"Wrestling with God" by GodWrestler

This article is the first in a series called “Contending with God.” The Divinity clearly saw the merit in such contention, as is demonstrated immediately after Jacob had spent the night brawling with some angel: “And he said, ‘Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, because you have commanding power with God and with men’. (Genesis 32: 29).” I do not hope to win by a knockout, but do hope that my contentions are seen squarely within the Israelite tradition.
The Israelites wandered through the Sinai for forty years, following a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night—aimlessly. Whenever the cloud or pillar began to move, they broke camp and followed it, knowing neither how long they would travel or where they would rest. Perhaps they found themselves traveling back and forth across the same patch of burning, jagged rocks all day before finally being allowed to camp there, and perhaps they then camped on that patch of burning, jagged rocks for literally Gods-know-when. Considering that they traveled for four decades to cover a piece of ground that they could have walked in eleven days, the Israelites must have sat in some of those barbecue pits for years. At other times, perhaps they set up camp at some oasis, only to find the cloud or pillar moving almost instantly. Their lives must have seemed like Simon Says from hell.

Worse, they had to eat the same damn thing morning, noon, and night. “Honey, what’s for supper?”

“Manna.”

“Again?!”

Understandably, they became a little grouchy: “The people were looking to complain, and it was evil in the ears of the Lord. The Lord heard and His anger flared, and a fire from the Lord burned among them, consuming the extremes of the camp. . . . But the multitude among them began to have strong cravings. Then even the children of Israel once again began to cry, and they said, ‘Who will feed us meat? We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt free of charge, the cucumbers, the watermelons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now, our bodies are dried out, for there is nothing at all; we have nothing but manna to look at’. (Numbers, 11: 1-6)" The Israelites, of course, were not complaining about just the manna—they were complaining about the fact that God had set them on fire because He had been annoyed by their previous complaints about wandering around aimlessly in the heat. God seemed to be saying, ‘Tired of the heat? I’ll show you heat!’ If God’s people had only met with the Israelites’ people beforehand and hammered out a workable grievance procedure, the whole tatty affair could have been avoided.

The situation got worse. God directed Moses to tell the Israelites: “Prepare yourselves for tomorrow and you shall eat meat, because you have cried in the ears of the Lord saying, ‘Who will feed us meat, for we had it better in Egypt’. The Lord will give you meat. . . . for a full month until it comes out your nose (Numbers 10: 18-20).” As an afterthought, God also sent a plague so that the Israelites died while eating the meat. I once witnessed such a plague in microcosm, stuck in the Emergency Unit beside a Jewish man who was wailing, “Kill me now!” for hours after an unfortunate experience at the Olive Garden. Perhaps he had complained earlier in the day about not having enough meat in his diet. Or perhaps he had complained about having had to walk too far that day.

My point is that the relationship between God and the Israelites had ultimately degenerated until they were like two kids poking each other in the back of a car. They had spent far too long in each other’s company. Perhaps God should have started dating other chosen peoples for a while; and the Israelites, other gods. In conclusion, did God and the Israelites really wander the Sinai for forty years? Perhaps they only wandered for eleven days, but made it seem like forty years…