12th Day of Lent

Thursday, March 18, 2025

Numbers 14:10b-24, NRSVUE

Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

But Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for in your might you brought up this people from among them, and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people, for you, O Lord, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go in front of them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if you kill this people as one, then the nations who have heard about you will say, ‘It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them that he has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ And now, therefore, let the power of the Lord be great in the way that you promised when you spoke, saying,

‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children to the third and the fourth generation.’

“Forgive the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have pardoned this people, from Egypt even until now.”

Then the Lord said, “I do forgive, just as you have asked; nevertheless, as I live and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the people who have seen my glory and the signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and yet have tested me these ten times and have not obeyed my voice shall see the land that I swore to give to their ancestors; none of those who despised me shall see it. But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me wholeheartedly, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.

Reflection - Deacon Allison Wilcox, Grace Lutheran Church Royersford

These days, you hear a lot about “speaking truth to power.” There are folks mobilizing all over this world ready to speak up for the powerless to those who are in power. It’s become commonplace to protest and to confront the powerful whose policies harm the most vulnerable.

In Exodus, Moses spoke truth to the most powerful. Moses spoke truth to God. Moses tried to change God’s mind.

Have you ever done that? Tried to change God’s mind? Have your prayers to the Holy One been filled with longing for hope?

When Martin Luther was on his deathbed, his final words were these: “We are all beggars. This is true.” For Luther, the most honest prayer we have is when we beg God for mercy. When we cry out for help.

I’ve found a lot of truth in this. Often the times I feel closest to God isn’t when I stand before a congregation saying the day’s intercessory prayers. Instead, it is when I am at my lowest, and my prayer is “have mercy,” or “please,” or sometimes even just the word, “help.”

It is then when I surrender to my own powerlessness, that the Powerful One feels near enough to hold me fast. The answer to that cry for help might not come right away, or at all. But the relationship with God feels stronger and closer than ever, and I know that I am not alone as I face whatever is to come.

Prayer: Have mercy, Holy One, and hold me fast. Amen.