Retracting

Stop the presses! (Okay, that’s archaic.  Let’s say…”Correction!  I was wrong!”)  In today’s episode of the Lifting Her Voice podcast, I said that the generation preparing to take possession of the land was so young at the time of the exodus that they could not have taken responsibility for any situation.  I implied that they would not have remembered much of what was happening at the exodus.  I am retracting both.

As you probably already know, I need to be ahead of the actual airing of the podcast episodes; reading and preparing scripts, recording, and editing (well, Mitch is editing).  On the day of this writing, I read  Deuteronomy 11.  I was so confused about Moses’ emphatic statement in that chapter that these Israelites ‘had seen with their own eyes” the signs and wonders of God.  I was about to email my pastor when started remembering the facts of the story.   Then I also found an article on hermeneutics.  Hermeneutics is the study of interpretation.

The first census included all men twenty years old or more.  What was I thinking?  A young man who is 19 ½ years old would certainly have seen with his own eyes the plagues, the crossing of the Red Sea, manna, water from the rock, and all the other wonders God had performed in the previous two years.  But.  He would not have been included in the census.  So, Moses was not only speaking of this generation’s parents.  Certainly, they elders bore the responsibility of their choices.  But much of the current generation – 38 years later – would clearly have eye witnesses of God’s “strong hand and outstretched arm.”  There is also the question of the Levites, who were not included in the census.  Many of them were no doubt in the generation who were getting ready to cross over in the Promised Land.   

We Wrestle

Now, I could have corrected the podcast.  This discovery was made nearly a week before airing.  Indeed, my first impulse was to do just that.  But frankly, I don’t think that’s a clear representation of how we study the Bible or how we hear and respond to what the Holy Spirit is saying to us. 

God the Holy Spirt – the third Person of the Trinity – is living and active inside us.  We have a relationship with Him and we grow and change as a result of hearing His voice.  And sometimes, like Jacob, we wrestle with Him.  But He is faithful t mold us, and shape us, and yes, even change us.  Remember 2 Timothy 3:16-17.  All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.  This goes for women too. 

We’re not always gonna get it right the first time.  I praise Him that He is patient and kind and faithful to correct me.  I praise Him that I can rest in this.  Please be as patient with yourself in this process as He is. 

Don’t forget to share your thoughts with me in the comments below, or at Lifting Her Voice.com, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.