Wasn't the whole thing though that they could have done it in a year but their god punished them by making them wander aimlessly for 40 years?
this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2024
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The Lord's initial response to Israel's rejection is to destroy his people with pestilence (Numbers 14:12). Moses intervenes for the people, however, and has their lives spared (verses 13 - 20).
God's punishment on his people for refusing to enter that land he swore he would give them is that all those 20 years old or older will not enter the Promised Land (except Joshua and Caleb). The Israelites, he declares, will wander in the wilderness a total of 40 years until a new generation can enter Canaan.
Old god seems like a total toddler. Jesus is the man!
I mean, that's kinda the point of the combined old and new testaments.
I'm not a religious person, but I was brought up in it, and a lot of the new testament is basically saying, "Yeah, in the past it was very much difficult to appease God and make it to the good afterlife. Lots of rules, lots of demands, little to no mercy, that sort of thing. But now we've got Jesus and he's shaking up the old order in a big way! Not a Jew? Not a problem! Basically, you put your trust in him and you can skip the temple and the old order of religious leaders and make a church in your house! Invite over your friends and as long as you're following the teachings of Jesus you can relax on all the old laws from Moses's time! And get this: there's much fewer conditions and hoops to jump through and the main lesson is to love everyone."
Of course this tended to upset the old order, and the Romans, who were calling the shots at the time, but again, that was kind of the point: the old testament was a strict set of guidelines that set out rules for all aspects of life for a specific sociocultural group of people to keep them not only religiously centered but preserved as a distinct group from their neighbors.
Once Jesus came and the religion was opened to non-jews, suddenly all that exclusivity was a liability more than self preservation, so the new testament cast most of that to the side, to appeal to the widest range of potential converts.
Wasn't it lucky, a pharisee was visited by Jesus (after he died) so he could be chosen to play a large role in shaping all the current dogmas Christianity suffers from. To think, the religion would have probably vanished as some hippy, love everyone cult, if Paul didn't come in and add much needed facets of control.
"Oh no, membership is down! Add some new shit!"
Jesus also has his negative parts 'One must hate their own father and mother, yes, even themselves, if they want to follow me'
That's when he's discussing people literally following him as disciples. Do not go on the road away from your family if you know you will miss your family and decide to turn back.
And isn't 40 years also just a figurative way of saying "a long-ass time"?
As another commenter pointed out, the "40 years" was more figurative, likely meaning something more like "a generation."
The reason being, I've heard, as they fled Egypt, they were fleeing slavery, the only form of life they had known. For their people to settle successfully, they needed to wander for "40 years/a generation" so that they could know what it was like to live as a free people.
This, it is a figurative story intended for a jewish Babylonian exile community. Based on the communal memory of Egypt rule over Canaan/Israel centuries earlier.
I love how these religious texts are interpreted however tf you want. "Oh, this part is real and this person definitely existed. But this part is figurative to illustrate a concept. I have no evidence for anything but have faith and donate, bro. Also, live your life the way I say."
OP was just explaining the history of that bit of text. You are aware that these nations and peoples existed and had a real history, right?
Does my comment imply that I have a problem with their comment?
😳
Got to think maybe that first commandment was overcompensating for something
Supposedly Yahweh was beaten by another God called Chemosh, in his own book!
I know it's just a meme and the accuracy of ancient history/religious folklore is always going to be questionable anyway, but don't you think it's reasonable that an army of orderly and disciplined soldiers would move just a bit faster and more efficiently than a band of refugees?
A bit faster, sure, but at 40 years for some 300 miles, you're REALLY taking the scenic route.
Well, it's not like they had anywhere to be. They were just wandering around in the desert for a while.
But Asia Minor ain't gonna conquer itself!
And don't forget that an army would definitely move much faster than an exodus that never happened.
I don't know… myths can go as fast as the teller wants!
I mean weren't they explicitly not guided? Unguided???
Sounds like a bit of a disincentive to pick YHWH as your god if he's gonna work AGAINST you anyway.
you gotta earn it baby
Isn't it already established that it's very dubious that there ever were any Jewish slaves in Egypt, not to mention the whole exodus nonsense?
The Hebrew Storm God of the Desert sitting there like Cheems, while the Macedonian HUMANS find islands and turn them into peninsulas.