Some texts hold more than one great lesson. Our recent text of Numbers 11:4-6 is one of those passages. Israel just escaped the 400 years of slavery from Egypt. Chased into the desert, they soon began to complain about their new hard days. Let’s read our text a second time:
Numbers 11:4-6
The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”
Of course we see that they were blessed and cared for by God, but they still wanted more. Give us meat and then we will be okay, they basically cried.
But, there is a second great lesson that we should not overlook. Look at the people, not only did they want meat to eat, but they were missing the good old days, you know back when they were slaves. Ugh! How can they possible think those days were better. They looked back longingly and said, “We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost.”
No cost? They were owned as slaves to the Egyptians. They were cut off from the worship of their God – or at least controlled as to how they could worship. They were forced to make a daily quota of bricks for the Egyptians.
But, when they got hungry, they longed for the good old days when they were slaves and got meat as “no cost.”
How many times do we do the same thing? We see no cost in doing whatever we want. Our family suffers because we do not work. If we ignore our health we think it is no cost to us.
Look, I know that I am as guilty of this “no cost” thinking as any anyone but the exhortation to all of us is to cost the cost before we do anything. This is the teaching of Jesus in Luke 14:28, “First sit down and calculate the cost.” The whole idea of “No Cost” is a myth.
Lonnie Davis