The leanness of the soul
the dangers of ingratitude
He saved them from the hand of those who hated them and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. The waters covered their oppressors; not one of them was left. Then they believed his words and sang him songs of praise. But they soon forgot his deeds and did not wait for his counsel. A craving seized them in the wilderness, and they put God to the test in the desert. He gave them what they asked, but sent leanness into their soul. - Psalm 106:10-15
Commentary gave me the reference to the origin of this recounting of God and Israel’s interactions - Numbers 11. In response to Israel’s complaining of having nothing to eat, God had sent manna - daily bread. But that wasn’t enough.
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
Never mind that the cost of the fish that they ate was their own blood, sweat and tears.
And say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the LORD, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was better for us in Egypt.” Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat. You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the LORD who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?”’” - Numbers 11: 18-20
Did God’s message get passed along to the people verbatim? Even I can read the irritation. Would they have paused and second-guessed their demands if they had heard his response word for word? Matthew Henry’s note on Psalm 106 of “What is asked in passion is often given in wrath” certainly seems apt as there was a reckoning.
Then a wind from the LORD sprang up, and it brought quail from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, around the camp, and about two cubits above the ground. And the people rose all that day and all night and all the next day, and gathered the quail. Those who gathered least gathered ten homers. And they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck down the people with a very great plague. - Numbers 11:31-33
Initially my thought was that this had to be ingratitude that provoked this response, but as I read this passage, I think it’s actually the deepest form of ingratitude. ‘I wish you had never done those miraculous things.’ It wasn’t just that they were ungrateful for the manna, it was that they had become ungrateful for God’s miraculous rescue from Egypt and his provisions during that time to the point that they wished it had never happened.
It’s interesting to note that the rabble that stirred this up may have been non-Israelites that the Israelites let into their group: the word for rabble is אֲסַפְסֻף (ăsap̄sup̄) and Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon defines it as “the camp-followers attending Hebrews at the Exodus.” Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon also is similar: “whence contemptuously, a mixed crowd, scraped together of men of all kinds, colluvies, who added themselves to the Israelites;” Was it this group only that were struck down by the plague for their influence on God’s people? Did it include others that allowed themselves to be influenced into this deep ingratitude?
While it’s easy to shake our heads and say, “oh, those Israelites…”, how often do we curse the blessings that God has given us when we are too short-sighted to see that God’s not done yet? When we crave the known, as bad as it is, over the unknown blessings and glory that God is leading us into? When we are so focused on what we want even though it’s a path leading to destruction - and that’s not God’s path for us? Do we look at who we surround ourselves with? Are we influencing them, or are they influencing us?
We are told to ask, to seek. But it is God we are to seek first, and he will make sure that we are provided for.
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. - Matthew 6:31-33