The LORD Sends Quail

All right, well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions. That's where every weekday morning. Oh daddy spills his coffee You and I we get together we have a little bit of coffee we get into God's Word and we grow and I love for the Lord together and this year 2024 Lord willing we'll make it through the books of Numbers Deuteronomy and that's enough Numbers Deuteronomy and Hebrews, we talked about this yesterday. All right, Numbers, Judges, Numbers, Judges, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Hebrews. Let's have some coffee.
We'll pray and get into God's word. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. We pray that you would please help us to understand your word this morning. Teach us to obey you and to follow in your ways. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, Numbers chapter 11. Are we going to begin at verse 31? And read to the end of the chapter. Are you ready? Wait. Daniel, why don't you read verse 1 and I'll read the rest of the chapter. Verse 1. Or verse 31, sorry.
Now a wild... Wind. and went out from the Lord, and it brought a whale from the sea and left them. Fluttering. Well, there's an M in there. Camp. Good job. About a day. About a day's journey. Oop, I think you messed up there a little bit. About a day's journey. There you go. About a day's journey on this side and about today. About a day's journey. On the other side, all black. and about to... Oh, that's a hard word. Cubits. ...above the soft... Soft? Surface. ...of the ground. Good job. And the people stayed up all that day, all night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail.
He who gathered least gathered ten homers. And they spread them out for themselves all around the camp, but while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, The wrath of the Lord was aroused against the people. And Jehovah struck the people with a very great plague. So he called the name of that place, Kibroth Hatavah. Because they buried the people who had yielded to craving. From Kibroth Hatavah, the people moved to Hazaroth and camped at Hazaroth.
Alright, so. The people had complained to Moses, right? What did they remember? That it was so glorious, there was fish, and she had to eat it, some nice juicy meat. Yeah right, there was nice juicy meat and there was fish and onions and leeks and melons and Egypt. It was so much better.
Why has God taken us to this horrible place, right? And what did Moses say? He said, God, I can't handle all these people. Please help me. That's right. And so yesterday I read in Coffee and Devotions how the Lord said, okay, get all the elders. I'm going to get them together. I'm going to put my spirit on them.
And he told Moses, he said, I'm going to give the people enough meat to eat for a whole month. And Moses was like, God, I don't know how you're going to do that. Are you going to gather up all the fish of the sea? Are we going to eat all the livestock? And the Lord says, has my arm been shortened? Nope. And so what happens in this story? He gives them meat. He gives them meat. He gives them meat, right?
Quail, right? So birds. Birds fly in from the sea and they all plop down. Right by the Israelites. Two cubits high. That's like from I think about from here to here high. So almost as you would be walking from your feet to your hips. A grown man. In quail. In quail. That had flown in from the sea. You could have shot them. Well, they don't have guns. They're not shooting them. They have knives.
Yeah, they do have nights, right? So they start collecting the quail, right? Man, all this meat, all this meat, this is good, this is wonderful. And what happens? The next day. The next day they go out and they're still there, right? They're collecting more quail. And then the next day they go out and there's still quail. They're eating and eating and eating. They're eating so much that the meat is between their teeth, but before they're able to swallow... There's more. There's more. But how does the Lord feel about this? You're being gluttonous.
Well, it's not just being gluttonous, right? They're not enjoying what God's giving them. Well, they haven't enjoyed what God's giving them, right? But do they love God or do they love the stuff that God is giving them? Love the quail. Yeah, they love the quail, right?
But while the meat was still between their teeth, verse 33, Before it was chewed, the wrath of Jehovah was aroused against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague. Alright, the people who were like, oh man, we don't want the Lord, we want to go back to Egypt. The Lord sends a plague, and what happens to them? Remember, they actually die, right?
They have this intense craving for meat. They want the meat more than they want freedom. They want God. But the other people who are like God made them for a reason. He made them for a reason. Yeah, right, the people who love the Lord more than they love the meat.
Were they okay? Yeah, they were like, oh wow, you know, Home Pet liked it a bit, but I don't think you should be eating it so fast. Now interesting, when it calls the place Kir Broth Hatavah, do you know what Kir Broth Hatavah means? Nope. Graves of craving. You know how we've seen people at funerals, their casket is put into a grave? So graves of craving. So what does that really mean? Well that's what they named the place. Graves of craving? Yeah. So they eat a lot of food. Yeah, so in my Bible I have verse 33 underlined as the best verse to summarize this. Let's go ahead and talk about what this calls us to do. What do you think? What is this calling us to do in our lives? I think...
It's calling us to don't enjoy all the things of this world and store up your possessions in heaven. Okay, so don't enjoy the things of this world, but store up your treasures in heaven. Well, but God tells us that we can be merry as we eat. I think we can enjoy the things, but can we enjoy the gifts of God more than God the giver? No. No, right? We're to love Him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. Mewedekha. Yeah, Mewedekha. You're right. All of our Mewedekha. But where does every good and perfect gift come from? God, God, and God. Yeah, right?
And so when we get good gifts, when we get our daily bread, what should we do? We should use it well. Use it well. Should we enjoy it with thankfulness? Yeah, but she does not shove it down in your throat. Yeah, right. Should we trust him? But with sourdough it tastes pretty good. What's that? The sourdough, it tastes pretty good. Quail with salad would taste pretty good? No, sourdough tastes pretty good. Oh, so like, yeah, when mom makes sourdough, you can enjoy the sourdough? Yeah, but it tastes so good, I really have to eat the whole thing. You have to eat the whole, well maybe you don't have to eat the whole bread of sourdough at once.
Very good, right? But even then, can we love the gift? Can we be thankful for the gift? But should we love the gift more than the giver? No, right? God is good. He gives us good gifts. We should love mom more than the yummy, delicious sourdough. Yeah, we should love mom more than the yummy, delicious sourdough. Who should we love even more than mom? God! That's right. You ready to pray? Yep. Okay.
God, we do pray that you would teach us to trust you. that what you have in store for us is for our good and for your glory. We pray that you would help us to walk in your ways. We pray that we would love you and be thankful to you more than the good gifts that you give us. Lord, please, teach us to follow you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. But you can enjoy the stuff and thank God for it. But you still have, but God is still higher. Exactly. Bye! Well, may you enjoy the good gifts that God gives you today. But may you enjoy the Lord forever. Bye! We'll see you next time. Bye!
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.