Numbers 11:2: “And the people cried unto Moses; and when Moses prayed unto the LORD, the fire was quenched.”
Yesterday I presented an alternative rendering for Numbers 11:1-3 which presented a God who was heartbroken over the murmuring and complaining of the people such that he embraced them with His passionate love to the point where they were subdued or overwhelmed with His passion. Of course such a rendering puts me out in left field because all our traditional renderings render this as God becoming so angry at his people for complaining about the hardships that He completely loses it and sends down fire from heaven to punish His people. Once again Moses has to intervene and calm God down so that he could make the fires abate.
Yet, if I were to accept this traditional rendering then with some of the stunts I have pulled in my life I should be a crispy critter right now. But that has not been my experience. It seems that every time I start to belly ache to God about some alleged hardship in my life, I discover not an angry God who needs to be stroked and calmed down but a loving parent who strokes me and calms me down. A God who responds in love and not anger, who responds with a hug and not fire from heaven. Ok, I am only translating this passage based upon my own personal bias and experience, but show me a translator who doesn’t read his own world view of God into his translations.
I was reading the Talmud recently and ran across a very interesting comment by an ancient rabbi with regard to this passage, specifically Numbers 11:2. When the people cried unto Moses Moses prayed unto the Lord and the fire was quenched. Like I said I render this as the passion of God overwhelmed His people and this occurred with Moses prayed unto God. In the Babylonian Talmud Berekoth 32a Rabbi Eleazar said that this is not to be read as Moses prayed unto God but Moses prayed upon or over God. Based upon our rendering that God is not angry with His people but heartbroken over their complaining, my study partner suggested that Moses was comforting God. Translators would not translate this as Moses praying over God as that would imply insolence on the part of Moses. Yet, why could it not suggest that it would imply Moses comforting God in His heart break. In that comfort God reached out to His people with an overwhelming passion of love.
Suppose a wife who really loves her husband wants to give him a special day when he comes home from work. She takes extra special care in cleaning the house, preparing his favorite meal, dressing up in his favorite dress and fixing her hair the way he likes it. She sits back anxiously awaiting to spring her surprise on her husband when he arrives home. But instead of being pleased and grateful for her efforts he criticizes her hair, dress and complains that his meal was over cooked. How is that wife going to feel. Angry? Perhaps, but an anger that based upon a broken heart. If she dissolves into tears it may awaken the old goat into realizing how insensitive he was and if he is a husband who loves his wife he would speak over her, that is he will come to her, hug her, apologize and she will hug him back and overwhelm him with her love.
Of course there are a lot of people who would say: “Why I would give that man what he deserves, I would rain fire down upon him and turn him into crispy critter. So is it not only natural that if that is the way we would react then we would expect God to react the same way with us. But, you see, we are not in total perfect love like God. You would have to agree that if that wife had a total perfect love for her husband, even when he is an ungrateful jerk, she will still be heartbroken over his insensitivities. To reign fire and brimstone upon her husband is for one point not an act of perfect love and point two will not be very effective in restoring that relationship. Oh, she may threaten to leave him and strip him of all he has and he may grudgingly agree to express love toward her, but that is love built out of fear and is that really love in the first place, is it really the love that his woman is seeking?
Sure God is a God who can threaten us fire and brimstone if we are insensitive to His love and He can force us to love Him out of fear, but is that really love? Is that really the love that God so desires from us? Is God so desperate to be loved that He has to threaten us with fire and brimstone to get some semblance of the love? I’m sorry that is not my God, that is not the God I love. If it means I have to leave the reservation of those who believe in a God of anger and wrath, then I shall leave and take my loving God with me. I fear I have received too many hugs and too much forgiveness from my God to believe in an angry God. My apologies to Jonathan Edwards.
So Moses prayed over God. The Bible does not say what this prayer was. We assume it a prayer requesting that the fire be abated, as that was the result of that prayer. Perhaps, but I believe if he prayed over God it would be more like that insensitive husband trying to comfort his wife who has dissolved into tears from the heart that he has broken and his words would be filled with a lot of I’m sorrys, I’m a jerk, it will never happen again until that wife’s heart is mended enough to give him a hug and shaqa’ quenches or overwhelms him with her love.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe God can get angry and that sinners can fall into the hands of an angry God. But when a sinner falls into the hands of an angry God it is not the sinner that God is angry with but the sins and the enemy who brought these sins upon that person. He will also direct his anger to any sinner who rejects His love and brings harm to those have accepted His love. God loves (Aramaic chav) the world. It may not love Him in return. But let that world touch the one he loves (Aramaic racham – love that is returned) and you might see the anger that is expressed in Numbers 11 starting in verse 4 towards the mixed multitude.
Also, don’t get me wrong, I, like everyone else needs some motivation to keep sin out of my life. I may find it very easy to cheat on my taxes. I can say the government will only fine me a few dollars in penalties for my mistake and I will figure that God is so loving that He will forgive me, so why not go for it. If I fear God may rain fire upon me if I cheat, that would sure enough keep me from cheating. But I don’t believe that would happen, so what motivation do I have to not cheat? A motivation far greater than avoiding fire from heaven. The fact that it would break the heart of the God I love and I could not receive that hug from Him. Maybe there are people where a hug is not enough to kept them from sin. I cannot comment on that as that is not my personal experience. I suspect that the very fact you came to this blog and are reading this, that you are also one of those where a hug is all you really need to keep you from sin.
Recent Comments