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I Cor. 10: 6-10 uses this wilderness experience to enforce a lesson, saying:--
"Neither murmur ye, as some of them murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer."
Philippians, while it does not actually refer to this period, treats of the same aspect of
truth--the going on like Caleb and Joshua--and in that epistle comes the exhortation:--
"Do all things without murmurings and disputings" (Phil. 2: 14).
A murmuring or complaining member of Christ is giving the lie to his calling. It is the
first step to a wasted life, the "perdition" of Heb. 10: 39, the "destruction" of Phil. 3: 19.
Philippians counters this spirit by implicating joy. A rejoicing believer is proof against
the temptations of the wilderness.
Following this general reference comes one that is specific:--
"And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of
Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?" (Numb. 11: 4).
This mixed multitude has appeared before, viz., in Exod. 12: 37, 38. They had
evidently come out under the shelter of the passover, and they had come through the
Red Sea, as we find them here in Numb. 11: This mixed multitude were the result of
mixed marriages contracted while in Egypt. Lev. 24: 10 speaks of the son of an
Israelitish woman whose father was an Egyptian. When Israel returned to Jerusalem
under Nehemiah, mixed marriages again were a source of trouble (see Neh. 13: 23 and
Ezra 9: 1, 2). Jehoshaphat's ruin is traceable to his "affinity" with Ahab. This mixed
multitude, when expressed in spiritual equivalents, appears in II Cor. 6: 14-18, and
hinders that "perfecting" of holiness which is the goal before us (II Cor. 7: 1).
Israel, when they wept, said:--
"Who will give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt
freely; the cucumbers and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick. But
now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes"
(Numb. 11: 4-6).
It is not without significance that Egypt's food is given as six items. Before the
Israelites lay the land of promise, and the food items mentioned in Deut. 8: 8 are
seven in number. Behind them lay the viands of Egypt, ahead the fruits of the land of
promise, and around them, before their very eyes and fresh every morning, was the
manna, with its taste like fresh oil. One of the seven items of Canaan's food was olive
oil, and the manna seems to have been a foretaste, a sort of "earnest of the inheritance".
That it was to be accepted gratefully and highly prized, the references in Scripture
testify. A golden pot of manna was among the few items that were laid up in the holiest
of all (Heb. 9: 4), and the Psalmist speaks of it as "The corn of heaven" and "angel's
food" (Psa. 78: 24, 25). Yet, did we not know, alas too well, our own hearts, we