land – The Noontimes

Numbers 34: The Lovely Paradox

Numbers 34: The Lovely Paradox

Tuesday, August 26, 2025

We have tackled this theme before: The importance of knowing our appropriate limits. We have reflected on the subtle ways in which vanity creeps into our lives, allowing us to believe that we do not need God or worse – that God does not exist at all. We already know that if we are not prudent, humble and watchful, arrogance will make a stealthy entrance into our lives. We preen a bit too much when we are complemented. We allow ourselves to forget that it is God who creates us and fills us with the talents we so easily take for granted. When we know our limits – and when we know God’s beneficence – we keep well away from the subtle snares of pride.

We may puzzle a bit over why the Lord is so particular about dividing the tribes into designated territories, and if so then we will want to recall that the land from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River Euphrates is part of God’s covenant promise to Abraham in Genesis 15:18. The Lord understands that unless demarcations are made we humans will constantly squabble over control. The Lord also knows that once we relinquish ourselves to God’s boundaries, we learn to rely on God rather than ourselves.

We may object to this laying out of lines and the designation of supervisors. We may believe that God does not really understand what it feels like to be in our shoes. We may think that our burdens are too heavy, our challenges to great. We may even think that God does not understand us, and in this we would be incorrect.

For the lovely paradox is this . . .

When we learn to rely on God alone for everything we are and do, we will find it easier to remain within the human limits that define us.

When we learn to thank God for all that we have and all that we are, we will find it easier to empty ourselves so that God might enter.

When we learn to ask God for help in everything we do, we will find it easier to overcome the obstacles in our path.

In doing all of this, we hand ourselves over to God.

In doing all of this, we find our own divinity. And this is the lovely paradox.

A re-post from Wednesday, August 3, 2011.

Image from: http://midwestpoet.wordpress.com/2008/07/03/stones/

August 26, 2025

Abraham, covenant promise, Euphrates River, Genesis 15:18, land, limits, trust God

Jeremiah 32: A Pledge of Land

Jeremiah 32: A Pledge of Land

Monday, September 18, 2023

A Favorite from August 29, 2010.

God made a promise to Abraham to bring him descendants, renown and a land in which his progeny might be secure. In return, Abraham and his descendants were to obey God, worship him only, and keep to him always. Today we read about a time when the Promised Land is breaking into factions and falling into hostile hands. The covenant into which the chosen had entered has come undone; the descendants of Abraham have been taken into exile to be scattered by the four winds. All looks bleak and yet, God tells Jeremiah, redemption, healing, transformation and restoration are all possible. Indeed, all of this is at hand. This is how much God loves us.

Some few of us prefer the solitary life but most humans look for security in a landholding either individually or as part of a group. Private homes, rented and purchased apartments, communes, even tent cities of the homeless indicate this common yearning to have a place we call home and in which we might be secure. Many of us go home for a holiday. We look toward the end of a day when we might go home to kick off the worries of work to rejuvenate for the next morning. The people who had once known the protection and security of the pillar of fire and smoke in the desert now suffer the insecurity of not knowing where they will lay their head at night. They are vulnerable to the whims of capricious captors. The siege works have arrived at the city to breach it; the city will be handed over to the Chaldeans who are attacking it, amid sword, famine, and pestilence.

And what does God reply when his people ask to be rescued from these hopeless circumstances? Is anything impossible to me?

It is true that in the next portion of this story the people are handed over to their attackers as a consequence of their having abandoned the terms of their covenant with God. It is true that in this story God puts Israel out of sight for the incense they burned to Baal and the libations they poured to strange gods. It is also true that even as God promises to hand over the corrupt ones to the king of Babylon he also will gather the lost together from all lands to which they were banished. He will bring them back to the same place to settle them in safety. The Lord God says, they shall be my people and I will be their God. One heart and one way I will give them that they may hold me in awe always, to their own good and that of their children after them. I will make them an eternal covenant, never cease doing good to them; into their hearts I will put an overpowering love of me, that they may never depart from me. I will take delight in doing good to them: I will replant them firmly in this land, with all my heart and soul.

Perhaps the soul yearns for the security of a firm relationship with God just as the mind yearns for a pledge of land through which to be secure. Imagine what a world it might be if we sought the security of the pledge of the heart rather than a pledge of land.

Image from: https://www.heartlight.org/spurgeon/0630-pm.html

September 18, 2023

Abraham, Chaldeans, God does the impossible, God’s love, land, pledge of the heart, security

Jeremiah 32: A Pledge of Land

Sunday, September 6, 2020

Jeremiah 32

A Pledge of Land

In a time of pandemic and social unrest, we return to a favorite reflection.

God made a promise to Abraham to bring him descendants, renown and a land in which his progeny might be secure. In return, Abraham and his descendants were to obey God, worship him only, and keep to him always. Today we read about a time when the Promised Land is breaking into factions and falling into hostile hands. The covenant into which the chosen had entered has come undone; the descendants of Abraham have been taken into exile to be scattered by the four winds. All looks bleak and yet, God tells Jeremiah, redemption, healing, transformation and restoration are all possible. Indeed, they are at hand. This is how much God loves us.

In a time of pandemic and social unrest, we have s promise to remember.

Some few of us prefer the solitary life but most humans look for security in a landholding either individually or as part of a group. Private homes, rented and purchased apartments, communes, even tent cities of the homeless indicate this common yearning to have a place we call home and in which we might be secure. Many of us go home for a holiday. We look toward the end of a day when we might go home to kick off the worries of work to rejuvenate for the next morning. The people who had once known the protection and security of the pillar of fire and smoke in the desert now suffer the insecurity of not knowing where they will lay their head at night. hey are vulnerable to the whims of capricious captors. The siegeworks have arrived at the city to breach it; the city will be handed over to the Chaldeans who are attacking it, amid sword, famine, and pestilence.

In a time of pandemic and social unrest, we reconsider the idea of home and security. And we remebr thata many in our world have neither. Yet, God abides.

And what does God reply when the faithful who ask to be rescued from these hopeless circumstances? Is anything impossible to me?

It is true that in the next portion of this story the people are handed over of to their attackers as a consequence of their having abandoned the terms of their covenant with God. It is true that in this story God puts Israel out of sight for the incense they burned to Baal and the libations they poured to strange gods. It is also true that even as God promises to hand over the corrupt ones to the king of Babylon he also will gather the lost together from all lands to which they were banished. He will bring them back to the same place to settle them in safety. The Lord God says, they shall be my people and I will be their God. One heart and one way I will give them that they may hold me in awe always, to their own good and that of their children after them. I will make them an eternal covenant, never cease doing good to them; into their hearts I will put an overpowering love of me, that they may never depart from me. I will take delight in doing good to them: I will replant them firmly in this land, with all my heart and soul.

In a time of pandemic and social unrest, we hold these words close to our hearts.

Perhaps the soul yearns for the security of a firm relationship with God just as the mind years for a pledge of land through which to be secure. Imagine what a world it might be if we sought the security of the pledge of the heart rather than a pledge of land. Imagine what a world it might be if we helped one another to find this security.

In a time of pandemic and social unrest, we return to the transforming wisdom and saving grace of God.

Written on August 29, 2010 and posted today as a Favorite.

Image above from: http://godsdailyblessings.blogspot.com/2011/07/jeremiah-3217-nothing-is-too-hard-for.html

For an audio version of Jeremiah 32 with sound effects, click on the image below or go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9n7_7vJ5fM

September 6, 2020

descendants, God does the impossible, land, pledge of the heart, the promised land

Tag: land

Numbers 34: The Lovely Paradox

Share this:

Jeremiah 32: A Pledge of Land

Share this:

Jeremiah 32: A Pledge of Land

Share this: