Eat Quail Much?

So I was reading my Bible again today and I came upon a story that either I overlooked before or haven't read before.  It so reminded me of God being a parent to the Israelites and how sometimes God will give us what we want even though He knows it's not the best thing for us. 

¹⁶ The Lord therefore said to Moses, “Gather for Me seventy men from the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and their officers and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. ¹⁷  Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit who is upon you, and will put Him upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you will not bear it all alone. ¹⁸ Say to the people, ‘ Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept in the ears of the Lord, saying, “Oh that someone would give us meat to eat! For we were well-off in Egypt.” Therefore the Lord will give you meat and you shall eat. ¹⁹ You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, ²⁰ but a whole month, until it comes out of 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 ever leave Egypt?”   Numbers 11:16-20

As I read through this I was trying to keep myself from laughing.  I know it's not really mean to be something to laugh at, but I can only imagine what God was thinking when He told Moses this.  It seems like He finally got tired of the people griping and complaining about not having meat so He was like "fine, have your meat!"  I wonder how many times in our lives He as done something like that and we don't even realize it.  We pray and pray and ask and ask for something and for a while He says no because He knows what is best for us, but then finally He says, "fine, you want it, it's yours. Eat away!"  

The story for Moses didn't end there.  Moses had the nerve to suggest God couldn't provide. (At least that's how I took what he said)

²¹ But Moses said, “The people, among whom I am, are 600,000 on foot; yet You have said, ‘I will give them meat, so that they may eat for a whole month.’ ²² Should flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to be sufficient for them? Or should all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to be sufficient for them?” ²³ The Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s power limited? Now you shall see whether My word will come true for you or not.”   Numbers 11:21-23 

How often have we done that as well?  God says He is going to give us something and we question how He is going to do it.  I try to figure out what Moses was thinking.  God had already "proved" himself to Him many times.  It even says that God spoke directly to Moses in a way that He didn't with anyone else amongst the Isrealites and yet Moses questions Him.  

 To me, it shows how understanding God is with us sometimes.  He reveals Himself to us and yet we still question, we still complain, we still doubt and yet God comes back and says "Trust Me!"  Oh how hard that seems to be for us sometimes to just trust Him.  To let Him be in control.   

Both of these passages really spoke to me today about how we can be....how I can be and so I thought I would share.  Feel free to let me know what you think.  

Still wondering about the title?  Read on at the end of Numbers 11 to find out that God provided them with Quail for a month.  



Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. Ephesians 6:19-20 NIV