Daily Post for May 14, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Exodus 33 verses 5 and 6:

5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’” 6 Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

The Israelites are stuck.  Mt. Horeb was the sight of their idolatrous worship of the Golden Calf and because of their unfaithfulness there the LORD tells them He will now no longer go with them into the Promised Land lest He burn them up.  Knowing they will never make it through the Wilderness alone, the Israelites begin to mourn.  The LORD sees their act of contrition and relents; He will go with them if they strip themselves of the ornaments they are wearing.

In the Bible the act stripping or being stripped is always an act of humiliation.  To be stripped of anything is to be exposed - naked, vulnerable, and ashamed.  It is to be "disgraced".  I am sorry to say that it is also always a necessary part of the journey.  

No one makes it through the Wilderness of life without being stripped of something very precious, valuable, and identity-giving.  This may be a title, or a position, or an income, or an important relationship, or some symbol of status.  Whatever it is, we can be guaranteed that we will have to lose something very valuable in the Wilderness before moving forward.  We must be humiliated into the Promised Land - and that's a good thing.  As the old hymn says, "My richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride."

A couple of years ago Lance Armstrong was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France titles.  Seven times he crossed the finish line wearing the yellow jersey, and it turns out he was cheating every time.  He was an international disgrace.  

I am sure it was humiliating for Lance to be stripped of those titles as day must have felt like the worst day of his life.  But I know it was not the worst day of his life; instead it was a necessary day in his journey to an even greater finish line.  The moment of disgrace can also be the moment of grace.  I hope he can some to see that.

I hope you can too.