Whining to God

00:00:00 Speaker 1: Previously on the chosen people. 00:00:03 Speaker 2: Ah, that'd sell a finger for one drop of dew on my tongue. 00:00:15 Speaker 1: They've let us in, our children, straight into the desert with no plan. 00:00:18 Speaker 3: What about our children? God just parted an entire sea for you people. 00:00:25 Speaker 4: As we speak, a cloud of smoke is before us to guide us to paradise. 00:00:30 Speaker 3: You'd hear you are whining like children. 00:00:35 Speaker 2: We won't last at this raid anyway. We don't have any food. 00:00:40 Speaker 3: That's why this thief wanted to steal my goats. 00:00:42 Speaker 5: The Egyptians were the lucky ones. 00:00:44 Speaker 3: They got to die a swift death under the sea. 00:00:47 Speaker 5: We're going to wither away under the sun. 00:00:52 Speaker 3: Remember when we were in Egypt, we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted. 00:00:58 Speaker 4: Your constant complaining is kept me up at night. Your childish whining is an insissant drip at won't end lucky for you. I am not God. 00:01:11 Speaker 3: If I was, I wouldn't be so patient. 00:01:14 Speaker 6: We're nearly out of water, Moses, what are you gonna do about it? 00:01:18 Speaker 5: Give us water to drink? 00:01:20 Speaker 4: And what have you been keeping from us? Why do you quarrel with me as if I'm the one withholding from you. 00:01:28 Speaker 1: Each day God provided food, But each day the people grew anxious and tried to save more. Yet day after day God provided for their needs. They were His children, his chosen people. He would not let them fall. 00:01:53 Speaker 7: Why have you put this burden on me? 00:01:55 Speaker 4: God? 00:01:55 Speaker 7: Am I their mother? What a refrain from Moses or the weight of an entire nation on his shoulders? Shallo, my friends from here in the Holy Land, I'm yea el Exstein with International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Welcome to the Chosen People. Each day we'll hear a dramatic story inspired by the Bible, stories filled with timeless lessons of faith, love, and the meaning of life. Through Israel's story, we'll find this truth that we are all chosen for something great. Now let's begin. The people of Israel are free at last, But freedom has a cost. The Chosen People aren't ready for the wilderness, not its hunger, not its thirst, not its silence. And it's in this silence that their cries sound once more, not cries of faith, but of complaint. When does longing become entitlement? When does desperation turn into disdain for the one who delivers? 00:03:00 Speaker 1: Caleb Strode blithely through the camp in the dim pre dawn light, nodding to the other soldiers stationed here. On the eastern side of the Israelite camp. The men of tribes Judah, Isuka, and Zebulun were greeting him as eagerly as he was greeting them. Despite the long, weary watch in the desert night, the sight of Caleb approaching lifted the spirits of every soldier. Since the battle with the Amalekites two years prior, Caleb had earned not just experience but the respect of his men. Rising swiftly through the ranks of Judah's leadership, he had secured a place in Nashon, son of Aminadab's trusted circle. As Caleb made his way to relieve the night watch, he greeted early rises and comrades alike with a smile, a grasp on the shoulder, bore a friendly word. He glanced at the pillar of fire glowing above the tabernacle, soon to change to a clod at dawn. It always filled him with awe, a reminder of God's guiding presence and the faithful rituals Aaron and the priests led in their mourning ascension Offering this daily surrender to God brought Caleb comfort. Though desert life was routine, marching, packing the morning Manner and the Divine Pillar, he found solace in the repetition, knowing that the real adventure would come when they claimed the promised land. As the sky brightened over the peaks, dew formed on the sand and shrubs, heralding the arrival of Manner, Caleb paused at the camp's edge where early risers began collecting their share, and nodded to his fellow tribesmen. The soldier named Nariah. He was sitting with a few other soldiers and two other lieutenants from their neighboring tribes on the eastern front of camp Egal of Tribe Isaka and Gadie Yell of Tribe Sepula. 00:05:02 Speaker 6: Lieutenant Caleb, come join us around the fire before you take your post. If you haven't yet broken your past, you can wait for the monitor, boil and eat with us. 00:05:10 Speaker 1: Caleb sat beside the men and warmed his hands over the crackling fire while they waited for the sticky manner to solidify in the hot water. 00:05:19 Speaker 2: Thank you, Mariah, that's very generous of you. I have some time before I meet. 00:05:23 Speaker 6: It must be nice to be in charge, begging the pardon of my superiors Egal and Gaddiel. 00:05:31 Speaker 1: Here Ego, a lieutenant like Caleb, rolled his eyes but showed no offense. He seemed all too familiar with Narah's complaining. 00:05:43 Speaker 4: You'd never beg anyone for anything, you proud fool. 00:05:49 Speaker 6: Well, you're both still on night watch with me, so you can't be that important to your tribal leaders. 00:05:55 Speaker 4: That's true enough. And we're all eating the same lassy manner, no matter our ranking. 00:06:02 Speaker 5: From foot soldiers to captain, we're all eating mana, nothing but bland, dull mana. 00:06:09 Speaker 1: For years now, Caleb knew the night Watch left the men in low spirits. The desert's harsh cold was as brutal as the day's heat. The extremes of this land still amazed him, so unlike Egypt's mild, nile tempered climate. The men's biting sarcasm clashed with Caleb's even keel nature. He had no patience for cynicism. 00:06:33 Speaker 2: Brothers. Just think, once we take the land, promise to us we will never need to eat manna again. You will feast on the fruit of our crops and recline on wool stuffed bed rolls from our plump herds. You will finally have a land to call our own and enjoy the yield of all our hard work. 00:06:56 Speaker 6: Don't even get me start it on the condition of my bed. Everywhere we can, I managed to find the rockiest place to pitch my tent. 00:07:06 Speaker 4: Cal Ford brother, Lieutenant Caleb doesn't want to hear you complain. 00:07:11 Speaker 2: A girl is not wrong, Arah, You should mind your tough. Without the provision and protection from the Lord, we would still be slaves back in Egypt. Don't forget that. 00:07:22 Speaker 6: Yes, yes, I won't complain in front of our paragon, Lieutenant Caleb. Instead, I'll just tell you some of the complaints I've heard from other corners of the camp, namely the foreigners among us, the Cushites. 00:07:40 Speaker 2: And the like. 00:07:43 Speaker 4: Their numbers are growing every day. I don't remember leaving Egypt with so many of them. What here they are eating our manner and benefiting our protection. 00:07:55 Speaker 5: Remember all the rich foods we had in Egypt, the bounty and variety. Remember cucumbers, Remember melons, leeks, onions, Remember garlic. 00:08:09 Speaker 1: More sighs and murmurs of agreement rippled through the men it was true there was little variety in their diet. Manner sustained them, and though they occasionally had meet their flocks and herds were too valuable to spare except for offerings to the Lord. 00:08:26 Speaker 5: Why we even had beer to wash it all down? 00:08:30 Speaker 1: That stirred the biggest response yet. Side conversations flared among the men, and bystanders gathered to join in the complaints and memories of Egypt. They quieted as Noarah began to speak again. 00:08:43 Speaker 6: But no, now it's mana every day, and cold, hard beds at night, and grueling travel all day. 00:08:53 Speaker 4: Ah, I remember all the fish we had in Egypt. 00:08:57 Speaker 6: Ah aye, fish is like a distant memory. What I wouldn't give for the meat they speak of? When was the last time any of you had a proper meat? 00:09:09 Speaker 1: A small crowd began to form around their fire. They murmured in agreement as Nariah continued to wax poetry about how good they had it in Egypt, complaints of contagious from caleb advantage point, Nariah was a walking disease. 00:09:26 Speaker 6: I'm just going to say, well, we're all thinking maybe we didn't have it so bad in Egypt. 00:09:33 Speaker 1: The crowd began to nod their heads. 00:09:35 Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, what was so bad about it? 00:09:38 Speaker 5: Anyways? We had enough food, we had breaks to laugh. 00:09:43 Speaker 6: We still have roofs over our heads. 00:09:46 Speaker 2: What are you saying? Do you hear yourselves? 00:09:50 Speaker 5: Can you blame us for complaining? Lieutenant Caleb, aren't you sick of Mana? 00:09:55 Speaker 6: Aren't you stiff every day and tired of all the moving about? 00:10:00 Speaker 5: Don't you miss the solid walls of our homes. 00:10:03 Speaker 8: In Egypt, the food and the drinking, why even the music and the dancing. 00:10:08 Speaker 4: We have nothing out here. 00:10:12 Speaker 2: I think we need to keep our troubles in perspective. This desert is not our whole, will not be this way forever. 00:10:21 Speaker 5: Yes, but why can't the Lord spare us some of that bountiful harvest he has waiting for us in Canaan? Would that be so terrible? Isn't he capable of anything? Why deny us what would please us? 00:10:36 Speaker 3: Instead? 00:10:37 Speaker 6: Our appetites are gone, our lives are wasted here. 00:10:42 Speaker 1: Caleb frowned again. What he was hearing was so displeasing and disheartening that he could tell from the mood of the small crowd that they would not be swayed. 00:10:52 Speaker 2: You are being fools. Listen to ourselves. 00:10:56 Speaker 4: Are you really pining after Egypt the whips too? 00:11:02 Speaker 2: How about the sight of your children being beaten? 00:11:07 Speaker 1: Kleb rose to his feet and turned on his heels to leave. The other two lieutenants, Eagle and Gadiel, followed suit. Thinking Kleb was out of earshot. Nariah loudly announced his departure to relieve himself in the desert, but not before tossing a parting complaint to the group about the boiling manner. 00:11:26 Speaker 6: Maybe I'll go and grab Moses's stab while I'm out here, so I can use it to turn that manna into something more appealing. 00:11:33 Speaker 1: The grumblers laughed at Noriah's jab. Caleb hadn't gone far when the morning sun illuminated the valley and he noticed the pillar of flame shift to a cloud. He did a double take. The normally calm, swirling column now crackled with lightning, fierce and erratic. 00:11:53 Speaker 2: Something's happening, some things wrong. 00:11:57 Speaker 1: Suddenly, the bolts of lightness shot from the clue toward them. Blinded, Caleb fell back, shielding his eyes. Another crack of lightning lit up the sky, and Caleb watched in horror as Noarah was engulfed in flames. His screams tore through the dawn as fire consumed him. Caleb's shock deepened when he saw the others of the fire also ablaze. The Lord had answered their complaints. Their cries turned to silence. The Lord's anger had burned against them. Even before opening his eyes, Moses sensed something was wrong. The Lord's righteous anger was palpable, and the screams and panicked shouts outside confirmed his fears. Groaning, he rose from his bed roll and splashed cold water on his face. As he stepped out of the tent, Ho Sheer appeared pale and breathless, falling into step beside him. 00:12:56 Speaker 9: Tell me, Ho Sheer, what have they done? They'd been burned, Moses, The Lord struck them down. They were already calling the area Tipperah Blaze, because they were also to blaze. It was only the edge of the camp, but there were rumors that people were unhappy and grumbling about the manner they cried for Egypt and her unsatisfied with living Traveling. 00:13:24 Speaker 1: In the desert, Moses stopped in his tracks and tried to leash his mounting anger. This again, the complaining, how short were their memories? How could they forget the horrors of their enslavement so quickly, the cruelty of their oppressors. Before Hoshir could continue, Aaron and Miriam closed in and added to the reports. 00:13:48 Speaker 10: Have you heard what happened? 00:13:49 Speaker 1: Moses nodded. Still, he did not trust himself to speak without cursing or murmuring insults. His anger was simmering just below a boil. 00:13:58 Speaker 4: Now infuriated as you, brother, all this commotion over food, have we not suffered enough? 00:14:06 Speaker 10: Have they not learned? 00:14:08 Speaker 8: It's these foreigners that travel with us, the Kushites, med Jay's, Libyans, Asiatics, whoever they are, the heathens that are leading our people astray. They complain about the lack of variety and the blendness of our food, disregarding our meager resources. 00:14:24 Speaker 4: And now we will have people clamoring to kill our livestock for meat. 00:14:28 Speaker 8: I blame the rabble of foreigners for bringing this upon us. They've tempted our good people into. 00:14:33 Speaker 4: Sin, like Eve was tempted by the serpent. We've been betrayed by our senses and our appetites. Once again, Yes, you're right, and it's only a matter of time until enough enough, enough of this blame game, throwing insults around? Is it going to correct the flimsy faith of our people. They don't need an excuse for their lack of faith. 00:15:00 Speaker 8: Ah. 00:15:02 Speaker 4: And if other refugees from other nations desire to peacefully join us, I will not turn them away. I made the same offer to my father in law, Jethro he'lsen. 00:15:15 Speaker 3: Some of his lability join us. 00:15:17 Speaker 4: Will you reject them too? The Lord promised our forefather Abraham that he would bless the nations who blessed him. Who are we to deny them that promise. 00:15:29 Speaker 1: Aaron and Miriam stood silently before him. Moses could tell they disagreed, but did not want to push the topic further. 00:15:37 Speaker 4: I'll deal with their bigotry later. For now, we have to figure out how to quell these whiners. 00:15:44 Speaker 1: After dismissing Aaron and Miriam, he and Hoshia moved through the camp. What Moses saw only fueled his rage. The people wept, some for the dead, but most for their perceived hardships and lack of comforts. The people faith was fickle, their memories short, and their gratitude nonexistent. Moses clenched his jaw and fists until he was sore. A cacophony of wines and complaints filled the camp, family after family, weeping at the entrance of their tents, pining after Egypt again. As the complaints rose, so did the Lord's anger. Moses could sense it mounting. With the billowing cloud above, Moses needed to escape this suffocating camp. The people's wails grated on his nerves. He dismissed Hosher and wandered beyond the camp's edge to cry out to the Lord. 00:16:41 Speaker 4: Why have you brought such trouble on me? You must be angry with me? Why else would you burden me with all these people? Am I their mother? Did I carry them in my womb? 00:16:53 Speaker 6: No? 00:16:54 Speaker 4: Then? Why could I endure their infantile christ day and night? 00:17:00 Speaker 1: Ahhh? 00:17:01 Speaker 4: What am I going to do? Where can I get meet to give all these people? I can't carry all these people by myself. 00:17:09 Speaker 3: They're too much for me. 00:17:11 Speaker 4: If you are going to treat me like this, just kill me right now. If I found favor with you, and don't let me see my misery anymore. 00:17:20 Speaker 1: Moses knew he was being hyperbolic, but felt helpless. The burden of leading these people had pushed him to his limit. The Lord didn't respond immediately. Moses pulse pounded in his ears, his vision still red with anger. In the quiet of the wilderness, with only his ragged breathing breaking the silence, he sensed the Lord's present stirry, The divine anger simmering at the edge of his awareness all morning, began to fade with it. Moses's own rage subsided, leaving only bone deep weariness. He was exhausted, and the weight of leadership felt insurmountable. 00:18:02 Speaker 10: Bring me seventy elders from Israel, take them to the tent of meeting, and have them stand there with you. I would take some of the spirit who is on you and put the spirit on them. They will help you bear the burden of the people, so you do not have to bear it alone. 00:18:21 Speaker 1: Even as the Lord spoke to Moses about sending him help, Moses felt the tension in his shoulders loosen and his breath became easier. 00:18:31 Speaker 10: Then you will tell the people consecrate yourselves in readiness for tomorrow, and you will eat meat. Because you wept in my hearing, saying, who will feed us meat? We were better off in Egypt. I have heard your cries. I will give you meat, and you will eat. You will eat not for one day or two days, or five days days, or ten days or twenty, but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils. It becomes nauseating to you, because you have rejected me and wept before me, saying why did we ever leave Egypt? 00:19:19 Speaker 1: Moses trembled at the Lord's anger. Where would such an abundance of meat come from in the desert? The memory of the quail that once covered the ground after their escape from Egypt surfaced an extraordinary provision that had been a fleeting moment of satisfaction. Since then, there had only been manner. The undercurrent of anger in the Lord's voice made Moses uneasy. It sounded as though the people's cravings would be sated, but not in the way they would expect. 00:19:49 Speaker 4: I am in the middle of a people with six hundred thousand foot soldiers and millions more. When you consider the women and children, Yet you say I will give them meat and they. 00:20:03 Speaker 3: Will eat for a month. 00:20:06 Speaker 4: If flocks and herds were slaughtered for them, would they have enough? Or if all the fish in the sea were caught for them, would they have enough? 00:20:14 Speaker 10: Is the Lord's arm weak. Now you will see whether or not I have promised will happen to you. 00:20:21 Speaker 1: The Lord's response only made Moses tremble more than before. He felt the presence lift and took it as his dismissal. Moses hurried to obey the words of his God and called the men who had become his elders to gather before him. The sun began sinking into the horizon, and the day's heat begrudgingly began to release its grip. Caleb loosed a sigh and welcomed the relief. It had been a very tense day on the eastern front of Israel's camp, and the searing sun and blistering heat had only sapped Caleb's emotional energy, now down to its reserves, a sensation Caleb really experienced. He mustered a week but encouraging smile. As his friend, Eagle of tribe Isaka, approached him. Egal took the night's watch and relieved Caleb from his post. 00:21:16 Speaker 3: Lieutenant Caleb, lieutenanty Gal, how was the day's watch? Did you hear what happened to those who gorged themselves on the quail? 00:21:27 Speaker 2: I heard? I cannot say I am surprised, though, after what happened to the men who were openly complaining against the Lord. 00:21:36 Speaker 3: You weren't there to see their faces. 00:21:38 Speaker 4: Though the meat of the quail was still between their teeth, and before it was even chewed, he was struck with a plague. I've never seen anything like it. 00:21:49 Speaker 3: I don't think I will ever forget it. 00:21:53 Speaker 4: I would not say this in front of our men, but from one lieutenant to the other, I think I've had enough of the supernatural the last me a lifetime. 00:22:04 Speaker 1: Kleb met Eagle's haunted gaze, weighing how to steady a man teetering on the brink of despair. Word had already swept through the camp about the grim aftermath of the quail's sudden arrival. Two days prior, an inexplicable wind from the sea had driven thousands of quail into the camp, flying so low that people only had to reach out to catch them. The sight of exhausted birds blanketing an area nearly four hundred square miles had sent the Israelites into a frenzy. Driven by insatiable hunger. They had abandoned sleep and their daily tasks, scrambling to gather and feast on the sudden bounty, but Kleb's unease had grown as he watched the scene. What should have been met with gratitude had quickly devolved into greed. The people's excitement bordered on frenzy, and he couldn't ignore the gnawing worry that something was amiss. The afternoon confirmed his fears. Cries of pain began to echo through the camp as the greediest those who took more than their share, suffered sudden fatal illness. Some choked on the very meat they had craved, collapsing lifeless to the ground among the scattered dead birds. The stories had left. Caleb haunted himself, but he Eager and the others of their station had a duty to their unit of men to hold fast and keep their faith. Taking a steadying breath, Caleb reached deep for the last of his resolve and met his friend's eyes with a firm, reassuring look. 00:23:46 Speaker 2: I know, Egaw, this grave business doesn't sit right with me either, But I do know that we must steal our nerves. Have our men take heart. We must hold the promises of our God and keep his commands. He is refining us here in the desert and through our hardships. We cannot keep looking behind us and claiming that our bondage was better. We press on to freedom, We press on to abundance, We press on to victory. 00:24:23 Speaker 4: Ah right, you are looting at Caleb, young leader of Judah. 00:24:28 Speaker 6: Ha ha. 00:24:30 Speaker 4: I will need to do better in my own leadership over my tribe. Judah may lead us all when we march, But Isikar is right on your heels. May we rise to stand at your right side in battle when it comes to it. 00:24:46 Speaker 2: Brother, I'm sure when the time comes you. 00:24:50 Speaker 3: Will What a story. 00:24:56 Speaker 7: It's raw, it's real. It's not the version we tell in children's book books, where faith is always strong and hearts are always pure. No, this one is different. It's a glimpse into the human condition. How quickly we forget, how quickly we turn away from the very God who has saved us and who still saves us. And Moses I can feel the weight he carried, the frustration, the sheer exhaustion of leading a people who would rather look back at Egypt than forward to the promised land. It makes me wonder how often do we long for the familiar chains of our past when the freedom of the unknown feels like too much to bear. For my daughter's birthday, I didn't buy her an expensive gift, not because I couldn't, but because she didn't need it. Instead, I gave her something way more valuable. I gave her a day together, a whole day at the beach, just the two of us, no distractions, just the lap of the waves, this unwarming her skin, and the simplicity of being fully present with one another. The truth is it was a gift that couldn't be wrapped, but it was far more precious than anything money could buy, and it was a gift that neither of us will forget ever. We live in a time of overwhelming abundance, don't we look around? We have more than our ancestors ever dreamed of, and yet somehow we always feel like we're missing something. Everywhere we turn, advertisements scream at us, pointing out what we don't have, telling us that happiness is just one more purchase away. But when we fixate on what we lack, we lose sight of what we already have. Isn't that a lot like today's episode. The people of Israel were in the desert, sustained each by the mana from heaven, the miraculous bread from God. It could taste like anything they desired, enough to satisfy their every need. But they complained not because the mana wasn't enough, but because it didn't look like much. It was the same. Day after day, the Israelites started longing for the foods of Egypt. The onions, the garlic, the leaks. The very place of their slavery now looked better to them than the freedom that they had. Jewish tradition teaches us who is rich the one who takes joy in what they already have, And that is so true and so relevant for the Israelites then and for us now. Israelites had a miracle right in front of them. They had freedom, they had food, They had God following their every footsteps, making sure that they were safe and provided for. But their hearts were set on what was missing, and so they felt poor. How often do we do the exact same thing. When we focus on what we lack, will always feel empty. But when we turn our eyes to the blessings already in our lives, we discover the richness that was there all along. It's time, my friends, to shift our perspective to see the mana in our own lives, and to realize that true joy comes not from having more, but from recognizing the gifts that are already in our hands. The Israelites complaint in the story isn't just about food? 00:28:14 Speaker 4: Is it? Yes? 00:28:15 Speaker 7: And verse five they complain bitterly about food. They say, we remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost, also the cucumbers, melons, leaks, onions, and garlic. But the great Bible commentator Rashi is very skeptical about this. He points out that the Egyptians would not even give free straw to the Hebrew slaves to make their bricks, so why would he give them fish at no cost? Rashi asks, how could they say that the fish was free? And he answers his own question. He says, they were free from the commandments. In this case, when Israelites used the word free, what they really were showing was nostalgia for life in Egypt without all of the laws and restrictions that they received at Mount Sinai from God. Even free fish would not have mitigated the horrible lives of the slaves. And this is a great lesson for us today when we start reminisce about the good old days. Let's also remember that maybe they weren't all that great. We need to live in the present and accept its challenges, not to create a rosy picture of the past, which is often less than accurate. More responsibility means a greater opportunity to rise higher as the Chosen People. 00:29:41 Speaker 1: You can listen to The Chosen People with Isle Eckstein add free by downloading and subscribing to the Prey dot Com app today. This Prey dot Com production is only made possible by our dedicated team of creative talents. Steve Katina, Max bod Zach Shellavaga and Ben Gammon are the executive producers of The Chosen People with Yile Eckstein, Edited by Alberto Avilla, narrated by Paul Coltofianu. Characters are voiced by Jonathan Cotton, Aaron Salvato, Sarah Seltz, Mike Reagan, Stephen Ringwold, Sylvia Zaradoc and the opening prayer is voiced by John Moore. Music by Andrew Morgan Smith, written by Bree Rosalie and Aaron Salvato. Special thanks to Bishop Paul Lanier, Robin van Ettin, kayleb Burrows, Jocelyn Fuller, and the team at International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. You can hear more Prey dot com productions on the Prey dot com app, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. If you enjoyed The Chosen People with Yile Eckstein, please rate and leave a review.