A “hard-hearted” people, so were the Jews who left Egypt headed for Canaan.
Never really appreciating, loving the Lord as they should have.
A lot like us today, I might add. Too many of us.
And I never realized how Psalm 78 (one of 12 Psalms in the Old Testament attributed to Asaph) so depicts Israel’s sins during that desert sojourn.
Today we’ve reached verses 30-33 in our journey.
“They (the Jews) were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat (quail they had demanded) was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel. For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works. Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.” Psalm 78:30-33
The verb “estranged” means “to go away from.” To treat as something you don’t know. To be “foreign” to that entity. The noun “lust,” which they would have merely called “hunger,” is the Hebrew word for “greed,” desire that strong! We’d say an “obsession.”
God became “angry” at them, a word meaning demonstratively angry, red in the face, breathing hard! And God “killed” many of them! Two verbs being used here, “slew” and “smote down,” both pretty violent.
Here’s Moses’ account of the event: “And there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day’s journey on this side, and as it were a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth. And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp. And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague. And he called the name of that place Kibrothhattaavah: because there they buried the people that lusted.” Numbers 11:31-34
Still … after all that chastisement, discipline from God … “For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his (the Lord’s) wondrous works.”
Wow!
Reminds me of Proverbs 29:1, where the Holy Spirit wrote: “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”
So, knowing the “heart” of this people … God could not bless them as freely as He would have desired! Oh, the cost of unbelief, doubt, not trusting God and His Word! “Therefore their days did he (God) consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.” The noun “vanity” means “vapor,” an empty bubble kind of thing! And “trouble” is “dismay, alarm, terror!” God as a “Terrorist!” But in training His Own people.
I’m ready to say it.
Yes, sin has “wages.”
Both for the “sinner” and for the “saint.”
The unrepentant sinner faces hell-fire.
The erring saint faces God’s hand of discipline, as our Father in Heaven.
Truly, Hebrews 12:6-7 thunders loudly here. “My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.”
Let’s consider ourselves warned!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
If you have been enjoying this series on Psalm 78, let me know. I’d love to hear from you.