4-1-16. Numbers 11:30-35. “You Will Eat It”-my devotional

 Numbers 11:18-20 and 30-35      Kevin E. Jesmer

Key verse 11:18                           4-1-16

 “Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it.” (NIV)

God was going to answer their prayer for meat. But God would provide it in a way that was actually a form of punishment for their complaining born out of their greed. Look at verse 18, “Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. 19 You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, 20 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?’”

And this is how everything unfolded. Look at verses 30-35, “Then Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp. 31 Now a wind went out from the Lord and drove quail in from the sea. It scattered them up to two cubits deep all around the camp, as far as a day’s walk in any direction. 32 All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers. Then they spread them out all around the camp. 33 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. 34 Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food. 35 From Kibroth Hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth and stayed there.”

God had been providing food for his people in the form of manna from heaven. It was a seed-like grain. It could be used to prepare a number of dishes. If a cook used their imagination, the manna could have been delicious. At first the people were happy with the manna. They had manna pancakes and manna loaf and manna porridge. They mixed the manna with hot peppers and kneaded it into bread. But soon the manna, in all of its prepared forms, was not enough. Their palate demanded more and more delicious food. They started craving meat, instead of the veggie manna. Their greed for more delicious food turned into complaints towards God himself.

They fell into a complaining attitude because they forgot about God’s grace on their lives. They forgot that they were slaves in Egypt and had been begging God to deliver them. (Ex 3:9) God heard their cries and set them free. He led them and protected them and guided them. He was their shepherd throughout their wanderings in the desert. But the complainers forgot about that. They let their hearts drift into a very dangerous area, greed and into unthankfulness towards God. That is why, in verse 35, the place was called Hazeroth, which means graves of greediness. The people thought it was their right to have fine food and they could not think about anything else. That is like a slippery slope. When greed comes in, unthankfulness takes hold, then the heart can descend into all types of darkness.

Then God worked a great miracle. Convoy after convey of quail flew into the camp. The quail flew at a height of three feet and were easily captured by any who tried to gather it. He provided more than enough meat for all of the people. They gorged themselves. He gave the people so much meat that it ran out their noses and they loathed the meat. God was more than able to provide for his people, just as he said.

God did provide, but he also punished the people with a plague. Israel desired God’s gifts but had no heart for the giver. They paid dearly for their greed and unthankfulness. To accept the gifts of God but to ignore God who gave it, brings death to the soul.

The moral of the story is, when you ask God for something he may grant your request. But if you approach him with a sinful, greedy, complaining attitude, getting what you want may prove very costly. But let’s think a little more deeply about unthankfulness, born out of greed.

Sometimes complaining and discontentment are signs that it is time for a person to move on, seeking what the next leg of their journey is. But we do not want to admit that we are discontented.  Trying not to complain and trying to always be thankful can cause people to never question the situation they are in and keep people in situations that are not healthy, spiritually. There is something in a Christian’s mentality that is making them think that their present situation is always the will of God, “If God wants me to move, he will move me and until then I will accept everything that comes my way with a thankful heart, even though I am struggling with sorrow and depression, and am living a joyless Christian life.” Such Christians are forever repenting for not being thankful.  They stay in their situation, doggedly sometimes, when God may want them to move on. It is possible that our complaining could be sign that it is time to move on. We need to always assess what God wants us to do.

But the thing is, these Israelites could not move on. They were in the desert. They were surrounded by their enemies, wild beasts and a very inhospitable environment. If they responded to their complaining by leaving, they would surely die, estranged from God. It was in their best interests to repent of their complaining and hold onto the grace of God in their lives. God’s stern call to repentance was actually a life saver.

God wants us to stop complaining in order for us to be happy. Our complaining hearts will follow us wherever we go if we continue on without repentance. A person might think that they are justified to leave a certain church, (and maybe they are), but maybe they are not. They will move on to the next church and if they did not solve the reason for their complaints, they will complain again. The whole cycle will repeat itself over and over again. The person can not find any rest. They can not find a church family to do “life” with. God cares about such people. He wants them to find peace and rest,  a place they can call home.

The spirit of complaining could have infected the entire community. The small percentage of people was very spiritually dangerous. They were not repenting and they were not leaving. Their virus of complaining could spread until the whole camp of three million people, complained about God. Somehow it had to be stopped for the good of the whole community. And so God stopped it. Look at verses 33-34, “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. 34 Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food.” God stopped it with a deadly plague. It was a very sad chapter in the Israelite’s story.

But with the help of the Lord, they got over it. And they moved on. Look at verse 35, “From Kibroth Hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth and stayed there.” They were in utter disbelief about what went on among them. How could they have allowed it all to happen? Was it all a bad dream? How could we have been so foolish? The whole incident would have made them very, very humble, and at the same time, thankful to God for rescuing them and protecting them as a nation. Isn’t that how it is, when a group of people who complain, raise their voices? There is turmoil for a while. Then people leave and others repent. It seems like a bad dream. And then the whole congregation moves onward to where God wants to lead them, wondering what just happened.

Prayer: “Lord, save me from a destructive complaining heart. Help me always see your grace before me. Fill my heart with thanksgiving. Help me to move forward with you according to your will.”

One Word: Thank God for his grace and follow him always.