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The
Cost of Complaining
The Torah
portion for this Shabbat is called B’ha’alotecha,
from the Hif’il form of the verb meaning “raise
up”. The section opens with the prescription for
the cleansing and consecrating of the Levites.
We are reminded here that the Levites were given
to God in place of all the firstborn sons of Israel.
Now not all of us are Cohens - Kohanim - priests,
and you may not have a Samuel of your own to dedicate
to God, but since you owe Him your first and very
best, you may want to ask yourself, “Am I thankful
for having been chosen by God for eternal life?
For having been redeemed? What am I doing to express
my appreciation?”
Next we’re
told that Israel was commanded to observe the
Passover. It had been two years, and it was now
the anniversary of our liberation. We were not
to neglect this God-ordained festival, and it
was open to both the native born Israeli as well
as the ger, the resident alien. Israel was, after
all, a mixed multitude at the time of the Exodus
(see Exodus 12:37-38) There were not to be double-standards.
But there’s
an awful lot of kvetching (Yiddish for “complaining”)
in this parsha. The sons of Israel are kvetching
because they yearn for the fish, the leeks, melons
and onions of Egypt. Look, I understand culinary
proclivities, but we’re talking about Egypt -
the house of slavery, where we had been oppressed
for four centuries! Our ancestors complained about
the lack of variety - nothing but manna to eat;
never mind that the manna was a supernatural food
provided directly by the hand of God... we would
rather return to the misery of being Egypt’s slave
class, because that, at least, was familiar. How
like us fallen human beings to prefer what is
familiar, even if it is familiar misery, than
to venture out and follow God to parts unknown
and have the potential for infinite joy. God said,
“You want meat? I’ll give you meat,” and He sent
an immense flock of quail. Unfortunately many
of the people were greedy and began to hoard it,
and God struck them down with a plague, so that
place earned a name: Kibbroth Hattavah “graves
of greediness”.
Moses
is kvetching because he seems to get nothing but
grief, rejection and rebellion from the very people
he’s serving. So God instructs him to appoint
seventy elders, onto whom God will place a portion
of His Holy Spirit, so that Moses alone will not
have to bear the full weight of the many disputes
and administrative responsibilities of the nation.
The 70 are summoned outside the camp to meet with
Moses and God, but two of them, Eldad and Medad,
for whatever reason, did not come out. But the
Holy Spirit came upon these two, right in the
middle of the camp, in the midst of over a million
people, and they began prophesying, too. So much
for those who argue that the Holy Spirit is a
force, or merely an emanation. Forces don’t make
personal distinctions, much less differentiate
two out of a million!
But when
Joshua learns of this, he urges Moses to restrain
them. Joshua was extremely loyal to Moses, and
was jealous for his sake. But his zeal was misplaced,
and he earned a mild rebuke from Moses for it.
Moses says, “Would that all God’s people were
prophets ....” You and I need to be careful not
to misplace our loyalties, nor to elevate other
human beings, even those we highly respect, beyond
what is appropriate. Moses was a great servant
of God, but very definitely a fellow human being.
Our first loyalty is to God and to Messiah Yeshua.
We should rejoice when God is using others! This
kind of misplaced jealousy occurs elsewhere in
the Scriptures, and we will see another example
of this later this morning in our study of Mark.
But whereas
Joshua was jealous for Moses, Aaron and Miriam
became jealous of Moses, and begin gossiping and
kvetching about him. The catalyst seems to have
been Moses’ having married a Cushite woman. Cush
was the ancient name for Ethiopia. That’s right,
Moses married a black woman! Considering how much
discussion in the Jewish community is taken up
with the issue of intermarriage, this passage
is extremely significant. Intermarriage, rightly
defined, biblically defined, is when a believer
marries an unbeliever, not when a person of one
ethnicity marries a person of another ethnicity.
One thing we learn from this passage is that there
is absolutely no place for racism in the Kingdom
of God. Aaron and Miriam had to learn this the
hard way, as God called them “out on the carpet”
as it were, and struck Miriam with a 7-day case
of leprosy. What will it take for us to learn
the lesson, I wonder? Perhaps we can learn from
observing Yeshua’s willing interaction with individuals
and groups whom the Jewish religious establishment
wouldn’t give the time of day. May we pattern
our attitudes after His.
The haftarah
reading is from Zechariah 3 and 4. Most significant
in this reading is the prophet’s vision concerning
Joshua the High Priest. Joshua is seen standing
before God, as Satan hurls accusations at him.
Joshua’s filthy garments are replaced with festal
robes and he is told that he and his friends are
symbolic of One whom God calls His own Servant,
the Branch. We now know that Branch is Messiah
Yeshua! Is it coincidence that this vision of
the coming Servant, the Messiah, occurs during
the High Priesthood of Joshua and it concerns
the Messiah, whose earthly name would be Yeshua
- from the very same root, and having the very
same meaning, “The Lord Saves”? I think not!
Shalom,
Rabbi Glenn
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