It has been an unusual week for me at work. I have stayed in my own office, all day, every day, for the past 5. I had told my mom on Monday, it was my plan, but we all know my plans usually don't stick. I normally have at least one call where someone is needing me to come and do something. Needless to say, the bullet journal is full of things accomplished this week and I love it.
As I have stated before, I am reading through the Bible again this year, but this time from my Chronological Bible. I am also doing something different as I am pulling up the listener's Bible on my phone and having it read to me as I read the text. I have found this keeps me focused when some of the text gets redundant, but somehow, it also seems to let me soak things in. This week I have been in Numbers and actually have several areas that really need a blog post, but this week I want to talk Numbers 11.
Chapter 11 starts out: 11 Now when the people complained, it displeased the Lord; for the Lord heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of the Lord burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp. 2 Then the people cried out to Moses, and when Moses prayed to the Lord, the fire was quenched. 3 So he called the name of the place Taberah,[a] because the fire of the Lord had burned among them.
So, the people were complaining, apparently this was the worst life they had ever had, how soon they forgot that they were slaves in Egypt....
and by the way, by everything I can find, this seems to be year 1 1/2 to 2 of the 40 total.
we continue: 4 Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat? 5 We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; 6 but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!”
God sent fire that actually took some of them out, Moses prayed and the fire stopped, but here we are again.... now we want meat, we are tired of manna, and we are remembering all this abundance of food we had in Egypt. I have to admit, my mom talks about one time when the doctor wanted her to lose weight, she ate boiled hamburgers and rice for 6 months. It worked, and think about doing it too, for about 10 seconds and then I know that would be miserable to me, so I don't do it, even though the end result would be what I wanted. If I am not being forced, it isn't happening. So I get it, I really do, but I'm trying to figure out how soon I would complain again if the last time I did, I was surrounded by fire, as much as I would like to say, I would learn my lesson quicker, truth is I doubt that.
And then we get to the part where God gives them what they want.....meat. Moses tells God he can't handle all of these people by himself and God tells him to go get 70 people to name as Elders. Did you catch that Moses was complaining there too? (In fact, here we see Moses being a bit on the dramatic side: if you don't give me help, just kill me now....)
So, God is God. He tells them He will give them meat. Verses 18-20: Then you shall say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept in the hearing of the Lord, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt.” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. 19 You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, 20 but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have despised the Lord who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, “Why did we ever come up out of Egypt?”’”
God told them, you think you got to have meat, here have meat until it comes out of your nose.
Yes, I giggled when I read that. I had never really heard it like that, and I could so hear my mom saying, "You wanna cry? I will give you something to cry about!!" (Sorry Mom).
Do we tend to do all of these things? I know I do. I will be having a bad day and think back to a time when my memory says life was much easier. I know a lot of moms talk about the biggest experience of not remember how badly something felt is childbirth. My one and only was upside down, backwards and had his feet up around his head. I had a C-section because of it. They didn't want me to go into labor so they scheduled it as soon as he dropped. I am not one bit upset that I never had to experience labor. ( And oh my gosh, don't get me started on people thinking that just because you had a C-section makes you less of a mom. It doesn't magically make all of the dirty diapers, puke-all-over-the-the walls OR the 12:15 a.m.'s when they are 15 minutes passed curfew and not answering their phones any easier or different. End of subject.)
Seriously though, God really doesn't seem to like complaining, it says we do not believe He is truly going to take care of us.
You probably knew I was going to throw in a Philippians verse here, and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have used it before. It was one that I made Robert memorize and when I would tell him to go clean is room and would start getting attitude, I would make him recite it, I know, mean mom. This is Philippians 2:14:
Do all things without complaining and disputing,
In verses 15-16 we have the whys: 15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.
I love the part that says that you will shine as lights in the world. Isn't that our calling?
My challenge this week for you is to really look at your life, what do you complain about? Is it really bad? Is there a way God is telling you to fix it, if you are just willing?
Leaving you with Steven Curtis Chapman's God is God. This song has ran through my mind a lot as I have read Numbers.
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