Values Blog
Graves of Craving
“Contemptible people among them had a strong craving for other food … So they named that place Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved the meat.”Numbers 11:4, 34
It seems unthinkable. There they were in the desert. A cloud guided them and protected them from the sun’s hot rays. Manna fell every morning in the dew, and fresh water flowed from a rock. God showed Himself as their protector and provider. What more could they want? At first it was just a few “contemptible people” craving “other food”; but, before long, Moses heard “family after family” crying with dissatisfaction and complaining about what God had provided for them. They wanted something more, something different, something better. And their greed spread like the plague that soon followed—the deadly result of their insatiable desire (Numbers 11:33).
It seems unthinkable—yet here we are again. Living equally greedy and complaining lives. One car is nice, but aren’t two or three even better? How can we disappoint our friends by skipping the trip to the beach? Don’t we deserve the house we want even if we can’t afford it? Credit makes the world go around, right? Greed. It’s just about everywhere we look. Family after family is in debt, and as we have seen in the past few weeks, even our financial institutions have succumbed to the craving for more. Yes, there have been voices crying in the wilderness for years, but they were largely drowned out by our feeding frenzy. And, unbelievably, most of us didn’t even see the plague coming.
Who but God knows where this current economic scare is going to end? I am not an economist; I don’t even balance my own checkbook. Thankfully God provided me with an obsessive compulsive husband to take care of that. But I can see the clear writing on the wall. Greed ends in destruction. It was true for those complaining Israelites, and it’s true for us. Instead of pointing our fingers at the institutions that have allowed us to get in this mess, maybe we should take a long look in the mirror and recognize the one who is really to blame. Hello! That’s right. If we are in debt then it’s our fault for wanting more than God has provided for us. We haven’t been satisfied with enough. We have lived with a “strong craving” for more, and it has cost us plenty—but thankfully not everything.
God is still our provider. He is in control of all things. The stock market. Our job security. Even the price of gasoline doesn’t take Him by surprise. Isn’t it a comfort to know that He cares for us—even in our foolishness—and that He will continue to provide for all our needs (if not wants)? Psalm 37 contains a familiar promise to “delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desires” (vs. 4). But it also holds out an equally reassuring observation by David, “I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous abandoned or his children begging bread” (vs. 25). We are God’s children. He has not abandoned us nor will He. He will continue to be our protector even in hard times, and He will be our “refuge in a time of distress” (vs. 39). That’s a promise we can take to the bank—or stuff under the mattress—wherever you are keeping your treasures these days.
Father, thank You for the security that comes in being Your child. Please, open my eyes to the greed I have allowed to seep into my life and cause me to honor You with my finances and my desires. You are my Provider, and I shall not want. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
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Great words - true and convicting!
posted at 11:28am on October 20, 2008 by David Freeman