Numbers 11:33, commentary and pictures

After feeding Israel with bread from heaven to give health and preserve them from disease, God in anger granted their weeping and murmuring for meat by sending quails in abundance around the camp, and while the flesh was still between their teeth and unchewed He struck them with a very great plague that killed thousands with burning fevers. Their guilt was the greater because they lusted after great light and after covenanting to obey, so their desire was gratified but they were left to suffer the result without a miracle to preserve them. The stroke brought leanness of soul as well as death, for under Satan's temptation they let appetite rule reason until indulgence led to grievous sin that hindered the journey to Canaan. The result stands as a warning that God is displeased when craving rules His people, and that knowingly rejecting light to follow lustful appetite for meat turns blessing into curse and brings disease and death.

Rebellion Provokes Divine Judgment

After deliverance from oppressive bondage in Egypt, God Himself led and fed Israel to prove, try and educate them, giving bread rained from heaven and purest water from the rock and promising to take them as His peculiar treasure and preserve them from disease if they would obey His voice and keep His commandments in all things. That heaven-appointed food was manna, angels' food that would have given health and strength and proved a blessing to preserve health, but they did not trust God to give what would best preserve them. They were not satisfied, but despised the food given from heaven, murmured and wept and longed and mourned for flesh and for the flesh-pots of Egypt from the days of bondage, wishing themselves back where they could sit by them. They preferred slavery and even death rather than be deprived of meat, and their craving for the flesh foods of Egypt led them away from the restricted diet God had given.

Because they persisted and would not be satisfied with food for their good and would not submit to receive only what would prove for their good, God in displeasure and anger granted their lustful desire and gave them flesh to gratify lustful appetites. By His power He brought an east wind and a south wind and rained flesh upon them as dust and feathered fowl like the sand of the sea, letting it fall in the midst of the camp round about their habitations, and sent quails from heaven in abundance to that vast multitude until they ate and were filled and were not estranged from their lust. He knew the craved food was not for their highest good and not essential to health, and would prove a curse instead of the blessing they thought and would shorten human life. The giving of flesh was itself punishment, one of the means used to inflict death, and they were left to suffer the result of gratifying lustful appetites, for cause must produce effect.

While the flesh was yet between their teeth, before it was chewed and while the meat was yet in their mouths and still being eaten, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people and He smote them with a very great plague for unrestrained feasting, excess, gluttony and gratification of depraved appetite. Very large numbers and thousands died, with burning fevers cutting down many and slaying the fattest of them and smiting down the chosen men of Israel. Those most guilty in murmuring were smitten as soon as they tasted the food for which they had lusted, and many died before they finished eating. Grateful acceptance of the food God had chosen, with thankfulness and satisfaction with food they could eat freely without injury, would have spared them loss of favor and this punishment.

Their murmuring for flesh after great light at Horeb and after covenanting to obey was rebellion incurring greater guilt and requiring prompt and speedy punishment. Their rebellious desire was gratified but they were left to suffer the result, and when judgment came God did not work a miracle to preserve life. Their eating to excess was rebellion and transgression, and their excess was speedily punished.

The stroke brought spiritual impoverishment as well as physical death, with leanness of soul. For all this they sinned still and believed not for wondrous works, so their days were consumed in vanity and their years in trouble. When slain they sought Him and returned and enquired early after God and remembered that God was their Rock and the high God their Redeemer, yet they flattered Him with mouth and lied with tongues, for their heart was not right with Him neither were they steadfast in His covenant. Yet being full of compassion He forgave iniquity and destroyed them not, many a time turning anger away and not stirring up all His wrath.

Under Satan's direct temptation the people suffered appetite to control reason, and through indulgence were led to commit grievous sins which awakened wrath against them so that they fell in the wilderness, with appetite as the means by which he gained power over them and hindered their journey toward Canaan. Appetite was his chosen point of attack, the same point on which he had overcome Adam and controlled his descendants until indulgence led them to provoke God by iniquity until crimes brought destruction by the Flood. It was the same temptation he then brought against Christ, and he used this fall and the death of nearly all who left Egypt to boast that even the Son of God who was with Moses and Joshua could not resist his power and lead the chosen people to Canaan.

Dietary Warning for Today

God had not forbidden animal flesh, and He had permitted it to earlier generations even though He knew it would shorten human life, yet in the wilderness He withheld it in great measure while He was proving and educating Israel after leading them victoriously out of Egypt. Instead He gave them the most healthful food, bread rained from heaven and purest water from the rock, promising to take them to Himself as His peculiar treasure and to preserve them from disease if they would obey His voice and keep His commandments in all things. His purpose was to lead them toward food better suited to them and toward the original diet of fruits and other produce from the earth, for flesh was not essential to health. But they were not satisfied, they despised that heaven-appointed food, wished themselves back by the flesh-pots of Egypt, and preferred slavery and even death rather than be deprived of meat. In anger He granted their lustful demand and sent quails in abundance, and the provision that answered their craving became itself a curse, for great numbers died while the meat was still between their teeth and before it was finished, so that their choice brought sickness and death rather than health and happiness.

The judgment shows that God is displeased when appetite rules His people, and that yielding to lustful, gluttonous and intemperate craving for meat brings disease and death. When they said they would die without meat and rejected the food He had provided, He gave rebellious Israel flesh but His curse was with it, and thousands died while the desired meat was still in their mouths. Their eating to excess was transgression, and when judgment came He did not work a miracle to preserve life. Knowingly rejecting light about restricting appetite turns blessings into curses and mercies into judgments. The call therefore is to temperance in eating and drinking and to health reform, to keep the mind clear to discern what affects the salvation of the soul.

The result stands as an example and lesson to keep present believers from repeating Israel's mistakes that spoiled their record. After God delivered Israel from oppressive bondage and led and fed them Himself with angels' food that would give health and strength, they murmured and longed for the flesh-pots of Egypt from the days of bondage, and though He knew the craved food would prove a curse instead of the blessing they thought, He granted their desire and then smote them with a very great plague. Their experience warns against murmuring at God's requirements, unbelief and rebellion, choosing one's own course, following the sight of one's own eyes and departing from God, and against disregarding known light and determined resistance to His direction. It teaches humility and obedience instead, lest hardness of heart and sinful unbelief keep God from doing great things for His people.