Grouse, grouse, grouse...

Numbers 11:1 - 13:33

Finally we get back to some story today...

Now, we've just been told that the people only move out, only come to rest, when and where God leads them. Safe to assume then that wherever they land, there is ample water for them and their flocks and, again safe to remember, that they get mana every morning. You might argue that they've been living on mana for more than a year at this point and something different would be nice but remember it is COMPLETELY FREE FOOD!!

Part of the curse in the garden was that man would no longer have free food, he would have to work the ground with the sweat of his brow to get food. But this is free...just go pick it up.
The people argue that they had free food in Egypt...yeah well, if by "free" you mean no money exchanged hands then would you trade slavery for food? There was a very clear cost for that "free" food.

I also started to wonder while reading this what happened to all the sheep and goats and bulls and pidgeons that they must have had around for sacrifices...sounds like a LOT of meat to me.
Most of the commentaries I could find didn't bring this up but the few that did suggest that the flocks were not for consumption but for raising (and sacrifices) and that they would have run through all THAT meat in less than a month and wound up poor. Ok, I suppose I buy that.

I find it interesting too that the story gives us the complaints of the people right at the finish line!! The complain in chapter 11 and 12 and in chapter 13 the spies are sent into the land...the promised land that they have been aiming for all this time. THEY ARE ALMOST DONE AND THEY FALL APART!! Of course you may well argue they didn't know they were almost to the finish line, well said, but how often do we find ourselves in a similar position? Grousing, ready to surrender when in truth we're almost to the other side of the wildernesss through which God has us traveling?

I think God has spent a little over a year with His people in the wilderness in order to show them who He is and how He is to be worshipped. I think even His response to their grousing in chapters 11 and 12 here is a demonstration of his ability to both provide and destroy as needed. You would have hoped the spies would have had these events fresh in their minds as they went out to explore the land. But they obviously forgot.

We like to believe today a first hand miraculous display of God's power would be enough for us to remain fiathful to Him forever. I can't imagine seeing a more graphic display than what these guys have seen since leaving Egypt and yet they cower at the task at hand when they come back from spying out the land. Not only did 10 out of 12 miss it, they somehow convinced the bulk of the population to miss it too. (which we will read tomorrow)

ALL of this leads me to one thought:
Remember

When we feel in need...remember when God has provided.
When we feel out gunned...remember that God is our strength.
When we feel overwhelmed...remember that God help lift the burden.
When we feel tired...remember that God is our rest AND our strength.

If they had simply remembered they would have been into the promised land in the next chapter. Instead they get 40 more years of wandering.

How much of our wandering happens because we forget to remember?

REMEMBER.