A Pepper Grinder Post

Give Us Meat to Eat!

Recently I was reading the eleventh chapter of a book called Numbers in the Old Testament. Much of this book is somewhat dry, detailing things like the rules surrounding the Tabernacle and its sacrifices and offerings after the Israelites left Egypt. However, in chapter eleven I saw something that struck me.

The Israelites were traveling through the desert, led by God. After the euphoria of God rescuing them from the Egyptians at a dramatic water crossing, the people quickly realized that they were in a desert with nothing to eat. God responded by providing a miraculous food to them each day. The people called it manna (from the Hebrew for "What is it?), and it would settle on the ground around the Israelite camp like dew every night. It was white and tasted like wafers with honey. So, I'm thinking manna would be something like a fairly plain cracker (like an unsalted saltine or matzo) with a mild, sweet flavor. At first, the people seemed content with this miracle food and found numerous ways to prepare it. However, by the time the incident described in Numbers chapter eleven took place, the people were distinctly UNhappy.

Imagine that you are famished and someone gave you a bowl of cornflakes. Unless you detest cornflakes, it would probably taste like a wonderful treat. Now imagine that all you had to eat, day in and day out, was cornflakes. You found you could crush the cornflakes up and use them in recipes like flour, but still everything would end up tasting kind of like cornflakes. Don't you think you would get sick of the cereal?

However, when the Israelites complained about only having manna to eat, God did not seem very sympathetic. He gave them meat, in the form of huge numbers of quail that settled around the camp, but he also struck the Israelites with a severe plague. The place they were camped when this happened came to be called the Hebrew for "graves of craving," because so many of the people who had craved other food were buried there.

So what was wrong with what the Israelites wanted? Some might think the problem was with what they wanted: meat. Maybe if the Jewish people had craved fresh fruits and vegetables, God would have been okay with that. However, the Bible doesn't bear this out. Although people appear to have had a vegetarian diet before the Flood, afterwards God expressly gave mankind meat as part of their diet (Genesis 9:3). In the rules surrounding the offerings to be made by the Jews to God, it is clear that many of the meat offerings were to be eaten by the people, after special things like the blood and the fat were given to God.

You could even argue that the people's craving for a more varied diet was driven by their bodies' natural desire for nutrients they weren't getting in their very limited menu. This is speculation, since we don't know what was actually in manna (it might have been a superfood with almost everything the body needed), but it is clear that the desire for a varied diet is part of what God has programmed into our bodies so that we will get all the nutrients we need.

So if it wasn't wrong for the Israelites to want meat, what was the problem? Here is what we read in Numbers 11:4-6:

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

I read and reread the verses above a number of times in preparation for writing this posting, in addition to all the times I had read it before that, and yet, it still came as a surprise to me when my wife, while proofreading this article, wrote in the margin, "WHO is 'the rabble with them'?" Who indeed? Somehow I had always just kind of assumed they were less-than-noble Israelites, but when the NIV writes "the rabble with them" it doesn't really sound like that.

The first question to ask is about the word translated here as "rabble." Can the meaning of this word shed light on this? The trouble is that this word is used nowhere else in the Old Testament, so we can't compare it with other places it's used. If we look at the root of the word, we find that it comes from a Hebrew word meaning "to gather" or "to collect." So, the most basic meaning here is a collection of people. Other than the context, there's no particular reason to think these were especially bad people. Literally, this verse starts out saying, "The collection of people who were in their midst." Now this could be a sub-group of the Israelites, but it sounds more as though it is a group of people who were in the midst of the Israelites, but who were separate from them.

But wait. Is it even possible that there were non-Israelites along for the ride on this trip to the Promised Land? Actually, yes. In Exodus 12:38, when we are told about the nighttime departure of the Israelites from Egypt after the plague on the firstborn, we read: "Many other people went up with them, as well as large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds." (NIV) Also, in Leviticus 24:10, we hear about a young man who had an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father. So these people definitely could have been from other people groups than the Israelites. If you think about it, it would make sense that the people to lead the way in complaining would be people who had had an easier life (and perhaps a more varied diet) than the enslaved descendants of Abraham. That being said, we don't really know for sure who these people were. My best guess is that they were Gentiles who left Egypt with the Jews, but take that with a grain of salt.

Part of the problem I see with the actions of the people in the above verses is the way they asked for what they wanted. To be specific, they didn't ask at all; they wailed. I can relate to this, since I sometimes hear myself praying in a way that sounds much more like whining than asking. I think of whining as wailing with the emotions dialed down. Part of the whining or wailing reaction is a lack of gratitude. In the verses above, we see no gratitude for God keeping the people alive in a desert with food provided miraculously. Nor do we see any memory that they were suffering cruel bondage in Egypt until God delivered them. It seems that all they remember about the time in Egypt was the varied diet they enjoyed.

I wonder what God's response would have been if the people had said something like, "God, we thank you for feeding us in the desert, and we are tremendously grateful that you freed us from the slavery we suffered under in Egypt. Would it be possible for us to have something to eat besides manna? We are getting awfully tired of that taste." God might have said "no" to the request, but I find it hard to believe that he would have reacted with fury.

The deeper issue, I believe, is a lack of trust. The people quoted above do not sound like they are confident that God wants the best for them. To me, they sound like people who think God is being mean. Here again, I must confess, it is easy for me to fall into this mindset when praying about something I very much want that God does not seem to be providing.

Here is what I take away from this. There are things that we want. Many of these are good things to want that God delights to give his children. Even the things that are not good to want (lusting after a person to whom you are not married, for example) are often natural and wholesome desires (like the desire for sexual intimacy with your spouse) that the enemy has twisted in wrong directions. In spite of the goodness and naturalness of the things we may desire, God (in my experience) almost never gives us all of them.

For me, it is very easy to focus on the things I don't have and ignore the things God has given me. For example, I would say that I might feel more isolated now than I ever have in my life. On the other hand, I have a job I enjoy, a wife I love, enough money, and am in pretty good health for a man in his early sixties. Yet, in spite of the blessings just mentioned, when I'm praying for close Christian friends for me and my wife, I am quite likely to whine to God about him not giving me this thing and forget about all the things he has given me.

Some would say that the problem is my faithless attitude when I ask for friends. They would say that since Christian fellowship is a good thing, I should just stand on "the Word" and claim it. Others would say that I should just be content and thankful for what I have and not even ask for what God has not chosen to give me.

I would counter with the example of Paul the apostle. In 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 we read:

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. (NIV)

Some have speculated about what Paul's "thorn" might be. I have no idea, but it is clear to me that there was nothing wrong with wanting the thing Paul wanted, just as there was nothing wrong, in itself, with the Jewish people in the desert wanting a more varied diet. Certainly Paul, though whom God had worked many miracles, wasn't denied his request because of a lack of faith. There is also no hint that God was angry with Paul for asking. What is clear is that God, for his own purposes, chose not to give Paul something it was perfectly reasonable to request.

Is there something missing in your life? Is there something, which is a good thing but which God has denied you, that you desperately want? I don't think you need to stop asking--remember the parable of the persistent widow. But I think we need to be careful not to lose our gratitude for the things God has given us. I think we need to be on our guard against the whiny, wailing attitude many Israelites had in Numbers chapter eleven.

- Pepper
Posted 2020-08-29

*Image credits: matzo from Once Upon a Chef, quail from eBird.