The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! – Numbers 11:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 22, 2015): Numbers 11

The informal debate between those who support Black Lives Matter and those who proclaim that Blue Lives Matter seems to be picking up steam (I have already gone on the record that, for me, the argument itself is a problem because every single life on our planet matters, and whenever we elevate one life over another we are asking for trouble.) But the debate does highlight our diversity as a culture; a diversity that can be an incredible strength. As a diverse culture, we have the incredible ability to see problems from different angles, and because of this ability we can often find solutions that we didn’t know were there.

But diversity can also create problems as each diverse group tries to elevate itself at the expense of another group (of course, in the current debate both sides just want to elevate to par. At least I hope that no one would dare to argue that one group of lives is more important than another.) But we often have differing goals and aspirations – and often even differing ideas surrounded the moral issues of our society and what is right and what is wrong. And when these ideas become a matter of public debate, often both sides begin to believe that they are not being heard – and as a result the conflict increases and the fight heats up. This seems to be exactly what is happening between the Black Lives Matter and the Blue Lives Matter groups in our current cultural climate.

The Hebrew word that we have translated as “rabble” in this passage leaves us with a problem. We don’t really know what the word means, and this is the only verse in the entire Bible where the word is used. And really it could be interpreted two ways. First, we know that when Moses brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, he did not bring just the Israelites out of Egypt. Israel was not the only race of people that had been enslaved by the Egyptian society. And as Israel left, the slaves of many races – including Egyptian slaves – came with them. They became aliens who didn’t quite fit in with the developing culture of Israel, and yet they also had a clear voice within that culture. And it could be that this is who is indicated by the word we have translated as rabble.

But the second possibility is that the “rabble” speaks of a spiritual difference between those within the group. Some had come to understand the spiritual reality that was represented by Moses – that God was doing a work in them and that their future was secure in his hands. But others weren’t convinced. And it was these others that seemed to be the initiators of the conflict.

But either way, it appears that there was a group of dissatisfied individuals within the Mosaic community. And it was there complaints that began the wailing of the nation. The diversity which could have been an incredible strength became an incredible weakness – and the resulting conflict tested both the patience of Moses and of God.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers 12