Are you content with the life that God has given you?

It truly does matter; sometimes even to the point of death as we will see in today’s story.

Today’s activities involving those old Israelites on their journey through the wilderness will clearly show us that contentment is a very good and godly trait.

DISCONTENTMENT BRINGS TROUBLE

In Numbers Chapter 11 we find a bunch of hot, tired, restless people out in the desert and they are complaining about everything.

Truly God had blessed them.

They were saved from the plagues of Egypt. After which; they were passed over by the angel of death at Passover. God had delivered them from the bondage of slavery.

Once they were free; He had led them across the sea on dry land, then provided them with shelter and several good guides who knew the land and the areas in which they were traveling.

Even better; He had given them The Cloud of Glory and The Pillar of Fire to guide them.

A priesthood had been formed to minister to them.

They had been given water from a rock and Manna rained down from heaven for them to eat for six days a week.

They were given a Sabbath rest every seven days, so they would not get tired and always be refreshed.

God, Himself had come down to dwell within the tabernacle which He had designed to meet with them.

ALL PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL NEEDS WERE ADDRESSED

By now the nation called Israel should have been a very cozy and content community of happy people with a promise for a better future.

You would think they were the most blessed people on earth; but now they were grumbling and complaining.

This made God angry.

When he heard the people begin to grumble he sent fire to the outskirts of the camp and some of the grumblers were consumed.

The people became afraid and came to Moses begging for help.

Moses prayed and the fire stopped.

Good ole Moses; always coming to their rescue whenever they were too careless and selfish.

HOW MANY LESSONS WOULD IT TAKE?

After that, you would think they might have taken the hint; but did they?

No!

Next thing we hear is that they are pleading with Moses to give them meat to eat!

They remembered the fish and the leaks and the onions and the garlic they ate back in Egypt.

Suddenly they totally forgot that they were slaves there too; all they could think about was how good the food had tasted!

Never mind that the food did not even belong to them and they couldn’t even eat until they were told; all they could think about was how boring the manna seemed now compared to the meat which they used to eat.

They wanted flesh.

THE LUST OF THE FLESH

It was more than a want – they lusted after flesh.

Lust is an overwhelming desire for something that you can’t have.  Lust has a way of controlling us and making us unreasonable.  It consumes us if we let it.

Never mind that the manna was good, healthy, free food said to be very similar to what the angels ate – they were NOT satisfied.

They lusted after the things of the past.

Thinking constantly about the good things of the past can keep you in a heap of trouble.  It is selective memory.  You always remember what you loved; but you tend to forget the problems.

Those whinny Israelites actually stood in the doors of their tents and wept like babies for the things they had left behind in Egypt.

How sad.

They were free people on the way to The Promised Land; and all they could do was weep.

THE WRATH OF GOD

This displeased God.

Can you blame Him?

They had actually been down this road before and God had been patient and merciful to them.

Now here they were again, as thick-headed and stubborn as ever.

Moses was also displeased, and he cried out to God asking what he was to do with these ungrateful people.

He expressed to God that this was too much for him to bear.

Moses had been here a lot and I’m sure the tune was getting old.

SOMETIMES A GOOD LEADER NEEDS A LITTLE HELP

So, God told Moses to gather 70 of his most trustworthy men and bring them into the tabernacle.

God said he would meet with these men and take a portion of the spirit he had put on Moses and divide it out among all of them.  They in turn could help Moses.

God told Moses also to sanctify the people and tell them to get ready because He was going to send them exactly what they had requested.

Tomorrow they would eat meat.

Not just a little meat and not just for a day; tomorrow they would have all the meat they could eat all day for thirty days!

MEAT COMING OUT YOUR NOSTRILS

Have you ever got exactly what you wanted; then wished you had kept your mouth shut?

These greedy, lustful, ungrateful people would now eat meat until they found it coming out of their nostrils.

Moses was a bit dumb-founded to hear this news.

He asked God where the meat would come from and reminded God that there were over six hundred thousand people to feed.

In other words; there wasn’t even a Publix nearby.  Not even a Walmart!

Moses was lucky that God didn’t get exasperated with him too.

GOD IS GOD

God quickly explained to Moses the facts that he had temporarily forgotten in all of his distress; that He was God!

Moses finally put away his doubts and gathered the men together as God had suggested.

As they stood in the tabernacle with Moses God came down in the cloud and put His Spirit within the 70 elders.

They then quickly began to prophesy.

Have you ever noticed that God always sends prophets just before he proclaims judgement?  These elders were testifying to God’s ways and expressing His will to the people.  Those who had ears to hear would be glad later.  Those who overlooked their testimony would come under grave judgement.

God is fair and he is merciful and never sends judgement without warning.

Eldad and Medad were supposed to be with the elders inside the tabernacle; but they had stayed in the camp for some reason. It didn’t matter though; because they began to prophesy too!  They were speaking out in prophecy to the people residing in the camp.  That would mean that EVERYONE there heard God’s warnings.

Joshua was Moses faithful servant and assistant, and he was still very young.  He wasn’t so sure that Moses would approve of the men speaking so freely to the camp.  He went to find Moses and told him what was going on.  Joshua then warned Moses to stop these unauthorized men from prophesying within the camp among the people.

NO COMPETITION AMONG GOD’S LEADERS

Moses and the men with him went out to the camp; but Moses did not stop the two other witnesses.

He was glad they were spreading the word of God and said that he wished every man in the camp would become full of God’s Spirit and being to prophesy.

God’s true leaders will not strive in competition; they work as a team – always.  Moses welcomed the testimony of Eldad and Medad.  Now the people understood that their word was official and right.

As all the elders were spreading the word among the camp a mighty wind began to blow from the direction of the sea.  The Lord had caused it.

Whenever you see “wind” in the scriptures; you usually can expect that it signifies God’s coming judgment.

This wind brought in abundant amounts of quail that flew low on the ground of the camp.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR

These low flying quail actually covered the ground for a day’s walk in one direction and a day’s walk in another direction.

The droves of quail piled up all over the ground almost three feet high for miles and miles. It is thought by many that these quail were probably tired from flying over the sea so long and they were now flying low to the ground wanting rest and making them easy to catch.

Over the next day, the night and then all of the next day, the people gathered up the quail and laid them out to dry. They prepared them to eat. Even the men who had gathered the least had at least sixty bushels of quail each.

A MEAL WITH A PLAGUE

As the lustful, gluttonous people began to chew the meat they had craved and lusted after, the wrath of God fell on the camp.

God smote the people with a great plague.

Many became very sick and died, even as the meat was still between their teeth.

The name of that place became known as Kibrothhattavah; which means “grave of craving” or “graves of lust” in Hebrew.

All of those who had lusted after more than God had abundantly provided died and were buried there; and those who had waited upon the Lord and heeded the word of his prophets silently journeyed on away from that sad place.

GOD KNOWS WHAT WE DO NOT

Scientist and philosophers have always been fascinated with this particular section of the scriptures. For years it was believed that quail never came into this part of the desert; but later it was discovered that they came only at night and hid from their predators under a cloak of the darkness of the night.

Ever notice how certain cravings, lusts, or sins are more abundant at night?

The quail here symbolize the lust of mankind.

Did you catch how abundant the numbers were?  The sin of lust among the people of mankind has always been great.

Some sins of lust seem to be stronger at certain times. Many of us like to hide these secret desires in a cloak of darkness; hoping that others will not notice them; just as these quail hid from sight.

Most lustful sins are hidden and not noticed; but God knows everything.

Another ironic thing usually always plays out; once we get the sinful things we have lusted after; they tend to make us sick and sometimes they even kill us.

God always tries to prevent us from destroying ourselves.

If only we would learn to listen to him.

EVIL IS UNPREDICTABLE AND OFTEN COMES IN UNEXPECTED PACKAGES

Scholars and aviators have studied the flyways of the area and now know that quail come into this particular area using three separate flyways.

Those who arrive from one flyway come in the spring; and those who arrive from another flyway come in the fall.  The Exodus began in the spring at the times we know as Passover.  This would have been the spring flyover.

It appears that some of these quail will always be poisonous.

On the western flyway the quail are poisonous in the spring (northward migration) but not during the fall (southward migration.)

With the eastern flyway the reverse is true. The quail are not poisonous while flying north in the springtime, but they are poisonous while flying south in the fall.

Then the central flyway is not poisonous in either direction.

It seems that nature is always programmed precisely to suit whatever God needs for it to do whenever he needs for it to happen.

MANNA FROM HEAVEN IS A DAILY PROVISION

People eating these poisonous quail tend to get muscle cramps, their limbs become numb and they experience kidney failure.  Eventually many of them die. Today we call this phenomenon coturnism; and despite this well known disease; there are still people who hunt for quail and consider the meat a delicacy.  People are still out there eating more quail every day.

Go figure!

It would be so much better to simply eat the perfect food that God has provided for us. This is safe, and it is healthy. All that we need is provided daily.

The same was true for the nation of Israel; still they sought the quail because they lusted after the flesh.

Why do men always want and seek for more?

Sometimes the “more” isn’t of God.

The point here is that God had provided EVERYTHING the people needed for their daily substance, yet; they had become ungrateful, lazy, lustful and wanted and craved something that was not good for them.

Instead of trusting God for their daily needs and gladly gathering and eating the manna from heaven, they moaned and groaned and imagined that the quail would satisfy their lusts.

DOESN’T THE CREATOR KNOW WHAT IS BEST FOR HIS CREATION?

God knew what they did not know about these quail.

He had protected them until they had turned sour on him and forgotten the One that sustained them.

We all do this.

So many of us forget that God is God and we are merely men.

We do not know what is truly best for us.

All we know are our own carnal lusts and desires; and they are sinful and wrong.

A PEOPLE CRAVING DEATH INSTEAD OF LIFE

The Manna was the Bread of Life.

If we turn away from trusting God, and we do not listen to His leaders and prophets; we walk right into trouble.

We eat ourselves out of the abundance of life thinking that we have found it all. In the end all that comes from our wrongful desires is death.

Let there be no more graves of craving in this wilderness we call life on earth.

The world is full of this meat that God did not provide, and it is free and easy and plentiful for the taking; but it isn’t right or good for us.

LET US LEARN WHAT ISRAEL FORGOT

Let us learn what the haughty people of Israel forgot; that our every daily provision comes directly from the hand of God and we should humbly give thanks and trust Him to keep providing daily.

Just like that line within the Lord’s Prayer; “give us this day our daily bread.”  We must daily go before God and ask for His provision and be grateful for what He has provided.  Only He truly knows what we need.

We simply need to have more self-control and just keep on walking; like those who were able to walk away from the Graves of Craving; those who did not partake of the poisons of this world; but heeded the words of those seventy elders who were filled with God’s spirit and had the power to prophesy truth from God on that day.