The disgrace of the Israelites was their loss of independence and centuries of slavery in Egypt. For many it seemed that God had also abandoned them. The Exodus experience was painful and tumultuous.
Even after being led to freedom with awesome signs and wonders, the people found it difficult to trust God during the long trek through the wilderness. They complained, conspired, rebelled and tried the patience of Moses and God on numerous occasions, even though God continually provided for them. They were their own worst enemy — their weakness and their vacillating, doubt-ridden attitudes were self-destructive.
God kept the people in the wilderness for 40 years — long enough for the slave generation to die off and a new “lean and mean” generation to be formed. This new generation, inured to hardship and trained to trust in God absolutely, was at last poised to take possession of the Promised Land. The manna provided in the wilderness was at an end, but God would continue to be with them in a different way. The people were given a land and a future — the disgrace was a thing of the past. They had to remember what they had learned in the wilderness and what God had done for them. Above all, they were to remember the corrosive and destructive consequences of doubt, negative thinking and spiritual infidelity.
We too have to learn how to remain spiritually focused even when supports do not seem to be present. We discover who and what we are spiritually when we are confronted with loss, struggle, weakness or difficulties of any sort.
There is a disheartening tendency to live out religious faith as “business as usual” with a thin layer of piety and God-talk. People are quite capable of ensuring that their “faith” does not impinge on their habitual way of life or their attitudes. Paul is quite insistent that “being in Christ” is far more than belonging to a particular religion and it has far more radical consequences. “Being in Christ” is a complete surrender to Christ with openness and docility to the transforming effects of the Spirit.
The end result should be putting on the mind and heart of Christ — in other words, becoming a new person. Throughout the New Testament there is a constant emphasis of the new creation in Christ — the first Christians clearly believed that Christ came to make people and the world very different.
The well-known and beloved parable of the prodigal son in a sense expresses the spiritual principles of the exodus experience of the Israelites. The reader might wonder why the elderly father in the story caved in so quickly to the younger son’s demands. He had to learn the lessons of life from his own struggles and failures. No one could give him this wisdom, it had to be earned the hard way (as most wisdom is!) He thought of himself as separate and “free” of his homeland, household, family and father, and that is the condition of most people.
We delude ourselves by thinking we are the centre of our own little universe, separate from others and distant from our heavenly homeland and God the Father. As with the son in the story, the separation is in the mind.
The hard knocks of his life awakened the young son to the fact that he had a home, father and family, and that his insistence on absolute autonomy had brought him nothing but pain and misery. The father had never really left him but had waited every day, scanning the horizon, hoping for the son’s safe return. There was no talk of judgment or punishment, just relief and joy. The elder son was unwilling to join the celebration. He had played a cagey game of perfectionism, control and risk aversion mingled with a strong sense of entitlement. He was a prisoner of fear, isolation and separation even while living under his Father’s roof — the condition of many believers.
A few of the younger son’s hard knocks might have taught him that it’s all about love, grace and mercy — not perfection or manipulation