“The Lord answered Moses, ‘Is the Lord’s arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you.’” -Numbers 11:23 (NIV)
“…whether or not..” Does this phrase drive you crazy? Or do you think it drove Moses crazy? Here he was, with hundreds and hundreds of hungry, grumpy people on his back demanding food, and the Lord plays a “wait and see” game. Of course, we can just read ahead in the story and find out that God did fulfill His promise to provide meat in the desert to the Israelites, but not only that, He showered them with millions of quail, to the point of the Israelites complaining that His answer to prayer was too much. A lot of people think the Israelites were ridiculous and too demanding, but how often do we complain to God in our own forms, on our terms about his answers to our prayers?
This blog is not meant to guilt trip you, however. I just find the phrasing of this sentence interesting. Why did God beat around the bush and not just give Moses a straight answer? He knew Moses was stressed out; He had just had some of the elders of the community come so that they could help Moses bear the load, and it wouldn’t ride solely on him. I think the reason is God’s love of mystery and adventure. There’s a good reason why we love superheroes in movies and books. We love the part where the good guy swoops in at just the right time, right when it seems like he bad guys plans are going to be successful. And to top it all off, the good guy usually even has the perfect line to say! In fact, I believe writers may be having difficultly in writing stories like that because we’ve become so expectant of that certain outcome. We enjoy this plot because it is part of God’s nature and we were created similarly to His nature, in His image. He loves mystery; He loves coming when everyone says its too late (example: Lazarus’ death – John 11:1-44); He loves to be the hero and lift us out of the bad situation right before it conquers us. It is this mystery about Him that some struggle with comprehending or appreciating, but how fun would it be if God just functioned as a secretary all day and answered our calls? We need to embrace His adventure, His spontaneity, His sense of humor and fun, and not just see Him as a bully who tries to with hold things from us as long as He possibly can. Rather, view Him as the hero, saving us in the nick of time in order to demonstrate His glory that much more.
