Numbers 11:32-34

It is not that the meat was evil. There was nothing evil about the quail. Quail is clean. You can eat quail. There was no problem there. The problem is it was an object of perverse lust on their part. They became gluttonous with these quail, and so it became an evil thing because of what they intended to do and how their attitudes were toward it.

Another thing it did: it became evil because it showed their ingratitude for God’s providence and that, of course, led to their provoking of Him. They challenged Him, as it were, to act in their behalf. They were forcing God to make a miracle of this providence, which He had already been doing, and they just did not think anything of it. He does not like to be pushed! And God reacted strongly and killed who knows how many (we are not given a figure here). But they all yielded to this intense craving and acted like beasts.

What this miracle of quails did is it revealed their total carnality. They sank to the deepest or the lowest level of almost animal-like behavior and they were totally responding to their fleshly impulses. And what it does is it shows us (and it showed them) in a very vivid manner just how lust leads to death. He made it quick, while it was still in their mouths, and He sent the plague. Like I said earlier, we do not often see the connection. But this helps us to see the very definite and strong connection between lust and death.

Numbers 11:31-34

That was not fun. Here they were having a great feast out there thinking that they had finally forced God into giving them food to eat that they would appreciate. And while it was still between their teeth, He sent this plague among them and killed a great many people for their sin.