A sentence has caught my attention in the book of Numbers: “Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, "Oh that we had meat to eat!"” (Nu 11:4, ESV) And in this sentence, I was particularly drawn by the word rabble. The KJV has the “mixed multitude” instead.
A rabble is a bunch of things of little value, a gathering of worthless people. Who then is this mixed multitude, this rabble that seem to have initiated a movement of lust?
The Contemporary English Version reads: “One day some worthless foreigners among the Israelites became greedy for food, and even the Israelites themselves began moaning, "We don't have any meat!” And the Good News Bible, “There were foreigners traveling with the Israelites. They had a strong craving for meat, and even the Israelites themselves began to complain: "If only we could have some meat!”
Indeed, when the children of Israel left Egypt, a mixed multitude also went up with them (Ex 12:38). This is the multitude of foreigners and disreputable people who is being referred to as a rabble in Numbers 11.
These people aroused false desires within the Israelites in the same way that the serpent of old also aroused false desires in our first parents. We must be very careful what enters our ears: what we listen to might very well lead us astray. I would not be surprised to find out one day that it is this same rabble that suggested the idea of the golden calf (Ex 32.1-4). They were used to having gods that they could see; and one of them was Apis, the sacred bull, the herald of the creator god Ptah. It is therefore highly possible that thinking Moses -the herald of the Creator God of the Hebrews- had died on the mountain, they could have meant well by proposing to continue the journey with Apis, another harbinger of the coming of a creator god. And if you add to this the fact that a bull was also used in Egypt to represent a king who had become a deity after his death, you understand that it could have been their own way of honoring Moses: a man-god. But hey, that's another story…
The apostle Paul said: A little leaven leavens the whole lump; and also: Bad company ruins good morals. (1Cor 5:6 & 15:33). This is exactly what happened in Numbers 11. That's why, before entering the Promised Land, God warned the people saying: “Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim... Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.” And, “But you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the LORD your God has commanded, that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the LORD your God.” (Ex 34:11-16, Deut 20:17-18)
Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land… Amos asks: “Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?” Could the children of Israel walk with that rabble without prior agreement to do so? No. And yet, the Lord had not told them to associate themselves with them.
There is great danger in believing that we can easily manage the presence of bad company. If God has not specially sent (and equipped) us to hang around with such crowds, we won’t be those changing them but their leaven will definitely leaven our lumps. That’s why the Lord was so radical in His instructions to the Israelites.
There is a real danger in tolerating the presence of ''small'' or ''cute'' sins in our lives. Compromise is a slow and subtle but effective venom. Let’s not assume we are stronger than we really are. Those things are snares that will make us imitate pagan worships and idolatrous practices. Dear friends, sin is sin, regardless of the perfume, the shoes or the clothing that we make it wear. If you reach out to the devil with your hand, he will eat your arm.
Is there anything in your life that you know that the Lord of glory would not like to find there? We are the Temple of the Holy Spirit and we have been called to holiness i.e. to separation: let’s drive the thieves and the merchants out of the Temple.
May GOD give you grace and bless you,
Have an excellent week!
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