| The book of Numbers is pretty much just a litany of law breakers being destroyed by God.It is one of the books in the bible that I as a non Christian find very repulsive.One particular chapter in Numbers always stands out for me, numbers chapter 11.Why numbers chapter 11?Because if it is true it shows that God is truly a tyrant.There is no misinterpretation possible here.It is not an allegory or a metaphor.There is no just cause for God to behave this way.This God is abusive and destructive, petulant and quite frankly evil.The other reason I like this particular chapter is that there is such an obvious real world explanation for what happened here.Knowing what we know today it should be obvious that God wasn't involved here at all.I can't see a third way to look at it.Either you take the biblical view that God killed these people or the worldly view that these people did something that in our day and time we know to be stupid.Let's explore the whole chapter so we can't be accused of quote mining or cherry picking.This chapter starts off evil right off the bat as God kills people for complaining.?11:1 And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.?11:2 And the people cried unto Moses; and when Moses prayed unto the LORD, the fire was quenched.11: 3 And he called the name of the place Taberah: because the fire of the LORD burnt among them (Okay, sure - whatever)
I don't know about you, but I would not kill someone I loved for complaining.This is a God that supposedly loves these people?But this is not part of what I want to talk about.Just want everyone to see the full Chapter.The next few chapters explain what the people were complaining about.It seems they were tired of Mana. |
| It seems they were tired of Mana.You know that stuff from the sky God was always giving them to eat... seems they wanted some meat (maybe a cumcumber, melon or leek too).11:4 And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?(Lusting for meat is a sin too, maybe I should rethink that steak?)
11:5 We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick:
11:6 But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.?11:7 And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium.11:8 And the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil.(So yeah, it sounds totally delicious!)11:9 And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it.So they were tired of Mana and wanted meat.They griped about it.I challenge anyone to eat something that has the taste of fresh oil at every meal for a week and not complain (take a multivitamin too, don't be silly).So Moses hears their weeping and gets angry and so what does he do, he complains to God too.Oh, and God is pretty angry himself.11:10 Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent: and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased.11:11 And Moses said unto the LORD, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant?and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me?
11:12 Have I conceived all this people?have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child (You really have to wonder about nursing fathers and sucking children, but that is what the bible says), unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers?11:13 Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people?for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat.11:14 I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.
11:15 And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.What a whiner, but God really likes Moses, so unlike the other whiners God doesn't strike him dead.Instead, God hatches a plan. |
| Instead, God hatches a plan.Maybe even a nefarious plan.11:16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee.11:17 And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone.11:18 And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow, and ye shall eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat?for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore the LORD will give you flesh, and ye shall eat.11:19 Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days;
11:20 But even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the LORD which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?Okay God is a little rude here, but why do I mean by nefarious plan.He is going to give them meet right?Well, maybe God would have played it straight but that damn Moses had to question him...11:21 And Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month.11:22 Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them?or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them?11:23 And the LORD said unto Moses, Is the LORD'S hand waxed short?thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.11:24 And Moses went out, and told the people the words of the LORD, and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tabernacle.11:25 And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease.11:26 But there remained two of the men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the spirit rested upon them; and they were of them that were written, but went not out unto the tabernacle: and they prophesied in the camp.11:27 And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp.11:28 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them.11:29 And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake?would God that all the LORD'S people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!11:30 And Moses gat him into the camp, he and the elders of Israel. |
| 11:30 And Moses gat him into the camp, he and the elders of Israel.Okay now here comes the meat, and lots of it!11:31 And there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's journey on this side, and as it were a day's journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth.(Trust me that is a lot of bird flesh!)11:32 And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp.Wow, maybe I was wrong.I mean sure the early complainers got consumed by fire, but God came through on the promise.He gave them meat!Oh, wait, there is more...11:33 And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague.11:34 And he called the name of that place Kibrothhattaavah: because there they buried the people that lusted.11:35 And the people journeyed from Kibrothhattaavah unto Hazeroth; and abode at Hazeroth.So yeah, God's people whom he loves complained.Complaining is apparently an unlisted?sin (How many unlisted sins do you think there are?).So first he burned a few of them to death and then he struck the rest with a plague.What actions could a more reasonable God have taken in this instance?Of course I have to believe that if this story happened at all that a more naturalistic explanation is true at least for the plague part: The Isrealites, tired of Mana, came upon thousands and thousands of already sick and dying birds.Being stone age tribesman and not knowing anything about viruses and bacteria they decided that God gave them these birds to eat.Lots of them got sick and died.Not knowing any better they decided this was the wrath of God.The fact that any thinking modern person can accept and even justify the first story is just crazy.Doesn't that just make more sense? |
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