Numbers 11:4-20 No Good Thing Will God Withhold - Devotional Scripture

In the wilderness, the Israelites struggled with the sin of discontentment. This led to a lot of grumbling and complaining which displeased God. In Numbers 11 the Israelites were complaining about the food provision that God had given them. They began lusting, craving after the things of Egypt.

Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat? “We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!” Numbers 11:4-6

The Egyptians that came to the wilderness with the Israelites started complaining and it became contagious. The people of Israel got so wrapped up in what God wasn’t doing for them that they forgot the horrors of slavery. Their complaining hearts were romanticizing the past and over exaggerating the problems of the present. So God promised to answer the lust of their flesh; but not in a way that would be a blessing to them.

Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat.  You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have despised the Lord who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, “Why did we ever come up out of Egypt?”                              Numbers 11:18b-20

God would give them so much meat they would be sickened by it. He sent this plaque because they denied and doubted the goodness of God's provisions.  The Israelites ate and ate the meat until it came out of their nostrils. That is what happens with lust.  You never get enough of whatever you are lusting for. Lust is like a fire, the more you feed it the hotter it gets and the more it demands.  It is never satisfied and always leads to discontentment.

We think we know what we want but the Lord says:

For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.  Psalm 84:11

God sees what is truly best for us.  If I don’t have something or someone or whatever it is that I think I deserve or I’m lusting for the truth is it is not good me.  If it was good for me God would have given it to me.

By all means, we should pray and pour out our hearts to the Lord.  Tell him what you’re thinking and what you are dealing with and what your desires may be but make sure you pray like Jesus did:

 Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.  Luke 22:42