Food Poisoning
You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you; because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wept before Him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”Numbers 11:19-20 NASB
Rejected – Haven’t we learned that Hebrew is a dirt language? Oh, that doesn’t mean it isn’t sophisticated. In fact, since multiple meaning structures are incorporated into the grammar, the shape of the letters and the ambiguity of no vowels, one might argue that Hebrew is the most sophisticated language. But it’s still about dirt. That is to say, the imagery of Hebrew is drawn from life experienced in the land. It doesn’t entertain elegant concepts like Greek (the Good, the True, and the Beautiful). It’s more WYSIWYG. So Hebrew paints its word pictures in terms of everyday occurrences. It’s down and dirty. It reeks of the smell of putrid water, afterbirth, burned offerings, and garbage dumps. It soars on early spring rain clouds, doves cooing, the night stars, and a lover’s perfume. And in this verse, it’s all about food poisoning.
“You have rejected the Lord.”
“This is, in fact, a much more visceral statement than it appears in English translation. ‘You have rejected’—m’astem—indicates revulsion, abjection, the vomiting reflex. Something that has been eaten with appetite suddenly nauseates one; it is expelled from one’s innards. This is the bizarre physical imagery of God’s speech. It is God—or, as Ha’amek Davar rephrases it, the delight with the God of Sinai—that is now being violently expelled. ‘That exalted delight,’ the jouissance of Sinai, has visited them with a sense of larger life. The uncanny, indwelling presence of the Other has now become unbearable. If the people say, ‘It is good for us in Egypt,’ they are imagining a pre-Sinai state in which that jouissance was unknown to them. Saying these words, they violently put it outside themselves.”[1]
Notice God’s response. “You will eat until it comes out your nostrils.” Ah, if you’ve ever had food poisoning, you know only too well that delightful experience. “You will eat until it is loathsome to you.” Yes, I’m never going back to the restaurant again. Just the sight of it nauseates me. I’ve learned my lesson. . . maybe.
The children of Israel were rescued from Egypt—but they weren’t rescued from themselves. They never left the domain of slavery. They never accepted the adventure of a holy people. They wanted security (under Pharaoh?), comfort (really?) and, most of all, an escape from the unbearable presence of Being—the God in their midst. I am afraid that we are the same. Dogs returning to their vomit (there’s another visceral image in Hebrew). We are rescued but before long we’re back at the feeding trough, slurping up the same vomit that gave us spiritual diarrhea in the first place. We just can’t take being in the presence of holiness. Pigs running into the sea frighten us.
Have you experienced that jouissance of recovery only to find that the dark hole still is more comfortable than the light? Did you march to Sinai, hear God’s call and run away, afraid to be loved that much? Was your Egypt really such a wonderful place? Better ask yourself again as you lie on the floor in the bathroom retching.
Topical Index: m’astem, reject, vomit, Numbers 11:19-20
[1]Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, Bewilderments: Reflections on the Book of Numbers, p. 76.
The thought-provoking word pictures excellent. I was once told that there is Vision Within God’s words. To go along with the verse without Vision the people perish. Personal revelation in the words of God. I think of this every time I’m called you fast. I can go without food for the body, but I cannot go without food for the soul. Seeing God close to me, and even inside of me. Causes that part of me to grow. Period. Most food comes from the ground in some manner, in the ground is dirty Heavenly food is pure. This is surely one I will read several times. And bring it to conversation
At your best again Skip. Your reminding me of Art Katz. A high complement in my book. For it is as you suggest, and Art’s life exemplifies in the down and dirty we find the true presence of Yehovah.- It is with the bloody rags of our daily existence, those same filthy things that yet reek of “Reality the Hope of Glory” (a title to one of Art Katz’s books). I have been marveling at the ever-present reality of God’s presence. Marveling that He is so merciful, gracious and kind while yet uncompromisingly true. True to his word, and true to the reality of his creations’ guiding principles. We see through out the scriptures, story after story of the depravity, selfishness and inconsistency of mankind. Yet in scripture and today we will also see the consistent mercy, grace and long-suffering of a holy God. One that through Messiah provided the antidote to our diseases of selfishness and wickedness in the person of Yeshua. Yeshua comes down, and will yet again today come down- from the holy heaven and sit with us in our own cesspool of indulgence, despondency or delusion, waiting for us to come to our senses and turn to him in trust for help. He then graciously washes us off bids us to get up and follow him away from the filthy pit into the fragrant garden. Or into the realms if wonder. All this he does while entirely un-sullied by the filth of this present world system. Why? Because as I understand the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of this present world system, they are simultaneously coexisting while yet mutually exclusive.
That (literally) visceral imagery that you clarified, Skip, immediately tied this verse in (for me, anyway) with the one in Revelation where YHVH declares of the church of Laodicea that, because they think they are all that (but don’t know how bad off they are) He will (projectile vomit) them, too (Rev. 3:16). This is imagery that invokes the thought that the Body is a very part of the life of God: that we literally reside IN Him (“abide in Him and He in us”) – determine, in part, how His life (choices) is being lived (astounding thought!).
If the Holy Spirit resides in us: becomes a factor in our very life, thought and action: then our rejection of Him would also have to be the expulsion of Him out of our very being, too. The body vomits poison violently because it has concluded (believes) that, if that substance is retained, we are in danger. When we reject the Holy Spirit, I think it must also be because we have chosen to believe something untrue about God: that He is a threat to us – a danger. Fear ABOUT God, however, I think is the opposite of the experience of the fear that comes from believing that we are in danger if we disobey or disappoint Him. I think the difference in the two fears comes from believing either that the danger is from all that is not godly or it comes from God Himself. “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” is an example, I think, of a belief that God Himself is the source of our danger. Being afraid of disobeying Him, I think, comes from a belief that everything else besides God represents danger and death to us. Either God is our only safety, or He is our biggest enemy: take your pick.
In the end, I think our beliefs are driven by the need to justify our choices. I justify the choice to disobey with ‘having’ to believe that, surely, it is true that God is out to get me – that He cannot supply me with the love I need. I justify the choice to obey (faith) with the belief that God loves me and represents all that is good for me. We have to feel justified! It’s hardwired! Those beliefs are going to drive our choices and actions – including the action of either forcefully ejecting spiritual motivators not of God that we were (formerly) believing were ‘just us’ (or even believing that they were of God) or spiritually vomiting the Holy Spirit out of our hearts. Either way, we will be looking for justification. Will I ‘need’ to justify myself today, or will I be able to afford the faith to believe that God will justify my last choice instead? I think that is going to depend upon what I chose to put my trust (belief) in, which, in turn, will result in which spiritual driver gets the boot – I mean the retch.
Yep sister, that ‘s the way it really is., To knit our comments together-“Which spiritual driver” we choose determines what/who’s kingdom we are living in…
This begs us consider from what tree if knowledge we will eat? “The tree of life” or that other way of knowing, independent human reason-,” the tree of the knowledge of good or evil”; it to is poison.
Skip, you certainly have a way with words! I have been greatly blessed by your words; in-depth, straightforward, and over-beaming with meaning. Wow! Thank you. May many blessings be poured upon you.
Thankfully,
Mom said keep your mouth closed when you eat.
God says get a taste of the right food.
“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk,
so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,
now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
1 Pet 2:2-3
Your daily bread.
Everyday, just the right amount.
Follow the directions. Follow the Director.
(By the way, He’s a very good cook!)
Excellent word…..Jouissance…. had never heard it before so I spent some time looking it up. Makes me realize that anything good can be distorted, misused and mishandled! We take the good things that God has given us and they become “god “to us. Like chasing the tail, so to speak. These things are never meant to satisfy outside of God’s paradigm. Pleasure, Yes, soul quenching, No. But we still tend to chase after them, in hopes …… isn’t that what happens? Always seeking but never attaining.
I think God must have designed it that way. Gifts,not idols. I think that’s sort of what happens so often in the charismatic movement people end up chasing after “the high” and when that ends or fails to continue, they leave because it’s not actually God they are seeking after, it’s an experience. Continual babes never going beyond the milk to the meat!
For whatever it’s worth. Produces some enlarging of my thinking and understanding how things go. Thanks.