Does God Help Those Who Help Themselves?
Sermon
LIVING ON ONE DAY'S RATIONS
First Lesson Sermons For Sundays After Pentecost
People can survive longer without food than they can survive without water. The book of Exodus tells us that the Israelites had arrived at a place out in the wilderness where they had no water supply whatsoever, and they were getting so desperate that they were ready to really tear into Moses. "Give us water to drink," they demanded of Moses (Exodus 17:2a). Even though God had been faithfully providing the traveling Israelites their daily food supply of manna and meat, the Israelites were quick to lose patience and they argued with Moses, "Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?" (Exodus 17:3). It often doesn't take very much at all for a group to lose confidence in their leader, even if the leader has had an excellent track record for a long period of time. Just ask any football coach whose team loses a critical game after an outstanding win--loss record. All too often the fans and the alumni are no longer captivated by the glory of yesterday's great achievements. Their fickle attitude is expressed in the well--known cynical complaint, "So what have you done for me today?" Even if the coach receives a vote of confidence from the athletic director or the college president, this still will not satisfy many disgruntled fans and alumni. And even though day after day Moses' leadership had been given a vote of confidence by none other than God, there was no way Moses could put a stop to the Israelites' complaints by asking them, " 'Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test (our God)?' (Exodus 17:2b). Why have you lost faith in the God whose faithfulness to you has been demonstrated time and time again day after day?" Because of the grumbling and the groaning of the Israelites over the lack of water, the wilderness location where this took place received a name - Massah and Meribah - a name taken from the Hebrew words for "testing" and "quarreling."
We know how this story turns out: God turned on the water, and nobody died of thirst! But the essential meaning of the story for us depends upon whether we are reading the original version of the story in the book of Exodus or a later version of the same story in the book of Numbers. The main theme of the Exodus story is to point out the Israelites' lack of faith in God's care for them. They complain bitterly that there is no water, while Moses remains faithful to God and defends God's faithfulness. Moses, as God's steadfast, faithful servant, produces water after striking the rock with his rod as ordered by God. However, in Numbers a different Old Testament writer who is familiar with the earlier Exodus story has turned things completely around to show - surprise! surprise! - Moses lacking in faith disobeying God! Unlike the writer of the Exodus story, the writer of the Numbers story regards the Israelites' complaint about the water shortage as a perfectly legitimate gripe delivered in a reasonable way. In this writer's opinion, Moses makes the mistake of regarding the people's complaint as one more typical outrageous sinful act of rebellion against God. In the Numbers version of the story God does not tell Moses to strike the rock with his rod. Instead, God instructs Moses simply to give a verbal command telling the rock to produce water.
But instead of obeying God's instructions to give a verbal command to the rock, Moses loses his patience with both the people and with God. Moses explodes with anger, "Listen, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock?" (Numbers 20:10b). Then, like a frustrated car owner kicking the tires when things aren't going right out on the road, Moses angrily vents his frustration by striking the rock with his rod. Although God is greatly displeased with Moses, the rock produces water because God simply did not want the people to die of thirst out in the hot climate of the wilderness. But striking the rock with the rod shows a lack of trust in God because Moses does not have either the commitment or the patience to follow God's precise instructions simply to give a verbal command to the rock. The consequence of Moses' action for disobeying God's instructions is that God tells him he will never be allowed to cross over into the Promised Land. In the Numbers version of the Massah and Meribah story, God says to Moses and his brother Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them" (Numbers 20:12).
It has been suggested that the main purpose of the Numbers story is to select and describe a specific event in the history of Israel that could serve as the reason and the explanation why Moses was not allowed to cross over into the Promised Land before he died. The Numbers story says that Moses' failure to reach the Promised Land was because of his act of sinful disobedience at the waters of Massah and Meribah. We really have no way to decide whether Exodus or Numbers is more accurate in describing what actually happened at Massah and Meribah. Regardless of whether Exodus or Numbers has the more accurate version of what actually happened when Moses produced water from the rock, the story in Exodus points out something true that did happen again and again and again in the history of the Israelites' many years of wandering through the wilderness toward the Promised Land. The Exodus story describes the Israelites as not trusting God in spite of all the many amazing and marvelous things God had done to bring them safely through the sea and provide daily rations of meat and manna to eat. Psalm 95 indicates that God became so displeased with the Israelites in the wilderness that God would not allow the current generation of Israelites who were the original group that had fled from Egypt to reach the Promised Land. Only a later generation of Israelites would cross over into the Promised Land. In Psalm 95 the Psalmist issues a call to worship and obedience and says, "O that today you would listen to (God's) voice! Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your ancestors tested me and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said 'They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways.' Therefore in my anger I swore, 'they shall not enter my rest' " (Psalm 95:7b--11).
We know how frustrating it is at home when no water comes out after we turn on the faucet and the water supply is down to nothing for any number of reasons - a frozen or broken water line, a plugged or corroded water pipe, a broken or burned--out pump in a well. Even if the situation is something we know from experience definitely will be fixed as soon as possible, sometimes we end up griping and groaning non--stop in an irritated manner to our family or the plumber or the city water department or the pump repair service and even God. And God is not necessarily displeased when we complain to God in an exasperated, irritated manner. The Psalms provide several examples of complaints directed toward God. Psalm 142 says, "With my voice I cry to [God]; with my voice I make supplication to [God]. I pour out my complaint ... I tell my trouble before [God]" (Psalm 142:1--2). But Psalm 142 then assumes that God can be trusted to respond to the complaint and the Psalmist says to God, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living ... [You] will deal bountifully with me" (Psalm 142:5, 7). The writer of the Exodus version of the Massah and Meribah story would maintain that the Israelites went way, way too far in their complaints, because they angrily accused Moses directly and God indirectly of allowing them to stumble and tumble into their terrible predicament. Their intense anger is so out of control that Moses fears for his life, and he complains to God, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me" (Exodus 17:4).
Like the Israelites in the Exodus story, we too can be tempted to accuse God of falling asleep on the job, even when God repeatedly has demonstrated his faithfulness. For example, regardless of how often God has made sure that our paycheck has enabled us to make it through the end of the month, the tremendous pressure of a tight financial squeeze can cause us to hit the panic button with uncontrollable outrage as if God has let us down whenever the usual payday shows up and then for some reason no check arrives in the mail or the payroll department's computer has crashed unexpectedly. We also can be tempted to lose patience and take matters into our own hands such as what Moses in the Numbers version of the Massah and Meribah story did when he struck the rock angrily with his rod instead of simply giving a verbal command as God had told him to do. And it can be very easy for us to justify our impulsive actions by telling ourselves, "God helps those who help themselves." According to this traditional saying, we really don't need to wait for God to guide us and help us. Instead we can take matters into our own hands, and we can go out and make something positive happen, trusting that God will bless whatever we do, because "God helps those who help themselves."
In our churches we are guided much more often than we might realize by the attitude that "God helps those who help themselves." Like Moses in the book of Numbers version of the Massah and Meribah story, churches sometimes lose patience and try to make things happen instead of giving God the first chance to guide our decisions and actions. For example, let us suppose that our church is concerned about the needs of low income families or senior citizens or teenagers. As a church we might become very eager to decide what service projects we could do that definitely will make a visible, positive difference, especially if the hour is running late in the evening and our planning group is getting tired and weary and extremely anxious to wrap things up and head home. So we quickly adopt a project such as collecting clothing for low income families or volunteering for the senior citizen "meals on wheels" program or raising money to send teenagers to church camp without first asking in prayer for God to show us what exactly are the real needs of low income families, senior citizens, or teenagers that God would assign specifically to us. We may assume that God certainly will approve and endorse the projects we have chosen, because, after all, "God helps those who help themselves."
At this point you may be thinking, "Hey, pastor, what's wrong with a church gathering clothes for the needy or taking meals to shut--ins or sending kids to church camp? In this terribly complicated world, pastor, at least there are some simple, positive, obvious things we can do that certainly God would approve." It can be said that, yes, God does bless and empower projects such as gathering clothing for the needy or transporting "meals on wheels" to the elderly or raising summer camp scholarship money for teenagers. But God is definitely displeased whenever a church quickly and repeatedly jumps into simple projects of positive action as an easy way out which avoids examining thoroughly and carefully the most stubborn, critical, and complex problems in the life of a community. Instead of limiting our service projects to gathering clothing for the needy or transporting "meals on wheels" to elderly shut--ins or raising summer camp scholarship money, the churches in a community may be asked by God to examine and tackle, first and foremost, some much more difficult issues such as the overcrowded open shelters for the homeless or the inadequate quality of life for many nursing home residents or the crisis of teenagers taking guns and knives to school. Now these are indeed very difficult "hard rock" issues that can seem just too overwhelming for us to face. Indeed life is filled with difficult "hard rock" issues that can leave us feeling helplessly "trapped between a rock and a hard place."
The Massah and Meribah stories in Exodus and Numbers are both worth reading. They serve to point out the "double jeopardy" of two temptations to which we are extremely vulnerable whenever we feel that in our lives the well has run dry and we have ended up "trapped between a rock and a hard place." Once we fall victim to the first temptation to accuse God of falling asleep on the job, we then become very susceptible to the second temptation which is to tell ourselves that "God helps those who help themselves" as we quickly take matters into our own hands rather than patiently place our survival needs in God's hands. God can make even the most stubborn rocks of life's most complicated situations produce sooner or later the miracle of fresh water. We need to discover what God can do and what God will do to make rocks produce water, whenever we humbly confess that the well has run dry and we are trapped helplessly between a rock and a hard place, truly unable to help ourselves and truly dependent upon God's mercy.
We know how this story turns out: God turned on the water, and nobody died of thirst! But the essential meaning of the story for us depends upon whether we are reading the original version of the story in the book of Exodus or a later version of the same story in the book of Numbers. The main theme of the Exodus story is to point out the Israelites' lack of faith in God's care for them. They complain bitterly that there is no water, while Moses remains faithful to God and defends God's faithfulness. Moses, as God's steadfast, faithful servant, produces water after striking the rock with his rod as ordered by God. However, in Numbers a different Old Testament writer who is familiar with the earlier Exodus story has turned things completely around to show - surprise! surprise! - Moses lacking in faith disobeying God! Unlike the writer of the Exodus story, the writer of the Numbers story regards the Israelites' complaint about the water shortage as a perfectly legitimate gripe delivered in a reasonable way. In this writer's opinion, Moses makes the mistake of regarding the people's complaint as one more typical outrageous sinful act of rebellion against God. In the Numbers version of the story God does not tell Moses to strike the rock with his rod. Instead, God instructs Moses simply to give a verbal command telling the rock to produce water.
But instead of obeying God's instructions to give a verbal command to the rock, Moses loses his patience with both the people and with God. Moses explodes with anger, "Listen, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock?" (Numbers 20:10b). Then, like a frustrated car owner kicking the tires when things aren't going right out on the road, Moses angrily vents his frustration by striking the rock with his rod. Although God is greatly displeased with Moses, the rock produces water because God simply did not want the people to die of thirst out in the hot climate of the wilderness. But striking the rock with the rod shows a lack of trust in God because Moses does not have either the commitment or the patience to follow God's precise instructions simply to give a verbal command to the rock. The consequence of Moses' action for disobeying God's instructions is that God tells him he will never be allowed to cross over into the Promised Land. In the Numbers version of the Massah and Meribah story, God says to Moses and his brother Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them" (Numbers 20:12).
It has been suggested that the main purpose of the Numbers story is to select and describe a specific event in the history of Israel that could serve as the reason and the explanation why Moses was not allowed to cross over into the Promised Land before he died. The Numbers story says that Moses' failure to reach the Promised Land was because of his act of sinful disobedience at the waters of Massah and Meribah. We really have no way to decide whether Exodus or Numbers is more accurate in describing what actually happened at Massah and Meribah. Regardless of whether Exodus or Numbers has the more accurate version of what actually happened when Moses produced water from the rock, the story in Exodus points out something true that did happen again and again and again in the history of the Israelites' many years of wandering through the wilderness toward the Promised Land. The Exodus story describes the Israelites as not trusting God in spite of all the many amazing and marvelous things God had done to bring them safely through the sea and provide daily rations of meat and manna to eat. Psalm 95 indicates that God became so displeased with the Israelites in the wilderness that God would not allow the current generation of Israelites who were the original group that had fled from Egypt to reach the Promised Land. Only a later generation of Israelites would cross over into the Promised Land. In Psalm 95 the Psalmist issues a call to worship and obedience and says, "O that today you would listen to (God's) voice! Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your ancestors tested me and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said 'They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways.' Therefore in my anger I swore, 'they shall not enter my rest' " (Psalm 95:7b--11).
We know how frustrating it is at home when no water comes out after we turn on the faucet and the water supply is down to nothing for any number of reasons - a frozen or broken water line, a plugged or corroded water pipe, a broken or burned--out pump in a well. Even if the situation is something we know from experience definitely will be fixed as soon as possible, sometimes we end up griping and groaning non--stop in an irritated manner to our family or the plumber or the city water department or the pump repair service and even God. And God is not necessarily displeased when we complain to God in an exasperated, irritated manner. The Psalms provide several examples of complaints directed toward God. Psalm 142 says, "With my voice I cry to [God]; with my voice I make supplication to [God]. I pour out my complaint ... I tell my trouble before [God]" (Psalm 142:1--2). But Psalm 142 then assumes that God can be trusted to respond to the complaint and the Psalmist says to God, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living ... [You] will deal bountifully with me" (Psalm 142:5, 7). The writer of the Exodus version of the Massah and Meribah story would maintain that the Israelites went way, way too far in their complaints, because they angrily accused Moses directly and God indirectly of allowing them to stumble and tumble into their terrible predicament. Their intense anger is so out of control that Moses fears for his life, and he complains to God, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me" (Exodus 17:4).
Like the Israelites in the Exodus story, we too can be tempted to accuse God of falling asleep on the job, even when God repeatedly has demonstrated his faithfulness. For example, regardless of how often God has made sure that our paycheck has enabled us to make it through the end of the month, the tremendous pressure of a tight financial squeeze can cause us to hit the panic button with uncontrollable outrage as if God has let us down whenever the usual payday shows up and then for some reason no check arrives in the mail or the payroll department's computer has crashed unexpectedly. We also can be tempted to lose patience and take matters into our own hands such as what Moses in the Numbers version of the Massah and Meribah story did when he struck the rock angrily with his rod instead of simply giving a verbal command as God had told him to do. And it can be very easy for us to justify our impulsive actions by telling ourselves, "God helps those who help themselves." According to this traditional saying, we really don't need to wait for God to guide us and help us. Instead we can take matters into our own hands, and we can go out and make something positive happen, trusting that God will bless whatever we do, because "God helps those who help themselves."
In our churches we are guided much more often than we might realize by the attitude that "God helps those who help themselves." Like Moses in the book of Numbers version of the Massah and Meribah story, churches sometimes lose patience and try to make things happen instead of giving God the first chance to guide our decisions and actions. For example, let us suppose that our church is concerned about the needs of low income families or senior citizens or teenagers. As a church we might become very eager to decide what service projects we could do that definitely will make a visible, positive difference, especially if the hour is running late in the evening and our planning group is getting tired and weary and extremely anxious to wrap things up and head home. So we quickly adopt a project such as collecting clothing for low income families or volunteering for the senior citizen "meals on wheels" program or raising money to send teenagers to church camp without first asking in prayer for God to show us what exactly are the real needs of low income families, senior citizens, or teenagers that God would assign specifically to us. We may assume that God certainly will approve and endorse the projects we have chosen, because, after all, "God helps those who help themselves."
At this point you may be thinking, "Hey, pastor, what's wrong with a church gathering clothes for the needy or taking meals to shut--ins or sending kids to church camp? In this terribly complicated world, pastor, at least there are some simple, positive, obvious things we can do that certainly God would approve." It can be said that, yes, God does bless and empower projects such as gathering clothing for the needy or transporting "meals on wheels" to the elderly or raising summer camp scholarship money for teenagers. But God is definitely displeased whenever a church quickly and repeatedly jumps into simple projects of positive action as an easy way out which avoids examining thoroughly and carefully the most stubborn, critical, and complex problems in the life of a community. Instead of limiting our service projects to gathering clothing for the needy or transporting "meals on wheels" to elderly shut--ins or raising summer camp scholarship money, the churches in a community may be asked by God to examine and tackle, first and foremost, some much more difficult issues such as the overcrowded open shelters for the homeless or the inadequate quality of life for many nursing home residents or the crisis of teenagers taking guns and knives to school. Now these are indeed very difficult "hard rock" issues that can seem just too overwhelming for us to face. Indeed life is filled with difficult "hard rock" issues that can leave us feeling helplessly "trapped between a rock and a hard place."
The Massah and Meribah stories in Exodus and Numbers are both worth reading. They serve to point out the "double jeopardy" of two temptations to which we are extremely vulnerable whenever we feel that in our lives the well has run dry and we have ended up "trapped between a rock and a hard place." Once we fall victim to the first temptation to accuse God of falling asleep on the job, we then become very susceptible to the second temptation which is to tell ourselves that "God helps those who help themselves" as we quickly take matters into our own hands rather than patiently place our survival needs in God's hands. God can make even the most stubborn rocks of life's most complicated situations produce sooner or later the miracle of fresh water. We need to discover what God can do and what God will do to make rocks produce water, whenever we humbly confess that the well has run dry and we are trapped helplessly between a rock and a hard place, truly unable to help ourselves and truly dependent upon God's mercy.
