Complaining about the Lord’s Providential Care

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!” Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color like the color of bdellium. (Numbers 11:4-7 NKJV)

Who was the Mixed Multitude?

The mixed multitude seems to be Egyptians that saw the miracles in Egypt and willingly left Egypt with the Israelites.  They were likely (in my opinion) married to Israelites.  I say that because their first born males must have been spared in that last miracle that had Egyptians thrust the Israelites out.  I think they had seen the power of God but had never fully come to faith in Him.  That is my opinion.  They were not Israelites by birth nor were they Jews by conversion.  While they were on the journey, they were the source of a lot of complaining about the way the Lord was treating the congregation on its journey.  Do we have people like that today?  Do we have people that are in the congregation but are not truly committed to the “walk of faith?”  

The Food of Egypt. . .the Place of Bondage

While the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt sometime after Joseph died, they still must have had a diet that they liked.  Frankly, I think their diet stank.  It was leeks, onion, garlic, cucumbers and fish.  These are things that we are told are good for us today but they are things that I ask my wife to use sparingly.  I can smell those who overuse garlic a mile away.  But they liked it.  This diet was the diet of the world.  It stank but it was something that they got used to and the Israelites apparently grew to like this kind of diet.  To me it represents the things of this world that really stink, but that we as Christians crave when the manna no longer satisfies.

Manna, the Bread from Heaven

Manna speaks of Christ according to John 6.  It was available miraculously every morning except on the Sabbath and tasted like a dessert when they first started eating it.  We read,  “And the house of Israel called its name Manna. And it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. (Exodus 16:31 NKJV).”  However,  it became more like the taste of olive oil the longer that they traveled.  We read, “The people went about and gathered it, ground it on millstones or beat it in the mortar, cooked it in pans, and made cakes of it; and its taste was like the taste of pastry prepared with oil (Numbers 11:8 NKJV).”  Some versions of the Bible are not as kind, they say it tasted like olive oil.  Now I have olive oil in the cupboard and I try to cook with it when possible, but I don’t get up in the morning looking forward to a spoonful of olive oil.  In Numbers 21:5,  the children of Israel called manna worthless bread (or the KJV says, light food).  So the miraculous food that started out being so tasty and enjoyable and miraculous became a food that was boring and despised and worthless or light.  

The Lesson

Has our “manna” become boring?  We know that manna speaks of Christ.  The Lord explains this in the Gospel of John when He says, “This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.” (John 6:58 NKJV).  Eating here in the context of the Gospel is “believing in” or “trusting” the Lord.  Eternal life is always obtained by faith and eating the manna makes it clear that faith is life changing and life sustaining.  It is not superficial. 

But why is it that when we are first saved the truth about Christ is like dessert after a meal, but after we are saved for a while we become bored with the things that once were sufficient to satisfy us.  We turn back to things that once had us in bondage.  We want new ways to worship.  We want a fleshly excitement.   And yes, we can all be guilty of letting the mixed multitude guide our thinking and instead of being “true worshippers” who are thankful we become complainers who are looking for “more.”  

May the Lord Himself be “sweet to our taste.”  Peter reminds us, “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious (1 Peter 2:2-3 NKJV).”  

Are we satisfied with our manna as we travel through the wilderness?

Bruce Collins

Meditation for the week of February 22, 2026

If you would like further conversation about the issues in these meditations, contact me at collinsbd@yahoo.com and I will try to accommodate you with a virtual Bible Study.