Village Shepherd

According to the media, there is a shortage of surgeons in the US. The reason for this is that it has now become difficult for surgeons to afford the cost of insurance because of the litigation culture of the US. Such huge payouts follow any undesired outcome of surgery, whether or not the surgeon was to blame, that the insurance costs have reached sky high proportions and are forcing some surgeons to quit the job. Unfortunately the surgeons so affected by this are mostly those who give much of their time to working for the poor. They finance their work for the poorest in society by the rest of their work for those who can afford to pay, but this work is no longer financially viable.

Human nature is such that we naturally look for somewhere to place the blame when anything goes wrong. But it is only in recent years that this culture of blame has become enshrined in law so that people now tend to try to swamp their sadness and sorrow over an accidental death for instance, by claiming against the person upon whom they place the blame. Then the feelings of despair and misery may be mitigated somewhat by a large payout of cash.

That which begins in America often follows in the rest of the Western world and our own Prime Minister is becoming so worried by the implications of a similar trend in our own country that he has recently warned against the culture of litigation.

In around 1500BC, when Moses was leading the tribes of the Ancient Israelites through the wilderness in search of a better future, things started to go wrong. The adventure which had begun in such a positive way with God parting the Red Sea and swamping the opposition, then leading the people by his signals of fire at night and cloud during the day, was turning sour.

The wilderness was a very inhospitable place, rocky and barren where the terrain was difficult and where it was almost impossible to sustain life. With no wild crops to harvest and no wild animals to hunt, these hunter-gatherers were ravenously hungry. They focussed their anxiety and anger on their leader, Moses and blamed him for their present misfortunes.

We're told that the whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

Another characteristic of the blame culture is to look back and see everything which has gone before as bathed in a rosy glow of happiness. We know from reading previous chapters of the story that the Israelites were treated appallingly. Their hard labour for their Egyptian overseers was forced by harsh and vicious punishments and their lives were bitter. But all of that is forgotten as they recall that actually, they did have food in those days.

But Moses is a born leader. He has those characteristics which perhaps separate the successful from the rest of society, for he refuses to consider that the expedition has failed in any way. Instead of collapsing into a crumpled heap of despair, he looks upon the situation positively and seeks a new way forward. And the best way of doing that is to approach God with an open mind and an open heart.

God immediately responds with a new way which no-one could have anticipated. The situation was hopeless with no way forward because there was no meat and no grain in the wilderness. But God produces meat and grain in an amazing way.

There is a natural substance still found in small amounts in the Sinai desert, which is perhaps similar to the manna produced by God thousands of years ago. But who knows whether the people would have recognised it as food without Moses' direction?

When we are in hopeless situations from which there appears to be no way forward, the most helpful response is to turn to God. God will find a new way forward for us, one which we could never have imagined. But we need to recognise and identify God's way forward and follow it if we are to survive and grow.

In the wilderness the people did nothing but moan and complain and blame. But Moses refused to absorb the blame or to regard his enterprise as a failure. He went forward courageously with God and identified God's gifts and God's guidance. Moses kept his faith in God's promise of a better future and he made certain that that promise would be fulfilled.

God promises each of us a better future too. Jesus called it "eternal life", but made it clear that this concept wasn't just pie in the sky when we die but is something that each of us can enjoy here and now. Those who want to enjoy it must keep their faith in God's promise, refuse to absorb the culture of blame, identify God's gifts and God's guidance and then courageously go forward with God.

And then we too can enjoy the Promised Land.