But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.
Israel in the wilderness said they felt drained and weary with appetite dried up and unsatisfied, complaining that manna was their only food with nothing else before their eyes. Their weeping demand for flesh to eat began with the mixed multitude and spread through the camp as they looked back to Egypt and named the fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, garlic and fleshpots they remembered there. The manna they loathed was bread rained from heaven, simple and wholesome food suited to keep them in health physically, mentally and morally, which God gave while on purpose withholding flesh in great measure because He understood its influence upon mind and body. Their cry was discontent and rebellion against God's provision and against the Lord, letting depraved appetite indulged in Egypt control reason instead of submitting to God's choice, through which Satan stirred them to murmuring and led them away from trust and obedience. The Lord answered by giving them quails in anger to gratify their lust and let them suffer the results, so eating to excess brought plague and great numbers died with the flesh yet between their teeth, whereas submission and thankfulness would have brought health and happiness without dissension, sickness and death.
Words and Historical Setting
Our soul is dried away was their way of saying they felt drained, worn down and weary, with appetite dried up and unsatisfied by what lay before them. They said their lives felt drained and their appetite felt deprived because they craved meat and other foods, and their words expressed dissatisfaction with the food provided for them. There is nothing at all beside this manna was their complaint that manna was their only food, with nothing else to see or to eat before their eyes. By this later time they had been restricted to manna alone, and God had restricted their diet to manna for their good. Their discontent over His withholding meat for their own good led to continual murmuring, and their complaint about having only manna expressed rejection of the restricted diet provided for their good and taking their own judgment over His direction.
The verse belongs to Israel's mourning and weeping demand for flesh meat in the wilderness after God brought them from Egypt toward Canaan. To them He had given no flesh meat to eat until this complaint, and their discontent with His provision and their demand for meat was part of their rebellion and their resistance to the submission and obedience He required. In their longing they looked back to Egypt and named the foods they remembered eating freely there: fish, along with cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. They hankered after the fleshpots of Egypt and animal food, even the flesh of dead animals, because the depraved appetite indulged in Egypt was mastering them. Though they had bread from heaven with abundance for all necessities, they despised and loathed the manna sent to satisfy their wants as light and worthless.
The craving for meat and for greater variety, especially flesh meats, began with the mixed multitude, the believing Egyptians, and spread to Israel. What the mixed multitude stirred up in the camp became murmuring against God and seditious murmuring against His healthful provision. They wept in the ears of the Lord asking who would give them flesh to eat, and claimed life was well with them in Egypt. They thereby greatly displeased and dishonored God, and they wrongly blamed Moses, who was only leading them toward submission and obedience to God.
Manna God Provided
The food they despised was bread rained from heaven, the bread of heaven, angels' food prepared by angels and sent from heaven to satisfy their wants, with abundance for all necessities and purest water from the rock. It was simple, wholesome, healthful food suited to them and to their children, given where a flesh diet could not be had to keep them in health physically, mentally, and morally. It came with the blessing of the Lord resting upon them, with covenant and promise to take away sickness and to put none of the Egyptian diseases and plagues upon them if they obeyed in all things, and to carry them to Canaan and establish them there as a pure, holy, happy people. Despite the hardships of the wilderness there was not a feeble one in all their tribes while they lived upon it.
God in wisdom withheld flesh in great measure without at first prohibiting it, and withheld it on purpose for their good. He would have given flesh from the first if it had been essential to health, but He understood the influence of flesh eating upon mind and body. He restricted them to manna to prove them and to test whether they valued His service and the freedom He had so miraculously given them more highly than the indulgences they had enjoyed in Egypt while in servitude to a tyrannical, idolatrous people. He was leading them on the long wilderness journey to educate, discipline, and train them in correct habits and to bring them back to simple fruits, vegetables, and grains, leading them away from the rich diet to which many had grown accustomed toward food better suited to health.
When content with their portion the manna was sweet and nourishing, but in discontent they loathed it as light and worthless, hated it, and treated God's provision as inadequate. The more they centered their thoughts on the fleshpots and flesh meats of Egypt the more they hated the food God gave them, encouraging earthly appetite.
Rebellion Through Appetite
The cry is discontent, dissatisfaction, murmuring, complaining and rebellion against God's provision, against Moses and against the Lord, and resistance to the submission and obedience God required. When appetite was restricted to manna alone they complained they had nothing to eat but manna, showing dissatisfaction with the simple food provided in the wilderness. It was seditious murmuring because they rejected the food selected for their good and lusted for flesh meat that would injure them.
They rejected, despised, loathed and hated the healthy food designed and selected for their good, calling it light and worthless, and wished themselves back in Egypt by the fleshpots. They hankered after animal food and the flesh of dead animals, weeping for the flesh pots of Egypt, at times preferring slavery and even death to being deprived of meat. The more they centered their thoughts on the fleshpots the more they hated the food given them, taking their own judgment over divine direction and encouraging earthly appetite. Their choice brought dissension, sickness and death rather than health and happiness.
Their lust for flesh and for greater variety, especially flesh meats, came from depraved, perverted appetite indulged in Egypt that was mastering them, and appetite did not show what was best for them. The craving began with the mixed multitude, the believing Egyptians, and spread to Israel, expressing weariness of manna and desire for the meat remembered from Egypt. They regarded the supply as inadequate and clamored for flesh meats, putting physical wants before the requirements of God instead of submitting to His choice of proper food.
They let appetite control reason and failed to deny appetite and restrain self-indulgence, refusing the self-denial and restriction intended for their good. God was leading them away from the rich diet to which many had grown accustomed toward food better suited to health, but lust for forbidden food led them to murmur against Him. That indulgence brought physical, mental and moral decline and weakened resistance to temptation, preparing the way for sin. The same pattern is repeated when people turn from self-denial and disregard health reform.
Satan, the author of disease and misery, worked through appetite where it could be controlled, as he has done since leading Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. By direct temptation he stirred them to seditious murmuring against the healthful provision and through gratification of appetite and corrupt passion overcame them and led them away from trust and obedience. It was the same control through appetite by which he afterward tried to overcome Christ.
They thereby greatly displeased and dishonored God, provoked His wrath, and through indulgence were led to commit grievous sins and fell in the wilderness. Nearly all who left Egypt died before reaching Canaan and failed to enter, though the Son of God Himself was with Moses and Joshua to lead them there. Their dissatisfaction reflects appetite controlling reason, bringing God's wrath and contributing to their falling in the wilderness.
God's Answer in Judgment
The Lord answered the complaint by promising to give them flesh to eat and by sending quails from heaven, and at the same time He directed Moses to gather seventy elders to receive of his spirit and bear the burden of the people with him. He gave them the flesh they demanded in anger and wrath to gratify lustful appetite, not because it was best for them. He did so to teach them that He knew their true needs, and when other instruction had failed He let them have their way to humble them and bring them to submission and let them suffer the results of gratifying lustful appetite, though it was not for their best good and would injure them.
If they had submitted to have the Lord choose their food and had been thankful and satisfied with food they could eat freely without injury, taking His judgment over their own, they would not have lost His favor. Instead they would have had health and happiness, and dissension, sickness, and death would not have come through taking their own judgment over God's direction. Had they put God's requirements first and physical wants second, obedience would have brought special blessing and established them in the goodly land of Canaan as a pure, holy, happy people with not a feeble one among them.
Their craving was granted, but eating to excess brought plague and burning fevers that cut down very large numbers. Great numbers died in the act of eating while the flesh was yet between their teeth, and those most guilty in murmuring were slain as soon as they tasted the meat for which they had lusted. God sent the quails in answer, but rebellion was speedily punished when they ate the meat to excess.
Warning and Application Today
The cry of Numbers 11:6 is repeated when Sabbath-keepers forget God and His wondrous works and rebel against Him, looking to the world and desiring to follow its fashions and participate in its pleasures in the same manner as Israel looked back into Egypt and lusted for the good things enjoyed there. God had chosen to withhold those things to prove them and to test whether they valued His service and the freedom He had so miraculously given them more highly than the indulgences they had enjoyed in servitude to a tyrannical, idolatrous people, even though He had freed them from slavery. Their longing for the foods remembered from Egypt and their complaint that manna was all they had to eat reflects a desire for former worldly pleasures.
Their lust stands as an example to the Israel of God in these last days not to lust after evil things, mingle with the world, depart from God, and provoke His wrath by following the abominations of the nations. Ancient Israel rebelled by despising the manna, the bread of heaven, angels' food, given in the wilderness where a flesh diet could not be had, and by lusting, mourning, weeping, murmuring and complaining for the fleshpots of Egypt and the flesh of dead animals. God had withheld flesh on purpose to educate, discipline and train them in correct habits on the long wilderness journey and bring them back to simple fruits, vegetables and grains, though He would have given it from the first if it had been essential to health, because He understood the influence of flesh eating upon mind and body. Despite the plain Thus saith the Lord and the promise to carry them to Canaan and establish them there as a pure, holy, happy people with not a feeble one among their tribes because He would take away all sickness from them, they insisted on flesh, so in wrath He gave them the very diet He had withheld. The call therefore is to remain separate as God's chosen people under the same injunctions and the unchanged Head of the church.
The verse means flesh eating was not God's choice for Israel, that permission to eat dead animals shortens life, and that craving flesh brings deadly consequence. Israel murmured against their heaven-appointed food after God brought them from Egypt, despising the manna, the bread of heaven, which He gave them instead of flesh, and asking for flesh. God sent quails in answer, but rebellion was speedily punished when they ate the meat to excess and many died while the flesh was yet between their teeth, and their demand for meat brought its sure result. This is a lesson God's people today must study and learn to avoid flesh meats.
The same hankering after flesh is done by many in the present time who indulge perverted appetite and encourage earthly appetite. God fed Israel with bread from heaven to keep them in health physically, mentally, and morally, and sought for their good to withhold and refuse them a flesh diet, yet they hankered after the flesh pots and flesh meats of Egypt. The more they centered their thoughts on the fleshpots, the more they hated the food God gave them. The children of Israel lost all desire for other food though manna was before them, and the same craving with weakness and trembling and goneness from being deprived of its stimulus comes upon meat eaters when meat is given up, with a time of losing all desire for food.
That appetite-driven longing, as seen when meat is removed, can be resisted. Israel's complaint that manna was all they had finds its counterpart in renewed craving for meat after eating it, yet the longing that arises when meat is removed need not master reason. Firmly refusing to buy or cook meat and training the appetite brings back enjoyment of bread and fruit and grains and vegetables, with a generally clear head, firmer strength, better work, and freedom from the goneness common with meat eaters. Reason then takes the place of impulse and love of selfish indulgence leaves off tasting the flesh of dead animals.
The same pattern is repeated when people turn from self-denial and disregard health reform, rebelling against restrictions on appetite and resisting a change of course. Israel complained that manna was the only food before them and that appetite was dissatisfied and had nothing else to see or eat, reflecting unwillingness to accept God's restriction of flesh-food and failure to deny appetite. Their dissatisfaction with having manna alone illustrates how people accustomed to pleasing themselves fail to live for God's glory. Their discontent kept them from the blessings and the physical and mental strength and the health and strength God intended for them. Their dissatisfaction and longing for Egypt, with appetite described as dried up, illustrate the choice to turn back rather than continue toward Canaan, applied to resisting health reform and preferring customary foods over plain, wholesome food.
Christ withstood Satan's hunger temptation with the same lesson once given to Moses for rebellious Israel with diet restricted to manna and clamoring for flesh meats. That lesson is that indulgence of perverted appetite and passion puts physical wants before the requirements of God instead of submitting to God's choice of proper food. Such indulgence led Israel into numerous grievous sins and caused them to fall in the wilderness, when obedience would have brought special blessing and established them in the goodly land of Canaan as a holy, happy people with not a feeble one among them. Christ's victory shows that hunger for temporal food is not the greatest calamity and leaves an example of making God's word first and trusting the Father to supply food when it is for His glory.
The verse teaches that contentment with one's portion is a blessing while discontent is a curse. When Israel was content with its portion, the manna was sweet and nourishing, but dissatisfaction made the manna God provided seem loathsome and unwelcome. Their complaint and lamentation that they had only manna and no meat is compared with complaining over being unable to eat meat, recalling the same demand for a meat diet. They felt worn out by having nothing else to eat, and their longing for meat led to murmuring and rejection of the food God provided, while indulging strong appetite instead of following God's directions brought suffering and risked health and lives. So dissatisfaction and ingratitude make ordinary blessings and daily mercies seem burdensome when people overlook the good already within reach.
Israel in the wilderness said they felt drained and weary with appetite dried up and unsatisfied, complaining that manna was their only food with nothing else before their eyes. Their weeping demand for flesh to eat began with the mixed multitude and spread through the camp as they looked back to Egypt and named the fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, garlic and fleshpots they remembered there. The manna they loathed was bread rained from heaven, simple and wholesome food suited to keep them in health physically, mentally and morally, which God gave while on purpose withholding flesh in great measure because He understood its influence upon mind and body. Their cry was discontent and rebellion against God's provision and against the Lord, letting depraved appetite indulged in Egypt control reason instead of submitting to God's choice, through which Satan stirred them to murmuring and led them away from trust and obedience. The Lord answered by giving them quails in anger to gratify their lust and let them suffer the results, so eating to excess brought plague and great numbers died with the flesh yet between their teeth, whereas submission and thankfulness would have brought health and happiness without dissension, sickness and death.
Words and Historical Setting
Our soul is dried away was their way of saying they felt drained, worn down and weary, with appetite dried up and unsatisfied by what lay before them. They said their lives felt drained and their appetite felt deprived because they craved meat and other foods, and their words expressed dissatisfaction with the food provided for them. There is nothing at all beside this manna was their complaint that manna was their only food, with nothing else to see or to eat before their eyes. By this later time they had been restricted to manna alone, and God had restricted their diet to manna for their good. Their discontent over His withholding meat for their own good led to continual murmuring, and their complaint about having only manna expressed rejection of the restricted diet provided for their good and taking their own judgment over His direction.
The verse belongs to Israel's mourning and weeping demand for flesh meat in the wilderness after God brought them from Egypt toward Canaan. To them He had given no flesh meat to eat until this complaint, and their discontent with His provision and their demand for meat was part of their rebellion and their resistance to the submission and obedience He required. In their longing they looked back to Egypt and named the foods they remembered eating freely there: fish, along with cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. They hankered after the fleshpots of Egypt and animal food, even the flesh of dead animals, because the depraved appetite indulged in Egypt was mastering them. Though they had bread from heaven with abundance for all necessities, they despised and loathed the manna sent to satisfy their wants as light and worthless.
The craving for meat and for greater variety, especially flesh meats, began with the mixed multitude, the believing Egyptians, and spread to Israel. What the mixed multitude stirred up in the camp became murmuring against God and seditious murmuring against His healthful provision. They wept in the ears of the Lord asking who would give them flesh to eat, and claimed life was well with them in Egypt. They thereby greatly displeased and dishonored God, and they wrongly blamed Moses, who was only leading them toward submission and obedience to God.
Manna God Provided
The food they despised was bread rained from heaven, the bread of heaven, angels' food prepared by angels and sent from heaven to satisfy their wants, with abundance for all necessities and purest water from the rock. It was simple, wholesome, healthful food suited to them and to their children, given where a flesh diet could not be had to keep them in health physically, mentally, and morally. It came with the blessing of the Lord resting upon them, with covenant and promise to take away sickness and to put none of the Egyptian diseases and plagues upon them if they obeyed in all things, and to carry them to Canaan and establish them there as a pure, holy, happy people. Despite the hardships of the wilderness there was not a feeble one in all their tribes while they lived upon it.
God in wisdom withheld flesh in great measure without at first prohibiting it, and withheld it on purpose for their good. He would have given flesh from the first if it had been essential to health, but He understood the influence of flesh eating upon mind and body. He restricted them to manna to prove them and to test whether they valued His service and the freedom He had so miraculously given them more highly than the indulgences they had enjoyed in Egypt while in servitude to a tyrannical, idolatrous people. He was leading them on the long wilderness journey to educate, discipline, and train them in correct habits and to bring them back to simple fruits, vegetables, and grains, leading them away from the rich diet to which many had grown accustomed toward food better suited to health.
When content with their portion the manna was sweet and nourishing, but in discontent they loathed it as light and worthless, hated it, and treated God's provision as inadequate. The more they centered their thoughts on the fleshpots and flesh meats of Egypt the more they hated the food God gave them, encouraging earthly appetite.
Rebellion Through Appetite
The cry is discontent, dissatisfaction, murmuring, complaining and rebellion against God's provision, against Moses and against the Lord, and resistance to the submission and obedience God required. When appetite was restricted to manna alone they complained they had nothing to eat but manna, showing dissatisfaction with the simple food provided in the wilderness. It was seditious murmuring because they rejected the food selected for their good and lusted for flesh meat that would injure them.
They rejected, despised, loathed and hated the healthy food designed and selected for their good, calling it light and worthless, and wished themselves back in Egypt by the fleshpots. They hankered after animal food and the flesh of dead animals, weeping for the flesh pots of Egypt, at times preferring slavery and even death to being deprived of meat. The more they centered their thoughts on the fleshpots the more they hated the food given them, taking their own judgment over divine direction and encouraging earthly appetite. Their choice brought dissension, sickness and death rather than health and happiness.
Their lust for flesh and for greater variety, especially flesh meats, came from depraved, perverted appetite indulged in Egypt that was mastering them, and appetite did not show what was best for them. The craving began with the mixed multitude, the believing Egyptians, and spread to Israel, expressing weariness of manna and desire for the meat remembered from Egypt. They regarded the supply as inadequate and clamored for flesh meats, putting physical wants before the requirements of God instead of submitting to His choice of proper food.
They let appetite control reason and failed to deny appetite and restrain self-indulgence, refusing the self-denial and restriction intended for their good. God was leading them away from the rich diet to which many had grown accustomed toward food better suited to health, but lust for forbidden food led them to murmur against Him. That indulgence brought physical, mental and moral decline and weakened resistance to temptation, preparing the way for sin. The same pattern is repeated when people turn from self-denial and disregard health reform.
Satan, the author of disease and misery, worked through appetite where it could be controlled, as he has done since leading Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. By direct temptation he stirred them to seditious murmuring against the healthful provision and through gratification of appetite and corrupt passion overcame them and led them away from trust and obedience. It was the same control through appetite by which he afterward tried to overcome Christ.
They thereby greatly displeased and dishonored God, provoked His wrath, and through indulgence were led to commit grievous sins and fell in the wilderness. Nearly all who left Egypt died before reaching Canaan and failed to enter, though the Son of God Himself was with Moses and Joshua to lead them there. Their dissatisfaction reflects appetite controlling reason, bringing God's wrath and contributing to their falling in the wilderness.
God's Answer in Judgment
The Lord answered the complaint by promising to give them flesh to eat and by sending quails from heaven, and at the same time He directed Moses to gather seventy elders to receive of his spirit and bear the burden of the people with him. He gave them the flesh they demanded in anger and wrath to gratify lustful appetite, not because it was best for them. He did so to teach them that He knew their true needs, and when other instruction had failed He let them have their way to humble them and bring them to submission and let them suffer the results of gratifying lustful appetite, though it was not for their best good and would injure them.
If they had submitted to have the Lord choose their food and had been thankful and satisfied with food they could eat freely without injury, taking His judgment over their own, they would not have lost His favor. Instead they would have had health and happiness, and dissension, sickness, and death would not have come through taking their own judgment over God's direction. Had they put God's requirements first and physical wants second, obedience would have brought special blessing and established them in the goodly land of Canaan as a pure, holy, happy people with not a feeble one among them.
Their craving was granted, but eating to excess brought plague and burning fevers that cut down very large numbers. Great numbers died in the act of eating while the flesh was yet between their teeth, and those most guilty in murmuring were slain as soon as they tasted the meat for which they had lusted. God sent the quails in answer, but rebellion was speedily punished when they ate the meat to excess.
Warning and Application Today
The cry of Numbers 11:6 is repeated when Sabbath-keepers forget God and His wondrous works and rebel against Him, looking to the world and desiring to follow its fashions and participate in its pleasures in the same manner as Israel looked back into Egypt and lusted for the good things enjoyed there. God had chosen to withhold those things to prove them and to test whether they valued His service and the freedom He had so miraculously given them more highly than the indulgences they had enjoyed in servitude to a tyrannical, idolatrous people, even though He had freed them from slavery. Their longing for the foods remembered from Egypt and their complaint that manna was all they had to eat reflects a desire for former worldly pleasures.
Their lust stands as an example to the Israel of God in these last days not to lust after evil things, mingle with the world, depart from God, and provoke His wrath by following the abominations of the nations. Ancient Israel rebelled by despising the manna, the bread of heaven, angels' food, given in the wilderness where a flesh diet could not be had, and by lusting, mourning, weeping, murmuring and complaining for the fleshpots of Egypt and the flesh of dead animals. God had withheld flesh on purpose to educate, discipline and train them in correct habits on the long wilderness journey and bring them back to simple fruits, vegetables and grains, though He would have given it from the first if it had been essential to health, because He understood the influence of flesh eating upon mind and body. Despite the plain Thus saith the Lord and the promise to carry them to Canaan and establish them there as a pure, holy, happy people with not a feeble one among their tribes because He would take away all sickness from them, they insisted on flesh, so in wrath He gave them the very diet He had withheld. The call therefore is to remain separate as God's chosen people under the same injunctions and the unchanged Head of the church.
The verse means flesh eating was not God's choice for Israel, that permission to eat dead animals shortens life, and that craving flesh brings deadly consequence. Israel murmured against their heaven-appointed food after God brought them from Egypt, despising the manna, the bread of heaven, which He gave them instead of flesh, and asking for flesh. God sent quails in answer, but rebellion was speedily punished when they ate the meat to excess and many died while the flesh was yet between their teeth, and their demand for meat brought its sure result. This is a lesson God's people today must study and learn to avoid flesh meats.
The same hankering after flesh is done by many in the present time who indulge perverted appetite and encourage earthly appetite. God fed Israel with bread from heaven to keep them in health physically, mentally, and morally, and sought for their good to withhold and refuse them a flesh diet, yet they hankered after the flesh pots and flesh meats of Egypt. The more they centered their thoughts on the fleshpots, the more they hated the food God gave them. The children of Israel lost all desire for other food though manna was before them, and the same craving with weakness and trembling and goneness from being deprived of its stimulus comes upon meat eaters when meat is given up, with a time of losing all desire for food.
That appetite-driven longing, as seen when meat is removed, can be resisted. Israel's complaint that manna was all they had finds its counterpart in renewed craving for meat after eating it, yet the longing that arises when meat is removed need not master reason. Firmly refusing to buy or cook meat and training the appetite brings back enjoyment of bread and fruit and grains and vegetables, with a generally clear head, firmer strength, better work, and freedom from the goneness common with meat eaters. Reason then takes the place of impulse and love of selfish indulgence leaves off tasting the flesh of dead animals.
The same pattern is repeated when people turn from self-denial and disregard health reform, rebelling against restrictions on appetite and resisting a change of course. Israel complained that manna was the only food before them and that appetite was dissatisfied and had nothing else to see or eat, reflecting unwillingness to accept God's restriction of flesh-food and failure to deny appetite. Their dissatisfaction with having manna alone illustrates how people accustomed to pleasing themselves fail to live for God's glory. Their discontent kept them from the blessings and the physical and mental strength and the health and strength God intended for them. Their dissatisfaction and longing for Egypt, with appetite described as dried up, illustrate the choice to turn back rather than continue toward Canaan, applied to resisting health reform and preferring customary foods over plain, wholesome food.
Christ withstood Satan's hunger temptation with the same lesson once given to Moses for rebellious Israel with diet restricted to manna and clamoring for flesh meats. That lesson is that indulgence of perverted appetite and passion puts physical wants before the requirements of God instead of submitting to God's choice of proper food. Such indulgence led Israel into numerous grievous sins and caused them to fall in the wilderness, when obedience would have brought special blessing and established them in the goodly land of Canaan as a holy, happy people with not a feeble one among them. Christ's victory shows that hunger for temporal food is not the greatest calamity and leaves an example of making God's word first and trusting the Father to supply food when it is for His glory.
The verse teaches that contentment with one's portion is a blessing while discontent is a curse. When Israel was content with its portion, the manna was sweet and nourishing, but dissatisfaction made the manna God provided seem loathsome and unwelcome. Their complaint and lamentation that they had only manna and no meat is compared with complaining over being unable to eat meat, recalling the same demand for a meat diet. They felt worn out by having nothing else to eat, and their longing for meat led to murmuring and rejection of the food God provided, while indulging strong appetite instead of following God's directions brought suffering and risked health and lives. So dissatisfaction and ingratitude make ordinary blessings and daily mercies seem burdensome when people overlook the good already within reach.