Reading Numbers 11:1-9, 18-20, 31-34

My text for this morning comes from Numbers chapter 11 verse 5 in the Good News Bible.
In Egypt we used to eat all the fish we wanted, and it cost us nothing. Remember the cucumbers, the watermelons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic we had?
My text consists of just three words from that verse – REMEMBER THE CUCUMBERS!
The Message translates that phrase in its context like this.
The misfits among the people had a craving and soon they had the People of Israel whining, “Why can’t we have meat? We ate fish in Egypt—and got it free! — to say nothing of the cucumbers and melons, the leeks and onions and garlic. But nothing tastes good out here; all we get is manna, manna, manna.”
Remember the cucumbers! The Israelites were on their way to the Promised Land and the rabble started complaining about the food! You would think they would remember that in Egypt they used to be treated as slaves and forced to do hard labour. You would hope that the Israelites would remember the amazing miracles by which God had rescued them out of Egypt just months before and be suitably grateful. You would think that they would realise that cucumbers and melons and leek and onions and garlics were just tiny things they had to leave behind when they escaped from Egypt. When you are running for your life, cucumbers a little luxury you can’t afford to take with you.
You might hope that the Israelites would think about the amazing covenant God had just made with them.
Exodus 19 5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’
God had made Israelites his treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. But all they cared about was cucumbers! They were on their way to take possession of the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and incidentally all the cucumbers and melons and leeks and onions and garlic anybody could ever want. You would think that the Israelites would be looking forward to life in the Promised Land so much that they wouldn’t care about the temporary shortage of cucumbers. But no, the Israelites forgot all about everything that God had saved them from and all about the blessings he had promised them. All they could think about was the food.
And it wasn’t as if they were going hungry. Every day God provided miraculously for their needs by sending down manna, bread from heaven which was all they needed to sustain them.
7 The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin. 8 The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a hand-mill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into loaves. And it tasted like something made with olive oil. 9 When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down.
But the Israelites weren’t satisfied with manna. They wanted cucumbers. They wanted meat. They complained to God, and it is evidence of his infinite patience and mercy that God actually did provide them with meat. But there is a valuable lesson here. “Be careful about what you wish for.” Through Moses, God warned the people very clearly that they would regret their complaining.
8 ‘Tell the people: “Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The LORD heard you when you wailed, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!’ Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it. 19 You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, 20 but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’ ” ’
The meat the Israelites were craving would actually turn out to be a punishment rather than a blessing. When they were complaining they were actually rejecting God and his wonderful provision for them. We just read about the miraculous arrival of flocks of quail all around the camp, up to three feet deep! But the Israelites didn’t get to enjoy their feasts.
33 But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the LORD burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague. 34 Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food.
God was angry with the Israelites because they complained against him about the food. By refusing to trust him they were actually rejecting him. We will see in future weeks more incidents where the people complained and failed to trust God, so much so that he judged that whole moaning, whining generation to be unworthy of the Promised Land and kept them wandering in the wilderness for 40 years! Remember the cucumbers! Because it turned out that moaning about cucumbers was the beginning of the slippery slope which kept all those Israelites out of the Promised Land. Remember the cucumbers! Psalm 106 is a confession of the ways that the Israelites sinned in the wilderness.
Psalm 106 6 We have sinned, even as our ancestors did;
we have done wrong and acted wickedly.
7 When our ancestors were in Egypt, they gave no thought to your miracles;
they did not remember your many kindnesses, and they rebelled by the sea, the Red Sea.
8 Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, to make his mighty power known.
9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up;he led them through the depths as through a desert.
10 He saved them from the hand of the foe; from the hand of the enemy he redeemed them.
11 The waters covered their adversaries; not one of them survived.
12 Then they believed his promises and sang his praise.
13 But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his plan to unfold.
14 In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wilderness they put God to the test.
15 So he gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting disease among them.
They forgot what God had done, they didn’t wait for God to act, they gave in to their cravings. So God sent a wasting disease among them. A more literal translation would be, “God sent a leanness into their souls.” The message reads, “They got an empty heart!” That’s what happens when people allow other things to be more important than God to them. Lean souls. Empty hearts. Remember the cucumbers!
So what are OUR cucumbers? Please don’t understand me, the humble cucumber is probably my favourite salad vegetable. And I’ve nothing personal against melons, leeks, onions and garlic either. The Israelites had to let go of these things so that they could escape from slavery in Egypt. They were delights they would not enjoy again until the took possession of the Promised Land. So what are our cucumbers?
Let’s be clear. There’s nothing wrong with cucumbers in themselves. I’m not talking about things which are wrong in themselves. Of course we have to turn our back on sins of every kind. But that’s not what I mean by cucumbers. Are there any things in life which we would have had for sure if we were not followers of Jesus, but things which we might need to give up because we are following Jesus? Are there any things in life which we need to give up, because they will come between us and God if we cling on to them? Things which can even be bad for us if we allow them to become more important than God is to us.
In this picture, cucumbers are things which God may well give to lots of Christians to enjoy, but in his infinite wisdom God may not give those same things to some other Christians. There could even be things which God asks us to give up, because we are followers of Jesus. For a start, there are all kinds of blessings which many people in this country take for granted. These could be material things, like a nice house or a big car or fancy holidays. God may give us these things from the immeasurable riches of his grace. Or he may not. They are things which we cannot demand to have, if we are Christians. If we cling on to such things, they become cucumbers in our walk with God.
Or these things could be sports. At school and university I enjoyed playing the rather bizarre sport of lacrosse – the national sport of Canada where the only rule is that you aren’t allowed to hit your opponent if he hasn’t got the ball. But when I became a teacher I had to make a choice. If I played lacrosse on Saturday I would have to do school work on Sunday and so I wouldn’t have time or energy either to go to church or to be a leader in the youth organization then called Crusaders, now called Urban Saints. I had to choose between my Christian life with Church and Crusaders or alternatively playing my sport. I couldn’t do both.
Not just sports, but actually any hobby can become a cucumber for us is we allow it to become more important than our faith. There is nothing wrong with stamp collecting, unless a person becomes more devoted to stamps than they are to Jesus. Our choice of entertainment may be different when we are following Jesus. We may even end up doing a different job altogether because we are Christians. Almost 40 years ago I walked away from a career that was satisfying and enjoyable and rewarding, blowing things up and playing with computers, what could be better? But it isn’t only ministers and missionaries who God calls to change paths.
Then there are other more profound things we may need to give up and for some Christians this may be where, as they say, “the rubber hits the road.”
We all like to be popular. To have friends and to have people think well of us. But when we are Christians that can make us unpopular in our workplace, or with our neighbours, or even within our families. Jesus wasn’t popular. If we are following Jesus, we cannot cling on to being popular with everybody. We all like to feel safe and secure. But for some Christians, especially in other countries which are persecuting the church, safety and security are not an option if they are following Jesus and living for him.
We all like to have control over our lives. We like to be able to decide what God does in our lives, or in our church. We like to have certainty about what will happen tomorrow, or the next day. Most people would rather have an easy life and would not choose to have a hard life. But when we are following Jesus we have to be prepared to give up popularity, and security, and control. God may give us these things – or in his infinite wisdom he may take such things away from us. We have to hand all these things over to God. Or they can become for us just like the cucumbers were for the Israelites. Things which come between us and God if we cling on to them too much.
Jesus told two lovely little parables about the Kingdom of God and about what it costs to become his disciple.
Matthew 13 44 ‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
The Kingdom of God is like buried treasure – it is so precious that it costs everything that we have to possess it.
Matthew 13 45 ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
In his challenging book Disciple, the evangelist Juan Carlos Ortiz, explains the parable of the pearl of great price like this.
“The Bible says the kingdom of God is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of real worth, he sells everything he has and buys that pearl. Jesus is the pearl of great price and we are the merchant. …. Jesus has happiness, joy, peace, healing, security, eternity. …..” But when we find Jesus it costs us everything we have. God says to us, “Everything becomes mine: wife, children, house, garage, cars, money, clothing, everything. And you too. Now you can use all those things here but don’t forget they are mine, as you are. When I need any of the things you are using you must give them to me because now I am the owner. They all belong to me now!”
Jesus said in Luke 14:33 those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.
If we are Christians, everything we have, everything we are, belongs to God. If we cling on to anything, if we make anything at all more important than God is to us, it becomes a cucumber getting in the way of us enjoying God’s blessings. Yearning for cucumbers gave the Israelites a leanness in their souls – empty hearts. They had escaped from slavery, but they couldn’t enter the promised land. Cucumbers trapped them in the wilderness. When we are Christians, we have to be prepared to let things go.
The missionary martyr Jim Elliott wrote, “That man is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
The apostle Paul knew what it meant to give things up in order to follow Jesus. He wrote to the Philippians,
Philippians 3 7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Message v 10 I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself.
The Israelites had escaped from Egypt and were on their way to the Promised Land. They just had to learn to live without cucumbers. God had to teach them that there are more important things in life than melons and garlic. Are there any things in our lives we need to give up because they are getting in between us and God?
Remember the cucumbers? Forget the cucumbers!