What should have been a 2-week walk from Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land (I calculated it on Google Maps) turns out to be a 40-year circuitous, stuck slog in which an entire generation dies. Aviva Zornberg calls it "the black hole" in the book of Bemidbar.
It's classically seen as a punishment for the "sin" of the spies, but I think we can read beneath the surface and see a people caught in the limitations of their circumstances, and God's understanding of the consequences of this.
Now, just as then, we don't have a God-given right to land or anything. We need to be trusted and we need to prove ourselves as capable. Now, just as then, we pay a terrible price for mistakes when it comes to the land of Israel.
May we understand and take responsibility for the consequences of our actions.
And may we recognise the difference between a personal slight "punishment" and a natural consequence in all areas of our lives.
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