I am still shocked that the Israelites were so quickly and unreasonably ungrateful against Yahweh and his prophets so soon after God freed them from bondage in Egypt, but it occurred to me that we, as parents, can give our children not enough as sustenance or gifts, or we can give them too much, beyond what they need and deserve, as sustenance and as generous gifts.
Spoiled children that are given too much, too early, more than they deserve, more than they can handle, end up grumbling the most without cause, being the least appreciative of what they have received, feeling entitled to ever more and more unearned, unmerited rewards, gifts and bribes if they are to like parents in return just a little, in exchange for such over-the-top attempts to buy their love.
If kids receive too little, they may not have a fighting chance to survive, let alone thrive. If they receive too much from their parents, they may end up as spoiled, lazy, hedonic, jaded, unpleasant parasites and goldbrickers quite willing to sponge off their parents.
Parents, like Yahweh, need to give their children more than less, but not too much, and never as a bribe, and the children must be taught to work hard every day, so they become producers and contributors not mere moochers, sluggards, consumers, and takers.
It was not that Yahweh did so much for them, or did too much for them, or gave them more than they could handle, but that Yahweh gave them such miraculous assistance as He worked very hard to extract His chosen people from historical oblivion and disappearance, in slavery, and to return them to the Holy Land, their homeland as the indigenous people of that land of milk and honey.
Here are those lines from The New American Bible: “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I will rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion; thus I will test them, to see whether they follow my instructions or not. On the sixth day, however, when they prepare what they bring in, let it be twice as much as they gather on the other days.’ So Moses and Aaron told all the Israelites, ‘At evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt; and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, as he heeds your grumbling against him. But what are we that you should grumble against us? When the Lord gives you flesh to eat in the evening,’ continued Moses, ‘and in the morning your fill of bread, as he heeds the grumbling you utter against him, what then are we? Your grumbling is not against us, but against the Lord.’”
My response: Note how rich these ancient lines are: they are to gather up twice as much before the Sabbath to keep holy the Sabbath as we are instructed to do today.
That the people, however ungrateful, go to their prophets and God to seek bread and water to that they may live, we today need save water and grow crops to feed ourselves, while asking God to provide for us with sufficient food and water to feed the populaces of the earth. These fundamental needs to survive have not changed a bit.
Note too that Yahweh informed the people that he was aware of their grumbling and ingratitude, and that He would still provide for them, but he did not appreciate their poor attitudes and response to divine largesse.
Note too how Moses and Aaron did not seem to back God; they were resentful against the grumblers and complained that they were unjustly picked on by the masses, and that it was God’s fault, not the prophets fault that the people were hungry, and that they should take it up with God. It is a wonder that Yahweh did not dump the whole group and take off.
We must be careful that we seek to lessen our ingratitude and our disrespectful treatment of the good deities.
Here are these same passages from the Holy Bible (KJV): “Then the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they walk in my law, or no.”
My response: Yahweh and God created the universe or cosmos out of nothing or unorganized pre-universal stuff, and God’s supernatural and natural laws operate these domains of supernature and nature.
If the people are good, they walk in line with God’s law; if they sin and rebel, they stray off the chosen path of righteous living, and sin and move away from God and God’s law. It is perilous for humans not to walk in God’s law.
Here is the rest of that Holy Bible quote: “And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they bring in daily.
And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even, you shall know that the Lord hath brought you out from the land of Egypt:
And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord; for that he heareth your murmurings against the Lord: and what are we, that ye murmur against us?
And then Moses said, This shall be, when the Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the Lord heareth your murmuring which you murmur against him: and what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord.”
It occurred to me that moving, say 300,000 to 500,000 religious and political refugees through desert wilderness, without guaranteed food or what, would be a logistical nightmare of the first rank. That stressful situation would exacerbate the peoples’ grumbling and seeming ingratitude, and perhaps the Lord saw it for what it was, apparent ungrateful grumbling that really was expressing legitimate worry about surviving the ordeal.
A people in transition must forage off the land during their migration, or be fed and refreshed with water by direct, divine intervention.
When people were settled in the Promised Land, farming, raising sheep, fishing, and bartering, then the free people of Yahweh could resume feeding and supporting themselves, once established and secure, but the migration was a more risky, vulnerable time for the Hebrews.
Another thought just occurred to me: the Hebrews leaving bondage in Israel and being led by Yahweh and Moses to the Promised Land, would be an ancient mass movement. Humans in a mass movement are taken from an emotional state of stable inner misery and discontent, and then they feel disaffected, dislodged, upset, and frustrated to an agonizing degree; people that upset are going to have no self-esteem, and all of their nasty, petulant, irascible, ungrateful, petty, scapegoating behaviors will be on public display, taking down the morale and optimism of all involved.
No wonder they were unpleasant, murmuring and grumbling.
And the presence of almighty God would you think, bring out the best in people, but we could not imagine the stress of learning to relate to, converse with and behave politely if the divinity lived in a house across the street from oneself.
There were a lot of powerful stressors working on these ancient Hebrews.
No comments:
Post a Comment