The People ask for Meat

Numbers Chapter 11

The Israelites began to complain to the Lord about their hardships, moving etc. The Lord heard them and his anger raged among them in a fire which destroyed the outskirts of the camp. The people screamed to Moses to help them and when he prayed, the fire stopped. The area burned was known as Taberah, which translates to "the place of burning".

Then the foreign "rabble" who traveled with the Israelites, began to crave the good things of Egypt and all the people complained for some meat. They remembered the fish they used to eat for free and all the fresh vegetables and fruit. They complained because day after day they now ate manna. The manna looked like coriander seeds, pale yellow in color and the people gathered it from the ground and made flour by grinding it with hand mills or pounding it. Manna came down with the dew during the night.

Moses heard the families weeping and the Lord became angry. Moses was aggravated and asked the Lord why he was treating his servant so miserably. Moses said to God that he was supposed to carry the people to the promised land, but where was he to get meat for all these people? Moses said the loads were too heavy and he would rather be killed than treated in this manner. He asked God to spare him from the misery.

God answered Moses by having him choose seventy Israelite leaders and have them brought to the Tabernacle. God, himself, would come down and talk to Moses and he would take some "spirit" that was upon him and put some "spirit" on the leaders also. Then they could bear the burden of the people along with Moses, so he did not have to carry it alone. He asked that the people purify themselves so that the next day they would have meat to eat. He asked Moses to tell the people that the Lord heard their complaining and whining and he will now give them meat not just for a day or two, but for five, ten or even twenty.

Moses was incredulous, he asked God how he intended to feed meat for a month to over half a million soldiers? The Lord said there was no limit to his own power and now Moses would see his word become true.

After the Lord had come down in the cloud and put some of the "spirit" that was upon Moses, on the seventy leaders. They were able to prophesize, but this was the only time this happened. Two leaders did not go to the Tabernacle, but they too, received the Spirit and prophesied in the camp.One young man reported this to Moses and asked Moses to make the men stop prophesying in the camp. But Moses said no and he wished that all God's people were prophets and the Spirit could be upon them all.

A wind send by the Lord brought quail from the sea and some fell into the camp and for miles around some quail flew a few feet off the ground so the people could catch them that day and through the night and the next day too. No one gathered less than fifty bushels.
But while they ate the meat, the Lord's anger blazed against the people again, this time in the form of a plague. That place was called Kibroth-hattavah which means "the graves of craving" because the people buried those who had craved meat from Egypt. Then the Israelites traveled to Hazeroth and stayed there for some time.

BIBLE NOTES show how the Israelites shifted their thoughts from the happiness of being freed from Egypt, moving to a new free land of milk and honey, to craving things from their past life. It seems they forgot the whipping and brutality of the Egyptians and remembered only the good food. They were becoming ungrateful and the Lord was not about to put up with them. Even though they had manna, they did not trust in the Lord. Their sinful attitude caught up with them when the the plague hit them.

How does this chapter relate to us today?
We are humans and as such, we crave things that can verge on the edge of lust. Not sexual lust (although that can be one too), but cravings that take our thoughts and actions away from God. Jimmy Carter a US president once got himself in hot water because he said he lusted "in his heart". I think many of us do this almost unconsciously. How many times have you lusted over an enticing job, material things,etc. How many times have you not taken action on your cravings, but it infiltrated your thinking. That is just as wrong as doing it. How many times have you taken charge of your own needs and forgotten to let God help you? The people of Israel let God down in a big way.

Don't you let God down too. God is powerful, his strength and forgiveness are there for us at all times. We don't need meat or quail to know that God feeds us. He feeds us with the spiritual food. I like to imagine the seventy leaders prophesying in the camps. I like to imagine the look on their faces as they are exposed to the power of the almighty. And the look on the faces of the people in the camps.

Pray that God will let his spirit come over you and bring you power and peace. Let him feed your spirit.

Yours in Christ,
Mary