The Priest and his Wife

 

Walking Without Talking

May 21, 2012 at 5:15pm

Bishop Emilio Alvarez

 

"After that Moses and Aaron approached Pharaoh. They said, "God, the God of Israel, says, 'Free my people so that they can hold a festival for me in the wilderness.'" (Exodus 5:1 MSG)
Single Line, Straight Ahead, No Talking! These were our elementary school hallway instructions. Rigid, strict and sometimes even harsh but always for our safety and protection and ultimately for the assurance of our determined destination.

The word Wilderness in the Hebrew is (Midabar) which can mean (Mi) without and (dabar) speech. Thus God's instructions to Moses and ultimate demand to Pharaoh, was that His people would be set free to hold a festival in the place "Without Speech." Perhaps God desired to correlate the crying He had heard in slavery with the many voices of excessiveness (Exodus 3:7-9) thus teaching Israel and consequently us today of a true and factual reality: "Talking does Not Guarantee Communication." and" Busyness does not Guarantee Success" The Wilderness then, is the place of "No Talking" but of listening attentively, creating first a holy festival in our own hearts and minds fueled by an ongoing desire to "listen and add to our Learning." (Prov 1:5). A desire born out of a holy passion to hear, know and follow after God after much time engaged in one way conversations (Psalm 46:10).

The Wilderness lesson is apparent: the excessive talking and speech ushered by the world and its media driven agendas along with the drama that is life always lived rushed, hurried and without pause can cause us to become part of the consistent crying out without regard for instructions, here in our immensely large hallway. Time then must be devoted daily to the art of wilderness listening for it is there that God demands  "Single File, Straight Ahead, No Talking" in order to assure our determined destination.

 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD" (Deu 6:4).

+E.A