We Have Lost Our Appetite

Numbers 11:4-6 says, "If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost – also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”

Don't miss that small little phrase that begins the third sentence of this passage..."We have lost our appetite". Why? "We never see anything but this manna!"

Having traveled through the wilderness for many, many days, the people of Israel fall prey to a common problem...selective memory. They begin to remember their days in Egypt. They remembered having meat to eat, free fried fish, and all the salad and fruit you could want. They remembered never having to worry about the variety of their meals.

But they forgot two very important things. First of all, they really didn't get "the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost...." It really came at a great cost...their freedom. They forgot their bondage. They forgot the hours of making bricks and laboring to build the massive Egyptian structures. They forgot the beatings and the executions. All they can remember is the food.

Like Israel, we tend to remember only the pleasant things, the good things. That why we fondly reminince about the good old days. Don't get me wrong. There were some good things in those days. But there was plenty that wasn't so good either. It is just our nature to remember the good over the bad. 

Secondly, they forgot that the very thing they are complaining about now, manna, was a free gift from God that, at one time, they were very grateful to receive it. It wasn't that manna was bad. It was just they had grown use to it. They received it everyday. If it were taken away, they would surely miss it, they were taking it for granted now, rather than seeing its blessing.

Isn't that how we treat God's grace. We all know that we would miss it if it wasn't there, don't we? We all know that we are dependent on it to survive spiritually. But because it is so freely given, because by its very definition, grace is, well, grace, we sometimes take it for granted that it is there.

The danger? As Israel demonstrates, when we take something freely given for granted, we tend to lose our appetite for it. When we have experienced a blessing for so long, we tend to feel like we're missing out on something else. "We never see anything but..." 

Isn't it true that what followed that but, "this manna", was more than enough. Isn't it true that manna in freedom, even in a wilderness, is better than meat in slavery?

But do we really believe that? Do we ever find that we have "lost our appetite" for God? Do we ever secretly wonder if there is something better that what we are always seeing?

As for me, manna in the desert beats meat in slavery anytime!