the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 1 of 5
Numbers 11:1-9
In their ingratitude the people grumble and the LORD punishes them. But the lesson was not sufficient. Covetousness, condemned by the tenth commandment of the law, springs to life in the heart of the "mixed multitude" (this motley collection of people that left Egypt with Israel — Exodus 12:38). Where are the things we used to eat in Egypt for nothing? The poor people forget the bricks, the straw, and how dearly the oppressor made them pay for the little he gave. These Egyptian dishes: leeks, onions, garlic, etc., have for the most part a strong flavour, arousing the appetite, but are not nourishing, sometimes indigestible. On what do the people of this world feed their minds? Magazines, novels, films . . . attractive to the flesh, but without profit to the soul, quite otherwise!
Israel at that moment remembers these items of food because the manna has lost for them its delicious flavour of wafers made with honey! (Exodus 16:31). It is no more than a cake made with oil (v. 8), at a later stage to be described as "this light bread" (Exodus 21:5). Dear friends, if we are tempted by the delicacies of this world, let each of us ask himself the question, "Is it not because the Word has become tasteless to me?" The Lord Jesus has promised, "He that cometh to me shall never hunger" (John 6:35).
