Sometimes I wish God would just get to the point instead of slow walking me to a conclusion! :)

 

This is something that has always bugged me.  After all Moses did for God, because of one small variance by Moses, God punishes Moses by not letting Moses step foot in the promised land.  God even takes it a step further and seems to taunt Moses.  Takes Moses to the top of a mountain, shows all the land to Moses, and tells Moses "but you don't get to cross over.".  Almost like God saying "nanna, nanna, nanna!".

 

What is odd about today is that God stopped me when I read it and said let's delve a little further into this one today.  There is more here than you may realize.  God sure has His ways!  I was planning on a quick 15 minute walk with God and then I was ready to get on about my day.  Apparently God has other plans for me today.  :)

 

I have come to realize more and more how much writing helps me sort out my thoughts.  So what is it specifically that bugs me about this?  Let's start there.

 

God is supposed to be a just God.  God is supposed to be a forgiving God.  God says He will have mercy on whom He chooses to have Mercy on.  You get the point.

 

So why did God come down so hard on Moses?  Moses was the only prophet in history to see God face to face.  Moses served God like no other prophet.  Moses even talked God out of wiping out the Israelites because of their sinning ways.  God couldn't choose to show Moses a little Mercy? 

Let's look at what Moses did.  God told Moses how to call water from a rock.  Hold the staff out and command the water to come forth.  Moses, caught up in the moment, goes one step further.  He reaches out and taps the rock.  That's it.  Added one little flourish and for that Moses gets hammered. 

The punishment seems way out of proportion.  King David messed up way more and yet was not punished like that.  King Solomon messed up way more and wasn't punished like that.  Where is the justice?  Where is the forgiveness?  Where is the mercy?

 

As I was thinking this through God made an interesting new connection for me.  You know I always look for confirmation between the OT and the NT.  I had never made this connection before but there is a parallel story in the NT that has always bugged me in the same way.  Check this out.

 

Jesus comes into town and sees a fig tree.  Jesus wants a fig.  There are no figs on the tree because it isn't fig season.  Jesus gets ticked off and condemns the tree to die.  Why?  It wasn't the fig tree's fault it wasn't fig season.  I mean come on, God designed the system and Jesus did the work to implement it.  And now you are ticked off because the system you designed didn't give you what you wanted even though what you wanted was outside of the system that you designed?  Where is the justice?  Where is the forgiveness?  Where is the mercy?

 

So here we are.  I have now put into writing exactly what bugs me about it.  And this is where we get to the God slow walking me to the conclusion part.  As I was praying about this God said go a little deeper.  What really bugs you about this?  I had to stop and thing bout it.  What is it that really bugs me about these two stories?  Hmm.

 

Ah.  A new conclusion.  At a deeper level what bugs me is that we are told that God is a God of consistency.  That God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow is something that we don't question.  And yet here we have two stories, one from the OT and one from the NT, where God seems to act in a way that is totally inconsistent with the things that we believe about Him. 

 

That seems contradictory.  Ayn Rand says "Contradictions don't exist.  If you think you have found one, check your premise.".  And yes I get the irony of quoting an atheist in my Bible blog. :)

 

And that is where the slow walk ends for today folks.  :)

 

God brought this to my attention today and I am sure He had His reasons.  I don't believe things like this happen by accident.  He made some connections that I hadn't seen before and He has given me a new avenue of inquiry.  Checking my premises.  But He isn't just giving me the answers on a silver platter.  Apparently the answer will come down the road. 

I so love my walk with God, even when it is sometimes frustratingly slow.  :)