Serving the Source

Numbers 11:21-30; Psalm 51:7-17; Mark 12:7-17

Rev. Chris Harbin, Rocks Baptist Church—Pamplin, VA

13 March 2005

There are many issues, causes, and concerns to claim our attention and demand to take center stage in our lives. Many would reduce the complexities of life and faith to issues of self-preservation. We would claim that God provides for our needs, but we live as though survival depends upon our own initiatives and controlling our environment. Which is true?

The Hebrews were grumbling again about God’s provision. God had wondrously freed them, but life in the wilderness was not meeting their expectations. They were struggling with the challenges of self-rule, freedom, and determining a course for their lives. In Numbers 11, we find them grumbling at God’s provision. That was not the real issue, but it was an irritant that claimed their attention. We can easily reprimand them for their lack of thankfulness, but placed in their position, we would likely join them rather than rise above their complaints. Oh, they were not used to eating meat on a regular basis, but they were accustomed to a little more variance in their diet. Manna for breakfast, lunch, and supper met their physical needs, but they were still struggling to find contentment in their new way of life.

In missionary terminology, we might call what they face a degree of culture shock. Life had suddenly changed, and they were not used to the new rules, routines, and realities. Wandering about in the wilderness sure beat the forced labor of making bricks and building Pharaoh’s cities. At the same time, it did not provide the sense of satisfaction they were used to in seeing the results of their work. They no longer had their homes, even if slave quarters were never luxurious. They were learning the new life of becoming a semi-nomadic people. They were learning to forage and survive in a very different environment, under new rules, and making do on a very different set of provisions.

Life was in turmoil. Life was not fun. The excitement of freedom from slavery had worn off. The realities of taking on responsibility for daily survival was taking its toll. They were far behind on the learning curve, developing new skills required by wilderness life. Freedom was not what they had expected it to be. Freedom took a whole lot more work than they had envisioned. God’s provision was not going according to their plans, and they wanted a greater sense of control of their environment, lives, and food. They were free of bondage to Pharaoh, and they did not want anyone setting limits for them.

Food was the easiest thing to complain about. It was a complaint that could easily garner support. We are creatures of habit, and there is nothing quite so comforting as eating the foods that speak to us of tradition, home, and the nurture we received as children. They had not been accustomed to abundance, but to a different variety. They were used to eating meat only on special occasions, while only the ruling Egyptians ate meat on a regular basis. Meat was generally available only at the public feasts. This was not a daily event in the lives of the people of that time period. They ate meat when it could be had, using their herds mainly for dairy products and offerings that truly were sacrifices.

Now at their grumbling about the quality of God’s provision, God promises to feed the entire people—some 600,000 men plus women and children—with meat daily for an entire month! That was an exorbitant promise. Only the very wealthy could have meat on a regular basis, and God was to feed the entire population on meat for an entire month! Moses declared this impossible. It went beyond the limits of Moses’ imagination. Experience with hand-to-mouth existence, ruled such unbelievable.

Given our current level of prosperity, it is hard to imagine a meal without meat, much less a day, a week, or a month. We forget all too readily the scarcity of protein on the table in the Depression years. We overlook too easily that animal protein is not in the daily diet for the majority of the people alive today. Like the Hebrews in the wilderness, we fail to understand the degree of God’s provision that we enjoy, amid banal cries. Diet was not the issue, however. As goes the saying in Brazil, they were “crying on a full stomach.”

God’s provision was about much more than manna and meat. Yahweh provided the people with direct access to the Creator and Lord of the Universe! The elders of the people were called to Moses at the Tabernacle, but two did not heed the call. Even these two were accorded the Breath of the Holy One, and they spoke the words of God, prophesying before the people. Joshua was taken aback. He wanted to stop the two men who had not joined Moses. He seems to have feared that God would not be able to speak through them and through Moses as well, as though there were not enough of Yahweh to go around!

God’s provision was greater than any limitation to speak through Moses or those leaders gathered around him. As the promise to send meat to feed the people beyond their wildest dreams, God provision of divine presence and access was also far beyond their expectation and desire. They could gorge themselves sick on food and still remain empty on the inside.

Yahweh wanted to give them more than they were willing to receive. At the same time, they were unable to enjoy the provision God sent their way. They were too caught up in personal turmoil to recognize the real issues. They were more concerned with being in control and charting their own future than allowing God to direct them and provide for their needs.

“Render unto Cesar what comes from Cesar, and unto God what comes from God.” What did they have that did not come from God? Yahweh had stamped their lives with His own image, provided freedom, food, instruction for living as a people, and charted a course into the Land of Promise. They were too reluctant to give up control in order to accept what God had to offer.

That is where we find the religious leaders of Jesus’ day as well. They had position and power over God’s vineyard, but would not accept their status as stewards. Rather than serve God as vineyard stewards, they controlled it for their own gratification. They did not trust God to provide sufficiently for their needs. They claimed God’s greatness and power, but their lives betrayed them. Their focus had shifted toward their issues of self. They were much more concerned with avoiding the payment of taxes to Cesar than with fulfilling their stewardship responsibilities over God’s vineyard. They were afraid there might not be enough of God’s provision to go around.

We claim that God is the source of all good things. We claim that God provides for the needs of humanity. We claim the position of stewards in God’s vineyard. Do our lives evidence the claims we make? When we stop to think about it, the Hebrews were concerned with getting control over their lives, as were the religious leaders in Jesus’ day. Does the gospel promise us control? Does it not rather invite us to relinquish control to God, instead? Rather than controlling the vineyard for our own satisfaction, are we up to the challenge of serving the real source of our provision? Can we trust God to provide, serving God rather than our own comfort?

—©Copyright 2005 Christopher B. Harbin

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