E. F. COLLIER by E. F. Collier

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 28, 1907

E. F. COLLIER

By E. F. Collier

Kibroth-hattaavah

E. F. COLLIER

It is an old story, this story of Kibroth-hattaavah, but truth never changes. Neither does God change. The principles which the Lord employed in dealing with the forefathers in Israel are the principles he employs to-day. He who fails to see through his long-suffering mercy the eternal justice of the Almighty, “by no means clearing the guilty,” will, through his false conceptions of God, fall an easy prey to the enemy of souls. “Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.” Isa. 28:17.

If ever there was a people in olden time, blessed of God, with a high calling, and a glorious prospect before them, it was the seed of Israel, called from Egypt. “He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes. Egypt was glad when they departed: for the fear of them fell upon them. He spread a cloud for a covering; and fire to give light in the night. . . . And he brought forth his people with joy, and

his chosen with gladness: and gave them the lands of the heathen: and they inherited the labor of the people; that they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws.” Ps. 105: 37-39, 43-45.

But “they soon forgot his works; they waited not for his counsel: but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.” Ps. 106: 13-15.

One month from the day of their deliverance found them murmuring against the Lord’s appointed servants, and crying out that they might better have died by the hand of the Lord while sitting by the flesh-pots of Egypt, eating bread to the full.

About one year was spent in the region of Sinai, during which time that favored people were taught the statutes and judgments of God. The written law was supplied, the tabernacle was built, the ordinance and ceremony of the Levitical priesthood was instituted, and the Lord met with his people Israel. But ere they had departed one week from that hallowed spot, complaints were heard, “and the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting.” Murmuring and dissension breed rapidly, and the quick result was the congregation of Israel in tears, crying for flesh to eat. They lamented a drying away of life as the result of having “nothing at all, beside this manna,” before their eyes. “And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness. And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people? Therefore the Lord heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob; and anger also came up against Israel; because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation: (though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, and had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.” Ps. 78: 17-24.

“Man did eat angels’ food;” but “the bread of the mighty” was not sufficient to satisfy their lust, and “he rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea: and he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.” Ps. 78: 27, 28.

“And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails. . . . And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague. And he called the name of that place Kibroth-hattaavah: because there they buried the people that lusted.” Num. 11: 32-34.

“Ye shall not eat one day,” the Lord had said, “nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days; but even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the Lord which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?” A month of despicable lust among God’s people; a multitude of tombs—Kibroth-hattaavah!

The pleasures of the appetite were to them of more importance than a hastened journey toward the promised land. Canaan was far away, but the hunger of the stomach was close at hand.

Near the close of their forty years’ pilgrimage we find the new generation given over to the same ungodly cravings, and God in his long-suffering still grants their request. “Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after. . . . When the Lord thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh, because thy soul longeth to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.” Deut. 12: 15, 20.

But let us compare this permission with the bold gospel appeal of Paul: “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” Rom. 13: 11-14.

The Lord had better things in store for his people. Had they been willing and obedient, they might have eaten the good of the land. “But unto the place which the Lord your God shall chose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come: . . . and there ye shall eat before the Lord your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee. Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes. For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the Lord your God giveth you.” Deut. 12: 5, 7-9.

What God permitted to Israel at one time, was not permitted at another time. What God purposed for Israel was the same all the time. Had Israel met the mind of God, fulfilling in themselves his beneficent design, many of the privileges granted through Moses would never have been recorded.

“Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. . . . Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” 1 Cor. 10: 1-6, 11, 12.

God save us from falling into the errors of ancient Israel, lest we also sleep with many of her most promising sons in Kibroth-hattaavah.