Numbers 11 - Meat to Eat

Sometimes it's best when God doesn't satisfy your appetite.

SINCE WE LAST LEFT OFF... Numbers 1–10 records Israel being organized at Sinai: the tribes are numbered, arranged around the tabernacle, and assigned specific duties, with the Levites set apart to guard and serve the LORD’s dwelling. These chapters emphasize holiness, order, and readiness as God dwells in the midst of His redeemed people and prepares them to depart from Sinai and march toward the Promised Land.

Numbers 11:4–34 (NIV)

⁴ The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! ⁵ We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. ⁶ But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”

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¹⁰ Moses heard the people of every family wailing at the entrance to their tents. The LORD became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled. ¹¹ He asked the LORD, “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? ¹² Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their fathers? ¹³ Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ ¹⁴ I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. ¹⁵ If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.”

¹⁶ The LORD said to Moses: “Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you. ¹⁷ I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.

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?” ’ ”

²¹ But Moses said, “Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’ ²² Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?”

²³ The LORD answered Moses, “Is the LORD's arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”

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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.

Heidelberg Catechism

Q&A 113

Q. What is God’s will for you

in the tenth commandment

(do not covet)?

A. That not even the slightest thought or desire

contrary to any one of God’s commandments

should ever arise in my heart.

Rather, with all my heart

I should always hate sin

and take pleasure in whatever is right.

Summary

Today's passage begins with an ominous demographic: the rabble with them. Other translations refer to this bunch as the riff-raff or the mixed multitude. These were foreigners who'd been added to the Israelites along the way. As one commentator puts it, "these were people who had come together with no common bond except to complain. The fact that they could dominate all Israel indicates the religious and moral bankruptcy of the people. The temper of a mob can work only where there is no superior or governing faith."

This rabble complained about the manna God had miraculously provided for them to eat. They don't complain about its nutritional value, for they couldn't! Psalm 78 describes manna as the grain of heaven and the bread of angels. It kept the people healthy and strong as they traveled through the wilderness. No, their complaint was based in their appetite. They demanded meat to eat.

The murmuring complaints of this rabble spread like a highly contagious disease, and it soon infected the people of every family who all began to wail at the entrance to their tents. The LORD became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled. Moses' prayer is stunningly aggressive - he doesn't hold back in his complaints - but yet it shows his utter dependence upon the LORD. And being the caring Father that He is, the LORD graciously answers Moses' prayer by spreading Moses' burden out over seventy elders.

God also answered the people's wailing, but His reply to them wasn't nearly as gracious as He was to Moses. He gave them the meat to eat that they'd demanded, but He gave them so much that it began to come out of their nostrils - quite literally. While the meat was still between their teeth, the anger of the LORD burned against the people, and He struck them with a severe plague that caused them to vomit it right back up.

  Dig Deeper  

Your appetite is a gift from God, and it's not wrong to develop and expand it. Nor is it sinful to be driven by it in such a way that it pushes you to improve your lifestyle and provisions. In fact, that desire to make things better is a reflection of the very purpose God created man to accomplish: to work the garden and keep it [holy] - in other words, to expand God's image into all of creation. So the Israelite's desire for a broader menu wasn't wrong in and of itself.

But be careful with your God given appetite! While it's not wrong to be driven by it towards godly pursuits, it can quickly usurp total control of your life. Starting with Eve, who saw that the fruit of the tree was good and desirable, our appetites have been at the root of nearly every sin since.

The ironic thing is that these Israelites were being brought through the wilderness into a land flowing with milk and honey - in other words, a place where their appetites could be satisfied in the most abundant ways possible as they pursued all that God had in store there for them. The manna God had provided was never meant to be a permanent solution. Their natural appetite for better things was meant to help push them forward.

But instead their appetites drew them backwards, to the mediocre, yet diverse diet they'd been fed in their slavery. It caused them to complain (or murmur, as the older translations put it). They wanted full satisfaction in the wilderness.

You need to learn from them. Don't be controlled by your appetite's desires for good things here and now, let it drive you forward to the unspeakable bounty God has promised you in the world to come. Forget what is behind, and strain towards what is ahead: the prize for which God has called you heavenward in Christ Jesus.

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, whose arm is not too short to provide for all of our needs;

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that your appetite will drive you forward to the prize God has for you in Christ;

• ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

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