Numbers 11:4 – And the mixt 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?

Numbers 11:5 – 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:

Numbers 11:6 – But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.

Hello readers, new blog today. We are going to see some simple truths from the Bible today. After Israel had been delivered out of Egypt they started to have fond memories of Egypt. We can tend to think of things that were bad, and are bad… as not so bad in retrospect. We can tend to come through life no closer to repentance and no closer to Jesus Christ, even after all the mercy and longsuffering and grace and goodness God has bestowed upon us. We can tend to look back longingly at a time that wasn’t actually great at the time.

God delivered these people out of Egypt, it was a miracle. They were set free from bondage in Egypt to go to a land flowing with milk and honey. God had saved them out of Egypt and consistently came through for them, proving his love and truth to the people. It had been a crisis in Egypt, and we all tend to have crisis points in our life, but for many people, they don’t bring lasting change. These guys although physically out of Egypt… weren’t changed inside. It wasn’t that great in Egypt, go back to the start of Exodus and we find that they were slaves, they were afflicted with burdens by harsh taskmasters, their lives were made bitter in hard bondage, and if they had a male child, it was mandatory for him to be drowned in the Nile river. The Bible describes Egypt as the iron furnace for a reason.

Admittedly, some people have different experiences in Egypt. Maybe this mixed multitude didn’t have it as tough as others. Mixed multitude meant there was Egyptians also in the multitude who also left out of Egypt from intermarriages or who joined the Hebrew cause. Many people just go whatever way the wind is going. So many people followed Jesus Christ for all the wrong reasons, and eventually ended up turning away from him when he rebuked their sin and told them hard truths. And some of us don’t have that bad an experience in sin. There are many who have it made in this life. They don’t need salvation, they don’t need a Saviour and they definitely don’t need repentance. They get carried along with a crowd, maybe they’re social Christians, they just love church life or being part of a movement or a popular group… just as it was a big group of people that left Egypt. But salvation must be personal, everyone will stand before God for themselves. You can’t hide from God in the multitude. Many of the people that came out of Egypt didn’t truly believe and they were overthrown in the wilderness.

God delivered Israel out of slavery in Egypt. It was a miracle. But their salvation was tested in the wilderness, just like for many today, life finds out what is really in their hearts. Many people go to church, call themselves Christians… or whatever… but their lives and actions show they have never truly repented and believed and been born again. How can you be saved yet have no appetite for the word of God? We all have a capacity to repent in the crisis point of life, but as time goes along and the crisis and urgency and desperation diminishes into normalcy and routine again… we remember back and think, hey that wasn’t too bad back then, in fact I kinda miss it! Out in the wilderness they got to thinking that it was better in Egypt. God can bring crisis points in our life which really shake us up, but we wake up the next morning and go straight back to where we were. As days goes by things don’t seem as bad as when we were in real trouble. It was bad in Egypt, but they got to thinking it wasn’t so bad after a while out of it. For many people the crisis point of life doesn’t lead them to the Lord Jesus Christ in repentance of sin.

Like the mixed multitude, we can be like this with sin. God delivers us from sin. He delivers us from slavery and bondage to sin or vices or addictions… but as days go by we long for it again. It was the mixed multitude that fell lusting. You see, churches and Christianity today are a mixed multitude, there are many who are not truly saved. They had a desire for flesh, they were sick of manna. That’s why churches are like they are, because people have an a fleshly appetite, not a spiritual appetite for the truth of the word of God. They got an appetite for the things of Egypt, and they never lost it. Many of us get an appetite for sin, and without God’s grace to let it go at the foot of the cross, just like with Cain, sin lieth at the door.

People can end up right back where they were, having got no closer to laying hold on salvation by faith, with the experiences of life having really counted for nothing. God shaking our life up can be a good thing, but for many the shaking doesn’t turn into saving faith. These guys had seen the hand of God in their deliverance out of Egypt and provision in the desert… yet they longed for Egypt. God can let things happen in our lives, and we resolve to get better, or resolve to do better, or it brings us to God, yet we wake up and it’s like a reset button has been hit. The sun comes up and we slide right back into our sin, into our old ways… it’s because we were never truly saved. A life unsaved and in sin was never a better life. A life consisting of pride, lust, bitterness, jealousy, envy… whatever… is never a better life. God has shown so much grace to you to preserve you out of countless ordeals but instead of looking to him, we look back fondly to the pleasures and perks of Egypt. Remember, it’s the grace and longsuffering of God… it should lead you to repentance, not back to more sin because you “got by” with it before.

The people said, there is nothing beside this manna. For the mixed multitude, the manna did not get it done. And people today have no desire for the word of God. They want the flesh and cucumbers and leeks and so on of Egypt, not the manna from heaven. 2 Peter 1 describes what true faith produces… a changed life and fruitfulness in Jesus Christ. But then goes on to say in 2 Peter 1:9 – But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. If you have no appetite for manna, yet an appetite for the things of Egypt, maybe you’re blind, maybe you’ve never been purged from your old sins.

It wasn’t better back in Egypt, it really wasn’t and isn’t. Look at the plagues that were upon them. Maybe your life has been plagued. Sin will plague your life. It’s amazing how God comes through for us again and again, yet we end up loathing the manna he sends us. Yet we end up longing for the place he delivered us from in his grace and mercy. God shows grace to so many of us, he sends rain on the just and unjust, yet the darkness goes, and we emerge from it unchanged. Yet we look back on times and places in our lives with fondness as we turn away from the cross of the Lord again. God has shown so much grace and mercy to us, yet we take advantage of that to sin and go back to sin… but it should bring us to him. We all have a life journey, and maybe God has shown mercy to you today, maybe he has delivered you out of things in your life, or brought you through the other end, but instead of repenting of your sin and calling on the name of the Lord, you’ve got to looking back to sin yet again, you’ve got to looking back to Egypt, you’ve just about had enough of the manna from heaven. It’s not better back in Egypt, it never was, Canaan land is far better. God had Canaan for these people, where they’d be free, and blessed, and victorious, and have houses they didn’t build, a land flowing with milk and honey… yet we typically get back to looking longingly for slavery in Egypt.

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