Numbers 11:18, commentary and pictures

God told Moses to tell Israel to prepare for the next day, when they would receive meat because they had cried for flesh and claimed life had been better in Egypt. Their crying was a widespread craving for the food of Egypt and contempt for the bread from heaven God had freely given for their good. That longing was distrust and rejection of the Lord among them, and their praise of Egypt was false, for there they had suffered cruel bondage from which God had delivered them. He granted meat for a whole month until it became hateful to them, not because it was best or needed for health, but because they insisted on their own desire and would not submit to His wise restriction. Eating what they lusted for brought plague and death while the meat was still in their mouths, warning that appetite is a false guide and must be ruled by temperance.

Setting and Complaint

The command to sanctify themselves against tomorrow and eat flesh was God's answer to Moses when he said he could not bear alone the burden of the continually murmuring and disobedient people. Because the people had wept in the ears of the Lord asking who would give them flesh to eat and saying it was well with them in Egypt, the Lord would give them flesh and they would eat. At the same time Moses was directed to gather seventy elders of Israel before the tabernacle to stand with him and bear the burden of the people so he would not bear it alone. Those elders were not merely men advanced in years but men of dignity, sound judgment and experience qualified to be judges or officers, to receive of the Spirit upon Moses and bear the burden with him.

Their weeping was a widespread demand for flesh meat, a hankering after the fleshpots and food of Egypt. They loathed the light bread and despised the bread from heaven and the food God had selected for them to eat freely without injury. This came after God had blessed them, given abundance of food for all their needs, promised to keep sickness and the plagues of Egypt from them, and shown His care and power. It came after their revelation at Horeb and covenant to obey, which made their discontent rebellion deserving punishment.

Their complaint and longing for Egypt expressed distrust of God's wisdom in providing, rejection and despising of the Lord who was among them, and dishonoring of God. The demand was driven by appetite and accompanied by words against God and by continual murmurings, rebellion and seditious murmurings against Moses. Depraved appetite indulged in Egypt was mastering them and controlling them. Their discontent was rebellion deserving punishment, with fire consuming people at the camp's outskirts and the most guilty complainers struck by lightning.

Their claim that it was well with them in Egypt was a falsehood. In Egypt they had endured hard servitude and oppression with cruel abuse and deprivation that caused them to cry to God in lament and wailing anguish. The Lord heard their cries and sent Moses and Aaron to deliver them. Angels of God were with those representative men, enabling them to execute God's will and preserving them while bringing plagues upon the Egyptians.

The verse belongs to a later time when they were restricted to manna alone, to angels' food that did not satisfy them. An earlier provision of flesh before Sinai had lasted only one day, since flesh was not the best food for them. Whether they had first received quail each evening as a gradual change or in response to their murmuring is left unsettled.

Concession and Consequence

The flesh was promised and given not because it was best for them, or needed for health, or for their highest good, and not as a sign of approval. God knew their real needs, had largely taken flesh food from them and restricted their diet for their own good, yet they persisted in demanding it, would have it, and insisted on their own desires. They would not submit to receive what would prove for their good or to His wise prohibitions, would not be thankful and satisfied with the food He had selected for them to eat freely without injury, and after other instruction had failed He let them have their way and allowed them to have what they wanted.

He granted the demand as a lesson to humble them and bring them to submission. He was using the wilderness journey to train them in better habits, to teach them that appetite did not show what their bodies needed and was a false guide to their welfare. The promised supply would continue in abundance for a whole month, until the meat became loathsome to them. This was because they had despised God's word and complained about leaving Egypt, and because their desire was also a rejection of the Lord who was among them, to show that their demand had brought judgment.

Eating the meat they had lusted for brought its sure result and reaped its own transgression, for God did not work a miracle to preserve life. Burning fevers cut down very large numbers, plague came upon them while yet the flesh was between their teeth and destroyed thousands, those most guilty in their murmurings were slain as soon as they tasted the meat for which they had lusted, and many died. Their choice brought dissension, sickness and death rather than health and happiness, fire consumed people at the camp's outskirts, and the most guilty complainers were struck by lightning. The episode warns that allowing appetite to rule can bring severe consequences. Appetite became a means by which Satan overcame them and turned their hearts from God.

It teaches temperance in eating and drinking and the need to become health reformers in order to have clearer minds to discern what affects the salvation of the soul. If they had manifested submission, He would have removed from them everything injurious to health and suffered no sickness to be among them.