Retrospection

The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything. (Deuteronomy 2:7)

So you wanna go back to Egypt
Where it's warm and secure
Are sorry you bought the one way ticket
When you thought you were sure
You wanted to live in the land of promise
But now it's getting so hard
Are you sorry you're out here in the desert
Instead of your own back yard

Eating leaks and onions by the Nile
Ooh what breath for dining out in style
Ooh, my life's on the skids
Building the pyramids

Well there's nothing do but travel
And we sure travel a lot
'Cause it's hard to keep your feet from moving
When the sand gets so hot
And in the morning it's manna hotcakes
We snack on manna all day
And we sure had a winner last night for dinner
Flaming manna souffle

Well we once complained for something new to munch
The ground opened up and had some of us for lunch
Ooh, such fire and smoke
Can't God even take a joke? Huh? NO!

So you wanna to back to Egypt
Where your friends wait for you
You can throw a big party and tell the whole gang
Of what they said was all true
And this Moses acts like a big shot
Who does he think he is?
Well it's true that God works lots of miracles
But Moses thinks they're all his

      Oh we're having so much trouble even now

Why'd he get so mad about that c-c-c-cow (that golden calf)
Moses seems rather idle
He just sits around, he just sits around and writes the Bible!

 Oh, Moses, put down your pen!
What? Oh no, manna again?

Oh, manna waffles
Manna burgers
Manna bagels
Fillet of manna
Manna patty
BaManna bread!

Keith Green, So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt

          Yesterday, someone mentioned the term “retrospect.” That’s what Moses is providing here, a retrospective look at the past forty years. I wonder whether the Israelites agreed with his perspective. The song I’ve quoted above comes to mind. Yes, God provided food: quails until they were sick of quails, and that “what’s it” stuff (which is what “manna” means apparently.) A whole generation (except Joshua and Caleb) died in the wilderness.

          Some scholars think their clothes didn’t wear out. Others think they were able to buy what they needed from the towns they passed, or at least to have bought the cloth needed to make the material. But still, basically, they probably didn’t have a large wardrobe – maybe a robe for special occasions tucked away. Even if they had money, there wasn’t much use in buying anything because you’d have to pack and carry it. No, I suspect that a lot of people wouldn’t have agreed with Moses. Yet, here they were, on the boarder of the Promised Land. At that moment, they might have agreed with Moses that they’d had everything that was needed.

          As I look back over the past forty years I can see much of the same. So much of it was such a struggle at the time. There was the job with the toxic coworker who arranged to be made my supervisor. There was the job with the toxic corporate environment, the one that led me to cry as I crossed the parking lot to go to work because the environment was so demeaning. There were the issues with different people and different groups. There were four years of watching Dad die. There were times when I considered suicide, but time and time again turned away from that option because I was afraid I’d screw it up like I screwed up so much of my life, and end up a cripple or a vegetable. Another reason was that my previous dog, Honey, needed me so desperately. There was no one who could take care of her (I thought.) A third was that Dad would eventually need me (and he did, and that meant several more painfilled years.) 

          During those times, if you’d asked me whether my needs were being met, I might have said “yes,” and meant it, but if they were being met, why was I in such agony? (Part of the answer to that is that I’m a wimp!) And yet, here I am now, wherever I am. Is it on the border of the Promised Land? It might be. 

          What ever my experience between there and here, I am here and I know it’s God who has gotten me here, partly because I would never have made it on my own, and partly because here is not were I would have come on my own. That means that God has met my needs because otherwise, I wouldn’t be here. Sometimes, it seems that to have a proper perspective, we have to have a retrospective view.