Friday 18th August
Read Numbers 11:18 -23
“‘Tell the people: “Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!’ Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. 19 You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, 20 but for a whole month – until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it – because you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’”’
21 But Moses said, ‘Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, “I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!” 22 Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?’
23 The Lord answered Moses, ‘Is the Lord’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.’” (NIVUK)
Tough love! If the crime is complaining about a lack of meat in the diet then the punishment is a nauseating abundance of meat. As we have routinely observed, the punishment fits the crime. There is to be little doubt that this is indeed a punishment. Looking longingly back to Egypt is equivalent to rejecting Yahweh.
We can see the overwhelming burden of leadership Moses feels he is under. He thinks that he is the one who has to deliver on this judgement. He is incredulous and dismayed. It is sobering to realise that this is the same Moses who witnessed all the judgements on Egypt, the crossing of the sea and the provision of manna. He is so downcast that a month’s worth of meat seems absurd. Complaining and sin has worn him down so much that he has lost perspective and hope. Yahweh kindly and graciously points Moses back to His word.
The echoes with Jesus’ feeding the five thousand are overwhelming through this passage. Even down to the incredulous question the disciples ask in response to Jesus’ claim that He can feed so many…
“Philip answered him, ‘It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!’ 8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9 ‘Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?’” (John 6:7-9) (NIVUK).
It is Peter though, after many disciples grumbled at Jesus’ teaching following the feeding of thousands and rejected Him who points us back to God’s words. “Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.’” (John 6:68-69) (NIVUK).
Can we ever soak ourselves in His word enough? Even when we are disillusioned?
