Tuesday 15th August
Read Numbers 11:4-10
“The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost – also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. 6 But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!’ 7 The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin. 8 The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a hand-mill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into loaves. And it tasted like something made with olive oil. 9 When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down. 10 Moses heard the people of every family wailing at the entrance to their tents. The Lord became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled.” (NIVUK)
It only takes a few people, sometimes even one, to let sin loose amongst a crowd. It is the second test, and they fail. The ‘rabble’ or ‘riffraff’, most likely foreigners amongst the Israelites, and hence less concerned with following Yahweh closely, start complaining about food. But sin is incredibly contagious. Sin is placing one’s own desires before anything else. And once triggered makes everyone else start thinking about themselves too.
Sin is also stunningly short-sighted. All this time in the desert they have been provided for but they crave more. Like Esau, they lose focus on the promises and provision of God, for the sake of a bit more variety in the diet. They forgot so quickly the ‘free’ fish they enjoyed in Egypt came at immense physical cost and toil. Perhaps that is why we get the corporate memory of the ‘toil’ involved in gathering, grinding and gastronomising the generously gifted manna? It is hardly a fair comparison. But sin can’t see that.
Consider the first ‘test’ Jesus faced. “And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’ 41Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting for forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’ 4 Jesus answered, ‘It is written: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”’” (Matthew 3:17-4:4) (NIVUK)
Jesus was not even provided with manna in the first place. His hunger cravings would have been orders or magnitude greater. Challenged to make bread He refused. He trusted the word of God delivered at His baptism (v17) and would not give in to physical cravings and place His own desires above those of God. And yet He will make bread soon enough to feed grumbling people in the wilderness… What a Saviour indeed…
