Provision Rests with God || The Complaint Department #2

Introducing “The Complaint Department”

We are all professional complainers, right? We all know how to complain. We all know how complaining makes us feel. Most of us know that complaining doesn’t solve anything. Back in the Old Testament, it was Moses’s job to listen to the complaints of God’s chosen people as they journeyed on their Exodus. However, their complaints didn’t result in feeling like we do. In our series, “The Complaint Department,” we are going through six different situations where God’s chosen people complained, leading to sinful behavior, and resulting in unfavorable action from them.

My goal for this series is to help us understand the impact of our own complaining, understanding how our complaints can lead to hardships that result in actions that don’t often benefit us. Using the stories found with God’s chosen people, I want us to look at the opposite of their complaints to see how things may have gone differently.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: What does it mean to you to “complain”?

Review of Part 1

In Part 1, we looked Numbers 11:1 and investigated the complaint of adversity they had about the hardships they were feeling. As a result their sinful behavior (how they missed the mark of God’s ideal in how they should live), was complaining to Moses instead to God directly. As a result, a part of the camp they had was destroyed. Now, this event took place almost 430 years after their freedom from Egyptian slavery. They may have remembered their history, but instead of talking to God, they went to Moses. They didn’t consider sharing their concerns to the God that rescued them, fed them, and guided them to a the promised land. I believe that their complaints to Moses was a response of the trauma they faced while under the Egyptian oppression and slavery. However, we later learned that Moses interceded on their behalf and God withheld the judgment He sent. God shows mercy without denying the serious of their sin. Now, it’s important to recognize why they should still find their relationship with God after God burned their camp out of anger. I believe that God felt like He was being taken advantage of. Now, we would feel that way if we helped someone with a lot of serious, life-altering situations – we would want the gratitude and appreciation of what we did. When we don’t get that, we may engage in destructive behaviors like badmouthing and slandering. For us, we must learn that we need to do good for others without expecting anything in return. It’s counter-cultural, I know, but it’s how Jesus taught us. Jesus wants us to do these nice things out of love, and understand that God sees our works that we do and will bless us accordingly. I do believe though we need to share gratitude of each other, for it’s a kind, loving, respectful, and simple act that we do.

The Second Complaint

The next complaint we’re diving into is found in Numbers 11:4, which says:

NASB – Now the rabble who were among them had greedy cravings; and the sons of Israel also wept again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat?

NRSVUE – The camp followers with them had a strong craving and the Israelites also wept again and said, “If we only we had meat to eat!

VOICE – A contingent of Israelites had a strong craving for different food, and the Israelites started complaining again. Israelites: Who will give us meat to eat?

Now, based on everything we walked through in Part 1, asking for the assurance that they will have food isn’t going to be a problem, right? However, they had faced backlash for it. Why? They asked out of greed and desire, not because they were hungry. They may have been hungry, but it wasn’t out of hunger, so how did this become a problem? Let’s talk about it.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: How could greed and temptation affect a situation like this found in Numbers 11:4?

Understanding Their Want of Food

Many people had joined the Exodus without settling on a relationship with God. The discontent went throughout the group of people, showing how a lack of relationship with God and a lack of gratitude for what God has done for them. The manna they received was not enough for them. Manna was God’s daily faithful provision. They would have rather had the tastes and life they found back in Egypt, seeming to forget about the bondage they faced.

God’s chosen people joined in on the complaining. They were not satisfied with God’s current care for them and the distrust of His plans what they had for the future. The question they asked about food was just about food, but about how they felt confidently about how God will provide for them. They saw the highs they felt under the Egyptian rule, ignoring the, you know – SLAVERY. They were not aware that satisfaction is not found in their old life, but through God’s provision with faith and gratitude. I will also talk about the response found in Numbers 11:31-34.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: Knowing this, how do feel about their complaint about food?

Greed and Manna

There’s two things that stand out to me here that I think we need to talk about: manna and their deep want/greed.

What is manna? The term is derived from the Hebrew word for man, which is believed to be connected to the Hebrew question man hu), which means: “What is it?” Manna means: “What is it?” Thankful, theologians and historians have an answer to this question so that manna is just a philosophical quandry. Manna is seen as a small, round substance (Exodus 16:14). It showed in the morning and was white like coriander and tasted like wafers mixed with honey. (Exodus 16:31). Would this be sustainable to you? Do you think that you can live off of manna? Based on what I’ve shared so far, probably not – and I believe God knew this. God developed a system to make sure they could, though.

God instructed them to gather enough manna for each day, with a double portion on the sixth day (so they can observe the Sabbath day.) Unfortunately, some people took advantage of this and gathered more than they should have. This result in the excess being spoiled, except for what was needed on the Sabbath (Exodus 16:19-20). Now, with this in mind, people could have survived off of this. Granted, it’s not a luxury to live off of crackers for many years, but it is doable. Yet the people weren’t satisfied. They wanted the opulent meals they had back in Egypt, where meat was their primary meal. So, why the meat? Why the intense greed and desire to have something more than what we needed and provided by God? Let’s talk about this greed of food.

The phrase “strong craving” is the Hebrew verb avah (ah-vah’). It describes a feeling of a powerful longing, craving, yearning, or coveting. It describes situations of legitimate desire and disordered appetite, so how we read it in the Bible depends on the context of the story. Our story today is the first time this concept is introduced, and its described as the unchecked appetite. Like I mentioned with the manna, I get that it’s not the best most luxurious food source. I get that it’s probably not even close to what it was in Egypt. However, the had the ability to use the manna to live off of effectively. God provided enough that they needed to survive, and they took advantage of that. How? They got greedy. They were greedy then, and here they are greedy now.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: What do you think of the focuses of manna and greed? How would you respond to their situation if you were in their shoes?

A Delicious…Plague?

So did this situation resolve? Let’s look at Numbers 11:31-34, which says:

31 Then a wind went out from the Lord, and it brought quails from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other say, all around the camp, about two cubits on the ground.

32 So the people worked all that day and night and all the next day gathering the quails; the least anyone gathered was ten homers, and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp.

33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague.

34 So that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried people who had the craving.

The response was that God provided the quails for those that were complaining, and there was so much quail that people had plenty. The ten homers mentioned would have equated to about 220 liters of quail, which is about 485 pounds of quail. Each person would have gathered 485 lbs of quail, and it’s estimated that there were approximately 600,000 men (2-3 million people including women and children) during the time of the Exodus. In total, that is approximately 1.2 billion pounds of quail that were at their doorstep. They would have had enough to last them approximately 4-6 months based on the average daily recommendation of meat for a balanced. God’s people would have thrilled to see this happen. They were in quite a literal heaven moment seeing the food that they had been yearning for. Yet – they never got to enjoy it. Let’s dig into verse 33 a little deeper.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: How do you feel about God’s response? How is it similar to His response to their complaint in Numbers 11:1? How is it different?

Trust in God’s Provision

God’s people received the gift of quail not with gratitude, but with cravings and greed. Their own desire to have Egypt’s food showed their own disdain for God’s provision and a willingness to go back to slavery instead of forward into the Promised Land.

With that, judgment came upon them before they could enjoy it. It happened fast. God anger was present because His people repeatedly rejected His care, promises, and presence. How they acted went against the relationship God wanted them to have. A lot of people passed as a result. This plague showed Israel that God’s gifts must never be sought apart from trust and submission to Him, and it stands as a warning to not pursue evil things.

Now, I want to bring the same question back around that I shared in Part 1 – how can you still want to follow Yahweh after an event like that? How do you show up to stay in a relationship with a divine being after He plagued your people that wanted food. However, we can look at why God did this to see a healthy reason to come back to Him.

The goal was to trust God’s provision, and have faith that God will see a path for you into victory. When people tend to focus on other things that can provide us with something, our focus remains on that thing. It takes away our focus on God, who provided all things. God wanted people to trust that the things from Him are good, given when needed to provide for His people. When these things happen, they didn’t come from other sources. They came from God who guides those sources. Christians are called to recognize God created all things and in all things, God’s provision will be shown. This may seem mundane, but it’s a way to keep our focus on God. God wants us to lean on Him at all times, for His ways are greater than ours. We can try and do things ourselves, but nine times out of ten – we’ll fail, we’ll struggle, we’ll give up. Through God, we have someone that can guide us back on the path that is best for us and get us to the Promised Land safe and sound. When we keep our allegiance on things that are not of God, we’ll face consequences. Sometimes we need those consequences to get us back on track. They are not bad inherently, but the result of a bad decision. The consequences are reflection moments to see if they path we are on is right or not. Now, we may not face a plague as a result of our greed – but we are seeing worldly desires show their true colors in the name of profit, individualism, and greed. How can we make sure we keep our focus on God – by strengthening our relationship with Him. Learning His ways. Praying to Him. Sharing our gratitude to Him. All these things and more can keep our complaints in check and get us to the Promised land when we’re ready.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: How can you ensure your trust and provision keeps its focus on God and not the things of this world?