Numbers 11 tells a sad incident in the history of the Israelite nation. They had been wandering in the wilderness for months with only manna to eat, and needless to say, they were tired of it.
I can totally relate. The rare times my husband and I go out to dinner, you can be guaranteed he will always order the same thing. Not me. I like variety in my diet, and I will always order something different. It makes things rather uncomfortable, however, when the waitress asks if we’re ready to order. He immediately responds with, “Yes,” while I still haven’t read the first page of the menu!
Yes, I can understand Israel’s fatigue with manna and their desire for variety in their diet; and when they cried out to God, He sent them meat to eat. Quail. And lots of it!
God answers our prayers, friends! Even when it involves nothing more than our personal comfort or preference! And if the story had stopped here, this is the lesson we would glean from it.
But it doesn’t stop there. In fact, the Bible records in great detail how unhappy God was with the people of Israel because of their request. In His own words: “Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat…until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you.” (Num 11:18-20, NKJV)
Now why, you ask, would God be unhappy with their request?
Let’s remember that the manna was God’s solution to the lack of food in the wilderness. In rejecting the manna, the people were really rejecting God’s provision. In essence, they were rejecting God Himself: “…because you have despised the LORD who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, ‘Why did we ever come up out of Egypt?'” (Num 11:20, NKJV).
So often we approach God with our wants and our needs. And we are right to do so, for we are told to “ask and it will be given to you” (Matt 7:7). But do we really know what we need? Let’s remember that it was God’s hand of provision that brought the Manna to Israel, yet this is exactly what they were complaining about. Is it possible that the very circumstances we complain about are actually ordained by God? That God has us exactly where He wants us to be? Romans 8 tells us that, “…we do not know what we should pray for as we ought…” (Rom 8:26, NKJV). In other words, just because something is what we think we need doesn’t make it what God knows we need!
True to His Word, God sent the meat. He answers our prayers, even when we aren’t praying as we ought, even when we are asking for things that are outside of His will.
The end of the story is very sad. The people received, gathered and dried their meat, but this wasn’t what was good for them. The Bible records that while it was still in their mouths, they were struck with a terrible plague and many died. We aren’t told what the plague was, but we can guess that it was somehow related to their greedy, intemperate eating, for the place was later named, “graves of greed” (See Nom 11:34).
Friends, when we find ourselves in the midst of what we consider to be less-than-ideal circumstances, let’s remember this story. Before we beg God to remove our “negative” circumstances, let’s consider that God has ordained whatever situation we find ourselves in, and that no matter how dark it may seem, He has already “made a way out” (see 1 Cor 10:13). This doesn’t mean we can’t ask God for different circumstances; but we need to do so according to His will, for we do not know if the very thing we pray for will, in the end, make us sick, excite our greed, or put us in any other trap of the devil!
And when your husband already knows what he wants to order before you’ve even looked at the menu, perhaps it isn’t such a bad thing…
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, mother of two, Author — “Aboard God’s Train — A Journey With God Through the Valley of Cancer”, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, with Answers2Prayer Ministries. Follow Lyn on Twitter @lynchaffart.