There they go again! The chronic complaining of the Israelites unfolds in another embarrassing episode. Will they ever learn? The complaint this time is about their diet. They were feeding daily on what the Bible calls the bread of angels (Ps. 78: 25) and yet they were dissatisfied. This manna tasted like a pastry cooked with the finest oil (11: 8) and yet they were not happy campers. Manna was the perfect diet. It probably didn’t even add anything to your hips! Apparently they learned to prepare it in varied ways (11: 7) but still that brought no delight. They cried out to Moses and he cried out to God. Their diet got changed quickly but they learned a bitter lesson in the process.
God rained meat on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the seas (Ps. 78: 27). Now they were completely satisfied, for He gave them what they craved (Ps. 78: 29). Sounds like a gracious God generously providing for His children, right. Well, not so fast. Before they had satisfied their desire, while the food was still in their mouths, God’s anger flared up against them, and He killed some of their best men (Ps. 78: 30 – 31). What’s the moral of this story? You may get what you want only to discover that what you wanted brings many things you did not want.
God’s choices for our lives are truly the wisest ones. Discontent questions that. That’s why discontent is one of the quickest ways we have of determining whether we are genuinely walking by faith. Our words of dissatisfaction often betray us, revealing hearts, not of faith, but of fickleness instead. Grumbling is a godless activity. It forgets the sovereignty of God and substitutes the whimsical and often wicked musings of the never-at-rest crowd in its place.