Exodus 16:6-30 God’s Zoo #5
Pastor Ron Koehler
Grace—Benson/Vail, AZ July 4, 2021
Quail
God Provides What We Need In the name of Jesus, dear friends, Quail are kind of cute, aren’t they? The Gambel’s Quail that we have around here are happy little creatures we like to see scooting across the road or in our yard—their little topknot of feathers bobbing away on top of their heads as they run. The quail found in the desert where the Israelites roamed for 40 years, after their escape from Egypt and prior to their entry into the Promised Land, were not Gambel’s Quail. Found in Egyptian hieroglyphics going all the way back at least the time of Moses is the Common Quail—and they look kind of like the name implies. They are a pleasant-enough-looking bird, sort of plain though, just brown with flecks or streaks of white. Unless God provided a different kind of quail for the Israelites, it seems this was the one. If you were an Israelite back then, you were less concerned about their looks and more concerned about how they tasted…or that you had food at all. You see, they wouldn’t have had anything, if God hadn’t provided it. In our lesson today, we read about all their grumbling against God and the leaders God had given them—and this not even two months after they left Egypt. Why the complaining? Just prior to our lesson, we hear their reason: The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat around pots of meat and ate as much food as we wanted, but now you have brought us out into this wilderness to have this whole community die of hunger (v.3).” Yes, they actually said—the words came out of their mouths—that they were better off as slaves in Egypt. Not being free from slavery, led by God, witnessing miracles, heading to their own land promised to them—no, none of that was on their minds. They were hungry and wished they could trash all that good, godly stuff to go back to doing hard labor in Egypt and eating the food there. Actually, they had already grumbled against the LORD just four days out of Egypt because they couldn’t find water fit to drink. In his grace and mercy, God miraculously provided good water. And again, in his grace and mercy, God provided food for his people. Manna (a word that means “what is it”)—a miraculous food from heaven, something like bread, rained down on them every morning. They were only to gather enough for each day. In the evening, the LORD provided quail, so that they had meat.