Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
It’s easy to read the story of Israel’s journey from Egypt to the Promised Land with critical eyes. The Israelites are a fickle lot, pledging undying allegiance to God one day, falling into fear the next, turning away another day. They grumble, they protest, they doubt, they create idols. Like armchair quarterbacks, we might scoff at them. God worked mighty wonders in their midst and performed miracles for them – how could they so easily fall away?! But if I’m honest, I see myself at times in the children of Israel, and I imagine you might, too. May today’s readings inspire us to a greater confidence in God, our Deliverer.
It's easy to trust God with the simple assignments, isn’t it? Sometimes God calls us to embark on a journey that seems readily doable or invites us to take on a new task or ministry that feels fairly comfortable. But what about when God calls us to something big, something outside our comfort zone, something that feels impossible?
Our first reading describes a monumentally daunting challenge facing the children of Israel. God instructed Moses to send men to spy out the land of Canaan, the land which God had promised to give them. The report comes back that this Promised Land is filled with many good things, but also giants and other fearsome inhabitants. The men who spied out the land said, “We cannot attack these people; they are too strong for us.” Caleb, one of Moses’ leaders, received the report with confidence and encouraged the immediate seizure of the land. Two perspectives on the same situation; two opposing conclusions.
What inspired each of these men to reach the conclusions they did? They had all walked the same journey, having been slaves in Egypt, experiencing the various hardships and challenges along the way, receiving God’s provision, and witnessing God’s power and presence among them. Surely, they all trusted in God’s ability to deliver them – after all, God had saved their first born during the Passover and parted the Red Sea for their exodus in indisputable displays of divine might and providence. I think the difference between Caleb and the men sent to reconnoiter the land was that Caleb trusted God to deliver them again.
Have you had a momentous time in your life in which God called you to something that felt like it would require scaling a mountain or fighting giants? What feelings or emotion did that evoke in you? What was your response to God? During such moments, we may tend to recall the promises of God revealed to us in scripture, but we may not believe they’re true for us. We know God is our Deliverer, but will he deliver us again? Will God come through for us now? Will God lead and save me?
Interestingly, it is a Canaanite woman in our Gospel who pursues Jesus, crying out, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon.” Will God deliver her daughter? Will God come through for her? She approaches our Lord with extreme confidence, with full faith, hope, and trust that he will deliver her. In the face of such a horrifying and terrifying challenge, this woman from the Land of Promise sees past all obstacles and fixes her eyes on our good God who saves us. During the playful repartee between Jesus and the woman, she reveals her confidence that the promises of God are not only for the children of Israel, but include the Gentiles, too, and even her and her daughter. Jesus says to her in response, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”
The specific circumstances of our lives may not always play themselves out according to our desires or expectations. But we, like Caleb and the Canaanite woman, can be 100% confident that God’s promises are for us, and that God works all things together for our good (Romans 8:28). In the mystery of God’s providence, God works in our lives according to what profits us for salvation. God has delivered us, God is delivering us, God will deliver us. When God calls us to something, God will see us through it.
Perhaps you’re facing a call from God that feels scary and overwhelming, even impossible. Know that your Deliverer is coming; your Deliverer is standing by. I pray the confidence of Caleb and the Canaanite woman be yours this day and always. Amen, alleluia! (You might enjoy the song “My Deliverer” by Rich Mullins.)
-Elizabeth Wells