Truth
Human nature.
Never satisfied.
Always wanting
more.
Storing up treasure
for ourselves.
Unable to see that
our grass is green regardless of the color of other people’s grass.
Ok, maybe a few of
those are slight exaggerations – although I think all of them are true about
all of us at points in our lives. So
while it might be a stretch to say that they are true about all of us all of
the time, it is no stretch to say that they are all true about all of us at
some point in our life. It is who we are. That is our nature.
So the people
complain against God. God punishes the
illegitimate complainers with fire. They
complain about the fire to Moses. Moses
is gracious and prays for them – in spite of the fact that they deserve the
fire – and the fire subsides. Human
beings are fickle. They complain, get a
result they deserve, and then complain about the result.
But they’re not
through, are they? Add “slow to learn a
lesson” to the list I started above.
Lack of Protein
Some continue to
complain about the lack of meat! Now,
let’s pause for a second and analyze the complaint. I’m going to be blunt here. Big surprise, right? I’m also going to stretch the use of the word
“meat” to a more general word “flesh.” After
all, meat is flesh, is it not? I’m going
to do it to prove a spiritual point about humanity.
The Hebrew people
lust after the flesh they had in Egypt. See
why flesh makes a bigger impact there than meat? I’m sorry if you read that and imply a sexual
connotation, because I am not implying that the Hebrew people lusted in a
sexual way. But to use the word lust is
not inappropriate, in fact it is precisely the word I wanted you to imply in my
statement. The Hebrew people were
lusting after the carnal things – in this case, the meat to eat – that they had
in Egypt. They were not satisfied with
the sustaining miraculous heavenly food that God gives. No, they lusted after the carnal, worldly
meat in Egypt.
To illustrate the
dissatisfaction of the Hebrew people, look back to the original description of
the manna in Exodus 16:31. Manna tastes
like honey. Yet, when the Hebrew people
tire of this divine honey-bread they try to improve it. Or at the very least they make it into a
different form. They bake it, boil it, or beat it. They were doing anything to eat something
other than manna. But look at the
description of how it tastes when they manipulate it into something that isn’t
what God gave them. Instead of tasting
like honey, Numbers 11:8 tells us that it now tastes like oil. How disappointing it would be to take
something as sweet as honey and make it taste like oil. Oh, how our humanity destroys the good things
of God!
The Contagious Nature of Sin
Now, it isn’t bad
enough that the complaining affects a portion of the Hebrew people. But then we see that the complaining affects
the leadership as well. Moses’ morale
drops. His confidence lessens. His relationship with God is strained. Read Numbers 11:23 as proof of God needing to
rebuke Moses a little bit.
The truth is that the
people’s complaints hurt more than their own relationship with God. The people’s complaints tarnish Moses’
relationship with God. Now, I’m not
laying the blame of the tarnished relationship at anyone’s feet except
Moses. We are all responsible and
accountable for our own relationship with the Lord! But we should also realize that our
relationships can impact other people’s relationships if they are not strong
enough to overcome our negative influence.
God Answers
Ultimately, though,
God met the needs of the people. But He
met them at great cost. The people who
craved meat got their meat – and a plague to go with it! Moses got the help that he demonstrated that he
needed, but he got it at the cost of losing some of the Spirit that God had
given to him. God answered the prayers
and complaints, but the answers were not entirely good at all.
Digging Our Own Grave
As we learn the
lessons of lusting after carnal, worldly things that Numbers 11 has to teach
us, I’ll leave you with one small note.
The place was given the name Kibroth-hattaavah. In Hebrew, that name literally means “graves
of lust” or “graves of desire.” Jesus
warns us of the same lesson. “Where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21, Luke 12:34)
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