About 990 years before the birth of Christ, the children of Israel were released from Egypt after 400 years of slavery. As expected, upon being freed from their long tenure under the tyranny of slavery, there was for a time much jubilation among the chosen people of God. The hard hearted Pharaoh allowed the former slaves to leave Egypt with an immense amount of wealth, consisting of mostly gold, silver and assorted jewelry.
What began as an eleven day journey ended up being dragged out to a forty year trek of many traumas, punctuated with dramatic swings of attitudes, ranging from awe and reverence to disdain and unbelief in the almighty Yah. Not long after gaining liberty, the sense of gratitude gave way to complaining about everything from manna, to no longer having the leeks, onions and garlic of Egypt.
The children of Israel were promised a land of their own, by God who provided all their needs including protection from the harsh elements of desert living. In fact, the Lord promised the children of Israel a land flowing with milk and honey, where they would prosper and become a powerful nation. But unfortunately, God’s chosen one’s lost their appreciation for being liberated. They berated Moses and accused God of leading them out into the desert to die.
At times, the complaints were unrelenting. Of course, the horror of past slavery occupied more of their attention than properly relating to the God who oversaw their liberation and the many blessings that could have been realized in a relatively short period of time.
The stinking thinking of the chosen people was best illustrated in the Biblical Book of Numbers 13 describing how the twelve spies were sent out to observe the land of Canaan. All twelve reported glowingly about the bountiful food, fertile soil and even stated that it flows with milk and honey, just as God had said. Rather than expressing and encouraging faith in God’s promises and saying “let us go take the land,” ten of the twelve spies expressed fear over the odds against them being able to occupy simply because of the size of the people. They were enslaved by the small mindedness of the majority of the spies. To his credit, Caleb tried to persuade his fellow Israelites to as he stated, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are able to overcome it.”
The people bought into the lie of defeat and continued to dwell in the desert for forty years. God allows us to make decisions and use the words we speak to shape our destiny. It was the people themselves, not God, or Moses who decided they could not possess the greatness God had waiting for them. God provides the vision and provision, but we are to act in faith to secure it for ourselves. If not, the of our dreams carcasses will drop in the desert of our own wrong thinking and speaking.
For the children of Israel to take possession of their land, the complainers and others who lacked vision and faith died off, so the believers and doers could cross the Jordan into their land and life of promise.
Today throughout our republic, the plague of a slave and bitter mentality is literally blocking generations of black and increasing numbers of other Americans from choosing to build a great life for themselves and their families. Some march around in the dark of night like the walking dead seeking to destroy property they do not own and harm people who do not agree with their evil philosophy.
When I was a little boy growing up in Cleveland, Dad sometimes said that a nation is only as great as her families are strong. It is imperative for us to learn from history and advance from it. If not, America may be soon endure a long hard road of needless suffering, just like the children of Israel did until the dead weight of the slavery minded slugs were dropped off in the desert. I firmly believe “We the People” can soon witness the elimination of the poisonous slavery and bitter mentality and with God’s grace lead victorious lives of greatness. God Bless you, God bless America and may America bless God.
© 2017 Ron Edwards – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Ron Edwards: ronedwards@edwardsnotebook.com
