2: 6-7- You are to pay them in silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.'"The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast desert. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything.
Israel may have been denied the land of the Edomites, but she was not thus reduced in any way. For those who know they are loved and blessed, "No" never stings like a snub. So Moses now reminds the Israelites how comprehensive has been Yahweh's blessings "in all the works of your hands," how attentive He has been in His provisions, watching "over your journey through this vast desert"1, and how undeniable in its constancy so that "these these forty years Yahweh your God was with you, so you did not lack anything."
Precisely because Israel has been so blessed, she was to pay for everything she consumed while she journeyed through the land of the Edomites.2 The seemingly redundant, "yes, even the water you draw to drink you shall buy with silver," serves to emphasize the seriousness with which the commandment was to be taken.
We need to notice that while Moses turns to Yahweh's largesse as motivation for doing right by the Edomites, there is nothing "spiritual" or "theological" about the injunction. The principle is simply that Israel was to do right by everybody. And so are we. We do not do right when we pay $9 for a cup of expresso while the coffee-growers get only 10c for it. It is not right for the over-fed descendant of migrants who nearly killed off the natives to demand that Mexicans should be kicked out. It is not right that the CEO should be paid 200 times the salary of just as hard-working floor-staffs, plus fat bonuses in shares to boot. There is nothing "spiritual" or "theological" about these things, but Christians should care. God does.
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, rev., 2021