Ah, Those Were the Days

Read Numbers 10:11–14:45

4. Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed.
5. “We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted.
6. But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is this manna!”
7. The manna looked like small coriander seeds, and it was pale yellow like gum resin.
8. The people would go out and gather it from the ground. They made flour by grinding it with hand mills or pounding it in mortars. Then they boiled it in a pot and made it into flat cakes. These cakes tasted like pastries baked with olive oil.
9. The manna came down on the camp with the dew during the night. Numbers 11:4-9

What do you miss most about the past? What, for you, are “the good old days”? Is there a time of life you wish you could revisit? Is there a period of time that you remember as full of joy and wonder?

The Israelites find themselves doing this shortly after they leave Mount Sinai—only they take it too far. This is the story of Israel’s first approach to the land God wanted to give them, and it’s a disaster. From the food, to the leadership, to the Promised Land itself, the people cannot seem to find enough to complain about—despite God’s faithfulness—and want to go back to the “good life” in Egypt!

There are too many lessons here to list, but here are a few key concepts to grasp in this passage: the Lord will provide for our needs; it’s not wise to put the Lord to the test; and the Lord hears the cries of the faithful and answers their prayers.

God became angry with the Israelites because they complained (Numbers 11:1-3, 10). They were grumbling because they didn’t seem to notice what God was doing for them—setting them free, making them a nation, giving them a new land—because they were so wrapped up in what God wasn’t doing for them (11:4-6). They could think of nothing but the delicious Egyptian food that they had left behind. Somehow they forgot that the price of that food was the brutal whip of Egyptian slavery.

Before we judge the Israelites too harshly, it’s helpful to think about what occupies our attention most of the time. Dissatisfaction comes when our attention shifts from what we have to what we don’t have.

Are you grateful for what God has given you, or are you always thinking about what you would like to have? Don’t allow your unfulfilled desires to cause you to forget God’s gifts of life, food, health, work, and friends.