Numbers 11

The people in the desert deserved to be reprimanded, not because they desired meat but because they murmured against the Lord as a result of this desire for meat.

Do we not see that the Israelites got to their own hurt what their guilty lusting craved? For while manna was raining down on them from heaven, they desired to have meat to eat. They disdained what they had, and they shamelessly sought what they had not, as if it were not better for them to have asked not that their unbecoming desires be gratified with food that was wanting, but that their own dislike be removed, and that they be made to receive rightly the food that was provided. For when evil becomes our delight and good the opposite, we ought to entreat God to win us back to the love of the good rather than to grant us the evil.

We would be censured along with those who dwelled in the desert and who desired the disgusting food of vice and filthiness after having eaten the heavenly manna, and we would seem to complain like them: "It was well with us in Egypt, when we sat over pots of flesh and ate onions and garlic and cucumbers and melons." Although this manner of speaking first referred to that people, nonetheless we see it now daily fulfilled in our life and profession. For everyone who has first renounced this world and then returns to his former pursuits and his erstwhile desires proclaims that in deed and in intention he is the same as they were, and he says, "It was well with me in Egypt."

Prosperity has a way of bringing about the downfall and complete dissolution of the unwary. Thus the Jews, who from the beginning enjoyed the favor of God, repeatedly turned to the law of the kingdom of the Gentiles. When they were in the desert, after receiving manna, they kept recalling onions!

And moreover when they ate it formerly, its taste was changed into that of all kinds of meats in their mouth, and it is well known that it also took the place of flesh unto them, for it is written, "It was like honey comb, and its taste was as if it had been kneaded in oil." And although it was changed into all these varieties of food the eaters thereof were not condemned thereby, for it was a gift of Grace, and not that which their lust had demanded.

But the Lord also says to Moses, "Choose for yourself presbyters whom you yourself know to be presbyters." Let us examine very carefully the word of the Lord. What does that addition appear to mean, which says, "Whom you yourself know to be presbyters"? Was it not obvious to the eyes of all that he was a presbyter, that is, old, who was bearing old age in his body? Why then is that special inspection commanded to Moses alone, such a great prophet, that those be chosen, not whom others knew, not whom the ignorant multitude recognized, but whom the prophet full of God should choose? For in respect to them it is not a judgment about their body or their age but about their mind.

The same meaning is to be understood in the case of Moses when the Lord said to him, "I will take of your spirit and give to them," that is, I will give to them of the Holy Spirit which I have already given to you. If that which is also given has the giver for its principle, because it did not receive from any other source than that which proceeds from him, then we have to confess that the Father and the Son are the principle of the Holy Spirit, not two principles. But as the Father and the Son are one God, and in relation to the creature are one Creator and one Lord, so they are one principle in relation to the Holy Spirit. But in relation to the creature, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one principle, as they are one Creator and one Lord.

And again when Moses saw that they lusted, and were made unclean by their lust, he said to them, "Sanctify yourselves against to-morrow that ye may eat flesh," as if a man were to say, Because your persons have been made unclean by your lusts, and the gift of God draweth not nigh unto the unclean, sanctify yourselves from the lust that ye may be worthy to eat the gift of flesh, for "Ye shall not eat it one day, nor ten days, nor twenty days, but a whole month, until it come out from your nostrils, and it become indigestion unto you; because that ye have rejected the Lord Who is among you, and have said, Who will give us flesh to eat?" Behold then, according to the word of Moses unto the Jews, every one that eateth in lust, rejecteth the Lord Who is in him, and he resteth upon his lust's desire. Well then was indigestion made the limit of the meat which lust required, for need observeth a limit, but lust hath neither limit nor end.

This Spirit descended upon the seventy elders in Moses' day. My object is to prove that he knew all things and worked according to his will. The seventy elders were chosen: "The Lord then came down in the cloud, and taking some of the spirit that was on Moses, he bestowed it on the seventy elders." It was not that the Spirit was divided, but his gifts were distributed according to the vessels and the capacity of the recipients. Now there were sixty-eight present, and they prophesied. Eldad and Medad were not present. To make it clear that it was not Moses who bestowed the gift but the Spirit who wrought, Eldad and Medad, who had been called but had not yet presented themselves, also prophesied.

Joshua, the son of Nun and successor of Moses, was amazed, and coming to Moses said to him, Have you heard that Eldad and Medad are prophesying? They were called and did not come forward; "Moses, my lord, stop them." I cannot forbid them, he said, for the grace is from heaven. So far am I from forbidding them that I consider it a favor. But I think you have not spoken thus in envy. Do not be overzealous on my account, because they have prophesied, and you do not yet prophesy. Await the proper time. "Would that all the people of the Lord might prophesy, whenever the Lord shall give them his spirit."

To some, indeed, who lack patience, the Lord God in his wrath grants them what they ask, just as in his mercy, on the other hand, he refused it to his apostle. We read what and how the Israelites asked and received, but when their lust had been satisfied, their lack of patience was severely punished.

The people of Israel, because of their meat, forgot God, and instead of God, worshipped the similitude of a dumb animal; and again, because of their meat, the wrath of God went up against them; and again, because of their meat, they were led into the fornication with the Midianites, through which the pestilence had dominion over them suddenly, for it is written, "While the flesh was yet between their teeth the anger of God went up against them."

The Jews ate flesh in the wilderness, and it is written concerning them that, "While the flesh was yet between their teeth the anger of God had dominion over them," not because they had eaten flesh, but because with lust they had asked to eat it, for if the eating of flesh commonly brought anger whenever they ate it, they would have received this penalty, and, moreover, the priests who continually ate flesh in the temple would have deserved also the very same condemnation; but it is not written anywhere that anger had dominion over them because of the eating of flesh except in this place. That they sought flesh lustfully, and asked for it with lust, David testifieth, saying, "They lusted with lust in the wilderness, and they tempted God in the waterless desert, And He gave them their requests, and sent fulness into their souls."

And that He might increase in them this fear, immediately, by the mouth of offence, the rod of His chastisement was revealed, and after the offence the Chastiser gave them no respite, because their servitude was not worthy of His longsuffering. Above their head the rod of justice hung continually, and immediately they committed sin they were chastened, and at the time of their offence they were beaten, and at the entrance of the path of their sins they forthwith received rebuke; for longsuffering teacheth the foolish servant contempt, and in order that that stupid nation, which in the manner of an evil-doing servant, sat in the house of God, might not [learn] contempt, the Chastiser took away longsuffering, especially when they went forth from Egypt. And we must also understand the object of that swift punishment in another way, and that there was not longsuffering as regardeth the correction of their sins; for God the Teacher took the people, like a child, from Egypt their nurse, that He might deliver unto them the doctrine of His knowledge, and might teach them the instruction of His wisdom. But the people, in their ignorance, when instruction had been delivered unto them, forgot it, and they never kept in remembrance the meditation of the commandments of God, and they were frequently punished with severity, so that, if it were only through fear of chastisement, they might lay hold upon the remembrance of instruction. The man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath day was stoned by all the congregation; and the earth opened and swallowed up others who were called by Moses, and who scorned him and came not; and fire went forth suddenly, and burnt up the bodies of others who thought lightly of his priestly office, and who sought honour for themselves; and others, who in the guise of paying honour, brought strange fire out of season, were burnt up by a tongue of fire which went forth from the tabernacle, and they perished; and others, because they asked for flesh and rejected the bread of angels, were tortured by the indigestion which came upon them; and others who went astray as concerning the calf, were pierced through by the swords of the Levites; and others, who were the cause of the revolt at the waters of trial were set apart for destruction; and others who murmured against the Lord perished by fiendish snakes; and likewise they all, because they strove against going into the land of promise, came to an end and were destroyed in the wilderness. To these offences, then, these punishments were united, and together with each act of wickedness a punishment straightway sprang up by its side, so that evil deeds might be suppressed by stripes, and sins by vengeance, and so that the people might be like a child who feareth the teacher who giveth him instruction, and that it might tremble before the Judge who would beat them like a wrongdoing slave.

How is it that the graves of lust where the people fell in their devotion to flesh remain even to this day in the wilderness? Do we not read that the stupid people gorged themselves with quails until the wrath of God came upon them?