They Got What They Wanted

In reading through the beginning of the Old Testament, I was struck with how often the Israelites got what they wanted - though in a somewhat ironic fashion. They did not always know what was right or what was best for them, so their desires, wishes, and requests were not always wise. Nevertheless, God often gave them just what they wanted, albeit with consequences that were not desired.

In Exodus 16:3, the Israelites wanted food. God gave them a special food called manna. This food miraculously appeared every day (except the Sabbath) for forty years; it tasted like "wafers with honey" (v. 31); Psalm 78:25 refers to it as "the bread of angels." They got what they wanted. What was the result? Some of them went hungry or had the unpleasant experience of spoiled food when they wouldn't follow God's simple instructions for gathering the manna (Ex. 16:20,27). They also reached the point that they did not appreciate God's good gift to them. They complained about not having anything better to eat, and even said they no longer had an appetite because their food was so unappealing (Numbers 11:6). Although God gave them what they wanted, they came to hate His gift.

In Exodus 20:19, the people didn't want God to speak directly with them because they were afraid to come near Him. They wanted Moses to listen to God on their behalf and relate God's words to them. They got what they wanted, but the results were disastrous. God revealed that His reason for wanting the people to draw near to Him was so that they would see His imposing splendor and learn to fear Him (v. 20). Because they failed to come near and listen to God, they also failed to learn the reverence for Him that they should have developed. The result was continued rebellion and disobedience, resulting in hardship and judgment.

In Exodus 32:1, the people wanted a visible god to look at and to credit with their deliverance from Egypt. With Aaron's help, they got what they wanted. They donated their jewelry, which was then fashioned into a golden calf. As a result of God's displeasure and the judgment decreed by Moses, 3,000 of them died (v. 28). Not only that, the calf was ground into gold powder and thrown into the water, which the Israelites then had to drink (v. 20). In addition to being an unappealing experience, the people also lost their valued treasures without having anything to show for it.

In Numbers 11:4, the people wanted meat. In spite of the seeming impossibility of providing meat for such a large group of people, they got what they wanted. God gave them a month's worth of meat (v. 20). What was the result? They quickly came to hate it; the meat became "loathsome" to them (v. 20). Also "the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck the people with a very severe plague" (v. 33), after which many who had eaten the desired meat were buried.

In Numbers 14:2, the Israelites expressed the strange desire to have died in the wilderness. They found that option preferable to following Moses and taking the land as God had commanded. They got what they wanted. God promised that every adult (except Joshua and Caleb) would die in the wilderness (v. 33). This is such a sad result, compared with what God wanted to give them. This desire to die in the wilderness was linked to a desire for safety. They were afraid to die at the hands of the Canaanites. Again, they got what they wanted. They were not killed by the wicked nations - but they still died, and their deaths came after decades more of wandering in spartan and deprived conditions.

Oddly, when the Israelites realized the consequences of their choice, they decided in Deuteronomy 1:42-45 that they actually wanted to enter the land, even though God had now forbidden them to do so. They got what they wanted. They entered the land and engaged in combat. The result was that they were chased and crushed in battle.

In Numbers 16:41 (among other passages), the people wanted to be free of Moses' leadership. They didn't want to follow him. 14,700 of them got what they wanted, when they died of the plague that ravaged the people (v. 49).

In Numbers 20:2, the people wanted water. They got what they wanted when God gave water from the rock. In the process, however, they ultimately lost the stable leadership of Moses, as God cut his ministry short. He would no longer be available at a critical time in their history (v. 12).

In Numbers 21:4, the people wanted their miserable journey to end. Many of them got what they wanted when they were bitten by fiery snakes and died (v. 6).

In Numbers 25:1, the men wanted wives of Moab. They got what they wanted, but at great cost. As a result of the mixed marriages, the people's hearts were turned to false gods. Their idolatry sparked God's anger; the leaders were executed, and 24,000 others were killed by a plague (v. 4,9).

Not all of the desires of the people were bad. There was nothing wrong with wanting food, water, and safety. These requests, however, were rooted in wrong attitudes and in a lack of trust in God. The Israelites were not satisfied with what God had chosen for them; they did not believe that God was properly supplying for them.

Other requests were even worse, as they stemmed from disobedience and outright rebellion. The people rejected God's leader, His commandments, and His instructions. Their desires were so strongly in opposition to God's desires that following these desires automatically meant disobedience.

Their desires came from rebellious and mistrusting hearts that did not delight in God. If their hearts had been rightly devoted toward God, their desires would have been pleasing to God, expressed in ways that pleased God, and God would have been able to abundantly give their desires in ways that would have brought blessing. "Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:4). The challenge for the believer is to have a heart that seeks God's desires, rather than a heart that insists on its own desires. If the heart is wrong, leading to wrong desires (or wrongly expressed desires), God might give exactly what the believer wants, but the results could be disastrous.

"So He gave them their request, but sent a wasting disease among them." Psalm 106:15 (NASB)

"There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 14:12 (NASB)