Contemplative Bible Reading

Numbers 16:12-13 (New Living Translation)

12 Then Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, but they replied, “We refuse to come before you! 13 Isn’t it enough that you brought us out of Egypt, a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us here in this wilderness, and that you now treat us like your subjects?

This is yet another story during the time in the exodus that some of the people griped, grumbled, and rebelled against Moses and God. Moses, trying humbly to quiet the grumbling, calls for some of the grumblimg to meet him. The grumblers refused the invitation.

On top of everything, the grumblers called Egypt, “a land flowing with milk and honey.”

I have read some commentators say that this was sarcasm. Egypt did not flow with milk and honey. The grumblers used these words as that is what they heard about the land promised to them.

I find no reason to conclude it is sarcasm. I think they remembered Egypt as a good land. Perhaps they were treated harshly, but the land itself was a good place for agriculture. Is there any reason to believe that the promised land was the only good land on earth?

“Let us go back,” was the cry to Moses. I don’t find anyone stopping them. But if you are a grumbler, you don’t have to act rationally.