LOVE IN THE WILDERNESS

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In the first reading this past Thursday Paul is giving a summary of the history of God’s dealings with the Chosen People to the assembly in the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia. Here's part of what he says:

The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and exalted the people during their sojourn in the land of Egypt. With uplifted arm he led them out of it and for about forty years he put up with them in the desert. When he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. (Acts 13:17-19)

There’s a phrase in this passage that seems odd in the context of God’s “exalting” the nation, leading them out, and giving them the promised land:“he put up with them in the desert.” 

This jarring note in the midst of God's loving deeds sent me to my Greek New Testament and put me on the trail of a timely insight. It seems that there is an alternate reading, i.e. a different Greek word, that shows up in place of the one the translators used. And this alternate reading fits the context much better.

If you change one letter, a phi to a pi then etrophophoresen,“to put up with” becomes instead etropophoresen , “to take care of.”

Interestingly one commentator notes that his second word “to take care of” actually shows up in the ancient texts more often than the word “to put up with.” Most translations that I looked at, even in French and Spanish, give the translation “[God] took care of them.”

And certainly this fits better in the context of God’s delivering His people from Egypt, guiding them through the desert and bringing them into the Land of Milk and Honey. I can’t tell you why the translators of the version in the lectionary chose to go with the other variant.

Of course, the Lord certainly did “put up with” the fickleness and infidelity and cowardice of the Israelites for forty years, the same as He "puts up with" my sinfulness and yours. But I’d like to suggest why we might prefer one reading over the other in this time of pandemic.

What Do I ask of God?

Look at these two different ways you and I can relate to God, depending on what we think God is like: Does the Lord “put up with his people for forty years in the desert” or does the Lord “surround his people with care?” I know which version of God I prefer.

When I find myself in the wilderness, in some trackless waste filled with unknown threats (like a pandemic?), I don’t pray to God to  “put up with me.” No, when I’m wandering in the wilderness, I ask the Lord to “take care of me.” The Jerusalem Bible has, “[God] surrounded them with care in the desert." 

Imitating God’s Love Today
 
Jesus told us that our love for one another should imitate God’s love: self-sacrificing and boundless. So it matters who our God is.

Let me end with this timely question: In this wilderness time of pandemic, when we’re confined to our homes in close quarters with others, shall we settle for imitating the God of etrophophoresen and  just “put up with one another,” or shall we reach out in self-giving love and imitate the God of etropophoresen, who didn’t just “put up with” his people, but “surrounded them with care” during their time in the wilderness?


In Thursday’s Gospel Jesus has just finished washing his disciples’ feet and is about to speak to them. I don’t think that he’s just going to invite them to put up with one another.