Have you ever noticed that God is a lot more involved in the lives of the early Israelites then he is today? Perhaps “involved” isn’t the right word, since I can assure you God is deeply involved in your life right now. I guess what I mean to say is, He’s more specific. When you read the chapters in Exodus in-between the Ten Commandments and the golden calf (Yeah, there’s stuff in between them. Who knew?) you read about God describing to Moses the new tabernacle He wants. And he describes it. Where should we put it? What materials should we use? How long should it be? How tall? What direction should it face? What colors do you want? What types of decorations do you require? Who should build it? What days do we have off? How should it smell inside? Even your contractor who you talk with face to face is less specific, but God answered all of these questions in great detail. Man did Moses have it easy. To top it off, all these instructions came after the voice of God gave laws to the Hebrews. There can be little doubt that they knew exactly what God wanted from them.
Contrast that with this week’s New Testament reading. In Matthew 22 Jesus tells the parable of the wedding feast. WHAT? This parable raises more questions for me than it answers. Is Jesus the son who the wedding is for? So God sent out invitations? Who are those first recipients? The early Jews? Literally kings? And who’s the guy that gets thrown out at the end supposed to be? Is God going to be throwing people out of Heaven? What’s the deal? From this story the crowd was supposed to gleam some deep spiritual lesson about how God wants them to live their lives. Why wasn’t Jesus as specific with details as His Father was in Exodus? More importantly, where are these specifics now? How is plucking out my eyes going to help me decide which post-grad school to go to? What job offer to take? Where to relocate our church? Wouldn’t it be useful if God just spoke up and said, “Call 555-4897, ask for Jim, tell him you need a building. Say it’s a favor for me. The one he gives you is where I want you to be. You’ll have to repaint the walls when you get there. I like purple. Make Paul do it, he knows why.” Couldn’t He do that? What does everyone think? Anyone else a little perplexed?By Aaron Blackwell
