I have a stupid question

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. Following up that first Deut reference, it means "shut up and don't complain, even if you're dying

thanks to following the orders of God".

Deuteronomy 6:14-16 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land. Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah.

What happened at Massah?

Exodus 17:3-7 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

So the myth is that God told the Israelites to go into the desert, and that he would look after them. They obeyed, but found themselves dying of thirst. Asking for water to stay alive was the wrong thing to do at that point; that was asking God to prove that he exists, or that he cares, and one must never do that. God, being the type to hold a grudge, remembers it forever.