Sunday 20th August
Read Numbers 11:31-35
“Now a wind went out from the Lord and drove quail in from the sea. It scattered them up to two cubits deep all around the camp, as far as a day’s walk in any direction. 32 All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers. Then they spread them out all around the camp. 33 But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague. 34 Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food. 35 From Kibroth Hattaavah the people travelled to Hazeroth and stayed there.” (NIVUK)
Yet another example of how it is impossible to separate God’s grace and His wrath. Although we have broken the narrative down into daily bites, reading the passage through we note that the same ‘ruach’ of God, the same ‘Spirit’, is rested graciously on the elders of Israel to lessen the burden on Moses and then violently blew in from the west bringing the ‘quail of judgement’ (my phrase – you won’t find that in the passage…). The wind must have been strong for the quail could not rise high off the ground and dropped exhausted from the sky in their normal migration across the wilderness.
Grace and wrath. One God. The New Testament authors read this narrative and the others we will explore over the next six weeks and they see a warning to not presume upon God’s grace and draw down His wrath (cf 1 Corinthians 10, Hebrews 2-4, etc.). It would be devastating indeed to leave behind a legacy of terrifying placenames through the wilderness speaking to our rejection of the discipline and grace of the Lord of the universe…
“Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:11-13) (NIVUK)
