Manna or Quail?

God gave us our freedom and that very freedom that we wanted is destroying us.

Do you want quail like the Isralites demanded? Or do you want the manna that God provided?

We are so busy worrying about what might not be on the grocery shelves in the future, that we have little time to praise Him for what is there now, with all the fear mongering that is plaguing the internet.

Our grocery shelves are full, with every kind of food possible, and what do we focus on?  What might be,  some time later?  How completely ridiculous is that, and such lack of faith that God will continue to provide. If He took away half of our plenty, we would still be swimming in blessings!!!

Recently I have been grieved a so many believer focusing on the things of this world, especially politics.  So many things have occurred in our country that are unjust, that we think we can change or effect it by our complaining about it. Some will accuse others of not doing enough to “bring our country back.” 

I would like to address this in a different way, other than speaking only about the paranoia that comes with continual overdose of politics and end times fear.  Let’s look at how God views us and our concerns and perhaps our perspective will take a turn.

1 Corinthians 10:11 “Now these things happened to them (Israel) as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”

All that the nation of Israel went through was for our learning.

“Not all Scripture was written to us, but all Scripture was written for us.” Randy Amos

The Instructions to the Israelites were those of warning, that God’s anger not be kindled against them.

Israel displayed 2 rebellions against God, the first was their complaining, and the second was the place they complained, in the presence of God.

Numbers 11:10 “Then Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, everyone at the door of his tent; and the anger of the Lord was greatly aroused ; Moses also was displeased.

You see, among the Israelites were the mixed-multitude Numbers 11:4, who were the non-Israelites, who were there by marriage or were just tagging along.  They were not of the house of Israel. These were the ones complaining about the manna, wanting meat and because they complained the people of God began to complain too.

God said to the people of Israel, fine, you want meat, I will give you meat.  That pile of meat, quail,  that God gave them, that they so desperately wanted,  was three and a half feet high for twelve miles.  They were excited and began to gather their cherished quail.  There was so much for an entire month that the people couldn’t stand it anymore.

Numbers 11:20

“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.”

Numbers 11:32-34

32 “And the people stayed up all that day, all night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail (he who gathered least gathered ten homers); and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. 33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was aroused against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague. 34 So he called the name of that place Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had yielded to craving.”

Quail is not bad, it was that it was not what God wanted them to have and He was angry that they were not grateful for His provision!

The things we crave that we think we want, God may give to us, and, it will not only become loathsome to us but may be of great harm.

I think of the mentality of “freedom” in our country. We holler continually about our freedom of speech, our freedom of religion and our freedom of the press.  We worship our freedom as if it is the beginning and end of all things. At close inspection,  what we have fought and died for all these years is the very thing that will ruin us.

The mentality of freedom has pushed out God’s principles from our hearts.  We think continually more about our freedom and taxes than we seek God. Our clamoring after our material wealth and our freedom to do as we please, is destroying us from within.  We need no other country to destroy us we are doing it to ourselves.

We as a country have worshiped freedom instead of God, we have elevated our rights and our desires above the principles of Christ so much so, that we can no longer distinguish between right and wrong.

Churches today are shouting “we want flesh”, just like the Israelites did.  The churches have allowed the “mixed multitude”, in other words, those who come to our gatherings but are not born again, to influence us with their whining and complaining about music and delivery of the messages, their desire for ungodly and fleshly programs that only drive us from the worship of God.

Israel wanted a political leader like all the heathen nations, they wanted to be like the world, and we can see in God’s Word, how that brought them grave troubles. Had they been satisfied with God as their leader, then they would have enjoyed the peace that comes with honoring Him. 

Israel thought that they would be stronger with a political leader than with God as their head.  They became obsessed with politics as our nation has today.  Every believer should desire God to be their head and God to do their fighting for them. But today’s modern believer thinks we must fight in the flesh to protect ourselves and that politics can protect us better than God can. 

We have spurned the Holy Spirit by our desire to rule ourselves.  When God rules in our lives, the culture and the politics have no power over us.  Those who trust the politics are in bondage to their fears and ultimately will reap the consequences of their fleshly thinking.

The Lord wants us to speak of His righteousness, and sometimes that will include in voicing our beliefs that others will become born again, through the realization that we are deeply in sin and headed for hell without Christ.

God never told believers to take over any governments, nor did He tell us to force non-believers to do what we do.  Our mission was given to us by God and that was to spread the gospel and obey God ourselves. 

Luke 10:27 “So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the  Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’”

Proverbs 3:5-8

 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil. 8 It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones.

Do we have enough faith to trust God in all that we have to encounter here on earth, or are we looking for an earthly savior through politics?  An important question to ask God in our prayers.

Please beloved, stop praying for political victories and begin to pray that God will work mightily in the hearts of every believer that we may be that light that God told us to be, the light that testifies of the Lord.