This lesson was built around the metaphor of your life being on a path. Psalm 23 speaks of "paths of righteousness". We speak of our "walk with God". Dr. B. taught us to engage the journey and leave the destination to God. The Hebrew word halakh means both "to walk" and "to live". Your life is your walk; your walk is your life. This image comes up repeatedly in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, the Greek word peripateo has the same dual meaning. Most of us are pretty content to walk with God through what we think are "green pastures", but we're not so sure about this when God's path takes us through the desert. God seems to love the desert, and loves taking us there.
Starting with Israel’s time in Egypt and their journey out of it, we’re going to spend some time looking at these desert experiences to see what we can learn from them. I’m a little hesitant to share this because I know there are many people who have gone through much deeper desert experiences than I have, and are more qualified to speak about the desert than I am. Nevertheless, there are many pictures in the Bible of God’s love and care for us in the desert that I would like to uncover, that I think will be helpful to us all.
Why did God put his people into slavery in Egypt? Why slavery? Why Egypt? I can probably only give a partial answer at best, and we'll give this some time to develop. We can start first by understanding something of what Egypt was, and to do that we begin with the Egyptian "creation story".
- The "hidden one" called dry land out of water, out of chaos. The dry land appeared first as a point (or perhaps several points in several places), and grew larger as it grew up. The ground brought forth plants, and from that, man was able to gather food, produce food, develop trade, and build an economy.
- As this gets bigger it becomes more stable and orderly; more predictable. Egypt went on to be the breadbasket of the world and the world's superpower for centuries into millennia. This world view of order, dependability, stability, predictable, control is known as Ma'at. You see it in the sun rising and setting each day; in the Nile river flooding and receding each year; in cycles in the sky, birth and death, etc. Ma'at is something you pursue at all costs to make your life as orderly and undisturbed as possible. It's a lot like our world. People give their lives chasing success and trying to control the forces of the world which impact them.
- This whole process is symbolized by the pyramids, which represent the point of land rising out of the water/chaos and becoming larger as it does.
- The Egyptians deified Ma'at and worshiped her. She was one of many gods. They developed a complex theological system with hundreds of different gods controlling or responsible for different parts of the universe, of the world, and of life in general. This is probably no different than what we see in every culture around the world -- people imagine/create gods that control the forces they can't, and then feel the need to worship and appease them.
The temples are built in a style we're familiar with: An outer court for the people, a middle court for the priests, and an inner court where the priest could only go once a year. But within that inner court is a representation of the journey to the afterlife, whereas God himself dwelt there in his temple. Interestingly, this temple style pre-dated Israel's temple and tabernacle. For some perspective, consider that the great pyramids were 1000 years old when Abraham and Sara went to Egypt for a while to escape the famine.
God put Israel into the very best possible location in Egypt, the land of Goshen. Israel received the very best that Egypt had to offer. But over time that turned into slavery and oppression. Israel grew up in the Ma'at world view, which sucked the life out of them and discarded them. They did not know God. He was silent those 400 years. They knew of their forefathers and of God historically, but at that point he was no different to them than any of the gods of Egypt. What had started out as "the good life" in Egypt became empty, oppressive, and slavery. It's a good picture of what the pursuit of Ma'at does to you. As the oppression increased, the Israelites cried out and their cry went up to God, and that was the point where he began to act to deliver them, and that's where we'll pick up the lesson.
God raised up Moses to deliver the people. He had spent 40 years in Egypt as a prince. He killed an Egyptian who was mistreating an Israelite, and when Moses intervened, he had to flee for his life. He spent the next 40 years tending sheep in the desert, then he was ready to be used by God. God used the desert to shape him. He used the desert to shape many people in the Bible, such as Abraham, Jacob, Jesus, Saul/Paul, and the point is that he uses it to shape us as well.
At the burning bush, God called Moses' name twice. The experience of having your name called twice occurs only 8 times in the Bible, and it is always God calling someone to a different path. It is a turning point in that person's life. Look for God to "call your name twice".
- Moses doesn't know God, nor do the Israelites. He says to God that the people will want to know his name. This is more than just intellectual knowledge of his name. In that culture, names indicated character. (Hebrew babies weren't named until the 8th day, so there was some opportunity for the parents to envision their character and future, name them accordingly, and then raise them up to grow into what was envisioned.) This is not so much about just knowing his name, but about knowing his character -- who he is. This has ramifications for the command to not take God's name in vain; it's not just about "swearing", but about how well we represent him; how well we bear his name.
- God says "I am who I am", or "I will be what I will be". This is where the name YHWH comes from. It's the name only his covenant people can use. He's saying to them, "You will know who I am by what you see me do".
- The Hebrew word for "to know" is yada. The word for "hand" is yad, which derives from yada and gives us the picture of "hands-on" knowledge. Knowing is not an intellectual pursuit; its a personal experience. The people are going to experience God acting, and come to know him through that. The patriarchs did not know God in this way. But now the Israelites are going to experience him. Part of the reason for the plagues in Egypt was so God would show himself mightier than the various Egyptian gods that were responsible for the things God destroyed.
Just a quick side-trip here. Exodus 15:27 says they came to a place where there were 12 spring and 70 palm trees. Do we really care how many there were? Clearly the 12 springs correspond to the 12 tribes, and the 70 palm trees correspond to the 70 people who went into Egypt with Jacob. So not only does the passage speak of God's provision, but it says "they all came out of Egypt".
But right away God brings them into the desert. Why is that?
- The people need to learn to know him. We have the whole Bible to tell us who he is, but they had nothing. They had to learn who he was by experience; by watching him act. Is he any better than the Egyptian gods which only have a limited sphere of influence? Sure, God delivered them through the Sea, but maybe that's his realm; is he the God of the desert too? And just like Israel, we sometimes need to see God work in many different kinds of circumstances before we're fully convinced he is God Almighty in every possible situation.
- The people need to learn to live by faith and to trust God and depend on him.
- The manna experience was intended to test whether the people would obey God or not. He provided them with something they had no explanation for, or control of, and put them in the position of having to learn to obey him. This is a picture of what it means to live by faith -- are you going to be obedient to what you know God has commanded, or not?
- The word translated as "faith" is emunah, which really is about faithfulness. When Moses had to keep his hands up in the battle, and people came alongside him to steady his hands, the word translated "steady" is this word emunah. Faith is not about what you think you believe or hope for. It is about what shows up in your actions. Are you faithful? Are you obedient? Even when it is very hard to do so? With the Greeks comes the concept of "mental assent that doesn't affect my actions". James 2 addresses this issue, indicating that mental assent is not faith. Faith requires actions or else it is dead. We struggle with that today, because we think of faith as being an intellectual exercise, but it is all about our actions. The rabbis teach that you don't really believe something unless it changes how you live.
- The whole Mt. Sinai experience where they receive the Torah is a wedding experience. God marries Israel there. The Torah is God's gift to them. We think of it as "law", but to them it is about how to live; how to walk their path.
- The word Torah comes from the verb yahrah, which means "to shoot" (as in archery) or "to teach". Use the Torah to shoot you down your path; it literally means "shootings" or "teachings".
- The word translated as "sin" is hata, which literally means "to miss the mark" (another archery image). The Torah is there to shoot you down God's path, but sin takes you off the path.
- The word translated as "repentance" is teshuva which comes from the verb shu which means "to return". Confession is when you recognize you're off the path. Repentance is when you get back on and take on some accountability to not get off again.
- The people fail miserably, committing adultery while on their honeymoon, with the golden calf experience. Why a calf? They probably wanted to make a cow but didn't have enough gold. Why a cow? One of the Egyptian gods responsible for fertility, water, foreign lands, sexual activity, and party, was Hathor, and was represented as a cow.
- God still chose to dwell among his people and had the tabernacle built for him to live in. He moved into the inner chamber, the Holy of Holies (kadosh kadoshim or naos in Greek).
- In the New Testament, when Pentecost came, God moved out of the temple and into his people, by his Spirit. When 1 Corinthians 3:16 says "you are God's temple", the "you" is plural, and the word for temple is naos. We, as believers, are his Holy of Holies. In 1 Peter 2:5, it says that God is building his temple out of living stones. Contrast that with the sterile, uniform, mud-bricks of Ma'at.
- God wants to be right there with us, to help us live by faith, dependent upon him. Why does this matter so much?
- Deuteronomy 11:10-12 says that the land God was giving them was not like the land they came from. It is not watered by their irrigation from the Nile. It is completely dependent on receiving rain from God. He says, in effect, "I have taken you out of Egypt. You no longer live under Ma'at. The path I have called you to requires walking with me, through the mountains and valleys. It requires dependence upon me. My eye is on the path all the time. You can't walk it with your old Ma'at world view. It is a path of shalom."
- We think of shalom as "peace", but that's only a small part of it. It speaks of wholeness. It speaks of being balanced or centered as you walk through the ups and downs of life that you have no control over. It speaks of a faithful walk with God on the path he has for us wherever it goes.
- God brings us into the desert to be near us.
- God knows that the land he is bringing them into is a good land and they will be blessed. He warns them about getting too comfortable in his blessings and forgetting him. This is probably a key reason why God put them into slavery in Egypt in the first place: so they would know it is not something they want to go back to. When it starts to feel like Ma'at, take note that you are no longer on God's path. You need to get back on God's path, because you know that the Ma'at path leads to slavery.
- God continually reminds the people "remember you were slaves in Egypt and I brought you out". He knows that the path of shalom is harder to walk than the path of Ma'at, but he knows where each path leads.
- When Israel failed, God said he would lead her back to the desert where he would speak tenderly to her and get her started on the right path again.
- The Alijah experience is an upward struggle to meet God. Wherever they are in the world, Jews always "go up to Israel", "up to Jerusalem", and "up to the temple". You go "down to Egypt". When we don't understand why God is taking us through the desert, we need to understand it is part of God shaping us, drawing us near, taking us uphill to meet him. As you breathe heavily on the way up, it's almost as if you're saying God's covenant name YHWH as you inhale and exhale. The struggle makes you stronger. You're a different person at the top.
- We need our desert experiences. They're not our choice, but we need to see them for what they are, and for what God wants to work in us through them. Don't deny people their deserts. Be compassionate; be there with them. But we all have to learn to walk God's path wherever it leads. We can pray for relief. We can pray for God to "fix it", but we're probably missing the point. We need instead to pray for "feet for the path" -- feet like those of the ibex which can prance easily along the rocky and treacherous crags.
- Midbar is the land of the shepherd. It is what is translated as "green pastures" in Psalm 23. These are desert areas, with barely enough to eat (not the lush fields we typically envision). The shepherd leads his flocks through these areas, knowing where to find food and water. The sheep follow their own paths as they follow the shepherd, eating a mouthful here, and a mouthful there, moving on. They leave enough behind for those who follow them. The rabbis say that "worry is trying to eat tomorrow's grass today"; trust that the shepherd will lead you to more tomorrow.
- T'sah is the land of the Bedouin. You can survive here, but only in community. Bedouins are tent-dwellers, and they move around according to available food and water. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were all Bedouins, living mostly in the Negev, the desert in southern Israel. We'll finish up with a Bedouin picture below.
- Jeshimon is desert which cannot sustain life. People just didn't go there until the camel was domesticated. Much of the Sinai peninsula and some of southern Israel is Jeshimon. You might remember the "fertile crescent" from you history and geography lessons in Israel. It was where all of the traffic went around to the north of these areas; the reason was that travel through them was not possible.
I want to close with a t'sah desert picture. This is the land of the Bedouin. You only survive there in community. As a result, hospitality is over the top. Everyone out there takes care of everyone else. Today's guest may have to be tomorrow's host. When you think of Bedouin, you need to think of hospitality.
- Abraham lives in the Negev, which is t'sah desert. When the 3 visitors come, he wants to make them "a little lunch". "Servants, prepare the choice calf. Sara, get 3 seahs of flour and make bread". 3 seahs is about 40 pounds. That's over-the-top hospitality for 3 guests.
- When you enter a Bedouin settlement, you approach the tent and wait to be given permission to enter. Once your host takes you under his roof, you will be given extravagant treatment. You will be given a never-ending meal of bread and drink. And he will protect you with his life, above his own family.
- Think of Lot protecting the visitors in Sodom at the cost of his own daughters. I can't comprehend it, but Lot is simply being a protective Bedouin host.
- It's all about being in the tent, under his roof, under his protection. The tents themselves were made out of goat's hair, tightly wovern, but not airtight, not watertight. But goat's hair has a unique property of expanding when it gets wet, so when you occasionally have rain, the tent becomes self-waterproofing. Why do you care about the goat-hair tent?
- Isaiah says that God stretches out the heavens and spreads out the earth. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy and spreads them out like a tent to live in. These words "stretches" and "spreads" are exactly the terms used to describe a Bedouin setting up his goat-hair tent. Isaiah says God sets up the heavens and the earth like he was setting up his tent.
- When you're inside a goat-hair tent during the day, the little bits of light coming in through the goat-hair gaps look just like the night sky lit up with stars. So now, when you see the night sky, think of the picture Isaiah paints of God as the ultimate Bedouin host, saying, "You are in my tent. I will provide for you and protect you, even at the cost of my own Son".
Handouts
halakh, peripateo
Genesis 15:13-14
What is Egypt?
Ma’at
Psalm 24:7
Why does God take his people into the desert?
Exodus 3:4 (Genesis 22:11, 46:2, I Samuel 3:10, Luke 10:41, 22:31, Acts 9:4, Matthew 23:37)
Exodus 3:13-14
YHWH
Exodus 6:2-5
yada, yad
Exodus 15:27
Genesis 46:27
Exodus 16:1-5
Exodus 16:11-15, 31
manna
Exodus 17:10-13
emunah
James 2:26
Torah, yahrah
hata
Teshuva, shu
Hathor
kadosh kadoshim, naos
Ephesians 2:21-22
I Corinthians 3:16
I Peter 2:5
Deuteronomy 11:10-12
shalom
Deuteronomy 8:10-18
Deuteronomy 24:18
Hosea 2:14
alijah
Psalm 18:33 ibex
Three kinds of desert
midbar
t’sah
jeshimon
Genesis 13:1
Genesis 18:1-7
Genesis 13:12
Genesis 19:1-8
Isaiah 44:24
Isaiah 20:22
Psalm 23:2
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