Sermon: January 13, 2008
"Be Careful What You Wish For!"
(scripture references are clickable)
We’re beginning a new sermon series on everybody’s favorite book of the Bible – the book of Numbers! Try to contain your excitement. If I had to guess, I would say that Numbers is probably one of the most neglected books in all of Scripture, second only perhaps to the book of Leviticus. And that’s part of why we are taking time to study it – to increase our Biblical literacy. Over the next couple of months, we will be looking at the stories given to us in this book. And I pray that the Lord will guide us and bless us as we do so, as we study His Word and seek to hear what He is saying to us through it.
Now, the book of Numbers derives its English name from the census lists given at the beginning and end of the book. When the Old Testament was first translated into Greek, this book somehow got that name. But the Jews always called this book “In the Wilderness”, which is an apt name, to be sure. This book tells the story of Israel wandering in the wilderness, the 38-40 years they spent in the desert after they left Egypt. In the book of Exodus, we are told of how God delivered His people out of the land of slavery; we also read of their trip to Mount Sinai, where they spend a year receiving the Law. The end of Exodus and the book of Leviticus records the Law given to them there. But in Numbers, we read that after this year at Sinai, the people go on the move; they begin their long journey to the Promised Land. And it’s not an easy or pleasant journey. The people continually murmur against the Lord and rebel against His authority and the authority of His chosen servant, Moses. And because of this grumbling and rebellion, the journey that should have taken a few months instead takes a few decades. God allows the old, rebellious generation to die and the new generation to take its place before He takes His people into the Promised Land.
And as a result, these will sometimes be hard stories to hear. But I dare say that we will from time to time see ourselves in these stories. For we, too, sometimes “wander in the wilderness”. We, too, take far too long to learn what God would teach us. We, too, have hard journeys in life. We, too, stubbornly rebel against God’s authority and complain about our lot in life. And we, too, come face to face with God from time to time. And so, Numbers is for us as much as for anyone else. May God open our ears and hearts to receive its lessons!
The first story we come to in this book, then, tells of a rebellion among the Israelites when some “rabble” – meaning the non-Israelites that came with them out of Egypt – began to complain about the menu. As we heard in our first Scripture lesson for today, as Israel was on its way from Egypt to Sinai, about a month or so after the parting of the Red Sea, they complained to God that they had no food to eat. And so, God began to send bread from heaven, which the people called “manna”, which means “what is it?” That first day, as an extra blessing, God also sent quail to eat. (I’ve never eaten a quail, but I assume it tastes like chicken, as everything seems to do). God bent over backwards at this time to accommodate His people. As He was forming a new nation, He was merciful and compassionate, and He didn’t expect full maturity from His people just yet. The manna fell for forty years; it didn’t stop until the people entered the Promised Land. And amazingly, it met all their nutritional needs. We’re told that it could be fixed many ways – baked, boiled, made into cakes, etc. It truly was a miracle from God, especially when you consider that during the work-week, manna would spoil by the end of the day, but for the Sabbath, it lasted two whole days. Every day, the people would go out and gather their daily bread, learning to rely each day on God for all they needed.
But that lesson was a hard one for the people to learn. When we reach our story from Numbers, over a year has passed – and the rabble are tired of the manna. They begin to look back to their time in Egypt, and they remember all the foods they ate there – fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, garlic, onions. Now, that’s really an amazing statement – that anyone would miss their time in Egypt, when they lived in slavery! Even still, the people began to complain to the Lord that they were bored with their diet and wish they were back making bricks without straw, where they at least had fish, melons and leeks to eat. They reject God’s miraculous provision, His bread from heaven. It’s just not interesting enough for them anymore, not good enough for their refined palates. No – they want meat, and they want it now. Never mind that they’re in a desert where food is scarce. Never mind that God has given them perfectly good food to eat – miraculous food, even! No – they go to Moses and they complain. They want meat to eat.
Oh . . . how familiar is this, friends? For God has given us so very much – and still, we are not satisfied. No, instead we are so often bored. We want a new car even though the old car is perfectly fine. We want new clothes, even though the old clothes are perfectly adequate. We want a new job, a new house, even a new spouse . . . just because we’re not content with the blessings God has given us, because we’re simply bored. Now, to be sure, there are times when we pushed by God to reach for bigger, better, greater things – and is nothing wrong w/that. But most of time, we don’t want these new things because God is telling us to go higher. No, most of time we want these things because we think we’re entitled to them, because we think it’s all about us! I’m reminded of the woman who stood on my back porch, with a bag full of free groceries in her hand from Serve City’s food pantry. She complained to me that the food pantry had given her food her kids didn’t like to eat – and could I give her money instead so that she could go to the grocery store? It’s shocking, I know – but we say the same things to God, my friends. We complain, we grumble, we stir up trouble because we’re bored and dissatisfied with our blessings – and as a result, we get ourselves into a whole heap of trouble.
Needless to say, this story doesn’t end well. There is a silver lining – Moses gets some help with his people when new elders are ordained and are filled with the Spirit – but you have to look through a lot of clouds to find that silver lining. For God finally determines to give the people what they ask for; He sends them a miraculous gift of quail to eat. In fact, that quail lay on the ground three feet high and three-quarters of a mile in every direction! When Moses freaked out, saying that there was no way he could provide meat for his people, God asked him “Is the Lord’s arm too short?” (Numbers 11:23, NIV). Indeed, it was not. Yet again, the Lord provides the people with a miraculous food from heaven. While it only took a few minutes to gather the manna, here they spend two days and a night gathering up the quail, just so they could glut themselves on meat.
But when they finally began to eat the quail, it made them sick. Some even died and were buried there in the wilderness, giving that place the name “Graves of Craving” or “Graves of Lust”. Be careful what you wish for! Now, I know that some of you are thinking that God was terribly unfair here. We don’t like it when God says “You want meat? Fine – I’ll give you so much meat that it’ll come out your nose and make you sick”. It’s a natural reaction for us to think God was mean here. Children say the same kinds of things to parents when they are punished. It’s not fair! And after all, when the people complained about their food before, God was gracious and began to send them manna. Why couldn’t be do the same here?
The answer is that over a year had passed, and in that year, God had been working to form a people for Himself. God revealed Himself to His people. He gave the Law. And in that year, the people should have grown up a little. They should have matured in their faith and realized that God had already taken care of this problem for them. He had provided so much for them. Never mind all the other miracles the people had seen – they had a miraculous bread from heaven each and every day! And still – that wasn’t enough for them? Can you really blame God for being angry when the people simply became bored with their blessings? Can we fault God for what He did when the people demanded a buffet instead? There’s a lesson here for the people about having a holy contentment and a holy gratitude to God when He sends His blessings.
And that lesson is for us, too, friends. Are we satisfied with what God has given us? Do we recognize the blessings from heaven in our lives? Have we acknowledged that what God has given us is indeed sufficient? Or, is that simply not enough? Do we instead think that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence? Do we covet variety instead, or demand things that are bigger, better and faster than the things we have? We would do well to learn from this passage, friends; we would do well do grow up a little and to have some spiritual maturity – to be thankful and content with all that God has given, to recognize just how much God has provided for us. Of course, it’s nice to get new things. Of course it’s nice to have variety. But we must be careful that this attitude doesn’t lead us to reject the provision God has given. So let us all pray for contentment, let us shed our sense of entitlement, and let us all be thankful for all of God’s blessings. And as always, to God alone be the glory! Amen.