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This week Torah Means Teacher will be covering the book of Exodus chapter 16, verse 26 through chapter 17 verse 2. Thank you for listening and sharing TMT with your friends!
Exodus Ch. 16 (NIV):
26Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”
27Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none. 28Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long will youc refuse to keep my commands and my instructions? 29Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where they are on the seventh day; no one is to go out.” 30So the people rested on the seventh day.
31The people of Israel called the bread manna.d It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey. 32Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the wilderness when I brought you out of Egypt.’ ”
33So Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put an omer of manna in it. Then place it before the Lord to be kept for the generations to come.”
34As the Lord commanded Moses, Aaron put the manna with the tablets of the covenant law, so that it might be preserved. 35The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.
36(An omer is one-tenth of an ephah.)
Chapter 17:
1The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”
Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”
I love your class Dr. Footnick but I have to ask about you statement at the end of his class where you claim that there must be punishment for the wicked after death, where do you find such a claim in The Torah? And how is your demand or claim that you will take issue with G-d if such a place doesn’t exist much different than the Israelites demand for water? I’m not trying to be a jerk, I am just curious about your particular theological position on divine punishment and how you classify it in light of some of the statements that you have previously made in your class. Thanks.
Great questions. Don’t worry, I don’t think jerks would be listening to a Torah study podcast…
Without reviewing the exact words I spoke, my typical spiel goes something like this: If God is good then there must be a form of punishment (aka “hell”, “purgatory”, “gehinnom”) in the afterlife for those who live evil or wicked lives. My reasoning is based on reason and not Torah per se. The Torah is largely silent in regards to the afterlife. Except when certain key characters (Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Aaron, and Moses) die, in which case each were “gathered to his kin/fathers.” This canNOT simply mean buried. Rather, they come together with those who died before them… presumably in an afterlife.
And that’s about all the Torah mentions of afterlife. I have no idea what it’s like, nor do I dwell on it much. BUT for me, if God is good (which I admit is a statement of faith) and just then there must be some form of horrific existence in the world to come for those who did horrific things in this world. Likewise, for their victims who suffered through such horrors they must enjoy some form of terrific afterlife, since their corporeal life was so tragic. If not, then God and I have a real problem (due to my ‘good and just’ assumptions about Him.)
To think that people like Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, Kim Il Sung, Vlad Dracula, Idi Amin… unfortunately there are many more… all those who did mass evil, yet they only die one death? And that’s it? Where is justice? Where is God’s goodness? To think that the evil go on and enjoy the same afterlife as their victims seems to my mortal mind… cruel and unjust. Or to think like an atheist… We all just die and that’s it. Same meaningless fate for all. Again, then this whole existence is pointless and unjust.
So it just makes since to me that:
1: God Exists
2: Since He cares about how we act, and demands we act good… He is good
3: Therefore He has a way of bringing justice to those who do evil in this world to the point where they are beyond redemption (i.e. murderers)
The primary way my charge is different than the Israelites clamoring for water is:
My charge is on behalf of the victims and those who love them, where as the Israelites claim was for themselves (and I also recognize that contextually it was understandable.)
Like many Americans… my life has been reasonably good thank God. Yet I know there are many people who are suffering through a nightmarish existence in this world… And I truly hope that God makes it up to them in the world to come.
Which brings me to my original point that I also hope that He makes those who create suffering in this world, suffer even greater in the world to come.
It’s the only way I can make sense of our often maddening world.
Thank you for listening Kurt! And thank you for your comments.
God Bless and Happy 2014!