Week 9 Numbers 35-Deuteronomy 13
While Israel was camped in Moabite country east of the Jordan Moses spoke to them quite a bit – recollections, stories, reminders.
One of the unhappy stories Moses told was about the twelve spies. Ten came back with stories of gigantic and fearsome opponents.
The people were petrified. They went home telling themselves: the Lord hates us and he brought us out of Egypt to destroy us.
Moses: (trying to reason with them) You’ve got it wrong. The Lord cares. He worked a bunch of unbelievable miracles that forced Egypt to let you go free.
People: Uh-uh. He did that because he hates us.
Moses: That makes no sense. He’s been helping you all along. He carried you just like a father would carry his son.
People: No. He freed us to lull us into a sense of false optimism so that the giants could kill us now. He hates us.
It’s a pretty interesting story. Same data; different takes on the data: the Lord freed us from slavery because he hates us; the Lord freed us from slavery because he loves us.
In this story everything was okay as long as everything was okay.
When everything wasn’t okay some hefty religious conclusions were drawn.
The Lord was a father who carried his son until the Anakim showed up. When they did he turned into a hateful abuser.
Notes: Paraphrased quotes from Deuteronomy 1:27 & 31. See the original story in Numbers 13.