of Abba. 

But the Psalmist of 102 has a different viewpoint.  For him, the desert is isolation.  He's wasting away, alone, with no comfort.  For someone focused on their own misery, there is not much distraction available.  No help, even in a crowd of folks...one might as well be a bird in the desert, on the roof of an abandoned barn.

Neither Psalmist is actually in the desert...one yearns for it, the other feels the remoteness in his circumstances.

So...maybe it's about attitude?  That with the right attitude the desert is rest and refuge instead of isolation?  Or...is this a case of the heart desiring what it doesn't have at the moment?  David longing for a quiet respite while in the turmoil of dealing with people and decisions...while the Ps. 102 Psalmist yearns for interaction and friendship while he is isolated by distress?

Maybe it's both.  Maybe the contrast should encourage me to do a heart check...where am I, right now?  Am I wistfully wishing to ditch everything and run away for a bit?  Or am I feeling cut off and isolated, wasted and useless?  How can I move from a position of complaint to a position of contentment?

Blogging Bible Study: Digging in the Desert - Psalms, Part 1

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Our look at the word 'desert' in the Bible brings us to the book of Psalms. Psalms being a songbook, just going straight through verse by verse seemed kind of ...repetitive.  So,  I decided to look at all the verses before jumping in and roughly group them by topic.  I found four different groups; so I'll take them one at a time.

Chronologically, the first verse that mentions 'desert'  is Ps. 29:8 and is one of six verses in this Psalm that describes the action of God's voice.  It is also the first of the group of verses that I've grouped under the topic 'The Greatness of God'. (All references are from the NIV 84)

The voice of the LORD shakes the desert; the LORD shakes the Desert of Kadish.

The desert tribes will bow before him and his enemies will lick the dust. (Ps. 72:9)

It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave him as food to the creatures of the desert. (Ps. 74:14)

No one from the east or the west or from the desert can exalt a man.  But it is God who judges; he brings one down, he exalts another.  (Ps. 75:6-7)

Of course, the greatness of God is one of the recurring themes of the Psalms; but these four verses also mention the desert. 

29:8 probably is more significant to the folks who lived in and around the desert than it would be to someone who has only seen the desert in pictures and documentaries.  The desert is vast and unyielding; barren, hostile and yet beautiful. And the voice of God is enough to shake it. 

72:9 pretty much speaks for itself; I don't think it needs any exposition, while 74:14 is a puzzle I'm not sure anyone has quite worked out.  'Leviathan' is a study in and of itself; you can google it and follow the trails.  I just think it's significant that we see plural heads but a singular creature.  Some believe Leviathan was an actual beast; some believe it represents a demonic principality. Keeping in mind, this is poetry, so it could easily be either...or both: a demonic principality allegorically equated with a conquered beast.  Whichever, God has completely and utterly defeated it...which is more important than whatever 'it' was.  And if God defeated a multi-headed something so utterly that only its name has survived in human history, he can surely defeat whatever something that is facing us today.

I added verse 7 to the reference in Ps. 75; verse 6 by itself was too vague.  The desert there is mostly a reference to 'the center' or 'where we are'...to complete the thought that no person anywhere has the ability to put people into positions of power unless God allows it.   And that's a selah moment right there. It applies from the people in power globally to the local level to the work scene.  God has reasons for what he does.  Sometimes the reason is to uproot, tear down, destroy and overthrow...and sometimes the purpose is to built and plant.  He does what is needful to bring people to  him and he doesn't mind working in the scope of generations.  If one generation rejects him, as they did at Kadesh, he will do the building and the planting in the next one.  And he doesn't object to tearing down religious structures if they are inhibiting folks from coming to him.

His voice shakes the desert.  Everything that can be shaken will be shaken. Don't be surprised when it happens.

Blogging Bible Study: Digging in the Desert - Job

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

As there are no mentions of 'Desert' in the story of Esther, we find ourselves looking at the book of Job, which has three. -- 1:19, 24:5 and 38:26.

The first reference is  the culmination of the losses Job incurred in a single day...each messenger of woe arrived before the one before him had finished speaking.  The final one bore the most personally devastating news; picking up in verse 18; the 'he' who 'was still speaking' had just brought news of the loss of all Job's camels and the servants who were tending them, concluding, as did all the others 'I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!'

While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, "Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother's house, when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house.  It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!"

The 'mighty wind from the desert' probably was a haboob (dust storm); my NIV Atlas says that the location of  Uz is unknown, but it was likely on the edge of the Arabian desert, which fits this description. Job, of course, falls on his face and utters his famous response, 'The LORD gave and the LORD has taken  away...may the name of the LORD be praised." (Job 1:21b). The scripture doesn't record it, but Job and his servants surely went to his son's house and excavated it to give his children a proper burial.  It was one thing to lose his servants and his livestock...it was something else entirely to lose all his children.

Then Job got sick and went to the dump to scrape his sores.

I have always wondered if the reason he went to the dump was because the townspeople drove him out, believing him to be cursed, or at least, contagious.  His wife, who is often disparaged for her statement, was frustrated with Job for maintaining his faith in God.  But she was, herself, distraught with grief...they were her children, too.  And she was watching her husband suffer.  And it was quite possible that the entire population of their area had ostracized them, so that she had no one at all to grieve with her.  Not excusing her...just pointing out that any one of us might have done the same thing at such a low moment.

But Job has a few friends who come to console him...or at least, try.  Because they, too, were convinced that Job was being punished for some secret, hidden sin, and basically their consolation consisted of them trying to convince him to admit to his sin, publicly, and repent and be received and restored.   Chapters 3 - 31 are pretty much their argument back and forth...Job maintained his innocence, repeatedly asked God to reveal to him his error, and got rather salty with his friends who were convinced he was hiding something.    Elihu, the youngest one, kept silent until the others fell into a rather pouty stalemate,  but finally spoke up and told them all they were missing the point and declared God's greatness, using an approaching thunderstorm as an illustration.  God spoke to them all from the thunderstorm...and he never answered Job's questions or explained why all of that had happened to him.  Instead, God questioned Job to demonstrate how little Job knew of all of God's plans and purposes...then he declared Job righteous, healed his sores, and told the others to bring an offering for Job to present on their behalf with prayer so they would be forgiven for speaking against God's goodness.  Word got out to the townspeople that Job was not cursed or contagious, so they all showed up with a carry-in dinner and a gift for Job so that he was able to rebuild his fortune.

The other mentions of the desert located in that narrative seem to me to be a bit related.   24:5 is in one of Job's laments about the futility of life...

"Like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go about their labor of foraging food; the wasteland provides food for their children."

38:26 is part of God's reply to all of Job's questioning  (Job 38: 25 - 27, for context)

"Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?"

Because, of course, the wild donkeys in the desert are the ones who survive on that grass that has sprouted in the desolate wasteland.  God has put it there to sustain them...just as he provides for those who trust in him.  And Job, who had suffered so much, ended up with more than he had lost.

There is so much in this story....but one of the things that hits me so strongly is that we all tend to think that everything that happens to us is because of us.  Job's trials had nothing whatever to do with him.  He went through all of that so that his life would be a testimony to someone he didn't even know was watching him.

There's a big, eternal story that we all are part of.  What happens to one, may affect another, which affects another..on down the line.  The events happening now may not have much to do with the now, but a lot to do with the later.

It's a challenge to all of us to realize God's grace is enough and he will make it right in the end...so long as we don't give up on him.