We are in chapter sixteen of Exodus with our word for today, used for the first time in the Bible. שְׂלָו quail, a small game bird, quails. It is used 4 times in Old Testament. Let’s look at all the uses. Exodus 16:12-13 “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’” In the evening הַשְּׂלָ֔ו quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. Another time God fed the people with quail exposed the condition of their hearts. Numbers 11:31-34 Now a wind went out from the Lord and drove שַׂלְוִים֮ quail in from the sea. It scattered them up to two cubits deep all around the camp, as far as a day’s walk in any direction. All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered הַשְּׂלָ֔ו quail. No one gathered less than ten homers. Then they spread them out all around the camp. But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague. If we just looked at this passage alone we might think God is overreacting to the people. But when you look at the context it makes more sense. Numbers 11:18-20 Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’”
When the time comes when God’s patience wears out and he needs to judge people, He lets them have their own way. “So He gave them what they asked for, but He sent a plague along with it” This is later expanded and explained in Psalm 106. Psalm 106:14-15 In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wilderness they put God to the test. So he gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting disease among them. God’s people began to devour the meat, happy that their craving was being satisfied; but then God’s judgment struck and many of them died. We see this same thing throughout the Bible into the new testament. Romans 1:24, 26-28 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another…Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts…Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. God reminds us to learn from the examples in the Bible pointing to the event in Numbers of how quail was used to judge his people. 1 Corinthians 10:6, 10 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did…And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.
Thankfully in Christ we can be saved from the desires of our sinful nature. I’ll close with the optimism that God has for us writing through Paul to the Christians in Corinth reminding them that they were lost people who had lived lives of passions that kept them from God but now have been forgiven and set free from these by the power of Christ. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
