Bible Commentaries

The Irksomeness of Religion

Numbers 11:6

We all know how after a certain time the children of Israel began to loathe the manna. Their soul rejected it, it was light food. It was bread from heaven, says the Psalmist—angels" bread, and yet it proved distasteful to the camp. The strange thing is that it was they—and not God's enemies—who found the manna such a distasteful dish. It was the children of Israel who felt the diet irksome, and the children of Israel were the people of God.

I. That leads me by quite a competent spiritualizing—for did not Jesus say, "I am the bread"?—to dwell on a very urgent matter, I mean the irksomeness inherent in religion. There is nothing on earth so paramount and vital as the relationship of the human soul to God. Yet men who have felt all that, and feel it now—and wherever an awakened soul Numbers 11:9

Israel represents humanity in its pitiful failure to realize the goodness of Divine providence.

I. Here are Usual and Unusual Mercies.—Dew is usual, manna is unusual. Dew falls everywhere and always; not so manna. Life, however, receives both dew and manna. The sad fact is that we often fail to appreciate either class of mercies.

II. Here are Natural and Spiritual Mercies.—Dew is a natural blessing; manna represents a spiritual good. One is according to the established course of nature, the other a supernatural gift of God. And yet the distinction between natural and spiritual is largely Numbers 11:26

Lord, Thy servants are now praying in the church, and I am staying at home, detained by necessary occasions, such as are not of my seeking, but of Thy sending. My care could not prevent them, my power could not remove them. Wherefore, though I cannot go to church, there to sit down at table with the rest of Thy guests, be pleased, Lord, to send me a dish of their meat hither, and feed my soul with holy thoughts. Eldad and Medad, though staying still in the camp (no doubt on just cause), yet prophesied as well as the other elders. Though they went not out to the spirit, the spirit came home to them.

—Thomas Fuller.

Numbers 11:33

Lord, grant me one suit, which is this—deny me all suits which are bad for me: when I petition for what is unfitting, O let the King of heaven make use of His negative voice. Rather let me fast than have quails given with intent that I should be choked in eating them.

—Thomas Fuller.

References.—XI:27.—W. J. Dawson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lii1897 , p296. XI:29.—T. G. Selby, The Holy Spirit and Christian Privilege, p215. W. Sanday, Inspiration, p168. T. De Witt Talmage, Sermons, p221. T. M. Rees, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxviii1905 , p293. J. Warschauer, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxiv1908 , p417. XI:34.—J. Baldwin Brown, The Soul's Exodus and Pilgrimage, p279. XII:3.—T. R. Stevenson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxix1891 , p109. XIII:16.—J. M. Neale, Sermons for Some Feast Days in the Christian Year, p213. G. Trevor, Types and the Antitype, p115. XIII:17-33.—A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture— Exodus , Leviticus , and Numbers , p332. XIII:21 , 23 , 27.—R. Winterbotham, Sermons Preached in Holy Trinity Church, Edinburgh, p275. XIII:23.—W. Brooke, Sermons, p30.