The children of Israel, fairly well fed on manna and quail, weep in
the wilderness because they long for the days when they imagine they dined with dignity.Truth is the
Egyptians stopped giving them straw to make bricks so it is unlikely their task
masters gave them fish to eat “for nothing”. We tend to color the past in ways that fill
in the blanks of our present complaints. Sometimes we imagine the past better
than it could have been. Often we imagine it worse than it was. But either way
we are not satisfied with whatever is and therefore long for what never was. And
so the children of Israel throw a tantrum and Moses becomes despondent and the
Lord becomes very angry and the dysfunctional Exodus family tries to figure out
how to live together in the desert when no one is happy. When the very angry
Lord calms down the despondent Moses is instructed to share the load and the
solution to the people’s displeasure is the Spirit of the Lord resting upon the
seventy appointed along with two others who were not approved which is often
how God acts because the Spirit of the Lord cannot be contained or easily
explained. The person who is most moved is Moses which means he will refrain
from complaining, “why have you treated your servant so badly?” at least for
the time being and get back to leading which is what God called him to do. And
the children of Israel will quiet down and be grateful they have something to
eat, even if it is “what is it” (manna) and a small bird with not much meat.
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