2023_05_22 Insight Post- Kim Feld

I have been so taken with Numbers 11 this week that I have had trouble reading anything else. There is so much to unpack in this chapter. Still, the first several verses detailing people’s complaining about the manna captured my imagination. So let’s take a look:

⁴ The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! ⁵ We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. ⁶ But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”

Several questions immediately come to mind. 1. Who is the “rabble”? 2. Weren’t you slaves in Egypt?  Seems the cost was pretty high….3. You never “see” anything but manna?

In looking at several commentaries, the word “rabble” is an interesting one and is only used in this story. It is believed that Moses is referring to the non-Israelites who left Egypt with the Israelites during the exodus. It could have been Egyptians or even families that came through intermarriage between the Hebrews and the Egyptians.

I believe there’s a connection between what I listed as my second and third questions, and that is the word crave. Crave is defined as wanting intensely, even yearning for with the force of physical appetite or emotional need (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). To deeply crave something is to lust for it in a way that can cause you to reorient your circumstances. Interestingly, in every version of these verses that I looked at, all except The Message didn’t mention the taste of the manna, but just the fact that it was all they saw. Let’s look at what 1 John 2:16 says:

For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world (NIV).

As we read in the definition, our physical appetites and emotional needs are potent forces. Of course, craving has a spectrum of danger, from what sounds good for lunch to desiring power, control, or even what (or who) belongs to someone else. This scenario was much bigger than what the people were eating; this was about a lack of trust and gratitude for God’s provision, and it spread through the people as dissatisfaction. There’s so much more to unpack in this than I can do in a short post, but the end result is that God sends massive amounts of quail and a plague on the people.

Psalm 106 is one of the psalms that tells the history of the people’s years wandering in the desert. I encourage you to read it in its entirety, but verse 15 says that God gave the people what they asked for but also sent a plague or a wasting disease. Let’s look at this verse in the KJV: And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul. Sometimes God gives us what we ask for even when He knows it’s not best, but there’s a cost.

What are you craving today? Where do you feel dissatisfaction? I believe that just as God sent leanness into their soul, He can undoubtedly send fullness into ours, but we have to look deep and find what we’re lacking.

Kim Feld
Executive Director of Education and Outreach

Reference: Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Crave. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved May 21, 2023, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crave