The Eternal One called to Moses and spoke from the Tent of Meeting....and then hesitated.
“Moses, I will command you about the sacrifices in good time. I must teach you about the future.”
Moses had been ready to take God’s instruction about ritual. He was taken aback. “What future? Whose future, Eternal One?”
“Not just the future of your people,” God said. “The future of all humankind.”
“What do you see, my God? After all we, the children of Israel, have been through, I want to know.” Moses waited for God’s reply.
After a brief silence, God’s words came to him in a whisper.
“I am going to teach you to love all people as you love yourselves. I will declare to you that you must see the oneness of you and your fellow human beings as a reflection of my Oneness. I have already taught you that your hearts and hands should be open to the stranger and the poor.”
“In the distant future, there will be many nations in the world, and you and your people will be few in number compared to everyone else. You will have my teachings as your guide, principles that you can share with the world. I see moments when times of peace and calm in communities will be violently interrupted by attacks by certain individuals who believe they can speak for Me by using a deadly weapon to murder people who are different from them, people they don’t understand whom they have condemned to death in their minds and hearts.”
Mose was indignant. “But, Eternal One, that action violates your commandments not to commit murder and not to bear false witness.”
“You have learned well, Moses. You speak rightly, and it is your voice that must echo throughout your generations to remind your people - and all people - to overcome the hatred in their hearts in order to see all people as My children - and your brothers and sisters. One of your descendants will teach that every human being is a beloved creation because I made you all in My image. Will you impress that on your descendants? And Moses, you are one of the most humble people who will ever live. Remind your people - and all people - never to see themselves as greater or better than anyone else and that they can do just that by walking humbly with Me and with each other.
Moses proudly proclaimed, “I will pass on your teaching, so that my descendants will cry out and protest when people are violent with one another in words or deeds, needlessly disrupting or taking lives, due to unnecessary hatred in their hearts.”
God listened to the leader of the Israelites. And God knew that Moses would make this come to be.
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