September 10, 2025

Numbers 11:16-23  (HCSB)
Seventy Elders Anointed
16 The Lord answered Moses, “Bring Me 70 men from Israel known to you as elders and officers of the people. Take them to the tent of meeting and have them stand there with you. 17 Then I will come down and speak with you there. I will take some of the Spirit who is on you and put the Spirit on them. They will help you bear the burden of the people, so that you do not have to bear it by yourself. 18 “Tell the people: Purify yourselves in readiness for tomorrow, and you will eat meat because you cried before the Lord: ‘Who will feed us meat? We really had it good in Egypt.’ The Lord will give you meat and you will eat. 19 You will eat, not for one day, or two days, or five days, or 10 days, or 20 days, 20 but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes nauseating to you—because you have rejected the Lord who is among you, and cried to Him: ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’” 21 But Moses replied, “I’m in the middle of a people with 600,000 foot soldiers, yet You say, ‘I will give them meat, and they will eat for a month.’ 22 If flocks and herds were slaughtered for them, would they have enough? Or if all the fish in the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?” 23 The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s power limited? You will see whether or not what I have promised will happen to you.”

Zac Coppock
Where’s the beef? Some of you may not get that reference, but if you know, you know. As I read this scripture, I thought, "Since when do we really know what we want?" So often, we strive for things that we believe will make us happy, only to feel let down when we achieve those things that were supposed to fulfill us. As a kid, I enjoyed hard-boiled eggs. I remember one Easter when my mom boiled a bunch of eggs, and we dyed them in preparation for the holiday. Later that day, we hid the eggs and had an Easter egg hunt. I’m not sure if I ate every egg I found, but let’s just say I had my fair share of boiled eggs that day. I will never forget the stomachache I got from all those eggs. The combination of the eggs and Easter candy made for a long night. It took me a long time to be able to eat hard-boiled eggs again. They were so good, but I couldn’t get enough, and eventually, it made me sick. The Israelites believed that meat would fulfill them and make them happy, but God was trying to show them that only He could provide true fulfillment and satisfy their needs.