Bible Tuesday

Numbers 11

The People Complain

⁴Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, "Oh that we had meat to eat! ⁵ We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. ⁶But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at."
⁷Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium. ⁸ The people went about and gathered it and ground it in handmills or beat it in mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. ⁹ When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it.
¹⁰Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the LORD blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased. ¹¹ Moses said to the LORD, "Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? ¹²Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, 'Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,' to the land that you swore to give their fathers? ¹³ Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, 'Give us meat, that we may eat.' ¹⁴ I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. ¹⁵If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness."



Moses is kinda having a bad day.


The Israelites are whining for meat.


And Moses is whining to God.


Moses says “I am not able to carry all this people alone, the burden is too heavy for me.” He also asks  "Where am I to get meat to give to all this people?"   But here’s the thing...God never asked Moses to carry the burden of the Israelites alone and He definitely did not ask Moses to provide meat for them.  God was providing manna for the Israelites to eat daily. It was a kind of weird food but it provided all the sustenance that they needed.  The Israelites didn’t need meat, they just wanted it.


Moses was overwhelmed by their wants when God had provided for all their needs.  Sounds pretty familiar, doesn't it?  Moses is upset because he can't make the Israelites happy.  And he is having a hard time understanding why God is standing by just watching him fail so miserably at this task. 


How often do we fall into this trap ourselves?  Maybe it's a mom thing.  But for all my 'tough love' talk, I really do want my family to be happy.  And when they 'whine for meat', I feel like a miserable failure.  But God did not call any of us to provide complete satisfaction and happiness to anyone.  And attempting to do so is gonna lead to some pretty bad days.