Earth’s Mouth

Num 16:26-17:2         11/23/2017

The Lord directed the people to separate from the tents of Dathan, Abiram and Korah. The earth opened and swallowed the men, their families and all their possessions.

Wrath.

At God’s command, the earth had become an untrustworthy, carnivorous beast.

Just reading this vignette is disturbing because the earth is doing something so un-earth-like. Whether I think about it or not – I count on the earth to not move.

The earth is not supposed to move. That is the deal that I’ve made with the earth. It doesn’t move and I depend upon it.

I suppose it is little more than a curious scientific fact that the earth is actually always moving. The motion is for me imperceptible, but it is real.

And I’m OK with science as long as it doesn’t affect me – as long as I don’t perceive the earth moving.

Noticeable quaking, however, is unacceptable. It lays waste every assumption of stability that I have. I have my heuristics. I don’t like to be challenged in this way.

I really don’t like to be challenged in this way.

I encounter God once again. Every time I do, He turns out to be a little bigger and a little more powerful than I imagined.

“Who is like the LORD our God” Psalm 113:5