All for Nothing
A quick look at the verse numbers of our Old Testament lesson today shows that something fishy seems to be going on. We skip the first three verses, verses seven through nine, and seventeen through twenty-three. This is because chapter eleven is an interweaving of several stories. On a deeper level, as many scholars have noted, these stories come from three different oral traditions. We note that as well by the inconsistencies between this story and others in Numbers. We note that Moses takes the 70 (or the 68) out of the camp to the tent of meeting. Although in the second chapter of Numbers we are told that the tent of meeting is not outside the camp but in the middle of camp. The Israelites complain of having no meat to eat but earlier in Numbers we are told of the goat and sheep skins and fine leather they use for the tent of meeting. Where did they get them if they did not have sheep and goats?
The story is not about how the Israelites lacked the things needed for life. It is about their dissatisfaction with the things that they had. What God gave them was never enough. They complained about being in slavery in Egypt and God rescued them. Once rescued they complained about how hard the journey was to the promised land. Now they are complaining because they do not have the cucumbers and fish they had there. The people were starting to believe that their freedom was all for nothing because it did not go the way they desired. This is not the last time we read of this attitude by the Israelites. It seems that their whole history is filled with desire and complaint when they do receive what they want.
They are not alone in this delusion that, somehow, God will give them everything that they want, that life will be easy, and they will live happy pain-free lives. In that way we are not much different. In fact we may even be worse than they were. Unlike the Israelites we are bombarded daily by the lie that there are many things that we need and do not have. Just turn on the television and you will see advertisement after advertisement telling you that you are a nobody unless you have a certain car, or pair of shoes, or even that the hair you were born with isn’t good enough for you. And then, when you succumb, you soon find that what you bought is wrong and you really need some other car or pair of shoes or . . . And just like the Israelites we end up complaining to God about our lives and the lack of things we have and how God has left us to be devoured by the world.
Instead of living this endless circle of desire and disappointment live the life God has called you to through Jesus Christ. Jesus who gave up everything to give you your true identity – a child of God – calls you to see your life as it truly is. It is not what you have that makes you who you are. Your identity is how you see and use what you have. When we finally recognize that what we have – ourselves, our time, and our possessions – are God’s gifts we can live our lives as Jesus did. We can answer Jesus’ call to pick up our cross and follow him and not the world. Answer his call, share what God has given you, and live in God’s love.