Numbers 11:4-6: "Let's Go Back to Egypt!"

"Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, 'Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.'" Numbers 11:4-6

This morning we dive into one of the first stories in the book of Numbers that tell us of the Israelites' covenant unfaithfulness. Let us remember that the Lord has literally just delivered the Israelites from slavery, brought them through the Red Sea, and taken an enormous amount of time to go out of his way to establish a covenant with his people. The Lord has already been gracious, yet his people are still grumblers and complainers, and so are we.

If we back up to Exodus 16, we remember that the Lord provided bread from heaven when the Israelites were hungry and out of food. However, it's been about two years now, and the manna is getting a little boring. Thus, the Israelites cry out to the Lord (see verses above), desiring to go back to the great land of Egypt from which they were just delivered from. Back in Egypt, the Israelites remember eating a more higher-end menu of delicacies than the Lord's bread from heaven. Thus, they cry out and grumble, wishing that they were back in their former days.

However, let's pause and look at this for a second and remember that back in Egypt, the Israelites were in slavery. Furthermore, it wasn't just slavery, it was oppressive slavery. They were once required to make bricks without straw and were often beaten. Yet amidst it all, that's what they desired: to go right back to their land of slavery, because hey! at least there was better food there.

Before we make fun of the Israelites, let us realize that the same sin of grumbling and complaining is in our own hearts as well. It might be easy to make fun of the Israelites for their desire to go back into slavery, but how often do we do the same thing? We may not have been in slavery in Egypt, but we were in slavery to sin. And every time we sin, we do exactly what the Israelites did: we desire that we were in our former days. When we commit a sin, any sin, we look God in the eye and say, "Why did you deliver me from slavery in my sin? Surely my way is better, and thus I'm going to carry out my sinful ways rather than trust in your path for my life." Rather than trusting the Lord in this new freedom that he has brought us to, so often in our salvation we look back to our former way of life and commit the very sins that the Lord has rescued us from, just like the Israelites.

This is what Paul spoke of in Romans 6:12-14, which reads:

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

As Paul speaks of above, we have been set free from sin, that is, "brought from death to life." In response to this, we ought to always "let not sin...reign" in our bodies. We have been delivered from our slavery to sin; surely we ought not to live in it any longer. For to do so would be to turn around and place ourselves right back in slavery...why would we ever want to do such a thing?

So, how have you been crawling back in the cage of slavery to sin? Dear child of God, don't do what the Israelites did. Don't desire to go back into slavery. Remember what great things God has done for you, and be thankful. Don't desire your slavery under sin, desire your freedom to live for God in righteousness, and it will surely go well for you. Amen!