I'm curious what this title brought to mind for you...
Hopefully this will be different than what you had originally thought but refreshing and a new perspective.
This evening I read in Numbers about the Israelites complaining to Moses for better food. The Lord had promised to give them enough manna every day, but after a short time wandering in the wilderness, they got sick of eating the same old thing. "Give us meat to eat!"
So the story continues...
Moses brought their complaints before the Lord. The Lord gave the Israelites what they wanted.... quail for days! Seriously, the Lord said to Moses, "I will give them meat for a whole month."
It's not because the Lord is incapable. He made that clear to Moses when he told him the plans. “Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’
And listen to Moses' response: “Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’ Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?” Moses doubts that the Lord can do what he has said. I don't think Moses' response is that crazy if any old person had said that. I agree, Moses, that's a lot of quail. But Moses forgot who he was talking to. This wasn't a limited man. This is the Divine and Almighty God. Considering that truth, God's reply to Moses gets me excited. God doesn't have to explain himself, but here He is reminding Moses that he is infinitely capable and that his supply is endless.
The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”
So what's my obsession with this Old Testament quail story. I'd love to tell you the strange connection between Moses, an elderly man from the tribe of Levi, and Christina, a 23 year old from the town of Davie, FL.
I feel like the Israelites. Lately, work has been difficult and it's so so frustrating. I often feel as though I deserve a more rewarding job instead of an exhausting one that often seems thankless. My requests for quail come through complaints for feeling successful, impactful, and craving the approval of my students.
These aren't bad things, but they are so harmful when I make them an inappropriate desire. The Israelites desire for quail wasn't wrong, they were craving good food, but a good desire turned sinful when they felt it was their right to have it and they could think of nothing else. I could relate so much to this. My desires aren't inherently "bad", but they have oh so subtly moved from harmless thoughts to sinful lust in my heart. Lately, I can think of nothing else. The story of the Israelites lusting after better food has showed me that when you become preoccupied with something to the point where it affects your perspective on everything else, you have moved from desire to lust.
