Psalm 106. We looked at the first 13 verses last
week. Psalm 106. Psalm 105 was about God's faithfulness
to His people. And Psalm 106 is about God's people's
unfaithfulness to God. It started out with some
words of praise, but then we are quickly... introduced
to the problem of Israel and really our problem
too, and that is we see God work sometimes in
powerful ways and then we are quick to forget.
And we want to do things our way and we don't
want to wait on the counsel of the Lord. And
that's exactly what God's people Israel did and
maybe we can learn from their mistakes and from
our mistakes. And so tonight we're going to read
again verse 13. That's where we ended off last
week. We'll read 13, 14, and 15. I told you last
week that we were going to probably take our
time getting through Psalm 106 because there's
some good stories that are referenced here. And
so we want to take our time to go back and look
at some of these in the context and see what's
going on in the earlier. earlier scriptures where
these stories were recorded. So let's pray, and
then we'll read this scripture and get started.
God, we come to you. We thank you for a good
day. I thank you for all the folks that have
come tonight. I pray that you would help us to
learn something from what we're about to read,
and maybe we can use these scriptures as a mirror
in our life to examine our attitudes and our
hearts and our actions to see if maybe we ever
fail in this way, dear Lord, and it's not It's
not good if we do, and you're not pleased with
that. And so, dear Lord, I pray that you would
help us just to know that even if we have fallen,
even if we have failed, that, God, you desire
for us just to repent and to come back to you,
and your grace is sufficient. And, dear Lord,
we need that. We are not worthy, God, but we
thank you for being good to us even when we are
unfaithful just as... Your word says the Israelites
were. So I pray that your Holy Spirit would be
with us and let your word do the talking tonight.
In Jesus' name I pray it. Amen. Psalm 106, verse
13. They soon forgot his works and would not
wait for his counsel. They were seized with cravings
in the wilderness and tested God in the desert.
He gave them what they asked for. but sent a
wasting disease among them. Now, those couple
of verses there, 14 and 15, sum up a whole story
that's a pretty interesting story that's found
in Numbers 11. And so, really, we're just going
to use these two verses as kind of a springboard
to go back and look at the actual text we're
going to look at tonight. And that is in Numbers,
that's toward the beginning of your Bible, Now,
we don't have time to go through all of it, so
we're just going to pick and choose a few verses.
We're going to read the first few verses just
to get a little context about what's going on,
and then we're going to skip down a few verses.
Numbers chapter 11. Numbers chapter 11. We're
going to start in verse 1. We'll read through
this pretty quickly, hopefully, and see what's
going on. Now, to give you a little context,
God had delivered his people out of Egypt, and
they are wandering around, and they are complaining
a lot. We talked about one example last week
from Exodus 15, which is right after they crossed
the Red Sea. Almost instantly they started complaining
about water. We see right after that in Exodus
chapter 16 that God provides quail for them to
eat. Well, we're going to see that same thing
here in Numbers 11, but I'm pretty sure it's
two separate occurrences. Some might say that
it's the same event, but I don't think so. When
you read through Numbers 11, it looks like this
is sometimes later. that this event occurred.
And so we see two different occasions where God
provided quail for His people. The first one
in Exodus 16, and then we have this one in Numbers
11. And we see the same heart among the people.
They are still complaining about their situation.
Numbers 11, verse 1 says, Now the people began
complaining openly before the Lord about hardship.
When the Lord heard, His anger burned, and fire
from the Lord blazed among them and consumed
the outskirts of the camp. Then the people cried
out to Moses, and he prayed to the Lord, and
the fire died down. So that place was named Tibera,
because the Lord's fire had blazed among them.
Okay, so the scene is set for us, pretty simple.
God was so gracious to his people, he delivered
them out of Egypt. All they had to do was be
obedient. They were disobedient, so they're wandering
around, and they're complaining about how bad
things are. And this just makes God angry, so
angry that he sends fire down all around the
outskirts of their camp. Everything's burning
up, and the people cry out to Moses, Oh, Moses,
what are we going to do? You've got to save us.
And Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire died
down. Okay, so we kind of see what's going on.
Let's continue a little further. Verse 4. Contemptible
people among them had a strong craving for other
food. The Israelites cried again and said, Who
will feed us meat? We remember the free fish
we ate in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons,
leeks, onions, and garlic. But now our appetite
is gone. There's nothing to look at but this
manna. Now, this is interesting for us to consider.
Now, let's not forget where Israel had come from.
They were slaves in a foreign land. But isn't
it funny how things that are pretty horrible
in our life, after a while, we forget how bad
they were. We remember things sometimes better
than they actually were. We remember things that
really were bad, and maybe there was some level
of good to them. We kind of forget about the
bad, and we just remember the good, and then
we want to go back to those things. And they
should have thought, wait a minute, we were enslaved
in a foreign land. But instead they say, well,
look at us now. We have come out in the middle
of this wilderness, in the middle of this desert.
God has led us out here, and Moses has led us
out here, and man, it was so good back where
we were. Listen to all the good stuff that they
had when they were in Egypt. They had fish, free
fish it says, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions,
and garlics. Man, they were living a good life,
weren't they? Well, that's how they remembered
it, but they had forgotten. The worst part of
it. Now, would you rather be enslaved and have
some fish to eat, or would you rather be free
on the way to your own land flowing with milk
and honey? Well, to them, they couldn't look
ahead. Even if God told them what was ahead was
beautiful and great, and they were going to be
blessed there, they'd rather stick with what
they knew, even though what they knew wasn't
that good. And are we ever guilty of the same
thing? Maybe there's good things in store for
us. Maybe there's good things that God wants
to do for us and we're scared to take that step
because it's unknown in some sense. It's unseen.
We don't like to get out of our comfort zone.
Even if our comfort zone's pretty bad, we don't
like to get out of that comfort zone. Even we
are drawn back to things that we know are not
good for us. Like there was a time in my life
a few years ago and I said to myself, I said,
I'm going to cut out sugar. And I did. And I
did very well. I went for months and I ate very
little sugar and stopped drinking Cokes entirely.
And I felt a lot better during that time period.
And so I concluded what I already knew. And that
is that sugar is not good for you. And even though
I knew sugar was not good for me, guess what?
One day I looked back and I was thinking, man,
a Coca -Cola would sure be good today. A Kit
Kat bar would sure be good today. And I thought,
man, it was good when I had that Kit Kat in the
afternoon, that Coke. And so guess what I started
doing? I started doing what I knew wasn't good
for me. Because there was a part of it that seemed
good, and it is good in the moment. It is good.
And here recently, guess what? I would get my
Kit Kat just about every afternoon, get my Coke
about every afternoon. And guess what? I feel
bad when I start eating all that sugar, plus
some other sugar too. It wasn't just that. That
might be okay. And then guess what? Then I start
feeling bad. And so now I say, well, I'm going
to cut out sugar again. So that works good for
about two days. And then in the afternoon I say,
about Kit Kat time. And so it's a struggle, right?
We live in a part of our life that we know is
not good, but there's something about it that
draws us back there. And even though the Israelites
had come out of slavery, They were looking back
on that time favorably when it was not a good
time. And so here they are in the presence of
God, and they're in the mess they're in, eating
all this manna for so long because of their own
disobedience. But they kind of overlooked that.
It ain't their fault. It's Moses' fault. It's
God's fault. They don't have any of this good
stuff to eat anymore. They're sick and tired
of eating this manna. We want meat, they said.
We want meat. And I can understand that. I want
meat too. If I had to eat salad every day or...
or any kind of bread every day and didn't have
any meat, I'd be mad too. And they were mad.
And they were complaining about it. Well, Moses,
if you continue reading the story, I encourage
you to do so. He says, God, what am I going to
do with these people? What did I do to deserve
this? Now, I'm paraphrasing, but he says, God,
just take my life. God, if I've done right by
you, then just take my life and get me out of
this mess. I don't deserve all these people.
They were giving him a hard time. Maybe sometimes
we feel that way. Maybe people we are trying
to lead sometimes, we say, God, why in the world
did you give me this bunch of people? I don't
say that about y 'all, by the way. That was not
a passive -aggressive statement about a pastor
in his church, I promise. But sometimes maybe
we are in a situation like Moses where we're
like, what am I going to do? I want to be out
of this situation. Lord, just kill me. I can't
handle these people. But God was good and he
was gracious and he said, no, I'm going to take
care of this situation. So if we scroll down
a little bit, if we scroll down a little bit,
we're going to go down to, let's see where we
want to go to. Let's skip all the way down. I'll
let you all read the rest of it by yourself.
Let's skip all the way down to verse 31. Numbers
chapter 11, verse 31. Y 'all go back and read
the whole chapter so you can see all the stuff
that we're skipping over so you get the context
of what's going on. So, these people won't meet.
God, we won't meet. Where's our meat? We won't
meet. When we was in Egypt, things were so good,
God, you brought us out here. We want something
good to eat. God said, if you want something
good to eat, I'm going to give you something
good to eat. Verse 31. A wind sent by the Lord
came up and blew quail in from the sea. It dropped
them at the camp all around, three feet off the
ground, about a day's journey in every direction.
Now, when it says three feet off the ground,
I'm not really sure exactly what that means.
I'm not sure if it was quail piled up three feet
off the ground in every direction. That would
be a ton of quail, but maybe it is. As we're
going to see as we continue on, it could mean
that the quail were flying low for whatever reason.
They came in off the sea and the quail were coming
in three, four foot off the ground. They were
flying real low. That could also be what it means.
It's not clear. Regardless of whether it was
piles of quail or low flying quail, it was a
lot of quail. God said, you want meat? I am sending
you some meat. And continuing on, verse 32. The
people were up all that day and night and all
the next day gathering the quail. The one who
took the least gathered 50 bushels. And they
spread them out all around the camp. Now that's
a lot of quail. Now this was a lot of people.
A lot of people gathering quail. And they gathered
quail all one day and the next day. And it says
the one who gathered the least amount of quail
gathered 50 bushels of quail. That's a lot of
meat. Man, God supplied in abundance, didn't
he? They said, we want meat. He gave them meat.
He gave them just what they wanted. So they got
their feast. So they began to feast down. In
verse 33, while the meat was still between their
teeth, before it was chewed, the Lord's anger
burned against the people. And the Lord struck
them with a very severe plague. So they named
that place. Kibroth, Hadavah, because they buried
the people who had craved the meat. From Kirbroth,
Hadavah, the people moved on to Hazeroth and
remained there. Man, that's pretty intense. God
said, you want meat? I'm going to give you so
much meat that you're going to be sick of the
meat. And they were. They ate so much meat, they
got sick. He brought a plague on them. He said,
if you're going to complain, if you're going
to demand these things, I'm going to give you
what you want, and you're going to realize that
what you want is not good for you. And the place
was named, where it says Kibroth Hatava there,
that means the grave of the cravers. That's what
that means. The grave of the cravers. These people
died in what they craved. They crave what they
thought was good and it ended up being their
destruction. And that's what's being talked about
in this passage we see in Psalm 106. This is
the story that's being referenced. And this is
a good story for us to consider. Do we ever have
this attitude or mindset in our life? Is there
anything in our lives that maybe God has delivered
us from that... After we get a little bit away,
at a distance, it looks a lot better than it
did up close. Everything looks better at a distance,
especially when your eyesight is as bad as mine.
You can't really see all the details. You say,
man, that looks better than I remember. In Israel,
at a distance, away from Egypt, they said, man,
Egypt looked pretty good. Man, we want to go
back there and eat all those melons and those
fish, and everything was so good. But they didn't
know what they were asking for. Now God knew
he didn't want his people to go back there. He
knew he wanted to deliver his people. He also
knew he didn't want his people to have this heart.
He wanted his people to be obedient to him and
to listen to him and to follow him and to trust
him. Not just to complain and moan and groan
about every single thing. But that's exactly
what they did. Just the whole time they just
keep on groaning and complaining. We want, we
want, we want. This is what we want because this
is good for us. And God gave them what they wanted.
It wasn't good for them. It's the same thing
that ever happened in our life. Maybe you've
got an example of that that you can think of.
Maybe there's something in your life that you
wanted so bad and you wanted so bad and you got
it and it was a burden. It was a burden maybe
financially or it was a burden because it added
extra stress or whatever it is. Sometimes the
things that we want, that we think are good,
are not good for us. Sometimes you see that.
You see a child that tells their mom and dad,
they say, oh, I want to get a puppy. I want to
get a puppy. Let me get a puppy. And the parents
say, no, you can't just get a puppy because you've
got to take care of a puppy. And they say, I
want a puppy. I've got to have a puppy. Give
me a puppy. I want a puppy. Let me have a puppy.
And the parents finally cave and say, if you
want a puppy, you're going to get a puppy. But
you've got to clean up after it, and you've got
to feed it, and you've got to take it out in
the middle of the night. And guess what? That
puppy is so good at first. They all look the
little puppy, and oh, it's all good. And then
all of a sudden, you've got to feed it, and you've
got to start taking it outside, and you've got
to start cleaning up after it. And then all of
a sudden, some of y 'all probably had this experience.
All of a sudden, your kid, they don't want the
puppy anymore. I want an inside puppy. Well,
then all of a sudden, Well, could we let it be
an outside puppy? Because they realize, I don't
want to clean up all this stuff. And something
that they wanted so bad that they finally got,
they realized that maybe it wasn't as good as
what they thought it was going to be. And maybe
we have some stories, not just as kids, but maybe
as adults, we have some stories of some things
that we had to have. And we got them and we realized,
I probably would have been better off not having
this. I probably would have been better off not
doing this. I probably would have been better
off not acting this way. And God's people were
so, they were so obstinate and they were so consistent
that God, this is what we want. Eventually God
gave it to them. And sometimes God does that
for us. Sometimes those are hard lessons to learn.
Maybe some of you have learned them. Maybe some
of us are in some of those lessons today. And
it ain't good that we got there. It's not good
that in our disobedience and our desire to not
wait on the Lord's counsel and our desire to
have what we want when we want it got us in this
shape. It's not good that we're there, but God
is still good. And we don't have to just keep
demanding the quail. That we can stop and say,
okay, God, I've been asking for things and seeking
things and I've got things and I want things.
And God, I don't know if it's good for me and
so I just, I want to repent of that. And God,
I'm sorry for that. Maybe there's some things
we've already got. We're learning those lessons
and we just need to ask God to forgive us and
to help us. By His grace and mercy, God, I've
gotten myself into this mess, but God, would
you get me out? That's the story of Israel. Man,
they got... They got themselves into so many
messes. And some of them, some of them sadly
didn't learn their lesson. But some of them did.
Some of them did cry out to the Lord. Some of
them did call out to the Lord. Some of them did
recognize their sinfulness and repented. And
the ones who continued in their wickedness, man,
you see God deal with them. You see God destroy
them sometimes. We'll look at an example of that
in a week or two. But we don't want to be those
who... who continue on. You don't have to continue
on in your own selfish desires, in your own ways,
in your own sin. We can say, okay, God, I've
gone too far. I've wanted it my way, and I've
done my way, God, and I've got myself in a mess,
and I thought I wanted something that was going
to be good for me, and I realized that what I
thought was good for me is tearing me up. So,
God, would you just help me? And praise the Lord,
through Jesus Christ, we can have that grace
today. whatever mess we might have gotten ourselves
into, whatever sin of our past that we were freed
from, just like the Israelites, there were things,
there were sins that so easily ensnared us, and
maybe years have gone by, and there are things
that we hadn't done in years, and maybe sometimes
there's that temptation the devil still puts
in our mind, and there's something in our distant
past that we know is bad. We've left behind that,
boy, that devil sure does make it look good.
Boy, what you did in the past, that was a pretty
good thing. Remember how much fun you had doing
that? Man, the devil is so good at making that
stuff at a distance look beautiful, but it ain't
beautiful. The sins and the things of our past
that enslaved us, they are not beautiful. And
Jesus died on the cross to give us freedom. So
we don't have to go back. As tempting as it may
be, we don't have to go back. We don't want to
be those who try to find our satisfaction and
joy in the evil of the past. We want to find
it in Jesus Christ in the present. Say, God,
however good the things of the past may be, they
do not look as good as Jesus Christ. So I'm going
to just hang tight on Him and what I have right
now. Let's pray. God, we thank You for this good
word and this good story. And I pray that you
help us, dear Lord, that if maybe we're guilty
in some way of these things, God, and we get
to where we seek our way and want it our way
and complain about maybe what we don't have or
what we want. But God, I pray that you would
help us to be careful and cautious and just to
trust you and not try too hard to do things our
way to get what we want. And God, if we've done
that and we... We are suffering the consequences.
I pray that we would just repent of that and
seek you, that you'd give us some mercy. Help
us to do better moving forward. Help us just
turn to you, dear Lord. Help us not to be drawn
back to our past slavery, as tempting as it may
look. I pray that you would help us to keep our
eyes looking upward and onward, not to the past,
but to the present, to Jesus Christ and to the
future, to our future hope and glory. And I ask
these things in Jesus' name. Amen.