For the season of Lent, we offer a daily devotional based on a scripture reading for that day (RCL Daily Readings) and a poem that is relevant to that passage of scripture. In the traditional 40-day format of Lent, we offer these meditations for six days each week (no Sundays).
We offer in this series a broad selection of classic and contemporary poems from diverse poets that stir our imaginations with thoughts of how the biblical text speaks to us in the twenty-first century.
Daily Poetry Devotional Lent 2021
Week 4
[ Thurs. 3/11 ] [ Fri. 3/12 ] [ Sat. 3/13 ] [ Mon. 3/15 ] [ Tues. 3/16 ] [ Wed. 3/17 ] [ Thurs 3/18 ]
Day 24
Tuesday March 16
Numbers 20:1-13
In the first month the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.
2 Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. 3 They quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord! 4 Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this wilderness, that we and our livestock should die here? 5 Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!”
6 Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. 7 The Lord said to Moses, 8 “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”
9 So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”
13 These were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord and where he was proved holy among them.
Moses
Madeleine L’Engle
SNIPPET:
…
Drink water from this rock.
But the rock moves on before us.
Go with it and drink.
I’m tired. Can’t you stop for a while?
You have already tarried too long.
But if I am to follow you I must know your name.
I will be that I will be.
…
[ Read The Full Poem ]
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IMAGE CREDIT: Temptation in the Wilderness.
Painting by Briton Riviere (1898)
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