Yesterday's passage began with some unspecified complaints which then led to specific complaints regarding the lack of variety of food in the wilderness. The other people who left Egypt with the Israelites were the first to mourn the lack of the fish, melons, and spices that they once enjoyed in Egypt. Their wailing influenced the Israelites to speak out against the manna from God, saying, "We never see anything but this manna!"
Though manna was a nutritionally complete food, a lack of variety in the diet is something that humans find boring and monotonous. But this diet was intended to be fairly temporary. We can endure some pretty difficult things in life when we know we only have to endure them for a limited time. It was not the Lord's desire for Israel and those with her to subsist on the same food for many years. But just two chapters from now we'll find the people afraid to enter the promised land. We'll find the people rebelling against the Lord and against Moses; they will suggest replacing Moses with a leader who will take them back to Egypt. Because of their lack of faith in the Lord's ability to help them take over the land He promised to them, and because they prefer the slavery of Egypt to the freedom and blessings of the Lord, He will declare that this generation will never set foot in the promised land. As a result, Israel will spend forty years in the wilderness. This means the people will subsist on manna not for a few months or for a few years, but for four decades.
As we said yesterday, let's not fool ourselves into thinking we might have done better. Human nature being what it is, I think any group of people would have complained and doubted and sinned. I am not sure who my ancestors were in the days when Israel was on her way to the promised land, but I am sure they would have made the same mistakes or equally grievous mistakes. It's easy for us to sit on our couches and wonder how Israel could have doubted the Lord who parted the Red Sea and who provided food in a wilderness where there was no food, but if we'll make an honest assessment of our lives we'll see that we have the same tendencies to fall into complaints and doubts whenever a new trouble comes along. No matter how many times the Lord has come through for us in the past, we still find ourselves beset with doubts and fears each time we encounter a fresh difficulty.
Manna could be prepared for consumption by more than one method, but still the people are already weary of it. As Moses walks through the camp he notices that complaints about the manna are coming from every household. The Lord hears the complaints too, and He is not pleased. "The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin. 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. When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down. Moses heard the people of every family wailing at the entrance to their tents. The Lord became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled." (Numbers 11:7-10)
Moses is troubled and in tomorrow's passage he'll do the right thing with his troubles; he'll take them to the Lord. His prayer won't be pretty but a lot of our prayers aren't pretty, are they? Many of my prayers have been an outpouring of all the worries and ugly feelings inside of me. I've had to tell the Lord I'm scared or angry or disappointed. I've had to admit to Him---like Moses will admit to Him tomorrow---that I don't feel like I can go on unless He does something about the way I feel or unless He does something about my circumstances. Moses, like David in the psalms, holds nothing back from the Lord. David was in the habit of telling the Lord everything he was feeling, whether his feelings were noble or not, and Moses is the same way. We can learn from their example. Who, other than the Lord, can help us with these feelings? Who else can heal us of our anger and hurt and doubt? Who else can comfort us when we're depressed or in despair? The Lord is the best person to share our feelings with because He alone has the power to help us with them.
Tomorrow we'll study the interaction between Moses and the Lord, but for now we'll close by talking about how Israel's inability to get on board with the Lord caused her to have to endure for far longer the very circumstances against which she is complaining. I don't know about you, but my first instinct when faced with a problem is to complain about it and try to find a way to escape it. I have not always reacted to unpleasant circumstances in a godly way. I want them to go away as quickly as possible. But what we have to keep in mind is that the Lord always has a reason for anything He allows to come into our lives. Rebelling against our circumstances rarely improves our situation. It usually extends the amount of time we find ourselves in the situation. The longer we resist allowing the Lord to teach us whatever it is He wants to teach us, the longer He has to leave us where we are. Some of the unpleasant times in my life didn't begin coming to an end until I submitted myself to the Lord and said, "What is it You want me to learn from this? What is it You want to accomplish in my life through this?"
The Lord sends manna to Israel every day so she will learn to depend on Him and trust Him. By the time she reaches the border of the promised land, she should have developed the faith to move ahead in the confidence that the Lord is with her. But because she complains and rebels against her circumstances, the Lord must leave her in the wilderness longer. This should be a lesson to us all that the sooner we lean into God and trust Him in our circumstances, the sooner we will catch on to whatever He's trying to teach us, and the sooner things may improve. But as long as we complain and rebel, we can expect to remain right where we are.
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