Aside from the fact that this is now the fourteenth time Israel is recorded to complain about something in the wilderness (or fifteen, depending on how you classify them), Numbers 21:5 is also an outright lie.
Listen to what the people say: “There is no food or water, and we loathe this miserable food.” In the same sentence, the people claim that there is no food, and yet also claim that they hate the food. Which one is it?
I think it’s fair to say that this supposed lie is really just a manifestation of their hatred for manna. When my six-year-old looks in the pantry and says “there’s nothing to eat,” he doesn’t mean there’s no food whatsoever, it just means there’s no food in there that he likes.
That’s where the Israelites are at. They have food, but they don’t have any food that they like. And the phrase they use to describe manna—which literally comes from Heaven for them—is called “miserable food.” Is that fair?
For Israel, it probably is. Keep in mind that they’ve eaten this food for almost forty years. The first mention is way back in Exodus 16, and was meant as a sustaining food. It’s even placed in a container and kept near the Ark of the Covenant as a reminder of God’s provisions for his people.
Sustenance doesn’t always mean a high flavor profile, though. When I was in Africa several years ago, I ate something called Mielie meal, which is basically a more nutritious form of grits (for those of us in the South) that’s made from corn. It’s loaded with carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats, but virtually devoid of any taste.
Mielie meal is very affordable though and provides all the nutrition any person would need. In that way, it’s exactly like the manna from heaven.
The problem is that manna sounds pretty delicious from the get-go. Exodus 16:31 ays that its taste was like “wafers with honey.” Ever had wafers with honey? I have. It’s awesome.
The problem is that I don’t think I could eat it every single day for forty plus years. By Numbers 11:6, they’re already sick of it and begging for something more.
There’s a lesson in this manna, though. Deuteronomy 8:3 teaches that God gave them manna to teach them that “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”
As great as manna might have been, the real thing that should’ve sustained these people through the years was the presence of God. Manna is to them physically what God was to them spiritually.
Come to think of it, they reacted the same way to both: They hated manna after a while, and turned on God eventually, too. They were sick of the wilderness and wanted more.
Is that my mentality? Sometimes, I can become so used to God’s provisions that I begin to grow tired of it. “Ugh, I want more. This job, this town, this house—it’s all not enough anymore!”
It is if I lean on God’s sustenance. The alternative is to have that all taken away.