Numbers 11:4, commentary and pictures

The craving for meat began with the mixed multitude of Egyptians who came up with Israel and then spread to Israel itself, until the whole camp wept for flesh to eat in the wilderness after God had delivered them and pledged them to obey Him. It was lust from perverted appetite that mastered reason, despising the heavenly manna as light and loathsome bread while hankering after Egypt's fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic, though their claim that it was well with them in Egypt was false after cruel bondage. God in wisdom withheld flesh in great measure and gave instead angel-prepared bread and water from the rock, exactly the healthful food He wanted for them and their children to test fidelity, discipline appetite and lead them back toward Eden's fruits, grains and vegetables. After persistent murmuring against Moses and the Lord He in anger conceded their demand, sent quails in abundance, then struck the gluttonous eaters with burning plague while the flesh was still between their teeth, so thousands of the most guilty fell. The lusting stands as an example to God's people in the last days not to let Satan rule through appetite as he did from Eve to the Flood to Israel's overthrow in the wilderness, but to overcome as Christ overcame hunger with trust that man shall not live by bread alone.

People and Wilderness Setting

The lusting began not with Israel as a whole but with the mixed multitude among them, who fell to craving other food, and then the children of Israel joined them, weeping again and asking who would give them flesh to eat. Their complaint rose when manna was their provision, and it expressed dissatisfaction with that heaven-sent food and longing for the foods remembered from Egypt. Their demand for flesh was not for what was best for them, but resistance to the simple food provided and to the purpose of training them, bringing divine displeasure.

Those who started the craving were Egyptians and believing Egyptians who came up with Israel from Egypt. They were called the mixed multitude because Hebrews had intermarried with Egyptians. Being accustomed to richer food, these Egyptians among the people were the first to complain, while Israel's harsh labor and deprivation in Egypt had once made even plain food seem satisfying.

They were not whole-hearted in God's service but were stirred by Satan to seditious murmuring. In this they became a constant source of trouble and temptation, often first to complain, stirring strife through the camp and spreading idolatrous practices and irreverence toward God. When God's work demanded sacrifice they were ready to violate solemn cooperation and support, and so weakened and discouraged those seeking to build up His cause, as union with idolaters, such as marriages with the heathen in Judah, proved a snare.

The demand came in the wilderness after God in mercy had called them out from the Egyptians to worship without hindrance, had wrought for them by miracles in the way, had led them victoriously out of Egypt, and had proved and tried them by bringing them into strait places. After they had witnessed His power and mercy at Horeb and agreed at Sinai to obey Him as king, their discontent showed unbelief and became rebellion, and judgment fell as fire consumed those at the edges of the camp and lightning struck the most guilty, so the place was named Taberah, meaning a burning. They did not repent after that judgment but murmured worse, despite God's wonderful dealings and repeated deliverances. Earlier, when manna was first given before Israel reached Sinai, God had answered a demand for meat by providing it for only one day.

Their claim that it had been well with them in Egypt was falsehood, for there they had suffered hard servitude, oppression, cruel abuse and deprivation. That affliction had caused them to cry to God in anguish with lamenting and wailing for deliverance. The Lord heard their cries and sent Moses and Aaron, with angels of God with them to enable them to execute His will and preserve them, to bring plagues upon the Egyptians and deliver Israel.

Craving and Complaint

To fall a lusting was to crave from depraved, perverted appetite that mastered reason, a lusting after evil things including the flesh of dead animals and a demand for flesh meats and greater variety. Stirred by Satan, appetite ruled them until they preferred slavery and even death to going without meat, and through indulgence they were led into grievous sins that awakened wrath. Their lustful demand became seditious murmuring because they were not given what would injure them and would not submit to receive what was for their good.

They were dissatisfied with and despised the manna, loathing the light bread sent from heaven, though it was bread rained from heaven, prepared by angels, healthful for them and their children, with abundance for all their needs. They hankered after the fleshpots of Egypt and remembered the fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic, wishing themselves back in Egypt where they could sit by the fleshpots. The manna was sweet and nourishing when they were content with it, but became loathsome to them when they grew dissatisfied, teaching that contentment is a blessing and discontent a curse.

They wept and mourned and cried and complained in the ears of the Lord for flesh, which displeased and dishonored Him and showed depraved appetite mastering them. Their discontent showed unbelief and became rebellion against His restrictions and against the restricted diet given for their good, choosing their own judgment over God's. It became seditious murmuring against Moses and against the Lord, with continual murmuring and rebellion, anticipating trouble and suspecting Moses of leading them from Egypt for selfish gain, despite witnessed deliverance. They treated him as arbitrary and power-seeking, though he was only God's instrument, and when God allowed them what they desired the result was dissension, sickness and death.

Their looking back into Egypt and lusting for the good things enjoyed there tested whether they valued God's service and the freedom He had so miraculously given more highly than the indulgences enjoyed in servitude to a tyrannical, idolatrous people. God chose to withhold those things to prove them and test their fidelity to Him on that very point. In the same manner Sabbath-keepers who look to the world and desire to follow its fashions and participate in its pleasures will be tested and proved by a close and searching work.

Provision Withheld for Good

God in wisdom withheld flesh meats from Israel in great measure, restricting rather than forbidding animal flesh, and gave instead bread rained from heaven, prepared by angels, with purest water from the flinty rock. That manna was exactly the food He wished them and their children to have, the most healthful food, bread from heaven to keep them in health physically, mentally and morally. They were dissatisfied with it and loathed the light bread sent from heaven, wishing themselves back in Egypt to sit by the fleshpots, preferring even slavery and death to going without meat. Their craving for meat and greater variety, centered on the fleshpots of Egypt, was resistance to the simple food provided and to His purpose in training them.

Constant evidence showed the provision met their needs, for notwithstanding the hardships of the wilderness there was not a feeble one in all their tribes. He had promised to take them as His peculiar treasure if they obeyed His voice and kept His commandments, to take sickness away, to put none of Egypt's diseases and plagues upon them, and to bless them with abundance of food for all their needs. If they submitted to His will He would carry them into Canaan and establish them there a pure, holy, happy, healthy people with not one feeble person and all sickness taken away.

The restriction was for their good and their descendants' good, to prove and try them and test their fidelity, and on purpose to educate and discipline and train them in correct habits. Its aim was to restore perverted appetite and to bring them back from the Egypt diet to live upon simple fruits, vegetables and grains as first given in Eden, because He understood what influence flesh eating has upon body and mind, upon physical appearance and upon moral health. Their craving did not prove those Egyptian foods best for their needs, so appetite cannot be trusted as a guide to what is good for the body. God granted the demand to teach them that He knew their real needs and to humble them toward submission after other instruction had failed.

Flesh was not essential to their health, and He would have given them flesh from the first had it been essential. He had permitted eating the flesh of dead animals before, knowing it would shorten human life, but His provision for Israel was a fleshless diet. Hunger for temporal food is not the greatest calamity, for man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Flesh Granted Then Judged

After persistent weeping and mourning for flesh, God in anger granted the demand in concession, telling Moses to bring seventy elders to the tabernacle to stand with him and bear the burden of the people, and to tell the people to sanctify themselves because He would give them flesh to eat since they had wept in His ears. He had withheld flesh meat and fed them manna until they lusted and despised the manna in favor of the food they had in Egypt, and only then sent quails in abundance to that vast multitude. The grant was not because flesh was best for them but to teach them that He knew their real needs and to humble them toward submission after other instruction had failed. Their lustful demand had controlled them through depraved appetite and become seditious murmuring because they were not given what would injure them and would not submit to receive what was for their good, so He let them suffer the results of gratifying lust. Accepting the craving instead of denying appetite became a curse, with loss of the physical and mental blessings they might have received.

They were left to eat until gluttony produced a plague, showing the ruinous effect of yielding to appetite when appetite ruled them and they preferred slavery and even death to going without meat. While the flesh was still between their teeth God struck them with a very great plague, burning fevers cutting down very large numbers and destroying thousands, whom He did not work a miracle to preserve. Those most guilty in murmuring were slain as soon as they tasted the meat they had lusted for, the grant of flesh being a means of punishment under sentence of death to shorten life, not a good gift. Their determination to have flesh was rebellion that provoked wrath and brought judgments, and their misery and disease came from their own choices in departing from what He had withheld on purpose to educate and discipline them.

If they had let the Lord choose their food and had been thankful and satisfied with food they could eat freely without injury, they would not have lost favor and been punished for rebellious murmuring by great numbers being slain. If they had made the requirements of God their first consideration and their physical wants secondary in submission to His choice of proper food, not one of them would have fallen in the wilderness. Instead they loathed the bread sent from heaven and chose their own judgment, and when He allowed them to have what they desired the result was dissension, sickness, and death. That indulgence of perverted appetite and passion led them into numerous and grievous sins and forfeited special blessings, whereas obedience would have established them in Canaan as a holy, happy people with not a feeble one in all their tribes.

Satan Tempts Through Appetite

Satan, the author of disease and misery, approaches people where he can have the greatest success, and that point is appetite, which he has controlled in great measure ever since he led Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. He overcame Adam by appetite, controlled his descendants by it until their crimes brought destruction by the Flood, and then controlled Israel in the wilderness so that appetite ruled reason. The lusting for flesh began with the mixed multitude among Israel, who were believing Egyptians stirred by Satan to seditious murmuring, and then spread to the children of Israel. Their craving was the desire of depraved appetite for meat and greater variety, especially flesh meats, which God in His wisdom had withheld in great measure, joined with discontent and weariness toward manna. Manna was bread rained from heaven, prepared by angels and sent from heaven, exactly the food God wished them and their children to have, healthful for them, so that despite wilderness hardships there was not a feeble one in all their tribes. Through indulgence of appetite they were led to commit grievous sins which awakened the wrath of God against them, and they fell in the wilderness.

By gratification of appetite and indulgence of lustful appetite and corrupt passions, nearly all who left Egypt were overthrown and died in the wilderness. The Son of God who was with Moses and Joshua did not lead that favored people into Canaan. This defeat Satan boasted proved his power to thwart God's purpose to save man through Jesus Christ, and was used to boast that God could not bring His chosen people into the land.

Hunger for temporal food is not the greatest calamity, for man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Israel, restricted in diet, lusted and clamored for flesh meats, and fell in consequence of indulgence of perverted appetite and passion and would not be obedient to the words of God, and that indulgence led them into numerous and grievous sins and forfeited special blessings. If they had made the requirements of God their first consideration and their physical wants secondary, in submission to God's choice of proper food for them, not one of them would have fallen in the wilderness, but they would have been established in the goodly land of Canaan as a holy, happy people with not a feeble one in all their tribes. Christ, suffering the keenest pangs of hunger in the wilderness, withstood the same appetite temptation and left an example of faith and perfect trust by repeating to Satan the same scripture given to Moses for Israel.

Warning for God's People

The lusting stands as an example to the Israel of God in these last days not to provoke Him as ancient Israel did, for the experience of Christians now is much like the travels of ancient Israel in the wilderness. God in mercy had called them out from the Egyptians to worship Him without hindrance, had wrought for them by miracles in the way, and had proved and tried them by bringing them into strait places, yet despite His wonderful dealings and manifold deliverances they murmured when tried, and those who now repeat their murmuring and lusting have done worse than they did. He chose to withhold what they desired in order to prove them and test their fidelity, to see whether they valued His service and the freedom so miraculously given more highly than the indulgences enjoyed in servitude to a tyrannical, idolatrous people. In the same manner Sabbath-keepers who look to the world and desire to follow its fashions and participate in its pleasures will be tested and proved by a close and searching work.

God speaks health reform and temperance in eating and drinking through this history of craving for different food and rejecting the simple, wholesome food provided. The rebellion when appetites were restricted on the journey from Egypt to Canaan parallels resistance to giving up self-pleasure and to health reform and self-denial. Denying appetite in obedience to His wise limits would have preserved strength, clear minds to discern salvation, sound judgment and understanding of truth, for the restrictions were part of discipline intended for their good and their descendants' good. Had they practiced self-denial they would have avoided weakness and passed on physical and mental strength, but self-indulgence brought degeneracy, decay and physical and mental decline and contributed to repeated backsliding. Indulgence in food and drink weakens resistance to temptation and can lead to sensuality and disregard for moral duties, while craving for forbidden food becomes murmuring against God.

Their determination to have flesh, the flesh of dead animals, with weeping and mourning and crying and murmuring, though He gave bread from heaven, angels' food, where a flesh diet could not be had, and promised to carry them into Canaan and establish them a pure, holy, happy people with not one feeble person and all sickness taken away, was rebellion against His commands and departing from Him. It was mingling with the world and following the abominations of the nations around them until losing the signs of being His chosen people, provoking His wrath until judgments fell by which thousands were slain. The same injunctions to be separate from the world rest upon His people now. Habits of eating and drinking reveal whether one is of the world or among His separated peculiar people zealous of good works, for the more the thoughts center upon the fleshpots of Egypt and earthly appetite is encouraged, the more the food He gives is hated, the digestive organs weakened, assimilation injured, and acute disease, suffering and death brought. Their demand for meat illustrates an appetite resisting His wise arrangement and a return to Egypt rather than movement toward Canaan, while choosing plain, wholesome food and disciplining taste according to His plan is faithfulness not to be abandoned to please others.

Lusting after flesh meat is a trained appetite ruled by impulse and selfish indulgence instead of reason. Those who subsist on meat depend on its stimulus, and when deprived of it lose desire for other food and become weak, trembling and gone with craving like the hankering for flesh, or find the appetite returning and clamoring for meat after it had been given up. It means craving flesh foods such as pork and meat, rich dishes such as mince pies, and hurtful things such as nuts and candies eaten between meals and at any time, and food not prepared in a healthful manner, which is neglecting light and staying in darkness, causing frequent headaches and harming physical and moral health. Victory comes by firmly refusing to have meat bought or cooked and enduring the weakness until appetite is retrained, though resistance brings temporary weakness before appetite and strength return, after which simple foods of bread, fruit, grains and vegetables are enjoyed, the head is clear, strength firmer and better work done. The remedy is regularity at meals, economy and simplicity in dress and living, and self-denial of appetite. The weeping because meat was wanted and the complaining because a meat diet was not given parallel lamenting over inability to eat meat and insisting on animal food even though He had provided other food.

The mixed multitude that came up from Egypt were not whole-hearted in His service but a source of constant trouble, ready to violate solemn oaths of cooperation and support when His work demanded sacrifice, and so weakened and discouraged those seeking to build up His cause. Those in Judah who united in marriage with the heathen were the same, and that union with idolaters proved a snare to the people. The mixed multitude among His people is a warning that they must no longer remain a mixed multitude but must stand firmly for truth and righteousness and be straightforward, pure and holy.