Day 37

Dec 7: Numbers 11-13
In these few chapters, the Israelites continue to grumble and complain and it arouses the anger of the Lord. They complain about only eating manna and not having any meat to eat and ramble on and on about it until Moses can't take it any more and finally goes to God for advice. Clearly, God is angry that he keeps providing for the Israelites, yet they keep complaining, even saying they had it better off in Egypt. So God tells them that he will provide meat for them, not just for 1 or 2, or 5 or 10 days, but for a whole month. He says they will eat meat "until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it-because you have rejected the Lord."
That's a pretty graphic image if you ask me. Obviously, we shouldn't be trying to draw the ire of God, but even though he's steaming with anger God still handles the situation with wisdom. He provides the Israelites with what they want by sending tons of quail for them to eat, but also punishes and teaches them a lesson at the same time by overproviding for them. Instead of just punishing them some other way, God provides the Israelites with a chance to learn how foolish they have been. I feel like God works like this so often in my life. So many times I look back on things that I've done, stupid things, and see how God has used those times to help me mature. A lot of times I'll make the same mistakes, but the other times I will learn and erase that stupidity from my life. Praise God for being so tolerant and merciful to us, dealing with our foolishness and immaturity, and providing us with lessons from our own life experiences that will help us draw closer and closer to Him.