When the Wheels Come Off
The Beatles. !965. ‘I believe in yesterday, All my troubles seemed so far away’. A catching melody with sentiments that resonated more than the tune with many people. At this stage in their journey the Israelites would have loved it. But how are they to get from yesterday to today and then to tomorrow?
Step One on the road to ‘yesterday’ is dissatisfaction with today. Nobody hankers after the past if the present is good and the future holds hope. Why would they? All that is remembered was dreadful. Today is not like that. The escape was exhilarating. Crossing the Jordan like tearing down a huge dividing wall. Troubles to come would be ‘challenging’. They had a big heart and a good leader. But now today . . . the wheels are coming off. The hopes are not simply unrealised; they are being dashed. And when that happens Step Two kicks in.
Obedience gives way to murmurings and rebellion. They hark back to when meat was plentiful, fish was cheap and vegetables varied. No longer. Nothing but manna, discoloured and tasteless, day after day. Easy for us to be critical but hard to remember. This was the cry of the European war-weary nations who endured the stringency of rationing in World War 2 and many contemporary voices regretting the loss of local products locally available from small traders rather than food, fast, packaged and processed.
No wonder Moses was ‘displeased’ but why was Yahweh ‘angry’? Because they were turning up their noses at what he offered or because his people seem to have forgotten how and why they got where they are? Nobody drove them into the wilderness. Far from it. This was what they wanted. Any sacrifice was worth making in exchange for freedom (or riches?). But now is the time to accept responsibility for what is past and tackle the new situation in which they find themselves? That is Step Two to get from Yesterday to Today and Tomorrow.
Of course we sympathise with people in this situation, but what might be more positive is to review our ‘yesterdays’ if only to work out how we got where we are and how we too can get from yesterday to tomorrow. This is our journey.