Moses Striking the Rock* |
The problem with this complaining is that they did it in earshot of God - which made God quite irritable. After all, God had performed some pretty miraculous signs, had delivered them from slavery, had promised to be their God and to bring them salvation and a Promised Land, had kept them alive in the wilderness for a year, and was ready to get settled - and now the people are complaining again?The rabble among them began to crave other food,** and again the Israelites started wailing and said, 'If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost - also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!'
When it comes to patience and forgiveness, God definitely takes the cake. I get impatient with Frankie when she can't understand why she can't have a piece of chocolate AND chocolate frozen yogurt (which was exactly what happened last night). And, as we read on, we find out that God's patience only lasts so long before punishment is meted out.
Despite the complaining about food, they move on and get close enough to the Promised Land to send spies in to see what awaits, one scout from each of the 12 tribes. And the scouts are gone for 40 days. (Remember that 40 is an important number? This is a clue for us to pay attention!) After 40 days, they returned with the report: it is as God said - a land flowing with milk, honey, and fruit - it is wonderful! Except the people there are huge! The report they gave said that they were like 'grasshoppers' compared to the residents of the land and that there was no way they could win in a military conquest. So the Israelites become afraid again, and plot to return to Egypt as slaves.
All but two - Joshua, son of Nun, who will be Moses' replacement, and Caleb. Together with Moses, these three try to persuade the whole nation that it is worth it and that God has promised and is with them - they should go and take it! Except doubt and fear win the day, and the Israelites continue to bicker about going or staying. And here is where the punishment from God comes.
Because the people didn't believe in God's promise, even after everything they had seen in Egypt, they would wander in the wilderness for 40 years (one year for each day the scouts were in the land) and no one who is the age of 20 or over would live to see the Promised Land. Their worst fear - dying in the wilderness - will come true.
In the 40 year wandering many things happen, including an incident in which Moses disobeys God. As punishment, God told him he could see the Promised Land but never enter it. And so the 40 years comes to a close and the Israelites are standing at the edge of the long-awaited Promised Land. And Moses, knowing he will never enter it, gives his farewell address. The address in its entirety takes up several chapters in Deuteronomy, but the gist can be found in a few verses:
Even though the Israelites were made to wander for 40 years, even though they complained about not having the food they wanted, even though again and again they failed to trust in God and God's promises, they are at last delivered. Moses knows that they have been blessed, even if it did not seem so. And Moses also knows that as people of the covenant it will go well for them to obey God's teachings.Surely the Lord your God has blessed you in all your undertakings; he knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.’ So acknowledge today and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. Keep his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you today for your own well-being and that of your descendants after you, so that you may long remain in the land that the Lordyour God is giving you for all time. Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. ~ Deuteronomy 2.7, 4.39-40, 6.4-7
Into all of this, I read myself. The complainer and drama queen that I am, I identify with Israel so much that I am sometimes ashamed of looking at the behavior from the outside. Yet I am who I am, and thankfully God is who God is - which is merciful and abounding in steadfast love and forgiveness. As I live my life of faith, trying to trust God's promises, I find the last part of the Deuteronomy text most helpful. When I keep God's words in my heart, when I recite them to Frankie, or talk about them at home or when I am away, when I lie down and when I rise, I am much less likely to complain or grumble or lose faith. Following Moses' instruction is not so much a command for me, but an invitation to a life of faith.I hope that I can be more of a Moses than the rest of the group, and hopefully if I follow these instructions it will happen. But this has left me wondering:
How do you live your life without becoming too much of a complainer? How do you live your faith in God's promises?
*He, Qi. Moses Striking the Rock, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=46127 [retrieved October 15, 2013]. Original source: heqigallery.com.
**They had been eating quail and manna in the wilderness since leaving Egypt. Both of these items were provided each night by God to sustain the people in the wilderness.
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