Pilgrim Preaching

Mama God

Numbers 11:4-30

This is one of those stories that implies, at least for a moment, that God may be compared to somebody's mama. Moses says (with some editorial italics here), "Did I conceive all this people?  Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, 'Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a sucking child,' to the land that you promised on oath to their ancestors?" (Num. 11:12). I imagine Moses saying, "Look, these are your babies, God! You feed them and carry them all the way to the promised land if you want them there! As for me, I would be better off DEAD!" Ok, so it's been a long day at work for our pal, Moses. Or—maybe better—he's just been left home alone with the kids too long.

Losing it on a road trip

Numbers 11

God is just plain peevish in these wilderness wanderings sometimes. I understand that the people are whining, and that it is no small thing to say to one's liberator, "We wish we were still slaves!" but doesn't someone have to be the grown up? The LORD'S behavior in Num. 11:1 (incineration), speech in 11:18-20 ("You want meat? I'll give you meat!"), and action in 11:34 (not just tiresome quail but a plague) remind me of this New Yorker cartoon, drawn by Roz Chast and published July 13, 1998.