Well, I know in advance that the Israelites don’t get into the Promised Land this easily, so I know something’s going to go wrong. But I’m not sure what. There could be trouble ahead ...
Order of the divisions
Numbers 10:14-28
Cloud leads them
Exodus 40:36-38, Numbers 9:15-23
In Paran wilderness
Numbers 10:12, 29-32
Fire at Taberah
Numbers 10:33-36, 11:1-3
Arrival at Kibroth
Numbers 33:16
Murmuring about manna
Numbers 11:4-9
Moses complains
Numbers 11:10-15
Seventy elders chosen
Numbers 11:16-25
Prophecy in the camp
Numbers 11:26-30
Plague of quails
Numbers 11:31-34
From Kibroth to Hazeroth
Numbers 11:35, 33:17
Miriam’s leprosy
Numbers 12:1-15
The problems that afflict the Israelites at first are internal divisions. Listen to the account of them all marching out by tribes, and it sounds very orderly. But if we dig beneath the surface, there is trouble. the people are fed up with eating manna, Moses is fed up with leading them. When he shares some of his authority with others, people get jealous on his behalf. Even his own family get jealous - Aaron and Miriam complain against him.
God’s reaction is surprising - he gets angry, he threatens, he punishes. Why? Surely he know this isn’t the way to encourage people. We’ve seen it in Egypt, how Hosni Mubarak threatened and cajoled people rather than listening to them. Did he get his way? Surely God knows this, surely he knows- that bully boy tactics don’t work.
I wonder if this was the only way the Israelites could imagine God behaving? Every ruler they had known had treated them harshly. The idea that God loved them, that he had rescued them out of his compassion and mercy, never really took root in their hearts.
No comments:
Post a Comment