Numbers 11:33-34 (NKJV) 33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was aroused against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague. 34 So he called the name of that place Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had yielded to craving.
The Israelites had a habit of whining.
It didn’t seem to matter what God did for them, they would whine and cry out to Him for something different than what He had provided.
On this particular occasion, they had mumbled and complained about having to eat manna for far too long. They wanted meat.
Their complaints irritated God to the point where He said that He would send meat. In fact, He said that He would send so much meat that they would eat it until it came out their nostrils!
Numbers 11:19-20 (NKJV) 19 You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, 20 but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you…
And so, God provided Quail for them to eat.
Many of the people lusted after the Quail so badly that they literally stayed up day and night, collecting as much as they could possibly gather.
And this is where it gets interesting.
As the people who had so badly desired meat began to eat what they had gathered, while they were literally still chewing it, God struck them with a plague and they died.
Because of this, the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah.
Kibroth Hattaavah literally means “graves of craving” or “the graves of sensuous desire”.
It was their lusting, their sensuous desire for what they didn’t have, that brought death upon them.
This is an excellent lesson for us to learn from. It shows how lusting after something, even something that’s not sexual in nature, can kill us if we’re not careful.
It’s important to note that we live under God’s grace, because we are in the time of the New Testament (Covenant). So, we seldom see God move in this way, striking tens of thousands of people dead with a plague.
But He is still God. And He does not change. So, it is good that we learn from this and not play the part of the Israelites, arousing God’s anger over and over again.
Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie
Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808
401-315-0902
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