Moses - episode 6

We continue the story of Israel’s journey to the Promised Land. After the rules for worship written in the book of Leviticus, the Lord orders a census of the people (Book of Numbers, chapter 1 and following) and gives other rules and laws to follow. Finally, in chapter 10, Israel can continue his journey, guided by the Lord. «It happened in the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, that the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle of the testimony. The children of Israel went forward according to their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai». When the people complains again because they are fed up with the manna and they want meat, Moses says to God: «Why have you treated with your servant so badly? Why haven’t I found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Have I conceived all this people? Have I brought them forth, that you should tell me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which you swore to their fathers?’ Where could I get meat to give to all this people? For they weep to me, saying, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. If you treat me this way, please kill me right now, if I have found favor in your sight; and do not let me see my wretchedness». The Lord, in response, does appoint seventy people from the elders of Israel that can help Moses in his duty, sharing with him the Spirit of God.

The greatest infidelity, however, is still to come. After that Moses sent scouts into the Promised Land and they reported its wealths, but also the power of the people who occupy it.

 

 

The Israelites are afraid and want to go back to Egypt. Joshua and Caleb, two of the scouts, try to convince them: «do not rebel against the LORD, neither fear the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is removed from over them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them.” But all the congregation threatened to stone them with stones. The glory of the LORD appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the children of Israel. The LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have worked among them? I will strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”». Moses intercedes and manages to save the people, but at heavy conditions: «The LORD said, “I have pardoned according to your word: but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD; because all those men who have seen my glory, and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not listened to my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers [...]. Tell them, ‘As I live, says the LORD, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you: your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me, surely you shall not come into the land, concerning which I swore that I would make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, that you said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, you will bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you will know my alienation.’». Lament and mistrust led to catastrophic consequences; this passage contains a teaching also valid for us today. Our attitude toward God and the events of our life affects what happens to us: «As I live, says the LORD, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you». To bless us God needs our collaboration; positively we should put into practice what Apostle Paul writes: «Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you» (1Thess 5,16-18).

Even Moses and Aaron commit a little fault and will not enter the Promised Land (see Num 20). As told, the Lord gives victory to Israel in all the clashes with the enemies encountered during the journey. I invite you to read the oracles of Balaam (Num 23-24), a fortune-teller that the king of Moab hires to curse the Hebrews, hoping that they would not conquer his lands: the Lord will force him to pronounce instead marvelous blessings for Israel!

In the next post we will conclude Moses’ story and the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch.