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/
The Noontimes 