Cravings

Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed. “We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted. But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is this manna!” Numbers 11:4-6

EVIDENTLY THE GRUMBLING started with those who lived on the fringes of the camp —the people of various nationalities who came out of Egypt with God’s people —and worked its way inward, spreading its infectious discontent throughout the camp. What were the Israelites complaining about? The same thing we complain about when the signs for restaurants at upcoming exits on the interstate don’t display the familiar logo we’re looking for, or when the food set in front of us doesn’t quite suit our tastes. It’s not that they had nothing to eat. It’s that they wanted something to eat besides the manna God graciously rained down on them every day.

God had spectacularly delivered them from slavery without asking them to fight a battle. He had supernaturally fed them in the desert without asking them to work. He had given them the most humble and faithful leader imaginable. But they couldn’t see any of it because they were consumed by their craving. They became one-dimensional people who thought about life only through the knothole of their craving. Their desire for more variety in their diet became a demand that blinded them to anything and everything else.

We see this in our children —cravings for toys and technology, clothing and cars. But we see it in ourselves, too. Many of us have a craving that blinds us so that we can’t see all that God has done for us and given to us. Yes, we appreciate salvation and all that, but what we really crave is to be thin, to have a nicer house in a better neighborhood, to have a job with more authority and opportunity, to have children who make us look good and friends who make us feel important.

For the Israelites, everything was about food. What is everything about for you? How is it causing you to lose sight of God’s goodness?

Lord, we don’t want our family to be ruled by our cravings. We want to learn the secret Paul learned when he said he had learned to be content while living with nothing or with everything, with a full stomach or an empty one. Lord, we need that same strength to be content.