NOTES for Num 21:4-9

The life of the people of Israel in the wilderness was indeed difficult: heat, lack of water, and no one knew where they would have to pitch their tents the following month. It is therefore hardly surprising that murmuring arose among the people from time to time. Yet it is worth noting how Scripture describes their state: “The people became fainthearted on the way.” For us this word is now synonymous with cowardice, but in this story it does not refer only to fear. The Israelites are of course troubled first of all by the unpredictability of the future, but there is also resentment against God for making them leave their comfortable, settled life in Egypt. It seems that the farther they get from Egypt, the less they remember the humiliation and burden of slavery, retaining only the material security of their former life. “Our soul detests this worthless food,” they say, forgetting that through the hands of His prophet the Lord gave them the right to be free people.

In the same way, we often seek to return to the cocoon of our ignorance of God, to return to that period of our life when we did not yet have to restrain ourselves in anything for His sake, when we, like the people of Israel, still lived in slavery to sin. This, in fact, is precisely our calling, according to Christ's words: “Unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins”—to leave the well-provisioned house of our slavery and follow God. This path is hard and very often unpredictable, but Jesus shows us clearly that it leads to life.