Longing for Egypt

Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” (Numbers 11:4–6)

I used to read the story of the Exodus and wilderness wanderings and think, "Oh these stupid people! Look at all that God has done and they still complain about everything!" Now when I read it, I say, "Oh Charles, how stupid you can be! Look at all that God has done and you still complain!" I am not so different from the people of Israel.

Longing for Egypt's Meat, Forgetting Egypt's Servitude
In the passage above, the people of Israel are tired of God's provision of manna and start wanting meat to eat. They start reminiscing of their time in Egypt, where they apparently had fish, vegetables, and fruits to eat that they didn't have to pay for. The menu was more appealing than God's graciously provided manna from heaven. But there's a curious note missing from the dirge they sing about Egyptian memories: they forget why they were in Egypt to begin with.
They weren't getting free food in Egypt, they earned it with their own blood, sweat and tears. They were slaves of Egypt, forced to build cities to an empire devoted to keeping them oppressed. Was the menu really worth their freedom?

Facing Egypt's Temptation
That's how temptation works: it doesn't show you the whole picture. It focuses on the "delightful" part, while failing to spotlight the heavy cost. Its lure is the pleasure, not on the prison. It is deceitful in its shrouding of the big picture.
Recently, the Holy Spirit has shown me my own longing for Egypt - a "pet sin" if you will that I am for some reason fighting to hold on to. I know the course of this sin well, but I have somehow remained blind to its pull and the destruction it will bring about. Thanks to the mirror of God's Word, I'm beginning to see it for what it is. But still the pull is there, wanting me to overlook the cost for the fleeting pleasure it seeks to offer.

Feasting on the True Manna from Heaven

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. (John 6:35–36)

Jesus is speaking to the crowd who came for more food after His miraculous feeding of the 5,000. After bringing up Moses and the manna in the wilderness, Jesus reveals to them the true bread from heaven that will satisfy the longing soul: Himself. The Israelites missed the meaning of manna. This crowd also missed it. And we miss it whenever we are not satisfied in Jesus. I have missed it in hanging on to my "pet sin." I have been longign for Egypt's meat when the soul-satisfying Son of God offers Himself as the true delight.
So I must pursue Him. I must forsake Egypt's "pleasures" in order that I may savor Christ alone. I must pursue the Bread of Life and find my delight in Him even as the world offers me the steak of sin and death. In Christ, there is life. And we must all fight for life.