he came to take us
to recreate us
It all began with so much promise: There were the staggering plagues. The hasty escape. The harrowing passage through the Red Sea. The songs of triumph belted out from the safe side of the shore. And then there was the much-needed respite of Elim. Elim, that little oasis full of fresh water and lush palm trees.
For the Israelites, though, all that is now well in the past. A distant memory. And if that wasn’t enough, their destination still lies a good way ahead of them. So far ahead, in fact, they can’t make out the faintest glimmer of their journey’s end, the Promised Land to which God is leading them. For all intents and purposes, it appears as though God has left the Israelites in as dire of straights as they’ve ever known.
This is the very essence of the wilderness. The wilderness is that place betwixt and between. In the wilderness, all those comforts of the past are roundly a thing of the past. In the wilderness, all that potential of the future is no more than that, potential. In the wilderness, the consolations of yesterday are no good, and the possibilities of tomorrow are of no use.
And, no matter what your life looks like right now, there is some part of it where you, too, are wandering the wilderness. And, just like those Israelites, you’ve got the solution totally backward! You think the answer to all your troubles is to turn back. Turn back to the very place God is leading you from! And not only would that never work, it’s, frankly, something you can’t even do, anyway.
…Anytime you go through a change, there’s a point where the initial excitement has worn off, and the eventual payoff is out of sight. In those moments, all you experience is the pressure of the change. It seems as though the whole endeavor has gone to pot. And when that happens, the impulse is always the the same, to call it quits. To throw in the towel.
In reality, though, that’s just a part of the process! And the best thing to do in those moments is nothing! Resist that urge to jump ship. Because not only is the strain natural. The truth is, like the Israelites, when it’s God who’s leading, provisions never seem to be far off! Like that manna in the wilderness, God still rains down bread from heaven. But, only enough for the day.
When God first works to deliver you, the fear is that God’s leading you to ruin. But then, when God goes ahead and provides for you in the thick of it, you worry the daily bread God has given isn’t enough!
…Here’s how it played out in today’s passage: A few of the more entrepreneurial folks try holding back a little manna for the next day. Instead of building up a reserve, though, all they accrue is worms and mold!
This is how it always goes, too! I know this for myself. Just like you, there are areas in my life where I’m in the middle of it. Places where all I’m experiencing is the pain of change and fear that the Lord’s portion isn’t enough. And, like the Israelites, anytime you find yourself in a spot like that, the temptation is to hold on tight to your daily allotment. Hold on for dear life!
As it turns out, though, that’s the best way to make a mess of God’s mercies that are new every morning. The bread God gives is fundamentally different from our own! God’s daily bread doesn’t come by the sweat of your brow, and it can’t be hoarded, either. In fact, that’s how it goes bad! Working to earn the bread God has determined to give is the surest way to make sure you never enjoy it. And trying to save that bread is the best way to lose it every time!
When it comes to life with God, your survival skills are worse than useless. They get in the way! Your impulse to save your own skin will either lead you away from God, back to some fantasy Egypt that was never as good as you remember it. Or it’ll leave you holding onto God’s provisions instead of God Thyself! The truth is, your attempts to carve out a future for yourself only cut God out of the picture every time.
A moment ago, we said that when God first works to deliver you, it feels as though God is ruining you. And the truth is, God is. But the you God is going after is the you that insists on going its own way! The you God seeks to destroy is the you that insists on living by its own wiles. In other words, the you God is intent on undoing is the you that will do yourself in every time!
Luther called this God’s alien work. And what he meant was, this divine destruction doesn’t come naturally to God! God’s proper work, as Luther put it, is to raise you up. God is so committed to this work, though, that God will act contrary to God’s own nature.
God will not allow you go around lugging your corpse to a lonely grave. Instead, God will intervene with a work that’s alien to who God truly is. God will hinder your efforts. God will break your schemes.
While those acts may be foreign to who God really is, they have the power to reveal who you truly are! You don’t live by your own wiles. And you never have, either. No, the real you lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God! And you’ve gotten a taste of that. Haven’t you? That’s why you’re here today and not somewhere else.
Truth is, you have two you’s who live in you, the old one and the new one. The old you lives by all those tired, old schemes that are growing less and less effective with each passing day. While the new you couldn’t be more different! The new you lives in the light of God. And this new you is a beacon of that light, too!
The thing about these two you’s, though, is they are engaged in an eternal combat. And one that can only ever, at best, end in a draw. So what God does is, weigh in. God puts the divine finger on the scale, and God sides decisively against that old you. God puts the divine kibosh on all those plans the old you have drawn up!
And while this may spell doom for the old you, it spells life, and life eternal, for the new one! Because the thing about the new you is, the way it comes into existence is from the corpse of the old one!
Yes, God may be actively leading you through the wilderness that makes the old sinner in you want to call it quits. And yes, God may only be providing just enough to frustrate all those plans the old you has hatched. But, when that old you in you has nothing left to go on anymore, the new you will have everything you need! That corpse God has miraculously raised you from and the promise God’s going to keep at it until God gets you to that great designation, the Promised Land on the safe side of eternity!
In the end, the funeral dirge for the old you will turn into hymns of praise the new you can’t stop singing! Indeed, grace has led you safe thus far, and grace will lead you home!
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