Proper 6: OT, Exodus 19:2-8

Most of us are familiar with the fact that the number 40 figures prominently in the Bible. I’m not going to list all the “40’s” and I’m not even going to deal directly with any of them in extended fashion other than the “40” that always catches my attention is that long, LONG stretch of the people of Israel wandering in the wilderness. It is hard to fathom. God knows ahead of time just exactly how His covenant people would respond following their liberation from the hands of Pharaoh. He knew they would get in deep and have to “walk it out.” He knew. But He loved them.

Do you find it odd that His love allows the wandering? After nearly forty years as a Christian, I rather think it isn’t just God’s allowance. It just may be a requirement. And not in that cold, transactional sense of requiring, but in just knowing what’s best and  God saying to all His children, “This will give you identifying marks as my children that no one will ever be able to miss.” Now that’s just my thought. But I’m the one writing. (Tee Hee).

At the end of verse two of Exodus 19 we read, “There Israel encamped before the mountain, while Moses went up to God. The LORD called to him out of the mountain saying, ‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel …’” (Exodus 19 2b-3). We need to take notice every time God speaks to His people. And in Holy Scripture that’s quite a bit. How is God involved in our lives? Miracles? Healing? Guaranteed protection from viruses? Checks in the mailbox? On any given day any of those may be His choice, but it is in the “normal” way that God deals with us most intimately and carefully. God is involved most in our lives by speaking to us. In theological terms it is called “revelation.” It is perhaps the single issue we forget most about the faith. We have a “revealed religion.” God has seen fit to “open His mouth” and speak to His children.  If He did not speak, we would know and have nothing of Him. We do have a part in speaking back and may I suggest that perhaps the most wonderful thing we can speak to God is His Word back to Him. That way He knows we’re hearing. Whether we actually listen is another issue, but that speaking-hearing thing is the way His life comes to us. The way He comes to us. Scripture and the Sacraments are His Word. And He never stops speaking.

The Wilderness was the address of His people for a good, long season and the man he used to speak His Word and continue His life in their midst was not a gifted public speaker. But God was committed. Committed to speaking. Committed to sharing His life. Committed to crafting a people that belonged only to Him. We are not today at the foot of Sinai, but the LORD is still speaking. Open His Word and let the path you wander in this world lead you home. The LORD is waiting.