“And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.” Psalms 106:15

One of the very first articles I ever penned had this title on it. I was so intrigued by this verse in the Bible; I just had to study it out. That was many years ago and it still fascinates me.

The children of Israel had just been delivered out of the hands of the Egyptians. After years and years of hard labor under their Egyptian taskmasters they were finally free! God had just showed His mighty hand by bringing them through the Red Sea on dry ground…as soon as they had crossed over, the Lord covered their enemies completely, never to be seen again.

But how quickly they would forget all of the Lord’s mercies and His miracles! They were always complaining, always wanting more, never satisfied. So what is the verse particularly referring to in the Psalm? We take a journey into the Book of Numbers to find out.

In the beginning of the eleventh chapter the people of Israel are still in the wilderness, roughly the second year after their departure from Egypt. They are complaining, again, about their “hardship” and the Bible says, “…the Lord heard everything they said.”  Numbers 11:1.

God was so angry that He sent a fire and destroyed some of the people that were on the outskirts of the camp. Once again, the Israelites cry to Moses for help and he prays to the Lord and the fire stops.

But interestingly, the mixed multitude among them, some versions call them the “riffraff” or “foreign rabble”, began to crave the good things of Egypt.

And that made the Israelites complain too! “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed. “We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted. But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is manna!” Numbers 11:4-6.

Now this “manna” that they are griping about was as sweet as honey. All they had to do was walk out their door every morning and there it was lying on the ground. Fresh as the morning dew, God supplied it straight from heaven. They would pick it up and grind it with hand mills or pound it in mortars. They boiled it in a pot and made it into flat cakes that tasted like pastries baked with olive oil. It truly was heavenly!

But it wasn’t enough for the Israelites. They wanted more. They were not satisfied that their needs were being met. They had everything supplied for them every day. In all of the years that they wandered in the wilderness the Bible says even their sandals never wore out!

“For all these forty years your clothes didn’t wear out, and your feet didn’t blister or swell.” Deuteronomy 8:4 NLT.

And another verse says it this way, “Yet the LORD says, During the forty years that I led you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet.” Deuteronomy 29:5 NIV.

Moses, at this point is at his wits’ end and cries out to the Lord for help. “What did I do to deserve the burden of all these people?…Where am I supposed to get meat for all these people? They keep whining to me saying, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ I can’t carry all these people by myself! The load is far too heavy! If this is how you intend to treat me, just go ahead and kill me. Do me a favor and spare me this misery!’” Numbers 11:11-15.

The Lord has a plan, He always has a plan. But this time He is not pleased with their actions. He tells Moses to gather seventy men who are recognized as elders and leaders of Israel to stand with him and that He will come down and talk to them there. He will take some of the Spirit that is on Moses and put it on the leaders as well. They will help bear the burden of the people so Moses will not have to carry it alone.

Then He tells him to say to the people, “Purify yourself, for tomorrow you will have meat to eat. You are whining, and the Lord heard you when you cried, ‘Oh, for some meat! We were better off in Egypt!’ Now the Lord will give you meat and you will have to eat it. And it won’t be for just a day or two, or for five or ten or even twenty. You will eat it for a whole month until you gag and are sick of it. For you have rejected the Lord, who is here among you, and you have whined to him, saying, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’” Numbers 11:18-20 NLT.

So sure enough the Lord sent a wind that brought quail from the sea and let them fall all around the camp! For miles in every direction the Bible says there were quail flying three feet above the ground! The people were so excited they went out and caught quail all that day and night and all the next day too. No one gathered less than 50 bushels of quail!

Now here is the sad part: They spread the quail all around the camp to dry. “But while they were gorging themselves on the meat–while it was still in their mouths–the anger of the Lord blazed against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague. So that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah (which means “graves of gluttony”) because there they buried the people who had craved meat from Egypt.” Number 11:32-34 NLT.

You see, they received what they asked for, they whined, they complained, they griped until Moses couldn’t take it anymore and until the Lord was angry.

The Israelites thought they had already paid too high of a price. They were tired of their way of life in the wilderness, wandering around in the desert. They were so weary of it that they even preferred to go back to their life of slavery than to stay and have the provisions given by Almighty God.

Manna from heaven every day or slavery in Egypt, doesn’t seem like too difficult of a choice to make to us, does it? They couldn’t have survived in the wilderness on the rich food that they had in Egypt. Manna was light and healthy and suitable for their wilderness lifestyle. But they were not satisfied.

We tend to make similar complaints every day ourselves. We may ask for things that are not the will of God for our lives. We have our needs supplied but we want more. Bright lights, big city! We should be careful of what we are craving, God might grant us our request, and it just might send leanness into our soul. Another translation said it sent a plague or a wasting disease.

Whether it is physical things like wealth and riches, a spiritual famine, or dwelling on life’s worries, if we aren’t careful, these things can cause leanness in our soul if left unchecked.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer made the observation that when lust takes control, “At this moment God loses all reality. Satan does not fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God.”

Leanness of soul can develop in us so slowly and unnoticed. We start losing interest in the things of God and begin desiring other things to take His place. When our lives get too busy with the cares of this life we don’t have as much time for the things we once did for the Lord. We are busy, but busy in the body and lean in our soul.

“O God, thou art my God; earnestly will I seek thee: My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee, In a dry and weary land, where no water is.” Psalm 63:1.

What are our motives? What do we really want for our lives? Are riches your ultimate goal? If so, you are going to be terribly disappointed come Judgment Day. Did you know you can’t take all of those things with you? There is nothing wrong with having nice things, don’t misunderstand, but if that is all you ever think about, if you are consumed with THINGS, then your priorities are not pleasing to God.

He may give you what you ask for…but you may not have what really counts.

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Mark 8:36.

Be careful what you pray for, you might just get it…