OWS and the Book of Numbers 11: 4-6; 10-13; 18-20

We've all had plenty of opportunities to witness the Occupy Wall Street miscreants in action. They want something for nothing and seem all too interested in ceding their freedom to the government. The problem is they want to take the entire country with them. Without faith, freedom can be quite scary. With faith and fortitude, it can be energizing and, well, liberating. The OWS crowd doesn't seem to want any of that. They just want to exist in their own filth and put their collective fate in the hands of others (aren't taxpayers footing the bill for all of the destruction?)

It got me thinking about Moses and what he had to put up with in the wilderness. In fact, as his people lost faith, they longed for slavery and wanted to return to Egypt. Moses, who was filled with faith, simply could not understand them. His people frustrated him. After all that he had done for them, as a vessel for God's will, they wanted to return to slavery. They literally wanted to trade freedom for slavery. Doesn't make much sense, does it? Just like Occupy Wall Street protesters.

The people grew tired of manna from heaven and wanted meat so badly that they were willing to enslave themselves again in order to get it.

Numbers 11:4-6:

4 Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat? 5 We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; 6 but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!”

No doubt, as they talked amongst themselves, they rubbed raw the sores of their own discontent and began to actually believe that slavery was better than freedom.

Numbers 11:10-13

10 Then Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, everyone at the door of his tent; and the anger of the LORD was greatly aroused; Moses also was displeased. 11 So Moses said to the LORD, “Why have You afflicted Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all these people on me? 12 Did I conceive all these people? Did I beget them, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a guardian carries a nursing child,’ to the land which You swore to their fathers? 13 Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? For they weep all over me, saying, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’

Of course, in the saga of OWS, manna represents freedom and opportunity while meat represents that which they don't deserve but nonetheless indignantly demand. A little further, in verses 18-20, Moses' followers get more meat than they can handle after demanding it while telling one another that they were "better off in Egypt." It smacks of be careful what you wish for because you just might get it:

18 Then you shall say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept in the hearing of the LORD, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt.” Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat. 19 You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, 20 but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have despised the LORD who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, “Why did we ever come up out of Egypt?”’”

It's reading passages like these that help me understand why the left rejects God.

Be Thankful this Thanksgiving.