The Hidden hand of God: A Conversation

by Ann Fritschel and Gwen Sayler

Thoughts from Gwen and Ann:
Having had fun teaching together at Wartburg Theological Seminary for a number of years, we welcomed the opportunity to work together on the 2008–2009 Bible study for Lutheran Woman Today, "The Hidden Hand of God: Wisdom Stories from Ruth, Daniel, and Esther." As our students would be quick to tell you, we delight in friendly competition and banter. We trust this has carried over a little bit into our joint writing project.

We began pondering how to approach writing the Bible study as we begin most of our joint projects — over pizza at our favorite café. The editors of LWT had requested that we focus on writings from the wisdom tradition (which includes, for example, the books of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes, as well as Ruth, Daniel 1 — 6, and Esther). After listing on the back of a napkin all the major wisdom themes we could think of, we decided that a helpful approach would be to limit our focus to several themes that carry through all the books we will invite you to read.

Being a tad obsessive about alliteration, Gwen fixated on the list of themes until the three "h" words you will discover throughout the study appeared. Being equally obsessive about larger theological issues, Ann focused on the setting of each biblical book in the wisdom and wider biblical traditions. Once we had all this done — and the pizza crumbs were cleared away — we divided up the writing assignments. Ann is the author of the sessions on Esther and Daniel 1— 2. Gwen is responsible for the sessions that focus on Ruth and Daniel 3 — 6.

Thoughts from Ann:
For a long time I have been fascinated by the wisdom tradition in the Bible. Unlike the prophets who received direct revelations from God, the writers of the wisdom literature discerned divine revelation in a more subtle way. You do not often find "Thus says the Lord" in the wisdom tradition. Instead, the inspired writers of the wisdom tradition discerned God’s will and teaching through looking at creation. They observed those ways of life that led to wholeness and blessing, to God’s will for all creation, and then encouraged others to follow in these "paths of righteousness" and "ways of peace."

I spiritually resonate with this literature in a couple of ways. I don’t often hear the voice of God directly speaking to me; it is usually a more gentle inspiration as I read Scripture, worship, pray, enjoy nature and creation, and converse with others around me. Often, for me, the ways God is at work in the world are subtle and more easily recognized in hindsight. I also appreciate that wisdom understands that how you live makes a difference in the world. I’m not talking about works righteousness and earning our way to heaven. But when we follow God’s ways and words, when we live out faithful love and loyalty to one another and sometimes take risks on behalf of another, God’s peace and love are made visible to the world in our actions.

Perhaps Proverbs is the best-known of the wisdom literature. I have several biblical proverbs embroidered and framed on my walls. Yet rather than studying these short sayings, Gwen and I thought it might be easier to study wisdom themes through the use of some of the Bible’s most interesting stories.

Thoughts from Gwen:
My initial task in our writing process was to find a way to organize our long list of wisdom subjects into several key themes that would carry through the entire study. After spending way too long obsessing about alliteration, I stumbled on the three "h" words that run through the entire study: hesed, heroism, hidden. Hesed is a Hebrew (another h!) word defined as "loving loyalty, faithfulness, loving kindness." It refers to devoted loyalty that reaches beyond the expected to unanticipated depths. As might be expected, heroism refers to actions undertaken for the sake of others that involve great risk to the one performing them. The final theme word, hidden, points us toward the hand of God at work in the hesed and heroism of the characters in the biblical books we will study. Seeing how God’s hidden hand is revealed in each of the biblical stories will give us opportunity to reflect on how God sometimes seems hidden in our lives or in the lives of those we love and how we are called to live in those times.

Thoughts from Gwen on Ruth:
I confess that I was excited to be able to write on Ruth. So often what people remember of Ruth is the "whither you go, I will go" poem. It is a beautiful poem, but it conveys only a very small part of the message of Ruth. Set in a bucolic landscape where everyone in town knows everyone else, the story of Naomi and Ruth’s journey back to Naomi’s hometown explores the difficult question of how a community receives or rejects outsiders, particularly when those outsiders are the subject of controversial biblical laws.

Chapter 1 introduces us to the main characters — Naomi, the bitter widow returning home to Israel without male heirs to redeem her land for her, and Ruth, her Moabite daughter-in-law determined to accompany her on the journey to her home — where Moabites have been despised for generations. In chapter 2, Ruth’s hesed to Naomi begins to bear fruit as Ruth meets Boaz, who has legal standing to redeem Naomi’s property and to provide her dead husband a male heir to carry on the name of the dead. Their seemingly chance encounter prepares the ground for the seed that will sprout and blossom later in chapters 3 and 4.

In these chapters, Ruth’s hesed will move her to heroic action in a nighttime threshing floor scene that will culminate in the revelation of God’s hidden hand working through the actions of the characters to bring the story to its happy ending.

As delightful and inspiring as the book of Ruth is as a story, it also invites and challenges us to ponder deeply several issues raised and resolved in its four short chapters. One of these is the difficult question of how we respond to outsiders in our midst, particularly when certain biblical texts seem to prohibit us from welcoming them. What criteria does the Bible call us to use when discerning whom we shall or shall not welcome fully into our communities?

Another related issue focuses on how we read the Bible, particularly when one set of passages seems to conflict with other biblical set of texts. Are they really saying the same thing? If not, which is authoritative — and why? As Ann and I will discuss at the conclusion of this article, these questions invite us to reflect deeply on how we as Lutherans read the Bible.

Thoughts from Ann on Daniel 1—2:
While also featuring the themes of hesed, heroism, and hidden hand of God, the stories of Daniel 1—6 invite us into a very different world than the agricultural setting of Ruth. As we read, we find ourselves transported to the royal courts of Babylon and Persia where young men of the conquered Jewish nation, forced to serve their conquerors, struggle to remain faithful to Israel’s God no matter the cost to them as individuals.

In Daniel 1—2 we meet Daniel and his friends, who are willing to serve the foreign king but not at the expense of their faith and religious practices. Daniel’s ability to interpret the king’s dream shows that God is more powerful than any human king and is worthy of our praise. These chapters invite us to think about what religious practices define us as Christians and lead us into a discussion of biblical praise.

Thoughts from Gwen on Daniel 3—6:
In Daniel 3—6 we continue to meet kings and their cronies who think they have power to harm the young men, little realizing that the God of Israel is supreme and will hold oppressors accountable. Witnessing the journeys of the characters we encounter in these stories will give us food for thought as we ponder our own journeys and reflect on our responsibilities to local and global justice. As in the case of Ruth, these stories also will give us opportunity to discuss how we as faithful communities interpret controversial biblical laws that seem to no longer be life-giving in our time and place.

Thoughts from Ann on Esther:
I have always been a little challenged by the character of Esther. Sometimes I have seen her primarily as a beauty queen who uses her physical charms to save her people.

But I have grown to appreciate Esther as a woman of great wisdom and courage who uses all her gifts and abilities as a woman in a man’s world to save her people. Her hesed toward her people leads her to risk her life to petition the king and unmask Haman, the man who would kill all the Jews.

God is so hidden in this book that God is never even mentioned! Yet, the coincidences and ironies of these stories suggest that God is at work behind these scenes to save God’s people.

As we read through the book of Esther, we will think about when we might be called to stand in solidarity with sexually exploited women and children, occasions when we too might have to act in holy disobedience for the sake of others and how God works through the most unlikely people to bring about God’s will.

Final thoughts from Ann and Gwen:
To study the Bible is to enter a living conversation, a conversation that began during biblical times. As the people entered different situations and experiences, God often sent a new word to them. By the power of the Spirit, the biblical texts talk to each other. Some texts confirm other texts, while others contest them. We are invited to enter the living conversation, to hear the variety of voices in the biblical witness and to discern through those multiple voices how God is calling us to live faithfully in our own time.

It is both exciting and challenging to be invited into this conversation. As we always tell our seminary students, studying the Bible is one of the most risky enterprises they will ever undertake. By entering into the biblical conversations, "sitting with" the biblical conversation partners, and allowing them to inform our own conversation, we will be transformed for mission in ways we may not now dream possible.

As readers and teachers of the Bible, we treasure its words and find in it inspiration, challenge, and hope for our lives and for our world. To be invited by God to enter the biblical conversation begun many centuries before us and continuing until Jesus returns in glory is both a privilege and a responsibility. We are delighted to have the opportunity to partner with you in continuing that conversation as together we study Ruth, Daniel 1—6, and Esther. Hesed, heroism, and God’s hidden hand await — welcome aboard!

The Rev. Gwen Sayler is a professor of Hebrew Bible at Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. She is a deaconess in the Valparaiso Lutheran deaconess community and an ELCA pastor.

The Rev. Ann Fritschel is associate professor of Hebrew Bible at Wartburg Seminary. Before her academic career, she served churches in Dickinson, Mohall, and Hamerly, N.D. She is the director of the Center for Global Theologies at the seminary.