Patience! Who amongst us dares to ask for patience? I well remember my mother with her frustrated “Oh, give me patience,” theme, as we children battled through our role seeking years, trying to find out who we were without being told into which mould we were expected to fit. She was given many opportunities to develop that patience, when she would have chosen less! We taxed her to the uttermost, and I, as the eldest, was the greatest culprit, so that my young brother gained in countless ways as he floated through adolescence in my wake, often scoring from my earlier misconduct.
How would my mother have handled the dilemma of Moses, with countless numbers of the Children of Israel taxing his patience as they whined and moaned their way through the wilderness? Immaterial to them was the reality that they had brought their condition on themselves through their disobedience and unfaithfulness to the Lord God who had brought them safely out of captivity in Egypt
Did Moses gain insight into a mother’s heart, I wonder, as he led those recalcitrant children deeper into the desert and their final destiny. Many perished after each further bout of insubordination. Surely many repented and regretted their role in the waywardness, but it was too late, with their only option being to await their time to die. They would not see the Promised Land, the light that would have been at the end of their tunnel if they had remained faithful.
His patience was understandably wearing thin. His frustrated cry was also, perhaps, "Lord, give me patience." He had to learn it through hard lessons, and so must we!
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