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Numbers 11 – #44 Praying through the Bible – A Prayer Just Like Before
Why should we expect God to treat us any better, any differently, if we always treat Him the same shabby way? That question should shock us or shame us into revaluating deeply. Since praying through the Bible, has the level of our prayer life been raised, become more focused, less selfish, with less complaints, and more praise? Are we content? Are we changing? Here is another searing question, why should we expect our life to be any better, any different, when we keep making the same bad choices?
Just as before, “the people began complaining openly before the LORD about hardship” (Nm 11.1). They’re not praying “God, I hate my life.” People often speak God’s name in vain without praying. People convince themselves it is less blasphemous to complain about God than to complain to God. Reading Numbers 11 is like reading Exodus 16 (#30). It’s like a very bad sequel, when the original wasn’t any good. It’s like serving leftover, burnt salmon paddies, because no one ate them the first time. When some scholars see similar stories, they see the same original story written by different authors and a confused editor who makes them two stories. I see something much simpler and sinister – self and sin. If we don’t change, our story stays the same.
Just as before, God is listening even when we are not talking directly to Him. “When the LORD heard, fire from the LORD blazed among them” (11.1). Here is where Israel’s memories become as mushy as wet manna. “Who will feed us meat? We remember the free fish we ate in Egypt….But now our appetite is gone; there’s nothing to look at but this manna!” (11.4-5). “Free” food? Apparently they forgot it was paid for by blood, sweat, tears, and slavery. After eating the same manna for over a year (10.11), they complain about their answered prayer. As someone who doesn’t like leftovers, and one who has eaten the same leftovers 2 or 3 times in one week (I can’t stomach 4 times), I understand. But what was their alternative? Starve in the desert, return to slavery, eat the manna and complain, eat the manna and be thankful. Sometimes when we are complaining, we need to honestly assess our choices.
Just as before, God provides meat in the desert. This time, the quail lay “three feet off the ground, about a day’s journey in every direction. The people were up all that day and night and all the next day gathering the quail – the one who took the least gathered 33 bushels” (11.31-32). This story ends much like it begins. “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” (11.33). God did not treat them any better because they didn’t treat God any better.
Prayer Challenge: Look again at the two questions in the opening paragraph, and then look honestly as ourselves and our prayers. If we were God, would we want to hear us pray the same complaints just as before?
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