Numb. xi. 10 — 13. Then Moses heard the people weep through- out their families, every man in the door of his tent : And the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly : Moses also was dis- pleased. And Moses said unto the Lord, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou lay est the burthen of all this people upon me ? Have L conceived all this people ? have L begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, (as a nursing father beareth the sucking child,) unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers ? Whence should L have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat.
TRULY humiliating are the views which the Scrip- ture gives us of human instability. Who would have thought that the zeal which all the princes of Israel manifested in furnishing the tabernacle a should so soon vanish? The first journey which they have to perform, fills them all with discontent : it being con- tinued three days without intermission, all complain of the length of the way. Some are signally punished by the Lord, being struck dead by fire : but the sur- vivors, neither awed by the judgments inflicted on others, nor won by the mercy shewn to themselves, soon murmur again for want of variety in their food. At this, Moses is deeply grieved, and God is greatly offended. That the different circumstances may come easily under our review, we shall notice in succession,
I. The sin of Israel —
They were discontented with the food which God had given them —
[They wanted flesh to eat, that they might gratify their palates; and were so vexed for want of it as to " weep in all their tents." To excuse these inordinate desires, they com- plained, that they were emaciated by subsisting only on such insipid food as God had provided for themb. They invidiously compared their state in Egypt with their present state; omit- ting all which they had suffered there, and magnifying the
a Numb. vii. h ver. 6.