Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends. It’s the weekend and that usually brings some change in our lives. I wonder what “weekend” means for you and how you sense your attitude change on Saturday morning?
When you hear the word “Crave” what comes into your mind? Sugar, or coffee, or something you haven’t had for a long time but you crave it so much you can almost taste it? ‘Crave’ can be very dangerous, can’t it? How do you control your ‘cravings’? ‘Crave’ moves us from ‘Content’ to ‘Caution’, have you noticed that? Something deep down inside us stirs us to caution when we sense a craving taking root in our hearts. Usually ‘crave’ is a battle deep within us. We know we shouldn’t, it wouldn’t be good for us, but still ‘crave’ is drawing us, almost irresistibly, to imagine what it could be like if… Our conscience calls us to caution as ‘crave’ grows and that leads to the inner battle.
A wise man once wrote it this way: “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do, no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing… So I find this: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me…” You recognize it as the Apostle Paul writing to the Romans in Romans 7:18-25. It’s the good and evil battle that rages everywhere in our world and deep within each of us, isn’t it? So how do you fight that battle my friends? Will you find yourself deep in that fight this weekend?
We’ve been on a journey with Moses trying to lead more than 1 million Hebrews who are a little more than one year out of slavery in Egypt. They’ve been at Mount Sinai for almost a full year, receiving messages from God through Moses as God invites them to see themselves as HIS people, not slaves, and God outlines for them how to live “God centered lives”. But yesterday we saw there was a widespread movement of ‘discontent’ among the people, and it rose up motivated by CRAVE. The people had grumbled that they were no longer satisfied with God’s provision of daily food. They craved what they remembered from Egypt. So God said to Moses: “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.” (Numbers 11:18) What do you hear in that statement from God, my friends?
Do you know it’s a dangerous thing to allow our ‘cravings’ to draw us away from God or God’s truth or God’s ways or God’s guidance or God’s Presence or even God’s leading in our lives? When that happens, ‘crave’ turns into rebellion and that’s always dangerous, especially when rebelling against God, isn’t it? That’s why God used the word “consecrate yourselves”. It was a challenge for them to look deep within their hearts and minds to understand they were in rebellion against God! And God wanted them to repent of their craving and complaining and turn back to God in anticipation of God’s provision for what they asked for… meat. God loved these people and wanted them to find their fulfilment in being HIS people, trusting HIM to provide what HE knew they needed.
But God was also about to teach them a lesson about the danger of allowing crave to turn their contentment into complaint and rebellion. Look at what God said next: “You will not eat meat for just one day, or two days, or five or ten or twenty days, but for a whole month – until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it – because you rejected the LORD who is among you, and you wailed before Him saying, ‘why did we ever leave Egypt’!! (Numbers 11:19,20) Now let this sink in for a moment friends. Have you ever craved something so much you did whatever you had to do to get it, and when you finally had it you soon found it to be not nearly as pleasing as you thought? Do you see here God is saying their craving is actually going to turn into being a curse for them? For they’ll have so much meat they’ll gag on it and loathe it, but they’ll also never forget the price of craving in rebellion against God!!
Now watch this friends...craving is contagious and Moses was already so discouraged by the people’s tsunami of complaint that when God told him to tell the people they’d eat meat for a month, Moses was skeptical. More than that he almost mocked God in his doubt. Moses said “Here I am among 600,000 men, plus women and children, and You say “I will give them meat for a whole month!’ O God, 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?” (Numbers 11:21,22) Look closely my friends, have you ever found yourself so discouraged, so deeply craving something, that you might say something similar to God?
God’s response to Moses is powerful, challenging and I urge us to each hear it: “Is the LORD’s arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you.” (Numbers 11:23) What have you doubted about God during your lifetime? His total understanding of everything? That’s His promise of Omniscience. There is NOTHING God doesn’t FULLY understand. Have you doubted God’s power? Omnipotent means God is all powerful, at all times, in all situations! Remember Gabriel told Mary “Nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37) Have you doubted God’s love? The cross stands as the greatest symbol of unconditional love for all time, do you agree? “For God SO loved the world, that He gave His only Son…” (John 3:16) “God demonstrates His love for us in this: while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8)
Even though Moses had seen all 10 of the plagues, and the Red Sea delivery, and water from a rock, and food from heaven very morning; and even though Moses had 8 times been up on Mount Sinai, having life changing encounters with God…still in the overwhelming avalanche of complaint from so many people, even Moses’ confidence in God failed! This my friends is why it is so important that we each find ways to maintain our faith, our confidence in God, our relationship with God, fresh and vibrant and dynamic every day! Numbers 11:31-33 tells us God flew in so much quail they did begin to choke on it. But also “…the anger of the LORD burned against the people and He struck them with a severe plague. Therefore they named the place Kibroth Hattaavah because there they buried the people who craved other food.” (Numbers 11:34) Now watch this: the name “Kibroth Hattaavah” means “graves of craving”!!
Was the plague God sent food poisoning or something similar, I don’t know, but what I do know is their craving turned them away from God to complaining about God, and their overindulgence in what they craved killed many of them! Now that, my friends, is an important life lesson for all of us! Watch out for craving, it’s the root of EVERY addiction! And everyday many people die from the effects of their addictions!
Let’s pause right here and I invite you this weekend to search deeply into your life. What are our cravings? How do they affect you and me? What damage have we experienced in our lives because we gave into our cravings? How do we live victoriously content with God’s provision of what He knows is best for you and me? I urge you to read back through Numbers 11:18-23 & 31-34 with deep personal reflection. Maybe make some personal notes in your journal that will help you battle against the cravings that want to enslave you? And I found a gentle but powerful song that calls us to battle craving with contentment in Jesus, oh let’s worship together my friends:
Today’s Scripture is Numbers 11:18-34.
Choose below to read or listen.
 |  |
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Email
WhatsApp