"And Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month.
Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them?
And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord’s hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not."
Numbers 11:21-23
I like Moses maybe because I can relate to him a little bit too much. :) In this case, the Lord promised the Children of Israel flesh to eat, because they had been complaining about the food he had been providing them thus far. It was sort of a punishment for complaining as well though... the Lord says that they will eat flesh "not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days; / But even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the Lord which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?" (verses 19-20). The "come out your nostrils" part always makes me laugh... God seems to give us what we want sometimes just to show us that it isn't really what we want... we have to learn how unhealthy some of our desires are.
And then of course, Moses hears what the Lord has to say and he can't even imagine how that is going to happen, and the Lord reminds him again that he is after all, God, and he can do what he says he is going to do. :) I think this happens to us as well. God will tell us something through the scriptures, a blessing, or the prophet, and we're like, wait... that can't be right. That's too much, or it's too late, or just that will never happen. :) Part of the idea of God making it happen though is our acceptance of it and our willingness to work with him to fulfil these miracles. Faith, right? Moses still got to be part of the miracle even though he didn't understand how it could happen--because he was willing to work with God, and believed it enough to tell everyone.
The plague part isn't really clear... obviously not everyone died, but it mentions "the people that lusted" ... so, maybe the people who gathered too much and still kept eating it after the piles of birds had started to rot? No idea really, but it doesn't generally sound healthy. Today, let's remember some of the lessons from this story--first of all, let's not complain about the deliverance that God offers us. The Israelites sound a lot like Laman and Lemuel did, even though in both cases, God was leading them out of a bad situation into a better one. The better situation that God provides for us isn't easy though, and we tend to like easy, even when it is super bad for us. Maybe something to think about and change. And second of all, let's trust the Lord to do what he says he will do, whether we can imagine how it could possibly happen or not. Let's work with him and wait to be amazed rather than giving up and turning away.
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