Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“God said, ‘If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, and give heed to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, October 4, 2022
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
This sort of transactional interaction between God and God’s people has always bugged me. It can be so hard sometimes to square the Christian idea of a God who gifts us with love and life and salvation, no questions asked, and the God we find so often in the scriptures whose protection and care is conditional upon behavior. Sometimes we are left asking “Did God change? And if so, why?”
My thoughts? God hasn’t changed. Not one bit. The Bible is simply a record of how God’s people experienced and interpreted God through the lens of their particular context. Co-written by God, of course, but ultimately recorded through the eyes of men (generally) at a time when survival was precarious, disease was mysterious and rampant, and the people’s understanding was that God (and gods) rewarded people for towing the line and punished them for messing up.
Through my own lens (call it midrash if you will) I might interpret God’s words like so: ‘My commandments and statutes are gifts of love, and if you follow them, it will go a long way to helping you live long and prosper. But one way or another, I am the God who heals, and my healing is available to you no matter what, because I love you.’
Do I find myself re-interpreting scripture through my own lens? How do I feel about this practice?
