Wait… what?!

Have you ever had a "wait, what?!" moment or found yourself doing a double-take as you read the Bible?

I love it when that happens, and I experienced it this past week as I was putting together this week’s study guide. There I was, reading about the Israelites who returned to the land they had lost, and it hit me…

Something doesn’t feel right.

Did I really just read about how Ezra, Nehemiah, and the other Israelites made a covenant to divorce their foreign wives and send them and their children away?! A covenant that resulted in Nehemiah violently forcing “men of Judah” to adhere to the covenant by cursing them, beating them, and pulling out their hair!

What?!

Is this how we, as God’s people, are supposed to protect ourselves from making the same mistakes?

Are we supposed to make a bad situation worse by resorting to violence so we can gain obedience?

Now, I get we don’t really understand the culture in the Ancient Near East, but I also know that other books of the Bible written during that same time period seem to take things in a different direction.

Take Esther for example. In the Book of Esther, the Israelites had integrated into Persian culture and were living in harmony with most of the foreign people. In addition, Esther ended up marrying the Persian King Xerxes.

Or take the Book of Jonah. God sent Jonah to the Assyrians (a people hated by the Israelites) to tell them they would be destroyed if they didn’t repent. Jonah hated the Assyrians and became bitter when God forgave them, saying, "Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

It is interesting to note that nowhere in the book of Esther did God tell Esther to Marry Xerxes. It is also interesting to note that nowhere in Ezra or Nehemiah did God tell the Israelites to divorce their foreign wives and send them away. They chose to do that in response to Ezra's grief. However, God did tell Jonah to "Go to the Assyrians (Nineveh was their capital city) and call them to repentance."  God then responded to Jonah’s bitterness by asking “should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

So, how do we respond to the people, places and things that have harmed or pulled us away from God? 

How do we keep ourselves from making the same mistakes when we have been given a second chance?

How do we re-establish our lives and remain faithful to God after experiencing loss?

Do we separate and isolate?

Do we become like everyone else?

Do we become bitter and resentful?

Where is God in the midst of all of this?

What I love about the Bible is that we are given an inspired, raw and real look into how God’s people navigated these same issues and, in many cases, how they turned out.

So, what can we learn from the Israelites’ emergence from exile as we begin to do the same?

First: We need to humbly seek God and prayerfully discern our new norms making sure we don’t take things too far.

Second: We should realize that fear is never a good foundation to build our future on.

Third: We need to take risks and sacrifice for the sake of others, not ourselves.

Fourth: Bitterness and resentment will cause us to miss out on the amazing things God is doing around us, even if we are somehow a part of it.

And finally, as we step into our new normal, we should recognize (unlike Jonah) that God cares about all people and all creation. In other words, we matter to God, but we aren’t the center of the universe.

I am so grateful that God’s people chose to include the difficult, embarrassing and shameful moments they experienced. Without them, we would have fewer "wait, what?!" moments, which I believe are some of the most impactful ways God speaks to us.

What “wait, what?!” moments have you had with God this past year?

Have they made a difference?                                         

My hope and prayer is that they have and that this will be a year filled with a lot more "wait, what?!" moments as God prepares us for what lies ahead!

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Justin Porter