Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“The Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night.”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, October 5, 2020
by Daniel D. Maurer, Clergy Stuff
If any of you have been reading the other online commentary for the Narrative Lectionary we have on Clergy Stuff, you would have read that recently I’ve been digging history. Specifically, I’ve been looking into the late Bronze Age and the Bronze Age Collapse. It was a complete collapse of culture and society for what was about 500 to 600 years.
Anyway, why I’m even mentioning it is to address a term we read in our text today: Philistine.
When I was a kid in Sunday School, I knew that the Philistines were guys dressed in colorful tunics with funny pointed helmets. And that David I think fought them. It turns out that the term basically means the people residing in the Levant at the time of the Exodus, which nobody really can pin down when it happened, if ever.
(Incidentally, a modern museum exists in modern Israel dedicated solely to the Philistine culture.)
Well, this is neither here nor there, but the big deal was that God had to guide the Israelites down a different path. God lead them, we read with a pillar of fire at night and a pillar of cloud by day.
(I guess they didn’t have a very good GPS system.)
The whole point of this rant is this—God guides. In life, we all need a guide, something by which we can find a true path. Trusting in the wilderness is never easy. But light in the night and cloud by day will guide us. For us, that’s the gift of prayer, community and trust.
God, guide me in my wilderness. Amen.
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