Given on the occasion of Rosh Hashanah
Sydney Australia
19 September 2020
Good yontif to each of you. They say that our actions on the High Holidays determine what will be decreed for the upcoming year. So, whatever you guys did last year, please don’t do it again! Seriously, it’s been a very tough year for us, and for the planet. Here we had bushfires that lasted longer than ever before destroying hundreds of thousands of hectares of property, millions of animals, uprooting so many from their places then floods followed almost before we had settled into the year 2020, and nothing we’ve ever seen managed to get our attention like COVID-19. We still aren’t out of danger, although COVID fatigue is upon most of us, and we see the consequences of Karens and others who disregard public safety for their own personal rights and freedoms. Friends, we are not out of the woods on this by a long shot. We long for a vaccine, and there are good reports about such possibilities just now, but we shall see.
I’m intrigued by the possibility of a vaccine. Can you imagine working in one of those laboratories that is close to the discovery? Huge pressure to perform. The danger of not recording certain data, the peer review would be intense.
Last week I thought of a biblical story with some serious peer review, and reports that demonstrated discrepancies in the data, and how to understand the data… and maybe that story has something to say to us in 5781 and beyond.
I think one of the grabbers of such stories is the espionage and intrigue. The reason we love mysteries and whodunits is the guesswork, the unpacking of clues and the finding of the resolution of a television show before the next commercial or by the end of the book.
Espionage and real spy adventures are not easy missions, after all. In the Bible when the Jewish people are wandering in the wilderness, after about 2 years since we departed Egypt, Moses sends out 12 men to get some data about what’s ahead. They leave Kadesh-Barnea and check out what we today call Israel. Then it was a confederation of nomads and other peoples, made up of seven nations and called Canaan. The spies have to lie. They trick people into winning their trust, then they use that trust to gain advantage for their side. We value spies who work for us and cast aspersions on those others who invade our sacred space. So, spying in and of itself is not held in high honor, unless the spies are on our team.
I remember in school on the gridiron field, leaning into the opposing team’s huddle to hear the play being called by the quarterback, so we could implement the appropriate defense? Eavesdropping on your parents could give you great power in future blackmailing purposes or what we title in Canberra as ‘negotiating.’ Do you remember the story of the child who is asked by his parents to say the prayer at the dinner party? The boy is a bit uncomfortable with public prayer, but his parents insist. The child says, “I don’t know how to pray.” And the parents tell him to pray like you have heard us praying. So, the boy begins, “Oh, Lord, I don’t know why you had to send the Rosenblum’s to our house for dinner tonight.”
But eavesdropping, espionage and spying are central in this story, aren’t they? Let me rehearse the story a bit. It’s another page-turner as Moses sends out spies to check out the Promised Land, to find out if it is all the stories have made it out to be. Abraham and the boys some hundreds of years ago made out like it was a great place to live; many are buried there. Then a few years ago God told Moses about the place, and he has never seen it, but this ‘land of milk and honey’ thing seemed a bit strange. Moses is well familiar with this area. He’s been a shepherd on the backside of the wilderness for 4 decades. How different could this ‘other land’ really be?
But maybe I’m making this biblical story too Hollywood, too DaVinci. The spies in this story didn’t go to deceive the Hittites or the Canaanites, but rather to investigate the scene. They went to scout out the land and to conduct research. They were to find out how many people there were and if the people were weak or strong. The assessment of the towns was about defenses and the soil of the fields. No need to conduct espionage with the James Bond flavor, rather an edaphic research project along with laboratory fruits brought back in Petri dishes. How civil, and how mundane.
So off they went. Moses sent a leader from each of the 12 tribes including Joshua, the future leader of the Jewish people, and after 6 weeks of scouting, this dozen returned with one large cluster of grapes so big that it had to be carried on a large pole on the shoulders of two able-bodied men. And they brought other fruits too.
That was the laboratory evidence, but they also brought their defense of the evidence to an almost parliamentarian hearing convened just to hear what awaited the Jewish people now after two years out of Egypt.
And what did the spies report to the Jewish people? They told of fruitfulness and plenty, and that it was a good place to take, but 10 of the spies also reported that giants were in the land, that there was no way we were going to conquer their cities with their high towers, and that our children would become a prey to the enemies. And what was the response of the Jewish people to the report of the spies? 100% agreement. They bought the report, they grumbled against Moses who had schlepped them out of their comfortable homes as slaves in Egypt to wander in the wilderness. The people wanted to go back. And God wasn’t happy. Why? Because the people did not believe in what he had told them.
Moses interceded; he prayed along with Aaron his brother for the Jewish people. The people however wanted nothing to do with this caretaking; they wanted to return to Egypt. God told them that the entire populace of the Jews over 20 years old was going to die in the wilderness. Two exceptions, Joshua and Caleb, no young men in their own right, would survive and get to enter the Promised Land. Even the 10 spies, who formed the majority report, went to their deaths in the wilderness. And that’s how the story ends.
Much of what we read in Bible is pretty positive. Let me list some: we are loved, we are chosen as Jewish people, we get to move into the land of promises, we win in the battle of Jericho, Esther wins the beauty pageant, the Jews of Shushan survive, and David gets chosen over all the others to be king. Usually positive information. So much positive information I wonder how the anti-Semites who abound in the world and who detract from the truth of the Scriptures can read from this book along with us. Ah, but then there are portions like this one today.
God gave the Jewish people a chance, in fact, 12 chances to hear and believe the word previously spoken in Exodus and Leviticus. Each of the spies is the chance. Each spy had an equal opportunity to share the truth of God’s word and His ability to triumph over adversity and every human situation to accomplish His word. (Ex 3.8, 3.17, 13.5, 33.3, Lev 20.24) The word had been spoken 5 times, “I will bring you into… (or go up to) a land flowing with milk and honey.”
The word was clear and now we had a chance to believe, to keep our focus on God and his word and his purposes. What we chose, however, was less. We chose the words of 10 men, the Mixed-up Minyan, if you will. They saw things clearly. They saw giant gentiles; they saw themselves as grasshoppers. They saw huge grape clusters. They saw both opportunity and they saw themselves outnumbered. Which would they believe? Which would they live in?
Dear friends on this Rosh Hashanah, you have God’s promises of His love and His assurance of pardon for all your sins. You have the guarantee of forgiveness because of what Yeshua did for you 2,000 years ago. All the while you have many situations ahead of you which could bury you in fear or apprehension, knock you out of the forward look and get you worried, broken, downcast, or lazy. So many young people are frozen from moving forward because of fear of making the wrong choices. Giants of corporations and their own apparent insignificance stymie others. Risk requires jumping sometimes and trusting the One who knows all things.
So, what will you hear and what will you see? And people in this congregation, what will you hear and see in your life beyond today? Will you take risks? Will you go for all you can no matter what others say? Will you follow God with all your heart no matter the opposition?
I grew up an Orthodox Jew in Kansas City, and used to sing Eretz zavat chalav ud’vash in rousing chorus with the many in my youth group. And if you had asked me then who I thought Jesus was, I would have laughed out loud, …what does Jesus have to do with us? I’m Jewish!
Little did I know that Jesus was actually our messiah and savior. That was for later discovery. And little did I know that some like Caleb and Joshua went and spied out the land, and yes, there were giants of antagonism and war. Yes, there were walled cities of hostility to our message, and yet, there were also fruit. I believe, if I can be allegorical for a moment, and only for a moment, that we have a choice to listen to the 10, the Majority Report, or to the Two, the Joshua and Caleb’s of faith who tell us to go forward and take the land. They tell us to live for God. They tell us that no matter the opposition, we can live abundant lives in the midst of troubles.
Yes, there are giants who oppose us. Yes, there are defenses to our message, and some simply will not listen, will they? But we can go in. We can believe the minority report and we can succeed.
God insists that (14.21) all the earth will be filled with his glory as the waters cover the sea. How awesome is that! We can have confidence, not in what we see, that is, the minimal effect of God and his word on the planet, the dangers of hurricanes and bush fires still abounding in the USA, and COVID’s 30 million sufferers since February, but on what we will see in the end of days in the age to come. And that’s our hope. A true biblical person is one who sees with eyes of faith and hope.
In a surprise label, God called the Jewish people “this evil congregation” (14.35) If it weren’t God saying it, we might think this was an anti-Semitic comment. Evil congregation? What made those Jews ‘evil’—was it just because they listened to advise by some Jewish leaders? Actually, God clarifies this throughout the Bible. And his answer would be, ‘yes.’ Good is faith and evil is unbelief. Faith is the evidence of things hoped for and the assurance of things unseen. Faith is what made Abraham our father righteous before the Almighty. Faith is taking God at his word, no matter what others say. No matter what you see in your espionage, no matter how many folks tell you Jesus is not the messiah, no matter how many folks tell you cannot be Jewish and believe in Jesus, no matter what the world tells you about what really matters in life: money, fame, power, accomplishments, human glory… no matter what they say. What really matters is what God says, and your believing him.
Listen, there are bad reports (14.36) and good reports. Choose to listen to what God says and you will find success, not only here in Sydney, but wherever the Lord should call you. Follow him and you will flow with milk and honey. You will give pleasure to others. You will have an abundance to share with others.
And that will make God happy, today and throughout your days.
L’shana tovah tikatevu v’saychatemu, um’tooka. Have a blessed 5781. Amen!
