Ps. 78.26-28 (blessing and wrath)

Then / he set the east wind / blowing in the heavens
and by his might / he guided the south wind
and so he rained down meat / down on them / like dust
flying birds / like the sand on the seashore
making them fall / inside his camp
round about / his dwelling-place.  

 These lines continue the seeming prodigal blessing of God in response to Israel’s testing of him. God’s actions seem in line with his previous acts on their behalf in the exodus itself: a clear ‘wonder’ emerges from his ‘might’. Now, after having provided the ‘bread of angels’, when Israel only requested bread, God provides not simply meat, but birds as think as dust, and like sand on the seashore—again, in response to Israel’s challenge to God. What this accomplishes is something we did not indicate in our previous reflection. The framing of Israel’s challenge to God was “Is God able…?”. Here, God reveals he is not only ‘able’ but able to provide immensely more than could be anticipated. What Israel does not perceive is that this display of God’s might is, simultaneously, the igniting of his wrath and fury. Here we can make the inquiry about what, prior to judgment, Israel believed was occurring—because God had responded so abundantly to their mocking demand, God appeared to Israel to be at their command. Israel became at that moment, a type of nation of magicians, harnessing the power of the divine such that it would be deployed at their will. In a sense, God had been made subject to their will; he became their servant. At this point in time it would have appeared to Israel as if creation itself and the heavenly realm was not only their domain but their possession. So, God has given them what they wanted. But this is the point where God’s judgment comes to play such a decisive role—it is precisely in God’s judgment, wrath and fury that he is revealed to be the Lord of blessing, not the puppet. This is something we will pursue in the following verses.