Reading… and Thinking

The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost-also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”

“Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month-until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it-because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’ ”

But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the LORD burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague. Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hatta’avah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food.

– Numbers 11:4-6, 18-20, 33-34 (NIV)

The ingratitude shown by the people of Israel in this account is enough to make you angry, even 3400 years after the event. The reason the people had left Egypt was that the Lord responded to their cry for deliverance from oppression. They had been delivered by a series of miracles that has no parallel. They were miraculously fed every day. In their complaining, they said they ate all the food in Egypt “at no cost”. An incredible twisting of the truth! It cost them backbreaking labor every day. It was the manna, God's gift to them, that was truly without cost!

But before we get all fired up with righteous indignation, we need to recall Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. The experiences of Israel in the wilderness are all types (symbolic representations) of us. You and me.

“Oh, I would never be like that!” Really? You've never complained? You've never felt that you deserved better, or been jealous of someone who has something you don't? Never gotten tired of the situation you find yourself in? Never wished that you were “free” to do what you want, instead of being “limited” by Christian morality?

We all fall into the same wrong thinking that Israel did. In our hearts, we long to return to Egypt. (From here on in the Bible, Egypt is used as a figure for the slavery to sin that we’re born into.) The ingratitude we show to our heavenly Father is just as offensive as Israel's ingratitude was.

The way the Lord responded to this ingratitude is instructive. First of all, He gave them what they craved – and accurately predicted that they would get sick of that, too. This is something to learn about yourself: as human beings, you and I tend to never be satisfied. No matter what we have or how much we have, we want something different, something more.

Secondly, the Lord destroyed the complainers with a plague. The plague was not indiscriminate – the last phrase above says they buried those who had the craving. Kibroth Hatta’avah means “graves of craving”. If we give free rein to our cravings, our end will likewise be in a grave.

This last point reminds us that we are not helpless before the cravings of our flesh. Our mind, our will, can be used to keep the flesh in check.

Probably just about everyone got tired of eating manna every day. But not everyone said, “We were better off in Egypt.” Some people demanded that Moses give them flesh – and of course in reality they were demanding that God do their bidding. Did anyone think of simply asking God for some variety?

The lessons here are, first, that we are greatly blessed, and we are far better off in the wilderness (figuratively) with the people of God, on the way to the promised land, than we would be in Egypt. Second, that our flesh will stir rebellion in our heart. Third, that rebellion ends in death. And finally, that we don't need to give in to the urge to rebel against God – we can ask God for help, and no matter what form His answer takes, we can accept His will and His wisdom.

We're not stuck with the flesh's viewpoint! We can, by a conscious effort of will, look at things from God's perspective, setting our sights on the promised land before us, instead of the land of death behind us.