Rector’s Blog – Day 69

Numbers 11:  4 – 6

Absence makes the heart grow fonder!  If this verse is to be believed, when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt they enjoyed haute cuisine!  Apart from their collective breath being somewhat indescribable it all sounds rather splendid.  However of course it is highly unlikely to be true.  Their memory of what it used to be like has become embellished because they are not particularly enjoying the present.  And it gets more embellished as time goes on.  This passage is some months into their journey in the wilderness.  They have passed Mount Sinai, they are carrying the ark of the covenant with the Ten Commandments inside.

Now listen to what they said on two earlier occasions when they were having a moan.  First, just before they crossed the Red Sea, just hours after escaping from Egypt.  ‘Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? 12Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, “Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians”? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.’  (Exodus 14:  11 – 13)  That’s pure fear at the approaching Egyptian chariots.  The memory is still fresh.  It wasn’t great but it’s better than this!

And now move on 6 weeks to Exodus 16:  3.  The Isrealites have been saved by the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea.  They are plodding towards the Promised Land.  They are hungry with little prospect of much food in sight.  They hark back to Egypt.  ‘If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’  And the Lord sends them manna and quails.  So now return to the first quote and note the progression in their fervent imaginations!  They have completely forgotten, the beatings, the backbreaking work for no reward, the pure degradation of being a slave.

Ah, life before lockdown!  When we used to go out to a restaurant for a steak whenever we wanted.  When we used to hug.  When you could see your families and friends without thinking twice.  When the services in church were so wonderful.  Those cruises we enjoyed.  The way you didn’t have to queue outside shops.  Conveniently forgetting the startling inexorable rise of climate change.  The grind of the daily commute.  The continual fear about extremism.  The worry about refugees and, depending who you were,  how to care with them, cope with them or avoid them.  The insidious danger and demands of social media.  The vapour trails criss-crossing the sky.  The lack of time to notice the passing of the seasons  The busyness.  The constant expectation to produce and succeed.  Do you really want to go back to all that kind of slavery?  Then make some uncomfortable decisions about how to come out of our present wilderness of lockdown so the Promised Land lives up to its promise!

Otherwise you’re just heading back to Egypt.

A prayer

O God,

We hear and hear, and do not understand.

We see and see , but do not perceive.

Sharpen our memory,
unlock our grief,
teach us to name what is evil

and refuse it:

even when it seems normal
even when it seems necessary

even when it is commanded by religion;

then, now, always.  Amen.

                                                  Janet Morley (Christian Aid)

I remember seeing the picture below in the Louvre, many years ago.  I had a postcard of it for some time before I sent it to someone!  You might like to play ‘Spot the fruit’, think of the Egyptians’ selective memory of the past and consider whether your own memories are similarly embellished.

I think this is ‘Summer’ by Giuseppe Arcimboldo