Poopy banana or sin, neither are very appealing

On this second day of teaching on the 10 commandments, we utilized a lot of skits to bring the Uriay perspective to the forefront – to drive home these points so they could see themselves as transgressors of the law.  Matt and I demonstrated coveting from their perspective.  They all do it but the difference here is that if I press you enough, you have to give me your knife.  This goes back to their thinking that a good person gives whatever another asks for.  But now the shoe was on the other foot, showing the sin of that coveting and even pressing of the owner to give it to you.  We did a skit where I was Matt’s daughter and not obeying him and even lying to him.  He asked me to cut firewood and I not only didn’t do it but lied and said I didn’t hear him tell me to do it.  It was clear to all that they do this all the time.  Then we ended the day with me playing the part of God and Elias was a guy trying to come to God – to be right in His eyes since he’d mostly kept the 10 commandments.  He’d only broken a few so he couldn’t be that bad in God’s eyes, I mean, everybody does it.  So as he tried to convince me that he was pretty good and his good outweighed his bad, I dipped a banana in poop (it was really barbeque sauce) and offered it to him to eat.  “Would you eat this banana if someone dipped it in poop first?”  As Elias turned away in horror and disgust, I continued to tell him (as God) that his sin is the same in my eyes. It’s as if his body were covered in poop just like the banana and I can’t bear to look at it or smell it.  How could he expect to come into my pure and holy presence with his sin?  Breaking one means that he’s broken them all in God’s eyes.

 

Poop is the one thing that’s really disgusting to the people here.  Their kid can stand in pee but they’d immediately cart them off to the river to be washed off if they put their foot in poop.  So although it’s so gross, it’s the perfect thing to compare sin to.  Dirt or mud aren’t near bad enough in their eyes to convey the meaning. It certainly hit home here.

 

The amazing thing to us is that the Uriay people seem to be seeing themselves in this!  They’re not pointing their fingers at the Israelites as being dumb and weak when they saw all the miracles that God did to get them there and broke the law.  Instead they’re seeing themselves in the Israelites – yep, we do those same things.  It was quite the eye-opener for them to see that coveting is bad.  They would say it’s bad but presented in the way that it plays out here was quite revolutionary for them.  The ladies were all chatting about it at the end of the session – talking about how they do that all the time.  It’s so neat to watch them grow in their understanding of truth!