Discussing why Hebrews with Live-Stock still Pestered Moses for Meat

Although the Hebrews had been enslaved by Pharoah for many decades, by no means were they impoverished when Moses eventually led them out of Egypt after the punitive series of ten plagues unleashed by God against the deified monarch and the pagan inhabitants.  What items of value did they leave with when evacuating en masse from the land of their bondage?  First of all, there was the divinely-facilitated plunder where the Hebrews “asked from the Egyptians for articles of silver, articles of gold and clothing” (Exodus 12:35) which were readily granted because the bereaved natives were only too eager “to send them [viz Hebrews] out of the land in haste” (Exodus 12:33) given the wide-scale tragedy where earlier at midnight, as forewarned by Moses, their first-born had been stricken by what Exodus 12:23 cryptically calls the destroyer (or, more colloquially, angel of death).  Secondly, Exodus 12:37 records that there were “about six hundred thousand men on foot (besides children)” who left Egypt with “flocks and herds — a great deal of live-stock” (Exodus 12:38) which were still owned by them since the days of Jacob despite having been subsequently conscripted to build for Pharoah the supply cities of Pithom and Rameses.

 

An equally precious commodity for any expedition entering some inhospitable wilderness is water but unfortunately the Hebrews could not transport this indispensable liquid in sufficient bulk to last the long journey ahead for all 600,000 men as well as the unspecified number of women and children.  It is thus unsurprising to note that “the people contended with Moses and said, ‘Give us water that we may drink’ …” (Exodus 17:2) when encamped at Rephidim where there was simply no water available.  Having witnessed the signs and wonders preceding their flight from the clutches of slavery, they even had the audacity to cast doubt on the motive of Moses: “Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our live-stock with thirst?” (Exodus 17:3)  The justifiably thirsty evacuees ought to have presented their plea for potable refreshment in an acceptably civil manner instead of grumbling in such a threatening manner that Moses cried out to the Lord, “… They are almost ready to stone me.” (Exodus 17:4)

 

What is somewhat unexpected among the Hebrews’ grouses, however, is the necessity for them to additionally pester Moses for meat: “on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt, then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness ‘that … you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger’.” (Exodus 16:3)  The obvious question that immediately springs to mind on reading this particular verse is why did the Hebrews not consume their great deal of live-stock which could not possibly have been whittled down by so much one and a half months later on the way to Mount Sinai.

 

Could the Hebrews have been reserving their live-stock for some purpose other than consumption?  Their reason for not eating the flocks and herds which accompanied them would appear to have been accepted by the Lord since He not only decided against taking the defiantly sarcastic people to task on this first-of-many occasion but also directed Moses to assure the complainants that “at twilight you shall eat meat and in the morning you shall be filled with bread” (Exodus 16:11).  Moreover, God took pains to explain how the people should gather and prepare the “bread from heaven” (Exodus 16:4) that would be miraculously supplied from the next morning onwards until “the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of … Canaan” (Joshua 5:12) at the Gilgal camp following the chosen race’s historic crossing of the Jordan into the Promised Land.

 

A plausible reason is that the Hebrews intended to reserve their live-stock for sacrificing to the Almighty.  For a start, the gist of Moses’s petition before Pharoah is to “please let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God” (Exodus 3:18); in any event, Moses was explicitly told during the burning-bush encounter that “when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” (Exodus 3:12)  Furthermore, Moses had already announced to the congregation the Law of the First-born — divinely instituted together with the Passover ordinance — for every Hebrew to “sacrifice all males that open the womb but all the first-born of my sons I redeem” (Exodus 13:16) as “the Lord killed all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both the first-born of man and the first-born of beast, when Pharoah was stubborn about letting us go.” (Exodus 13:15)  Given the context then, the duty of sacrificing to “the God of Abraham, the God of Jacob and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 4:5) ought to have been engrained into the Hebrews’ psyche prior to their Red Sea crossing whilst fleeing from the powerful country which had originally welcomed the 70-strong family of Jacob with generous provisions of food and shelter but over the course of time imposed hard bondage on “the children of Israel [who had] … increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty …” (Exodus 1:7) because “there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8) and felt threatened by the unchecked population growth of the special race whom the Lord had taken to be His own.

 

On the one hand, practically every Christian knows that YHWH delivered the Ten Commandments to Moses who had led the Hebrews to the selected worship site at Mount Sinai from the dramatic rescue scene at Red Sea (which miraculously drowned the Egyptian forces hastily despatched to pursue the slaves who had been summarily released by the grieving Pharoah in the immediate aftermath of the tenth plague).  On the other hand, not many believers are familiar with the accompanying fact that Moses next received at the mountain of God a comprehensive set of multifarious instructions detailing the construction of the tabernacle and all the supporting accessories — including the brazen altar designed for the sacrifice of animals.  The people willingly offered the requisite materials (which included the gold, silver and fine linen plundered from the Egyptians) and the entire construction process was completed within nine months.  While attention rightfully centred on the divine intention for “them [to] make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8) with Moses much later adding that “the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp” (Deuteronomy 23:14), it should also be pointed out that the tabernacle provided a mobile platform for sacrificing animals in the wilderness.  That the tabernacle construction details were dutifully reproduced in 12 chapters of Exodus after the narration of events from Egypt to Mount Sinai — but ahead of the other laws and teachings recorded in the ensuing books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy — highlights the significance of the imperative to erect the tabernacle at the earliest possible opportunity during the emergence of the Hebrews as “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:6)  Apart from the regular series of sacrifices (like the sin offering, trespass offering, burnt offering and peace offering), there were other special-occasion sacrifices such as the one-off stipulation to “levy a tribute for the Lord on the men of war who go out to battle … and give it to Eleazar the priest as a heave offering” (Numbers 31:28-29) which comprised the sheep, cattle and donkeys apportioned from the plunder exacted by the Hebrews following their victorious assault against the Midianites along the way.

 

Having considered the regularity of sacrifices in the midst of the wilderness, the present discussion should next move on to enquire about the number of animals involved in order to ultimately address the issue of why the Hebrews complained so much to Moses about the lack of meat for consumption.  I Kings 8:63 reports that King Solomon sacrificed a total of 120,000 sheep and 22,000 bulls just for the temple-dedication ceremony alone.  Extra-biblical sources additionally document that vast numbers of animals were duly sacrificed at the temple on a routine basis.  However, these observations describe the steady-state situation after the Hebrews, having settled in the Promised Land, constructed the inspiringly magnificent “house for the name of the Lord” (I Kings 5:5) to replace the precursor tabernacle.  What then was the counterpart number of slaughters at the mobile tabernacle prior to the conquest of Canaan by the chosen race divinely designated to be inheritors?  In II Samuel 24, the ill-conceived census foolishly held by King David (whose heart subsequently condemned him) indicates a total of 1.3 million men in both Israel and Judah.  On the other hand, God initiated the census that Moses conducted in Numbers 1 and the final count is a fighting force of 603,550 men.  Comparing these two census figures, it is possible to surmise that the number of animals sacrificed at the tabernacle ought to be in the order of half that slaughtered at the temple.

 

Given this inordinately large guess-estimate for the tabernacle’s regular total of animal sacrifices, it is therefore not surprising to learn from the Pentateuch of the Hebrews’ persistence in grumbling about not having meat to eat.  Another interesting perspective may be gleaned from Numbers 11:4 which remarks that “the mixed multitude who were among them [viz Hebrews] yielded to intense craving” when rehashing the habitual give-us-flesh-to-eat complaint.  This telling verse clearly singles out the mixed multitude (who had opted to join the exodus of the emancipated slaves) to be the rabble rousers craving with such obsessive intensity for the culinary delights of Egypt — recounting in particular detail the fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic that continued to overwhelm their gastronomical recollections.  By then, the manna had lost its initial appeal of novelty for them and indications of surfeit were evident in their common lament that “now our whole being is dried up [for] there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!” (Numbers 11:6)  Regrettably, the spirit of dissension fomented by this mixed multitude spread among the rest and Moses was so displeased with the resultant weeping throughout the families that he pleaded with God to “please kill me here and now … and do not let me see my wretchedness!” (Numbers 11:15)  Unlike the earlier instance narrated in Exodus 16, “the anger of the Lord was greatly aroused” (Numbers 11:10) on this occasion and “so the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp.” (Numbers 11:1)  Quails were once again miraculously provided but this time “while the flesh was still between their teeth [and] before it was chewed, … the Lord struck the people with a very great plague.” (Numbers 11:33)

 

For this intense-craving episode, Moses intimated in Numbers 11:22 that the herds and flocks in their possession were not enough to feed the people.  Actually, there was no explicit restriction prohibiting them from exercising their own initiative to source via other means for suitable supplies of food elsewhere.  In point of fact, God even encouraged that “you shall buy food from them [viz Mount Seir residents] with money” (Deuteronomy 2:6) when the Hebrews were about to pass through the land of Seir where Esau’s descendants traditionally lived.  Consequently, the congregation could not be excused for persisting with lack-of-meat grouses as grounds to continue with their posture of rebellion against not only Moses but also, by extension, the Almighty.