quote:
That may be your interpretation but mine is different. When the Israelites were getting punished, they had just recently put their faith in Yahweh but kept pissing him off by asking for water and provisions. I don’t see that as “moving away from God” when they put their faith in God to ask him for things.

Not sure if you're intentionally misrepresenting the story or not, but your portrayal of the Israelites here is the source of your misunderstanding. And it is your misunderstanding, not mine. Asking for water and provisions (your daily bread) is not problematic. Whining at Moses and God everyday along the lines of...

... ugh, this is hard... is this what we left Egypt for... did God /you lead us out in the desert just to die... etc....

... is highly problematic. It shows spiritual weakness, a lack of faith, a lack of humility, a lack of vision, a lack of trust, following a series of miracles they were witness to. They were weak and they were testing God inappropriately. Period. Had you included this part in your analysis, I suspect you'd have been smart enough to figure this out; that the problem wasn't merely that they were hungry & thirsty.

There's so many people now who say they might believe in God if they were given a sign or proof. The Israelites in the desert suggest otherwise. Here are a group of people who supposedly witnessed miracle after miracle, gained their freedom, then when the going got hard, they spiritually wilted as much as most people do... and fell right back into sin. That won't cut it and that's why God tests us.

I have answered your questions at length and definitively. If you read it with sincerity, you'll see your errors and you'll see that I'm right in this case. I'm curious if you're man enough to admit you're wrong. I'll check in later and maybe even bump this or reply to you in other threads just to make sure you have the chance to see it since it's anchored.

For my part, I enjoyed exercising my mind in this direction and writing this rebuttal out despite the length and time to do so. So thank you for helping me refine my arguments.