Jealous of being gay

Numbers 11:24-30

           This passage seems to portend the life of Christ, or at least some of the scripture passages.  First there is the seventy which is similar to the time when Jesus sent out the seventy. Secondly, the Apostles at one point ask Jesus about people doing good in his name. The Apostles want them to stop and Jesus tells them not to stop them. In case you did not know, many Christian scripture passages have mirror Hebrew passages.  It is up to you to determine the validity and significance of such facts.

             What I pick up on is the jealousy angle in this passage and perhaps with the Apostles as well.

Jealousy is an ugly emotion.  It is at the root of many of the worlds problems even today. It can easily be the undoing of a relationship and is at the heart of how whole groups feel about other groups of peoples.

              As a gay man and fully connected to gay blogs, news services and feeds, I know how we are looked at by some. We are always having free sex, everywhere and with everyone. We have casual sex at the drop of a hat.  There is no limit to what we will do.  We all know that is not true. Now, if you ask me do we enjoy sex more than the average straight person, my answer would be probably yes. Are the misrepresentations and beliefs about sex and the gay community part of a jealous streak among some people? I really think it is.  If not because they are settled in boring, monotonous, sexless marriages , then because they are truly gay, hiding or unaware of their own sexual preference and desires.  Perhaps not the case with every anti gay zealot, it certainly is so with many. How many times have we found that the most astoundingly religious and outspoken anti-gay mouthpieces are in fact closeted gay people?  It must be almost unbearable to hide from yourself, hear yourself mouthing vile stories about the gay community, all the while wanting to come out and being unfulfilled, cut off and denied. Jealousy would be only one emotion that these people find as a fuel for their anti-gay rhetoric.

            Jealousy is a face of unhappiness with who you are. It speaks to being unsettled and not being comfortable with who you are or who you are acting as.  The first thing we need to do is always respect each others journeys ( and needless to say, our own). We must respect imperfection and transition. We must find joy wherever we are and at every moment. This actually goes to God's command to pray unceasingly.  Our joy and thankfulness for ourselves and every one else is a prayer.  

So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord; and he gathered seventy elders of the people, and placed them all around the tent. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again.

Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, ‘Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.’ And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, ‘My lord Moses, stop them!’ But Moses said to him, ‘Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!’ And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.