Re-Formation & Tantalizing Temptation

Quote: 

I’m convinced that God has lessons to teach us that can only be learned in liminal space, only in a state of dislocation.  This is not just a necessary evil, like they've gotta get through the wilderness to get to the promised land. This [the wilderness] is actually the workshop of their character. God is remaking the people. He’s gotta get Egypt out of them before… they are ready for life in the land - Carmen J Imes 

This school year, I have been teaching through an Old Testament Survey series with my junior high students.  There are multitudinous resources that I have heavily leaned on in this process.  Anyone who knows me basically at all will know that at the top of that list is “Bible Project” (bonus points if you guessed it before you read that). This profound quote is mediated to me from, you guessed it, the Bible Project. But you might be wondering, I thought Tim Mackie was the brain of the Bible Project and that quote says “Carmen Imes”. Tim is one of my heroes (and you can bet a quote from him will make an appearance soon) and he certainly brings much wisdom to the Bible Project but one of the wise things he has done is the breadth and depth of scholarship he reads from and learns from. Because the best teachers are learners. All that to say, instead of teaching all of the Bible Project Classroom classes, for the Exodus class, Bible Project brought in Carmen J Imes.  The brilliant, thoughtful scholar who wrote her dissertation on Exodus. I have read part of her first book, “Bearing God’s Name” which introduces her paradigm shifting perspective on the commandment to not “‘take/bear’ the LORD’s name in vain”. I have also listened to her podcast and so I was delighted to spend time under her teaching in this class on Exodus.  

So to the quote, I think I had always seen the wilderness, as an unwanted disruption, or setback to Yahweh’s plan that was necessitated by their rebellion.  However, long before the rebellion of the Spies in Numbers, Yahweh leads his people into the wilderness for nearly an entire year at the foot of Mount Sinai.  In this place, where comforts, distractions, syncretism, etc are all removed from immediate proximity, Yahweh sets out to form his people.  Formation is simply the cumulative effects of our environment, decisions, habits, beliefs, etc that shape us into the resulting complex individual.  Egypt had been forming the people of Israel for 400 years.  They had been ruled, shaped, and run by taskmasters, the demand of Pharaoh, and the calendar of Egypt. Whether recognized or unrecognized, everyone is being formed. Or as John Mark Comer said, “What you give your attention to is the person you become.”

So here they are, the people of Israel, freed from slavery physically but they have not been freed internally. Their bodies are still wired to work everyday, their minds are always afraid or wondering what could be inflicted, their souls crave the constant satisfaction of the next accomplishment.  Egypt is within them. They have been formed. And God takes a year to lay out a new way of being, a new way of living, His formation plan for them. He starts with daily rhythms like receiving Manna - gracious provision that the people do not have to PRODUCE.  Then weekly rhythms of radical rest in the sabbath.  Monthly feasts and celebrations, annual things, every seven year things, every forty-nine year things.  Their calendar, habits, priorities, goals needed to be REformed. So here in the wilderness, a place of discomfort, a place without consistency. A place without certainty.  Yahweh brings his people and sets out to purge the Egypt from their heart (Lev), being (Nephesh), mind (Deeanoyah), and efforts (Me’od).  

I am under no delusion that the priorities, calendar, and goals of America have saturated, baked, and molded my heart, being, mind, and efforts. I am increasingly convinced that what the church… what I need is not revolution, or reform but RE-FORMATION. We need to sit under the teachings of Yahweh, Jesus, the Apostles and learn.  We need to learn by being with Jesus, how to be like Jesus, so that we can ultimately do what Jesus did and that is to live a life fully formed by Yahweh’s will and not our own. This process is slow, painful, but so so worth it. ​​What liminal space, what wilderness might Yahwhe be bringing us to, individually or corporately so that we can be remade into HIS people.  Not a better, moral, more effective church, but Yahweh’s people. 

One closing thought: Our calendar matters to God. Not just our Sunday’s. Our calendars often reveal our priorities. Skipping Sabbath was not an option if someone had a big project or an important event. God’s calendar trumped theirs. Does it trump ours?

  

Scripture: Genesis 13:10,14-15 ESV 

And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)...The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.

Two years ago my final assignment for a year long 18 unit journey through the Old Testament was to trace a Biblical theme from the beginning to the end of the Hebrew Scriptures in the Torah, Prophets, and Writings.  I chose the theme of “eyes/seeing”.  It was an amazing study and the result was equally surprising.  I think of eyes as the balls in my skull that see and interpret light into information.  The authors of the Hebrew Bible almost without fail talk about eyes and seeing as the means of evaluation (morally, practically, or personally). The cardinal example of this being back in Genesis 3 when Eve saw that the fruit was good for food (practical), attractive to the eye (personal), and desirable to make one wise (moral) she took it.  She evaluated and chose.  

Here in Genesis 13, just 10 chapters later, this same format is repeated. “And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere (practical) like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt (personal), in the direction of Zoar” (moral - unbeknownst to us this would be the place Yahweh protects Lot and his daughters from the consequences of Sodom’s sin).  Humans since Adam and Eve have been convinced that we know better than God. That our evaluation of things is more accurate, more beneficial, and so we choose it. Again and again and again. We trust our definition of good and bad over God’s definition of good and bad.  God had said that tree would lead to death, sounds pretty bad to me. But Eve (and Adam who ate too by the way and heard the command from God himself) thought “Nah but like it looks yummy though”. Like come on guys. Are you kidding me? You had one job. And that is one of the brilliancies of Scripture, like the story of Jonah, we read it and go, “You idiot!  Why are you doing that?” and then if we are reading thoughtfully, reflectively (Psalm 1) then we look down at our chest and see the red-dot sight on us and say “Ah crap, that’s me too isn’t it?” and the Biblical authors and the Spirit of God scream through the pages of scripture “YES! You got it.  You’re not better”  

One way to look at every sin we have ever committed is through this lens. God said this was bad but I think it looks good.  God said this was good but it looks bad to me.  God says, “You cannot love God and money” but I look at that savings account, investment, new purchase, and say “Yeah but not me. I can do both”.  God says, “As you go, make disciples of all nations” but I look at that mission and say “That looks intimidating, I don’t know my Bible well enough, surely someone else should do that, I’ll just give some money to missions and call it good” But what have we done. We have redefined good as bad and bad as good.  God didn’t make a mistake. It’s not an oversight.  We don’t evaluate things and make our own call and God is sitting up there thinking “Oh dang, Zack was right, that was a better call”. His heart, has, is and always will be for our best. And our best is looking more and more like Jesus and more and more into the image bearers he made us to be. 

So here is Lot, God called Abraham to a land “I will show you” and Lot says “Aight bet. What looks good?”. And he sees and takes and commits the same error as our parents. 

But this story is not focused on Lot. It’s focused on Abe.  Abraham reverses the pattern.  See, take, see, take, see, take, call bad good, call good bad, repeat.  Abraham does not do that. 

“The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward” 

Yahweh lifts up his eyes.  Lot lifted his eyes; bad news.  Yahweh lifts up Abraham’s eyes; goooood news!  

God is not leaving us in the dark, he is simply saying, “Will you trust my timing, my definition of good and bad, and my plan for your best?” This is such a battle. This is not easy! But it is best.  

We have this modeled so so well for us in our Savior.  Jesus found himself before his own “tree” of testing.  He was in a garden too.  It was called Gethsemane.  And this is what he said in my own words… “Father I know you said this whole cross thing was ‘good’. ‘Best’, even, but it looks pretty awful. You know what looks good? Calling down some of my security detail”. But even though Jesus as fully human is able to see what we see “good as bad and bad as good”. He is not going to bow to that temptation. As the perfect, God-man, he says “I know what looks good and bad to me, but I trust my father more than my broken perception.  These eyes, this sight is faulty. I am going to trust the Creator, Ruler, Lord of all.  And he says, “Father not my desire but your desire”.  Man! Perfect submission to the Father.  Passing the test every human has eventually failed (even if they pass it once or twice like Abe). 

So many times this past month I have prayed that prayer of my Servant-King Jesus, “Not my desire but your desire”.  My eyes, my sight, my desires are broken (almost every letter of Paul), twisted, and distorted. I need new eyes, and new sight.  But in the meantime, until my savior comes back bringing heaven down to earth as has been the goal since Eden, I will repeat, beg, plead the prayer of Jesus, “Not my desire, but your desire”.