Village Shepherd

At a very young age, Jamie discovered that he was excellent at Maths. While the other children were struggling through their multiplication tables to find the answer to a problem, Jamie knew immediately. The answer was in his head. He loved the patterns formed by numbers and he could discern beauty in Maths.

When he was eight, Jamie was chosen to represent the school in a Maths Olympiad. It was like a huge examination of all the children in the country who were best at Maths, in a fun setting. Jamie was thrilled. He was determined to come out top, partly because he'd win a big prize for his school and he knew he'd be a hero if that happened, partly because he'd win a good prize for himself too and partly because he knew his parents would be immensely proud of him.

By the end of the Olympiad, Jamie knew he'd done well. He'd answered all the question easily and he was full of confidence as the youngsters all sat down to enjoy well-earned orange juice and cakes. But as they all began to chat together, Jamie realised that he'd made a silly error in one of his answers.

Jamie spent the whole evening in prayer, pleading with God to either miraculously change Jamie's answer to the offending question, or to somehow miraculously make the question fit Jamie's answer. He knelt by his bed and begged and pleaded and bargained with God until he was so tired that he climbed into bed and fell asleep.

Next morning, Jamie waited in the hall at Assembly to hear the results of the Olympiad. The Head Teacher started by praising Jamie and saying how proud of him the school was. Then he said that Jamie had done brilliantly by coming fourth in the Olympiad. Three people had had perfect papers, and Jamie had just one tiny mistake which meant that he had a “Highly Commended” certificate, but no prize.

Jamie was distraught and vowed never to pray again as God had let him down so badly.

It's perhaps understandable that an eight-year-old child should react in such a way when his prayers aren't answered exactly as he thinks they should be answered, but less understandable when adults are still stuck in an eight-year-old time warp as far as prayer is concerned. There are many adults who see God as a miracle worker and lose all faith if the miracles, however bizarre and unlikely, fail to materialise.

But when we read stories in the Old Testament about Abraham bargaining with God and winning, and today's story from Exodus about Moses pleading with God to change God's mind and winning, perhaps it isn't so surprising that people think God can be bought. Many people bargain with God, promising all sorts of wonderful future lives of prayer and churchgoing if only God will do this one small thing for them. But this isn't the sort of prayer which produces results in the 21st century, so did it really produce results in the 12th century BC?

The people had fallen into the trap which has ensnared unwary human beings since the beginning of time, that of worshipping materialism. While Moses was well out of the way, talking to God on their behalf, they were busy falling into bad ways. They collected gold jewellry from everyone and melted it down, then recast the gold as a calf, which they put on a pedestal and worshipped. They were only doing what came naturally at the time, for all the surrounding tribes had gods which could be seen and touched. Only the Israelites had an invisible God, who was unseen by anyone and only heard by Moses. Like all those who find themselves standing alone within a sea of opposition or hostility or simply doing things differently, the Israelites felt beleaguered. They decided to follow the crowd.

According to the story, God was so furious with them for their lapse that God was minded to extinguish every tribe and person. God wanted to start again, populating the land only with the family and descendants of Moses. But Moses was horrified at God's angry reaction and defended his people. He pleaded with God for them, reminding God how God had led them out of slavery in Egypt and reminding God of the promises he had made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This apparently made God stop and think, and God changed his mind about annihilating the people.

Whilst it is true that the God of the Old Testament sometimes bears little resemblance to the God of love we meet in the New Testament, it is still hard to believe that God omnipotent was unable to grasp the realities of his action for himself but needed to have pointed out by Moses. It is also hard to believe that God could ever murder his children or could be persuaded to change his mind. The sort of God who changes his mind if the stakes are high enough, is the sort of God to whom Jamie prayed and who failed to answer.

But the God we meet in the New Testament is a God who is so concerned about every individual human being, no matter how good or how sinful that human being is, that he would search high and low to find those human beings who are lost and carry them gently home. This God is not the sort of God who performs miracles to order, but he is so deeply involved with human beings that he will always be there for them even when they reject him. This God supports and strengthens, loves and comforts, and enables every human being to become more human and to reach their own very highest potential.

This God can never be bought, but he can relate to us and he can love us more than we would dream possible. This is the God who was revealed not just in part, in the framework of the thinking of primitive humanity in Old Testament times, but who was revealed in all his full splendour and glory through Jesus Christ.

All we like sheep might go astray, but this God will search until he finds us and never let us go again.