God Shuffled His Feet
In Exodus 34 we find a really cool account of Moses saying, “Show me your glory!” And God agrees to let Moses see Himself (except for His face). So, Moses goes out to the place God named, and brings some stuff that God said to bring, and the LORD comes by. He even creates his own fanfare.
Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. He said, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your own possession.”
— Exodus 34:8-9
Man… Moses isn’t giving this up! God even said, “Yes” (last time), and Moses is still pleading the case to God. He’s not giving it up. Even when God said “Yes,” Moses more or less replies, “Well, you better mean it!“
God’s replies sort of puzzles me:
Then God said, “Behold, I am going to make a covenant. Before all your people I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth nor among any of the nations; and all the people among whom you live will see the working of the LORD, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you. Be sure to observe what I am commanding you this day: behold, I am going to drive out the Amorites…. etc. etc. etc.”
— Exodus 34:10-11…
So….. yes??
That’s a “yes,” right?
I hate these non sequitur responses. Jesus does them all the time, God does them even more in the OT. It’s like we missed part of the context. (Why? Because when God gets done, Moses doesn’t say, “Huh?”) When we dig in we often find great jewels of insight into God. But when we start out, we’re like the song “God Shuffled His Feet” by Crash Test Dummies. Here’s the lyrics:
After seven days
He was quite tired so God said:
“Let there be a day
Just for picnics, with wine and bread”
He gathered up some people he had made
Created blankets and laid back in the shadeThe people sipped their wine
And what with God there, they asked him questions
Like: do you have to eat
Or get your hair cut in heaven?
And if your eye got poked out in this life
Would it be waiting up in heaven with your wife?God shuffled his feet and glanced around at them;
The people cleared their throats and stared right back at himSo he said:”Once there was a boy
Who woke up with blue hair
To him it was a joy
Until he ran out into the warm air
He thought of how his friends would come to see;
And would they laugh, or had he got some strange disease?God shuffled his feet and glanced around at them;
The people cleared their throats and stared right back at himThe people sat waiting
Out on their blankets in the garden
But God said nothing
So someone asked him: “I beg your pardon:
I’m not quite clear about what you just spoke
Was that a parable, or a very subtle joke?”God shuffled his feet and glanced around at them;
The people cleared their throats and stared right back at him
I honestly don’t Get God’s answer (to Moses — not the song) … I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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I’m not sure I don’t get what you’re not getting (that sounds condescending and I don’t mean it to be–indeed, I mean it as an expression of my inability to properly interpret what I am assuming you have rightly and clearly said).
It seems you’ve picked up the complicated part–understanding Moses’s thing. He wants to be sure . . . and he doesn’t stop wanting to be sure. Like you (as you said in the other post), I can definitely identify with it and, as I famously do about many things, I’m gonna say that this is the essence of my relationship with God.
GOD: I’m here. I hear. I care. I’m making things better.
me: Really?
GOD: Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah [I think you've alluded to the whole "Peanuts when an adult speaks" thing. That's what I mean here--well, a particular version of it, which, when I think about it isn't quite what Schulz meant. What God says will change, because He's always got something to say (and I mean that in a good way), but, as likely as not, I won't get it until much later. I don't mean to disparage God. I just mean that the significance so often eludes me.]
me: Really? Really, really, really?
and so on . . .
Faith. Do we believe Him or not? Do we trust Him or not. Yeah, exactly: sort of. Not really. I believe; help my unbelief.
So, Moses says “really?” And God says, “Look, I am so gonna [yeah, God says "gonna"; you got a problem with that?] be with you. It’s gonna look like this. There will be miracles. I’ll do things I’ve never done before. People will be amazed, I’ll be with you so much.”
And I’m not at all convinced that Moses’ not saying “huh?” doesn’t mean that he finally understands.
Enough of that. I love the idea and the song. Whatever I’m missing about what you’re missing, I love your (and the Crash Dummies’ ) expression of the truth that we persist in not getting it. And that we need to get it. And that, if we’re smart, we’ll keep coming back and keep asking. Sure, it might be that if we’re smart we finally start to get it. But I’d rather keep saying “huh?” than to be sure and be wrong.
I love the “parable . . . subtle joke thing.” ‘Cause, yaknow, sometimes it is. Often both, usually at least either. And even when it isn’t, it sure feels that way.
God grant that we would have the grace to be bold, clear our throats and stare into the face of God, looking for an answer, still hoping that we can, that we will, some day get it.
Wait on the LORD. Ask and keep asking. Knock and keep knocking, even though it’s the middle of the night and we’re sure He must be asleep. Keep looking and listening even though the wind has blown and the earth has shook and the fire has blazed. Keep going back to pray until we see that tiny cloud in the distance.
And I like to think He’s laughing, not derisively, not in contempt, not at us, and certainly not with us, but for us–laughing because He knows that some day we will get the joke and we’ll laugh with Him, laughing because that thought makes Him happy.
[Edit: Fixed the smiley issue and the grammar per joel's 2nd comment. - Gabe 5/21/08]
Um, that smiley wasn’t meant to be a smiley. It was an apostrophe followed by a close parenthesis (I went back and looked), which is odd, because the apostrophe still showed up.
And, while I’m here: in the last paragraph, it should be “He knows that some day” not “He knows some day that.”
Thanks, Joel. What I’m not getting is how God’s answer is actually an answer to Moses… and how it is that this is a good and appropriate answer. This makes the assumption that God’s answer is indeed an answer, and that it is good — an assumption I typically make when I approach the scriptures.
If you ask, “What color is Gabe’s shirt today?” If God’s answer is simply, “It’s blue,” then is easy to understand as a response that directly answers the question. But if God’s answer is, “I promise to do some amazing stuff,” then we’re left wondering: “Huh? How is this an answer to the question?” Assuming that God gave a good answer, we have extra leg-work to do so that we can understand why it’s a good answer.
In this passage, God doesn’t really answer the question. He seems to imply that He’s “so going to go with them.” (As opposed to sending an angel in his place like he said before.) I guess that’s the idea of Him make a covenant to do this. A covenant is an unbreakable agreement. So it’s like he’s say, “OK. I’m going to do it. I’m going to do it big. I will not go back on this promise. Ever. Quit asking, OK?”
BTW, I fixed the false smiley and bad grammar.
Thanks for the fixes.
I’d say that this is actually a fairly direct, indirect answer. Yeah, that’s an oxymoron, or a paradox, or some such difficult thing; par for the course. That sounds cynical. Probably it is, but not necessarily. And, if it is, it’s not just cynical.
I haven’t got a complete capture in consciousness right now, so I might be misremembering something (and even what I remember might be wrongly interpreted) . . . BUT I think that God likes the persistent questioning, especially compared to most of the alternatives. I think He’s completely cool with, for instance “Why? . . . Why? . . . Why? . . . Why?” “Really? . . . . Really? . . . . Really?”
He’s not like us and, to the extent that He is like us, He’s better and even we think it’s cute sometimes. “If you then being evil . . .”
I’m working on a theology of the broken record. I had this revelation once. I’ll let you know when the book comes out. Yes, I’m mostly serious about all of that.
Are we there yet? . . . Are we there yet? . . . Are we there yet? . . . Are we there yet? . . . Are we there yet? . . . Are we there yet? . . . Are we there yet? . . .
I will make a covenant with thee that I shall watch television in your grandmother’s living room before the sun sets. As soon as we are there I shall use her bathroom and perform wonders never before seen on the face of the earth. Only be careful that you do not get between me and the bathroom door.
