In the 11th chapter of the book of Numbers we find out just how God feels about complaining. After delivering his people from oppressive slavery, we find Israel complaining about God’s provided wilderness menu. Mana yesterday, mana today and mana again tomorrow. I’m sure the complaints seemed legitimate to a people growing tired of unchanging scenery and dietary possibilities. And I would even go as far to say that God could have reluctantly put up with general wining. But what really “kindled God’s anger” was moving from general complaints to a specific longing and harkening back to the days of slavery in Egypt. Ah yes, the glory days.

The people began to romanticize slavery. As soon as they got bored with the magic food from Heaven that God provided, they seemed to forget about the oppression, forced labor, and general degradation of living as a conquered people. A monotonous meal plan was all it took to forget that they had been called out to be a sovereign nation protected by the one true God, creator of Heaven and earth.

Moses doesn’t lose faith in God, but gets bogged down and has no trouble expressing it. But Moses’ complaints were met with relief and (somewhat) answered prayer while the people’s complaints were met with a consuming fire. What was the difference? Moses never asked God to turn the car around and take them back to Israel. Moses never complained about the food. Moses complained about the awful people, not the awesome God.

The Bible is full of complainers. The church is fuller. God hears our lamenting and bends his heart to those crying out to him from the depths of despair. God hears the angry and frustrated. God listens to the hurt people who hurt people. God has no time for the people complaining about his blessings. God has no time to hear our first world problems.  The desert is hot, but it is free. The mana is bland but it is miraculously handed to us by God himself. Eat, walk and enjoy. We’re on our way to the promised land and there is nothing left for us in Egypt.

For more on our first world problems, see Caryn Rivadeneira’s article in Christianity Today.

The 18th chapter of Leviticus seems to be an exhaustive list of who’s nakedness one can and cannot reveal. Most of revealings listed seem to us to be common sense and redundant. If you should shouldn’t have sexual relations with your dad, you would think that not having sexual relations with your mother would be the next logical place to go. However, just about the entire line of kin is discussed  sexually and found to be unkosher.

Clearly, as 21st century Christians and readers of scripture, we can throw this passage out and label it a passage about the sexual guidelines of  an unevolved, barbaric people. However, I would like to suggest, that when taken in the context of the surrounding chapters, this is a passage about the nature of the holy community that God is attempting to create. This passage begins to probe the depths of what we would culturally consider complete sexual depravity, but we have to remember we are talking about a people group practicing endogamy. This greatly narrows down your options when choosing a spouse. These laws are not only about religious purity, but as modern science shows, it also greatly cuts down on the genetic mutations and disfunctions that come out of various forms of incest (See this article from “Current Anthropology” that discuses the relation between incest and exogamy). That covers the practical aspect of chapter 18, but there is something more that God is calling for in the late teens of Leviticus.

If you move to Chapter 19 we find one of the few sections in the whole book that protestants feel comfortable preaching from. Here we learn to love our neighbors and leave plenty of our yield to the poor. Here we find guidelines given to foster the growth of God’s holy community. However, a lot of this chapter looks much different from the rest of the “Law” given in the book. These commandments are concerned with being set apart as a holy community by treating each other well. Much like the laws on sexual relations, one might think that the blanket statement of “love your neighbor as yourself” might cover the concept. But there is a deeper level of “[God’s] statutes.” There is something above and beyond the cultural norm that God requires; A code of conduct that is as life giving as it is defining.