LENT 2020: Day 14

• Lent 2020: Day 14 Thursday, March 12, 2020:
  Psalm 95; Exodus 16:1-8; Colossians 1:15-23

     Come, let us sing gladly to the LORD,
          let us shout out to the rock of our rescue.

The Psalmist begins with praise, but then pivots to rebuke:
    If you would only heed his voice!
          “Do not harden your heart as at Meribah,
              as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
          when your forefathers tested me,
              tried me, though they had seen my acts.”

How quickly things change!

The Psalmist continues:
    Forty years I loathed a generation.

This is harsh language, and it can be shocking to read these words coming from God. We don’t usually think of God as “loathing” anyone, let alone God’s own chosen people.

But God’s actions demonstrate something else.

In today’s reading from Exodus, the people are complaining that they are going to die by famine in the wilderness — and are longing for their days in Egypt.

God hears their cries and provides:
    And the LORD said to Moses, “Look, I am about to rain down
    bread for you from the heavens.”

God provides, but the Hebrew here is revealing, for mamtir, the word for “rain” here, hints at destruction. It’s the same word used in the Flood story, in the Sodom story, and in the Plagues story.

In short, our relationship with God — and God’s relationship with us — is complicated and nuanced and layered and messy. It can be helpful to remember that God is affected by us, that God can experience anger and grief and heartache. But it is also helpful to remember that, even still, God continues to provide.