by
Damien F. Mackey
“In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the
Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe
filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two
he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
And one called to another and said:
‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole
earth is full of his glory!’”
Isaiah 6:1-3
Failure by Moses to uphold God’s holiness
One finds an interesting interpretation of Moses’s
infidelity at “the waters of Meribah” here at: https://livethecross.org/2017/02/28/the-sin-of-moses-and-the-purpose-of-deuteronomy/
The Sin of Moses and the
Purpose of Deuteronomy
…. As faithful Christians, bound by Scripture and
tradition, we know that God doesn’t change.
He is the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was
and who is to come (Rev 1:8), the same yesterday and today and forever (Heb
13:8), without variation or shadow cast by turning (James 1:17), that he is not
a God who repents (1 Sam 15:29). We should think, then, that the threat of
destruction against the people, the intercession of Moses and Aaron, and the
relenting of the threat by God, was not done to actually change God’s
mind. God very well knew what would happen. He instigated the threat so
that Moses would intercede.
But here he doesn’t. Why?
How one answers that question become vastly
important. I think it is not only the key to the passage in Numbers, but
also becomes important in unlocking the theme of Deuteronomy. If we say
that the breaking of the pattern is no big deal, it is just a historical
coincidence, then we will search for Moses’ sin in the narrative
itself. And most do.
There are fairly typical responses as to what
Moses’ sin in Numbers 20 is. Most argue that his sin was in striking the
rock when told by God to merely speak (compare v. 8 with v. 11). But Moses
was told to take the staff, likely to strike the rock (see Exodus 17:5-6 where
Moses was told to strike a rock to make the water come out). Others think
that it was Moses difficult words for the people when he struck the rock,
calling them “rebels.” Still others think that it was because Moses spoke to
the people and not to the rock.
There are significant problems with all of these
solutions. None of these solutions really fulfills what the Lord sees as Moses’
main sin, that of unfaithfulness and not upholding God’s holiness (v. 12, see
this refrain repeated in Deut 32:51). Certainly, Moses thought water would
come out, and it is hard from this vantage point to see how Moses’ actions
impact his view of God’s holiness. Also, it is hard to see why Aaron was lumped
in with Moses’ actions, if he neither struck nor spoke.
I think a better answer is to take the breaking of
the pattern seriously. Moses’ heated words to the Israelites in v. 10
imply strongly that he was quite upset, that he classified the people no longer
as God’s people but as rebels, with the rhetorical question further implying
that he thought they were not worthy of the grace that they were
receiving. Frankly, it reads as though Moses does this to fulfill God’s
commands against his better instincts.
And therein lies the rub. God does not
threaten the destruction of the people because he knows that Moses will not
intercede for the people. Moses has lost faith. These rebels are
outside of grace, outside of God’s ability to make into a great nation, unable
to secure the promises that God has given. The constant rebellions,
grumbling, faithlessness of the people has taken its toll on Moses. So
overwhelmed is he, he no longer thinks that this people will be able to fulfill
God’s promises. This, from God’s vantage point, is not a breaking of faith
with the Israelites, but with the Lord himself. Moses no longer treated the
Lord as holy, powerful, glorious, able to fulfill his promises even with this
weak nation to make his name great.
This reading makes sense of Deuteronomy in many
ways. It makes sense of Moses’ continual accusations against the people,
for their continuous rebellions were the cause of his downfall, along with the
textual affirmation that it was his unfaithfulness in the moment. It makes
sense of his reminder of not entering the promised land in the midst of a
warning about idolatry. In 4:23 Moses further instructs the people, after his
illustration of being kept out of the land: “take care, lest you forget the
covenant of the Lord your God.” Moses, in his unfaithfulness, forgot the
promise and covenant of his God. He, standing outside the land, is a concrete
reminder of what will happen when the promise of God is forgotten. ….
[End of quote]
Failure by Isaiah to uphold God’s holiness ?
According
to my reconstruction of the Book of Judith, “Uzziah son of Micah” (Judith 6:15),
the chief magistrate of Judith’s city of “Bethulia” - {i.e., the northern Bethel, which is Shechem} - was none
other than the great Isaiah himself, son of Amos (= Micah, who has been called “Amos redivivus”).
That
Uzziah was a most significant leader throughout the entire land of Israel is
attested in the Douay version of Judith according to which Uzziah was both “the
prince of Judah” (8:34) and “the prince of the people of Israel” (13:23).
Uzziah (Isaiah), I suspect, had come up from
Judah to Bethel to accompany his father, Amos, who – though ‘not a prophet’ (Amos
7:14) – had been sent from Judah to witness at Bethel. We likely find Isaiah
there, witnessing in the north, as both the contemporary prophet Hosea:
Career of the prophet Isaiah. Part Two: Hosea as Isaiah in the north
and as Uzziah of the Book of Judith.
Now even this great “prince”, Uzziah (whether
or not he were Isaiah, and/or Hosea), would, just like Moses, fail a ‘water
test’. But instead of his being reprimanded directly by Yahweh, as in the case
of Moses, Uzziah would be taken to task for his lack of trust by Judith
herself.
Before we take this further, let us firstly consider
Moses and Isaiah when confronted with God’s holiness, as taken from: https://www.first15.org/05/16/moses-isaiah-and-the-holiness-of-god/
Two of the most powerful recorded encounters of
God’s presence are found with Isaiah in Isaiah 6:1-7 and with Moses in Exodus 3:2-6. Let’s open our hearts to both
learn from these encounters and allow them to guide us into a powerful
encounter with the living God ourselves.
Isaiah 6:1-7 says,
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the
Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe
filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two
he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of
hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at
the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said:
“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the
midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of
hosts!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in
his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he
touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is
taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
Isaiah demonstrated that experiencing the
holiness of God and seeing our own sin in light of his holiness are consistent
and important parts of encountering God’s presence.
Time after time in Scripture, God’s people see
their own sin, repent, and are healed after having an encounter with the
presence of God. In fact, Moses has a similar response to being in the presence
of God for the first time in Exodus 3:2-6:
And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a
flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was
burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see
this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” When the Lord saw that he turned
aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said,
“Here I am.” Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet,
for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” And he said, “I am the
God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
In light of God’s astounding holiness, Moses
was filled with fear to look at the face of God. These two descriptions of
God’s presence illustrate an important truth for all: the light of God’s
holiness has the ability to pierce into the depth of our soul, bringing to
light the darkness that destroys us from within. My prayer today is that we
would follow the examples of Moses and Isaiah and allow God’s holiness to shine
light on our sin and draw us to repentance. And may we experience healing today
the way Isaiah did as the angel of the Lord cleansed him with the coal.
God’s presence casts light on our sin and
brokenness because in order for us to live the fullness of life God desires, we
must walk in righteousness. It’s because of God’s love that he reveals our sin.
It’s because God longs for us to experience a life of holiness and freedom as
his children that he shines light on our darkness and draws us out into the
glorious light of righteousness. ….
[End of quote]
Despite
all of this, as with Moses, so with Uzziah (Isaiah?), there would be a failing
in faith and trust when placed under extreme pressure, in a situation again
involving water and thirst.
According to my historical
interpretation of the Book of Judith:
The
neo-Assyrian army of king Sennacherib (the “Nebuchadnezzar” of the Book of Judith),
185,000-strong (including “the support troops”), led by the king’s eldest, Ashur-nadin-shumi {the treacherous Nadin of the Book of Tobit (14:10) - who
is called “Holofernes” in Judith}, had come into the region of Dothan and
Shechem (Judith’s “Bethulia”) and spread out there, striking utter terror into
the hearts of the local Israelites (Judith 7:1-4):
Holofernes gathered
his whole army together, as well as his allied forces. It was an immense army,
consisting of 170,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry, not counting the support
troops who took care of the equipment. He ordered them to march on Bethulia,
seize the mountain passes, and attack the Israelites. So they moved out and set
up camp beside the spring in the valley near Bethulia. The camp was so wide
that it spread out toward the town of Dothan as far as Balbaim … from Bethulia
to Cyamon, which faces Jezreel Valley. When the Israelites saw the size of the
army, they were terrified and said to one another, ‘Those soldiers are going to
eat up everything in sight. There’s not enough food in the mountains, valleys,
and hills put together to feed an army like that. …’.
When
their water began to fail them, the Israelites - just as had their ancestors in
the desert - “lost their courage” (7:19-22):
Then the
Israelites cried out to the Lord their God for help. They had lost their courage,
for with the enemy all around them there was no way to escape. The entire
Assyrian army—infantry, chariots, and cavalry—blockaded Bethulia for
thirty-four days until the town ran out of water. All
the reservoirs and cisterns went dry, so that the drinking water had to be
rationed, and not a day passed when there was enough water to go around.
Children were becoming weak; everywhere throughout the town
women and young people were collapsing. No one had any strength left.
And they did just what
their ancestors had formerly done, they turned on their leaders, and primarily on
‘the new Moses’, Uzziah (vv. 23-28):
All the
people of the town—men, women, and children alike—gathered around Uzziah and
the town officials and shouted in protest, ‘God will punish you for what you
have done to us! You are to blame for what is happening, because you did not
make peace with the Assyrians. There is
no one to help us now! God has put us in their power. We are exhausted and
dying of thirst. Call the Assyrians now and
surrender to them, and let Holofernes and his army take the town and loot it. We are
better off as prisoners of war. They will make us slaves, but at least we will
be alive, and we won’t have to watch our wives and children dying before our
eyes. Heaven and earth are
witnesses against you, and so is our God, the Lord of our ancestors, who is
punishing us for their sins as well as ours. We can only hope and pray that he
will not let these terrible things happen to us today’.
And again,
just like their rescued ancestors, they preferred a return to slavery (cf.
Judith 4:3) to a Divine deliverance: ‘They will make us slaves, but at least we
will be alive, and we won't have to watch our wives and children dying before
our eyes’.
Uzziah
caved in. He put a time limit on God’s salvation, “five more days” (vv. 30-32):
Then Uzziah said to
them, ‘Don’t give up, my friends! Let’s wait five more days to see if the Lord
our God will be merciful to us. Surely he will not abandon us completely. But
if no help comes after five days, then I will do as you say’.
So Uzziah dismissed
the people. All the men returned to their guard posts on the walls and towers,
while the women and children went back to their homes. The morale of the entire
town was very low.
Only Judith stood firm, unshaken and
unshakeable, like Mary at the foot of the Cross.
She, now forced to operate within that “five
more days” limit that Uzziah had imposed, absolutely excoriated him and the
other city leaders for the “conditions” they had lain down. Inviting them to
her home, Judith let loose like Joan of Arc (known as “a second Judith”).
In a masterpiece of theology, Judith
proclaims (8:11-17):
‘You are
the leaders of the people of Bethulia, but you were wrong to speak to the
people as you did today. You should not have made a solemn promise before God
that you would surrender the town to our enemies if the Lord did not come to
our aid within a few days. What
right do you have to put God to the test as you have done today? Who are you to
put yourselves in God's place in dealing with human affairs? It is
the Lord Almighty that you are putting to the test! Will you never learn? There is
no way that you can understand what is in the depths of a human heart or find
out what a person is thinking. Yet you dare to read God's mind and interpret
his thoughts! How can you claim to understand God, the Creator? No, my friends,
you must stop arousing the anger of the Lord our God! If he
decides not to come to our aid within five days, he still may rescue us at any
time he chooses. Or he may let our enemies destroy us. But you
must not lay down conditions for the Lord our God! Do you think that he is like
one of us? Do you think you can bargain with him or force him to make a
decision? No! Instead, we should ask
God for his help and wait patiently for him to rescue us’.
….
‘You are the glory of Jerusalem!
You are the great
pride of Israel!
You are the great
boast of our nation!
By your own
hand you have done all this’.
Judith 15:9-10
John Paul II
acclaimed Judith in a General Audience
(Wednesday 29 August 2001, # 4):
“Strong in faith,
Judith enters the enemy camp, charms the commander with her beauty and kills
him in a humiliating way. The Canticle strongly underlines this
fact: "The Lord Almighty has foiled them by the hand of a woman. For
their mighty one did not fall by the hands of young men, nor did the sons of
Titans smite him, nor did the tall giants set upon him: but Judith the
daughter of Merari undid him with the beauty of her countenance" (Jdt
15,5-6).
Judith
is example of woman's mission and prefiguration of Mary's cooperation in
redemption.
…. Some of the expressions of the book of Judith will pass, more or less integrally into Christian tradition which sees in the Jewish heroine a prefiguration of Mary. Do we not hear an echo of the words of Judith, when Mary sings in the Magnificat: "He has put down the mighty from their thrones and has raised up the humble" (Lk 1,52).
…. Some of the expressions of the book of Judith will pass, more or less integrally into Christian tradition which sees in the Jewish heroine a prefiguration of Mary. Do we not hear an echo of the words of Judith, when Mary sings in the Magnificat: "He has put down the mighty from their thrones and has raised up the humble" (Lk 1,52).
Voodoo Lands in Van Diemen’s Land
Giant
red upside down crosses erected in Hobart as part of Dark Mofo have been lashed
as "state-sanctioned blasphemy" by a Tasmanian church leader.
Several
20-metre high crosses were installed this week at the city's waterfront as part
of the annual winter festival.
It
has attracted the ire of several Christian groups including the state head of
the Anglican church, but event organisers aren't perturbed.
The
inverted Cross of Saint Peter can be seen as a satanic symbol.
"The
cross of Jesus Christ is very special to all Christians. I understand why they
would be confronted by this," Anglican Bishop Richard Condie said.
"I
am left wondering if this kind of state-funded blasphemy would be tolerated if
the symbols were Buddhist, Hindu or Islamic? I would hope not."
A Tasmanian
correspondent has written, relevant to “pagan magic practices”:
As you probably know, on March 19 Pope Francis released Gaudete et exsultate. Among other things, this Apostolic Exhortation interestingly highlights the dangers of two re-emerging heresies: Gnosticism (the over-exultation of human reason, characterised by religious and philosophical pessimism, and recourse to pagan magic practices) and Pelagianism (the over-exultation of human will-power, characterised by its Stoic-based influence and its emphasis on human effort and achievement).
As it happens, this
papal Exhortation is also concerned with the theme of “holiness”: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-francis-issues-exhortation-praising-the-middle-class-of-holiness-98724
Pope Francis issues exhortation praising the ‘middle class’ of holiness
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Vatican
City, Apr 9, 2018 / 09:56 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis released an
apostolic exhortation in which he aims to “repropose” the universal call to
holiness – which he says is the mission of life for every person.
Published April 9, Gaudete
et exsultate, or “Rejoice and be glad,” is Francis’ third
apostolic exhortation. It is subtitled “On the call to holiness in the
contemporary world.”
The 44-page exhortation explains that
holiness is the mission of every Christian, and gives practical advice for
living out the call to holiness in ordinary, daily life, encouraging the
practice of the Beatitudes and performing works of mercy.
Francis mentioned the holiness “in those
parents who raise their children with immense love, in those men and women who
work hard to support their families, in the sick, in elderly religious who
never lose their smile. In their daily perseverance I see the holiness of the
Church militant. Very often it is a holiness found in our next-door neighbours,
those who, living in our midst, reflect God’s presence. We might call them ‘the
middle class of holiness.’”
Francis said that all Catholics that, like
the saints, “need to see the entirety of your life as a mission,” and explained
that this is accomplished by listening to God in prayer and asking the Holy
Spirit for guidance in each moment and decision.
“A Christian cannot think of his or her
mission on earth without seeing it as a path of holiness,” he stated,
explaining that this path has its “fullest meaning in Christ, and can only be
understood through him.”
Using the words of Pope Emeritus Benedict
XVI, Francis wrote that “holiness is nothing other than charity lived to the
full.” As a result, the measure of our holiness stems not from our own
achievement, but “from the stature that Christ achieves in us.”
Therefore, Pope Francis said, to walk the
path of holiness requires prayer and contemplation alongside action; the two
cannot be separated. ….
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