“Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat. You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the LORD who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?””
(Numbers 11:18–20 ESV)
As Christians, we often feel that we’re missing out. We look at the world around us, and at what they have, and feel that we’re being shorted. We look at the lives they’re living, and feel that we’re being deprived. We feel that, as we live for the Lord, we’re receiving the short end of the stick.
We fail to realize, however, that by these desires, we’re rejecting the Lord. We fail to realize that, by these desires, we’re rejecting his salvation. And we fail to realize that, by these desires, we’re rejecting the blessing he’s given us.
We see this clearly in the above passage. As the people traveled through the wilderness, on their way to the Promised Land, God had miraculously provided for their need. He’d miraculously provided food for them to eat.
He’d given them manna. And he’d done so not only once. He’d done so each and every day.
He’d given to them this bread that simply appeared on the ground each morning. All they had to do was go out and gather enough for the day. And they did so in confidence that more would be available to them tomorrow.
The people, however, got sick of it. They began to long for the meat they’d eaten as slaves in Egypt. And they began to think that life was better in Egypt than it was for them in the present.
God then said that he’d provide meat for them to eat. He would not do so, however, as a blessing. In fact, it would be a curse to them.
He would give them meat for not only one day, two days, five days, ten days, or twenty days. He would give it to them for a whole month. He would give it to them until it came out of their nostrils and became loathsome to them.
He would do so, he said, because they had rejected the Lord who was among them. He would do so because they had wept before him. He would do so because they asked why they’d come out of Egypt.
In the same way, by looking at the world around us and desiring what they have, we reject the Lord who is among us. By our failure to be content with the blessing God has given us, we reject the Lord who is among us. And by thinking to ourselves that perhaps it would’ve been better had we not followed God, we reject the Lord who is among us.
This, of course, is something of which we’re all guilty. And it’s something we each need to confess. It’s something we need to confess, trusting in the salvation provided for us by Jesus.
By his grace, we’ll realize that his blessings are far greater than anything the world has to offer. By his grace, we’ll realize that we’re not missing out on anything. And by his grace, we’ll be content and, more than that, filled with awe and wonder at all that God has provided.
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