Wanting What You Have

Introduction

A couple of years ago, Sheryl Crowe had a hit song entitled “Soak Up the Sun.” There is a line from that song that was especially captivating: “It’s not having what you want, it’s wanting what you’ve got.” Pretty profound for a pop singer. This captures the essence of contentment.

As we get older, the yearning for youth and perhaps regrets for missed opportunities makes us long for the good old days. Sometimes the longing is expressed in terms of downplaying what is now and what was then. For instance, we hear about the good old days when people didn’t rush around as much, when people sat out on their front porches and talked. Certainly that kind of environment is gone. But what is often forgotten is that along with that slower pace there were things like polio, lower life expectancy, no microwaves, or many of the conveniences which we now take for granted. That doesn’t mean there isn’t something commendable about the past. Neither does that mean that there is nothing commendable about the present.

There are two stories in Numbers 11, but we want to focus on the food story. Imagine the scene. Every night except the night of the Sabbath, God provides manna for the people to eat. Every morning except the Sabbath morning, the people wake up, go outside their tent, and pick up enough manna to feed their family. Without fail, the days come and go and God doesn’t forget to bring manna. Just as the sun rises, the ground is covered in manna. The days pass. Each morning brings the same ritual. Nothing changes. No exceptions. Manna for breakfast. Manna for lunch. Manna for dinner. Manna cakes. Manna pudding. Manna bread. Manna for the appetizer, entree, vegetable, and dessert. Manna sliced, diced, julienned, fried, baked, broiled, smothered in manna sauce, and eaten raw.

Before we condemn let us understand. The truth is that like the Israelites of old we want variety in our diet. We are glad to have food. We just don’t want the same food day in and day out for every meal. Like most of us, when Barbara and I began married life, we ate a lot of things that we don’t eat now. We lived on hamburger helper. Everything imaginable was applied to that box, but they always tasted the same. We were glad to eat, but hamburger and cheese and spices begins to taste alike after a time. And I began to remember mom’s cooking. Fried chicken, lasagne, homemade yeast rolls—mom’s menu was varied.

Do you understand how a group of people can wake up one morning and say “I remember how it used to be back in Egypt. Fresh fruits and vegetables and meat. It was free and yummy.” Verse 10 says the Lord became exceedingly angry. The people just wanted some variety. Why would God get mad about variety? It wasn’t the desire for variety that bothered him. It was the lack of faith. Look at verses 18–20. Their pleas for variety were a rejection of God. How?

When they looked back at the good old days they forgot something very important. In verse 5, they said all that variety cost them nothing. Really? Had they so quickly forgotten slavery? Whips on the back. The death of all males. Had they so quickly forgotten the cost of that variety? Was it wrong to want variety? No. It was wrong to want that variety at the expense of their faith.

Their pleas for variety signified a lack of faith, a lack of trust, a lack of satisfaction, a greed that was not part of God’s desire. Notice in verse 31 that the Lord brought the quail into the camp. The quail flew no more than three feet above the ground. As far as a person could walk from their tent in a day, that is how widespread the quail were. According to verse 32, no one gathered less than 10 homers. There is some disagreement among scholars as to how much that is. The NIV translators in a footnote say it is about 60 bushels. Ashley in his commentary says 38 bushels. For the sake of argument, it was a lot of meat per person.

And it was all free. But then so was the manna. And it was also before refrigeration. Verse 33 says the Lord struck them with a plague. Most believe it was some kind of food poisoning. That seems reasonable, but in this plague God made sure that some people died. They got what they wanted—variety. But it came at a terrible cost. Surely the lesson of this story is not lost on us. My mother used to say be careful what you ask for because you may get it. There is a lot of truth to that. The people got what they wanted but it didn’t come without a price.

In fact, everything comes with a price. To leave the slavery of Egypt the people had to go through some hardships on the way to the promised land. Whenever we begin to expect perfection, you can be sure that we would not be satisfied if we got it. Finding contentment is difficult. At the basis of contentment is a satisfaction with God’s working in his own time. How difficult it is to keep from looking back and wishing for the good old days to return. But look at the present. See what God has already done. Don’t grumble and complain. Instead give thanks for what you already have.

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