Numbers 11:21
And Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month. And Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month.
When the promise was made to give flesh for a whole month, Moses answered by pointing to the six hundred thousand footmen among whom he stood and asking how such provision could be made for so great a multitude. He did not trust that God would give the food that would best preserve health, for the people despised manna as angels' food that would have proved a blessing and cried for meat, so God gave them their own desire. His questioning how enough flesh could be supplied for six hundred thousand men to eat for a whole month was distrust, and he was reproved for it.
He pressed the question further by asking whether slaying the flocks and herds for them could suffice, or whether gathering all the fish of the sea for them could supply them. This came after it had been said they would eat not one day, nor two, nor five, nor ten, nor twenty days, but a whole month until it came out at their nostrils and became loathsome to them. The reason given was that they had despised the Lord who was among them and had wept before Him, asking why they had come out of Egypt.
His words expressed distrust, and God reproved him by asking whether the Lord's hand had become too short and telling him he would now see whether His word would come to pass. Divine power was affirmed to be not limited, and Moses was to see God's word fulfilled. The same God who had parted the Red Sea and sent manna and brought water from the rock could also provide meat.
The demand for meat belonged to wilderness rebellion after God had led Israel out of Egypt to prove them and had taken them as His peculiar treasure. After witnessing His power and pledging to obey Him, they murmured against Moses and against God. With mourning and murmuring they longed for Egypt's flesh pots and were not satisfied even when God gave manna from heaven as angels' food. They despised that food that would have best preserved their health and proved a blessing, and cried for meat.
God had not prohibited meat but had withheld it in great measure, while freely giving the healthy food He designed for them. He rained bread from heaven and gave purest water from the rock. With it stood the covenant promise to put no disease upon them if they obeyed in all things.
In anger God granted their own desire and fulfilled His word by giving quails in abundance for a whole month to gratify their lustful appetite. Their rebellious appetite brought punishment, for while the flesh was still between their teeth plague came upon them destroying thousands. Great numbers died in the act of eating, and as they reaped the result of transgression the Lord did not work a miracle to preserve their life. The surrounding account also records judgment by fire against the complainers, showing the demand to be rebellion against God after the people had witnessed His power and pledged to obey Him.
God is displeased when appetite controls His people, and Israel at times preferred slavery and even death to being deprived of meat. Temperance in eating and drinking is therefore required, and health reform gives clearer minds to discern what affects the salvation of the soul. Satan had used Israel's indulgence of appetite to overcome them, and boasted that this showed he could defeat even the Son of God and frustrate God's purpose to save humanity through Christ.