Innocents shall inherit the earth

On this day we remember the massacre of the Innocents in Israel, on orders of wicked King Herod. The Three Wise Men innocently had told him of the birth of an Infant who would be King of all lands. Jealous of his reign, Herod tried to pry information on where to find this child King. The Magi didn’t know, for they had lost the star they were following just when they neared Herod’s palace. When they left, Herod ordered his soldiers to snatch all newborn males from their mothers and slay them. The massacrers did not find Jesus, for who would have thought to search for a King brought forth by simple parents in a manger?

That story of humility is among the New Testament’s most compelling. Yet Filipinos often forget, tempted instead into greed, envy, and theft – all rooted in pride. Corruption concededly is the scourge of the land, the cause of poverty, ignorance, and abuse. Yet instead of solving it, Filipinos lust for more power in order to stay corrupt. Presidents have come and gone. The lot of Filipinos has not changed. The evils, feeding on each other, prevail.

The situation has reduced Filipinos to hopelessness. Many daydream of an “ultimate solution.” Let a cataclysm wipe out all of the mature and therefore sinful, they say. The entire older generation must go. Let only the babes survive. Inheriting the land, those untainted innocents would then rebuild the nation, and set it aright.

Be careful what they wish for. There might be Biblical basis for it, this time in the Old Testament’s Exodus, the Departure of the Israelites from Egypt.

It’s a wonder why the Israelites took 40 years – a generation – to find the Promised Land (Israel). Bible scholars have tried to reconstruct the route the Israelites took. As most agree, it was from from Goshen, through an underwater land bridge across Red Sea, past the Sinai Peninsula, into Jerusalem. Leisurely strolling that path, they spent only 26 days. And they even discounted the shortcut via the parted sea and substituted the longer walk overland. It was not that simple 8,000 years ago, of course. Experts agree that not only 5,000-35,000 Israelites participated in the long march, but about 600,000 to even 2.5 million. Moving an entire “nation” must have been painfully slow. Still it shouldn’t have taken four decades.

For the most part of the desert crossing the Israelites were lost. At times they got directions from on high, as when God nudged Moses, “Tell the sons of Israel to turn back” and retrace their steps. God tested the Israelites’ resolve. Whenever they heeded His Word, they were able to inch on. The more often that they defied Him, they would lose their way again. So was it said: “They are wandering aimlessly in the land; the wilderness shut them in” (Exodus 14:2-3).

When they departed Egypt, most of the Israelites were in their prime. Some were aged, bent, and struggling. Then there were infants, toddlers and adolescents.

The 40-year trek, the length of one generation, thus actually comprised three generations: the present, the departing, and the new.

Interestingly, only the young ones were able to enter the Promised Land. Even Moses, who begged God even for just a glimpse, died without seeing the goal of his 40-year leadership.

At the end of the generational journey, those who departed from Egypt aged, bent, and struggling had long passed away. Too, age had enfeebled and decimated those who were at their prime at the start of the Exodus. The vast majority who inherited the land were the once infants, toddlers, and adolescents, not to forget those who were born along the way – all coming to maturity.

Thus was born a new nation, to whom God fulfilled His covenant of freedom and prosperity.

Are Filipinos now on their own tough generational search for nationhood? Or maybe they have not yet decided to depart from bondage from the irresponsible political class.

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