Children of Israel! Remember My favour which I bestowed on you, and that I have preferred you over all people (2;47)
So Ayah 47 of Surah Al-Baqarah, Allah is telling the Bani Israel to remember His favor on them. That He preferred them over all the other nations. And we see how ayah by ayah for the next 10-15 verses, Allah is reminding Bani Israel that over and over again He saved them, blessed them, forgave them for various matters and still they continued to be arrogant and ungrateful.
- Allah saved them when pharaoh of Egypt was going around killing all the male sons of Bani Israel. He would the females girls alive and kill of their sons. So Allah is reminding them of how oppressive the pharaoh was and how much he tortured them, and how Allah saved them from this trial..
- Allah then goes on to remind them how He parted the sea for them as Prophet Musa led them out of Egypt to be saved from the pharaoh. Bani Israel saw with their own eyes this parting of the sea. A true miracle.
- And then when Musa was called to Mount Our for 40 nights, and while he was gone they made a calf out of gold and started worshipping it! Even for this Allah forgave them. When Musa returned from Mount Tur, he told them you have seriously made a mistake by taking this calf for worship and that you all MUST repent to Allah for what you guys did while I was gone. And even that repentance Allah accepted.
- Then they had the nerve to go on and say that we will not believe in the Truth, in Allah, until they actually get to see Him. So Allah struck with them with a thunderbolt as they watched, killing them all and then He revives them.
- He shaded them with clouds in the Sinai peninsula, showered them with Manna and Salwa, food straight from the heavens, without them having to actually have to work for it. The food just came to them, continuously. For even this they were ungrateful, complaining that they were not wanting to eat Manna and Salwa anymore and wanted something new and different. Such as garlic, lentils and onions. For this Musa scolded them, for how could they want smt besides what was falling to them from the heavens?
- And then when they were told to enter the city with humility saying Hitaath, asking for forgiveness. They changed the word and would say Hinthathun instead (which means wheat), and so now they were making a mockery of the whole situation. And for changing of the words, they were punished.
- And then again they were given another miracle. The miracle of water. Musa (as) prayed for water fo this people, so Allah told him to strike his staff to the stone. From it they got 12 springs of water. 12 so that 12 tribes would not be fighting over the springs.
- Even up to the fact that after they finally, after extensive questioning, reluctantly obey and sacrifice the cow, Allah (swt) reveals the killer of the man that was murdered among them whose killer they had been disputing over.
- The day of Sabbath was set aside for them as a resting day. A day where they were prohibited from doing any work. A favor to them from Allah. But greed crept into the hearts of some fisherman who thought they would they could get away with trying to deceive Allah (swt).
Chance after chance, blessing after blessing, favor after favor, forgiveness after forgiveness. I think its important that we don’t laugh or criticize or just simply read about what the Children of Israel were like, I think its important to take really important lessons from them. This is not just a recollection of historical events, but a message for us. The Quran always has a message. I think its important and amazing to understand that Allah would continuously save them, bless them, guide them, but their sheer arrogance and ungratefulness prevented them from accepting the Truth. I think its important we look at our own lives, our own blessings, our own trials and tribulations and our own mistakes, and realize how much He gives us and how much He forgives us, on a daily basis. And to ask ourselves, are we at all, repeating the same mistakes of bani Israel in any way? Are we repeating history?