Exodus 16:3, commentary and pictures

About a month after leaving Egypt the whole congregation in the wilderness of Sin turned against Moses and Aaron, wishing they had died in Egypt and charging that they had been led out to be killed with hunger. Their wants were still supplied and stores were only nearly spent, yet fear of future lack for themselves and their children blinded them to provision as need arose. Their murmur against God's appointed leaders was murmur against God Himself, showing criminal unbelief, ingratitude for repeated deliverances, and unwillingness to endure hardship for freedom to serve Him. God had brought the trial on the point of appetite to prove whether they would trust Him and walk in His law, and He answered with bread from heaven morning by morning. The flesh pots they longed for were the flesh meat of Egypt, the cry of a taste perverted by slavery and lustful appetite, and the same rebellion is repeated whenever His people despise His plain provision and return to indulgence after light on health reform has been given.

Historical Setting and Wording

The complaint belongs in the wilderness of Sin about thirty days after the departure from Egypt, spoken soon after the deliverance at the Red Sea and the song of praise that followed it. That deliverance had carried more than a million people safely over on dry ground with the waters standing as walls on the right and the left, while the cloud stood behind Israel as darkness to the Egyptians and light to Israel, until the Egyptians were overthrown in the sea with none remaining. God was then proving whether the people taken as a nation from another nation by signs and wonders would trust their Deliverer, and their murmuring over difficulties in the way left them without excuse when the law was afterward declared at Sinai.

It was the whole congregation speaking against Moses and Aaron, wishing they had died in Egypt and charging that they had been brought forth into this wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger. The charge laid blame on leaders bearing heavy responsibility when circumstances turned adverse, yet murmuring against them in hardship was murmuring against God. The move itself was not at human command, for the departing from the wilderness of Sin was in obedience to the command of God.

Their present needs were still supplied and their stores were only nearly exhausted, with no way seen to obtain more, and they had not yet gone hungry. The complaint came from fear that they and their children would lack food in the future, expecting death rather than trusting provision as needs arose. Imagined future want blinded them to goodness and mercy, making them ungrateful for gifts already given.

They remembered sitting by the flesh pots and eating bread to the full, recalling plentiful meat and full bread, and lusting even for the leeks and onions of Egypt. That food in Egypt had generally been cheap and had only seemed satisfying because hard labor gave keen appetites, while imagination of its goodness was now distorted. The Egyptians who had come out with them were the first to complain about the food.

The whole setting stood under divine leadership in the pillar of cloud and fire, with Christ as leader and teacher and preserving power upon them through the forty years of guidance. The desert journey itself involved thirst, heat, and fatigue on foot through a barren land, hardships that could have prompted even greater complaints. Even so, the trial over bread and water tested faith, and only those who walk trustingly without questioning, who are not laggards and do not block the way, are registered as good and obedient servants.

Unbelief Ingratitude and Rebellion

The cry was an evil heart of unbelief, criminal after a sure promise, distrusting God for the future while present wants were still supplied. Difficulties in the way were treated as impossibilities, confidence failed, and nothing ahead was seen but death for themselves and their children. God was proving whether they would trust Him who had taken them as a nation from another nation by signs and wonders, and their murmuring over hardship and wish to return left them without excuse when the law was afterward declared at Sinai.

They forgot repeated deliverances and goodness after being called out in mercy to worship without hindrance. He had heard their anguish under overtaxing labor and the putting of their children to death, had promised to be their God and take them to Himself as a people, and had promised to lead them to a large and good land. He had wrought for them by miracles, delivered them many times, and proved them by bringing them into strait places, yet when tried they forgot His wonderful dealings.

The complaint was ingratitude and lack of trust and submission, an unwillingness to suffer hardship for His sake and to rely on promised help. Craving for the flesh pots expressed distrust and rebellion despite care and promises, preferring their own desires to the simple food and habits He was teaching. Imagined future need blinded them to goodness and mercy, so fear about what might come made them ungrateful for gifts already given.

Murmuring against Moses and Aaron as bearers of heavy responsibility was murmuring against God, including continual complaining against both. Moses was charged with all trials as God's devoted servant, though he was only God's instrument to bring the people into submission and obedience. When appetite was restricted and close requirements were brought to bear, he was reflected upon as arbitrary and seeking to rule and be altogether a prince over them.

They wickedly wished to have remained in Egypt with plenty of meat and bread, preferring the comforts and apparent security of slavery to hardship and self-denial in God's service. The withheld comforts tested whether they valued serving God and the freedom He had given more than pleasures enjoyed in bondage. Some would rather face slavery, diseased bodies, sickness, and even death than give up rich food for a plain diet.

God's Testing and Provision

The hunger in the wilderness was a trial brought on the point of appetite to test faith and to educate the people to rely on promised protection and care, proving whether they would walk in the law. Longing for the food of Egypt and accusing Moses and Aaron of bringing the whole assembly out to die revealed distrust of God's care even after repeated deliverance, and complaints against the bearers of heavy responsibility were complaints against God Himself. When tested after deliverance they responded with murmuring and wishing they had died in Egypt where they had plenty, showing lack of trust and submission and unwillingness to endure a difficult self-denying path. The manna that followed tested obedience and preserved the Sabbath through the forty years of wandering.

God answered the murmuring by miracle with bread from heaven to stop all complaining, angels' food given morning by morning, the best food that could possibly be given, just as He wrought miracles to give pure water from the rock when they were thirsty. The great trouble addressed was flesh, and though He could have supplied meat He gave bread from heaven instead, leading them where a flesh diet could not be obtained in order to educate and discipline and train them into correct habits. That daily miracle, with the Sabbath preserved through the wandering, together with preservation under the pillar of cloud and fire, gave unmistakable evidence that they were led and protected by divine power. The hunger complaint after the deliverance at the sea and the song of praise was thus met not with abandonment but with condescending provision.

The restriction of diet and the choice of manna were for physical, mental, and moral good, for as Maker of man God knew what food would preserve health in the very best condition and meet physical necessities. He promised to take sickness away if they obeyed and followed Him fully, so that despite the hardships of wilderness life none of the tribes was feeble, and He would carry them into Canaan and establish them there a pure, holy, happy people. Focusing on Egypt's meat pots led them to despise the bread provided to preserve that threefold health, revealing dissatisfaction with God's own arrangement to feed them with manna rained from heaven. He withheld flesh because He understood its influence upon the human system and would have a people who in physical appearance would bear divine credentials notwithstanding their long journey, and He would have given flesh if it had been essential for health.

God designed to remove the feverish Egyptian diet and restore appetite to a pure healthy state to enjoy the simple fruits given to Adam and Eve in Eden, even intending to bring His people back to live upon simple fruits, vegetables, and grains. He was about to establish them in a second Eden, a goodly land with fruits and grains of His providing, wishing them in perfect health and soundness on entering it. His name could not be glorified unless the people acknowledging Him as the God of heaven were in perfect soundness of health, so that surrounding heathen nations would glorify the God of Israel for His wonderful work. Their murmuring is recorded as a warning to avoid unbelief and escape the consequences of disobedience, for God was proving whether they would trust Him who had taken them a nation from another nation by signs and wonders, and their failure to endure the trial left them without excuse when He afterward came down on Sinai to declare His law Himself.

Fleshpots Appetite and Diet

The flesh pots are flesh meat and the appetite for meat eating, and sitting by them recalls plentiful meat and full bread in Egypt. To hunger for them now is to go back to eating flesh meat and indulging perverted appetite after light against it has been given. The standard is to leave off meat, tea, coffee, and butter, to eat temperately of fruits, grains, and vegetables in wise combinations, and to limit quantity and eat only two meals a day when clear thought is needed, which preserves brain and nerve power and keeps the mind sanctified and the intellect strong. Flesh meat is not the right food where fruits, grains, and nuts are abundant, for it tends to animalize the nature, rob of love and sympathy, give the lower passions control over the higher powers, hinder growth in grace and an even temper and upright moral character through the sympathy of brain and nerves with the stomach, produce erroneous thinking and acting, and bring cancers, tumors, and pulmonary diseases, so that if ever healthful it is not safe now.

Taste had been perverted in Egypt, and the cry for flesh was lustful appetite controlling reason. It was unwillingness to accept restriction for good and to be restored to a pure healthy state to enjoy the simple fruits given in Eden, rebellion against requirement, charging hardness in prescribing food that could not satisfy wants or sustain life, and claiming to choose food better than the Maker who knew what would preserve health best and meet physical necessities. Departing from given light to follow the imagination of the heart in order to gratify depraved appetite is choosing food said to be not best for health.

Fixing attention on Egypt's meat pots bred dissatisfaction with the bread and water provided to preserve physical, mental, and moral health, turning to despising, murmuring against heaven-appointed food, and hating the bread of heaven given for good and health. Desire grew as it was dwelt upon, until appetite turned people against what sustains them and resisted provision. The complaint preferred slavery and even death to going without the desired food, and the demand for flesh was rebellion whose consequences were speedily felt.

God led into the wilderness where a flesh diet could not be obtained in order to educate and discipline and train into correct habits, restricting diet and to a large degree taking flesh food away. Though He could have miraculously supplied meat, He gave instead the bread of heaven, angels' food, and He would have given flesh if it had been essential for health, since He created and redeemed. He withheld it because He understood its influence upon the human system and would have a people who in physical appearance would bear the divine credentials notwithstanding the long journey, intending to bring them back to simple fruits, vegetables, and grains and to carry them into Canaan and establish them there a pure, holy, happy people with not a feeble one in all their tribes by taking away all sickness. Putting diet on a wrong basis by accommodating it to appetite, especially in treating the sick, is contrary to that plan of temperance.

The determined demand for the flesh of dead animals made Him wroth, and discontent and murmuring for the fleshpots led to permission to eat animal food for a short time in the temporary granting of quails, while manna remained the food provided for training and best suited to the purpose. Eaten to excess in gluttony it brought its sure harmful result in plague, disease, and death to many and to thousands while the flesh was still between the teeth. Indulgence of perverted appetite led into numerous grievous sins, caused falling in the wilderness, forfeited special blessings, and kept them from being established in Canaan as a holy, happy people with none feeble. Choosing what has been said to be not best forfeits blessing and health and hinders growth in grace and heavenly knowledge and prevents partaking of the divine nature without having escaped the corruption in the world through lust.

Warning and Present Application

The complaint in the wilderness is repeated whenever professed believers, called out to worship without hindrance and proved by strait places, forget wonderful dealings and deliverances when trial comes. Instead of submitting to the leading and enduring a difficult self-denying path, they look back to former security and plenty, think they have a hard time, lust for what they left as Israel lusted for leeks and onions, sink into discouragement and distrust, and murmur that they would rather have died where they were. Those who profess truth for the last days and do this do worse than Israel did.

The same rebellion is repeated when modern Israel rejects the light on health reform given in the last days to reform unnatural habits and preserve body and mind in health for good in this world and eternal happiness in the next. By that reform God purposes to lead His people through to the heavenly Canaan, as He restricted Israel's diet for their good, promised to take sickness away if they obeyed fully, and gave angels' food morning by morning, yet they fostered a perverted appetite, charged Him with hardness in prescribing what could not satisfy or sustain life, claimed to choose food better than He could, and would not submit, bringing disease and death in the wilderness. To return now to the flesh pots of Egypt is to go back to eating flesh meat and indulging perverted appetite after precious light and warnings against it have been given. It disregards light, poisons the life-giving current in the veins by self-indulgence, and lets appetite turn people against what sustains them and draw them back toward what they had left behind.

That testing and proving bears especially on ministers of the gospel and others supported by the tithe from the storehouse, and on all professed believers whose example influences the churches. Those who proclaim the most solemn truth ever given must not set an example of returning to meat eating and self-indulgence rather than service to God, nor poison the life-giving current by indulgence, even though the use of flesh meat is not to be made a test. Teachers who hanker after hurtful foods injure themselves and by example make it harder for students to follow healthful practices. Flesh meat is not the right food where fruits, grains, and nuts are abundant, for it tends to animalize the nature, rob of love and sympathy, give lower passions control over higher powers, hinder growth in grace, an even temper, and upright moral character through the sympathy of brain and nerves with the stomach, produce erroneous thinking and acting, and is unsafe now when cancers, tumors, and pulmonary diseases are largely caused by it.

Not hungering for the flesh pots means leaving off meat, tea, coffee, and butter, eating temperately of fruits, grains, and vegetables in wise combinations, limiting quantity and eating only two meals a day when clear thought is needed, so that brain and nerve power are preserved, the mind sanctified, and the intellect kept strong. It means putting plain wholesome food on the table, dispensing with harmful food such as hot biscuits which cause dyspepsia, moving from principle under strict rules of diet, educating taste after the divine plan, elevating the standard as nearly as possible to the divine order, and not changing course to meet the wishes of friends or relatives, whether one or two or a host, who live contrary to that wise arrangement. Hunger for temporal food is not the greatest calamity, for man is to live by every word from God, with physical wants secondary to His requirements and submission to His choice of proper food. Faith when tested over bread and water should be strong, active, and enduring, speaking blessing for bountiful dealing, learning self-denial now rather than counting restraint of unhealthy appetite and a plain diet as real suffering or starvation, preferring slavery, diseased bodies, and even death, and walking trustingly without questioning instead of obeying only when direction suits human inclination and ideas. Only such will be registered as good and obedient servants who do not lag, block the way, or put the stone before the wheel, for bread and water is all that is promised to the remnant in the time of trouble.