Commentaries by Jonathan Parker. Embodied humans have wants, desires, and needsβthese all on a daily basis. Deuteronomy β18; Exodus β27 , only here is Moses in utter despairβto the point where he wishes to die v. Under the weight of his current life, Moses just wants to lie down, forever.
If Moses dies, does their access to the word of God die with him? His personal cry for death signals a corporate cry of crisis. Deuteronomy 34 will be carried forward to generation after generationβwe are as much his audience as those he led through the wilderness. Luther, Martin. Tappert Philadelphia: Fortress.
What is our attention drawn to here, and why? Are we drawn to the youth and beauty and clothing of the model or are we drawn to the meat? Are we provoked by envy or sexual desire or driven by hunger? What does the difficulty in untangling these possible responses tell us about the tangle of desires inside us?
Likewise, the desire for meat in Numbers 11 presents to us not just our hunger but our taste, not just needed nourishment which is met by the manna, vv. God never rebukes the people merely for wanting meat. He rebukes them for letting their want for meat push them into rejecting Him as their saviour and rescuer from Egypt vv. Although the Lord gives them what they want in abundance vv. There is no indication they ever did or were.
Instead, they consume the meat without gratitude or thankfulness. They may even have succumbed animalistically to devouring the flesh without cooking it. As in Numbers 11, death intrudes into the picture. Davis, Ellen. Milgrom, Jacob. Numbers 11 vv.
