Today’s Scripture Reading
(November 12, 2018): Numbers 26
“What does not kill you makes
you stronger.” The much alluded to words are from Friedrich Nietzsche’s
“Twilight of the Idols” published in 1888, and more specifically from the
“Maxims and Arrows” section of the book. I had a friend that rephrased the
aphorism in sports as “If you’re not bleeding, get back out there.” At least,
he told people that until he spoke the words to a good friend while they were
playing hockey, and who tried to get back out there until he just couldn’t
anymore. (Later, we found out that he had broken his ankle. Still, there was no
blood.) Sometimes what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. But sometimes it
leaves you demoralized, devastated, and unable to cope with life. The question
is, why do some people react one way, allowing the trials of life to strengthen
then, while others allow trials to move them in the opposite direction?
However, that might also be Nietzsche’s point. Don’t allow the trials of life
to demoralize you; make certain, with every fiber of your being, that you
ensure that you grow stronger as you pass through the fire.
From a spiritual perspective,
that is definitely true. Religion often
gives us a way of dealing with the bitterness of life. It allows us to see the
world differently. It gives us perspective on the trials of life, allowing us
to grow stronger through all of the negative events that are guaranteed to come
our way.
Israel is now closing in on the
end of their journey. Within the next twelve months, they will enter into
Canaan, the land that had been promised
to them. It had been a long road, with many twists and turns. Life in the
desert had not been easy. They had suffered many plagues and diseases. A
generation had died in the desert. And now, as they prepared to enter into the
Promised Land, they suffered one more plague.
It is at this point that Israel
is instructed to take another census. They had taken a census before this ride
had begun, and now they would take another one and evaluate the effect that the
desert and disease had had on the people. I guess
that most would have thought that through the trials, Israel would have grown
decidedly smaller. But the effects of the desert and the plagues did not have a
uniform effect on the nation. Simeon, for example, was devastated by life in
the desert, losing over sixty percent of the tribe’s total population.
But for Manasseh, Nietzsche’s
words rang true. Not only did the tribe not shrink, but the tribe expanded from the smallest of the tribes of Israel up
into the middle of the pack, adding an impressive sixty-four percent to its
population.
Admittedly, the Bible does not
explicitly explain the difference between Simeon and Manasseh, but I have a
hunch that the difference is the focus of the tribes. All Simeon could see was
their agony and pain, and as a result,
they were devastated. Manasseh may have been more willing to look beyond the
pain of the current situation and see the hope presented to them by the God who
was guiding them. As a result, what did not kill them, made them stronger.
Nietzsche would definitely disagree with my analysis, but it
would seem that the philosopher’s words make the most sense when we maintain an
existential hope for the future that is provided to us by our spiritual
outlook, and our God who holds our future. If we can have faith in him, then
there is no doubt that whatever does not kill you, will make you stronger (and
what does kill you, will deliver you into his arms).
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers 27
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