There is a difference between trusting God and wanting to understand what He is doing. This week’s reading brings that tension into focus. Moses turns to God and says, “If I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways, that I may know You.” (Exodus 33:13) At first, it sounds right, but the more I think about it, the more I am not sure what he is really asking for. Is he asking to know God, or is he asking to understand what God is doing? Because those are not the same thing.

Moses had already seen more than most people ever will. He saw Egypt, what was considered the greatest kingdom of its time, a power people looked at as untouchable, even god-like, brought under God’s judgment and brought down. He saw Pharaoh, who was seen by his own people as a god, stand powerless in the face of it. He saw God’s acts of wonder unfold right in front of him, and slowly, what people saw as the most powerful became powerless. And then he stood at the sea. He saw God make a way for the children of Israel, and at the same time, he saw the final judgment on Egypt as Pharaoh and his army were drowned. He did not hear about these things; he lived and experienced them. And still, after everything he had seen, he asks to know God’s ways.

This is where it becomes real for me. We have God’s Word, we know His promises, and we can speak about His faithfulness, but knowing all of that does not make the reality easier. I hear people outside of Israel say, “Trust God. Stand firm. These things must happen.” And they are right, but there is a difference between saying that and living here.

For those of us who live in this reality, this is not an idea. It is something we carry every day. What we have gone through over the past two and a half years, and really as a nation for much longer, is very challenging to say the least. And in that place, trust is something you must choose again and again.

For me, the only place I can hold on to is God Himself and His promises, not because I understand what He is doing, but because I know who He is. Maybe this is the reason I find great encouragement in Ezekiel 37:1:

The hand of the LORD was upon me… and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones… and they were very dry.”

There are times when that vision feels like it is becoming reality. You look around, and it feels dry, not only physically, but spiritually as well. There is a sense of weariness. People are tired. Some are holding on, but not in the same way. And God asks, “Can these bones live?” If I look at what is in front of me, the answer is clear. But Ezekiel answers, “Lord GOD, You know.” (Ezekiel 37:3b) And then things begin to come together, but there is still no life. You can see it forming, but it is not there yet. That is a hard place to be.

And then God speaks again:

Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life.
Ezekiel 37:9

Until that moment, everything is still incomplete. And then the breath comes, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. And God says:

“These bones are the whole house of Israel… ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished.’” And yet God answers it: “I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people… I will bring you into the land of Israel. I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I am the LORD. I have spoken, and I will do it.”
Ezekiel 37: 11-14

This is what I hold on to. Not what I see, not what it looks like around me, but what He has said. Because what He speaks does not remain empty words; He does it.

Moses asked to know God’s ways, but what carried him was not knowing the whole plan. It was that God was with him. And that is still what carries us.

Shabbat Shalom,
Moran