The One with the Quails
or Meat to Eat – 2
[From last time] …Under this new Levitical Law, a new “Garden” would be constructed, and a great many animals would be slaughtered and offered within its insatiable boundary. It was a King’s Table. Yahweh was already Omega, already Solomon. But Israel, not yet humble, desired Omega food, the food of “ascension.” Not satisfied with the bread of “priestly” obedience, they lobbied for meat to eat.
“So it was that quails came up at evening and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp.” —Exodus 16:13
We mentioned that bread is Alpha food. Wine, and sometimes meat, are Omega foods. Firstfruits and Pentecost are about grain. Tabernacles is about the grape and olive harvests. This final feast is also the one where the Lord says if you want to carve up an ox or feel like strong drink, knock yourself out (ie. spare no expense).
The Lord sent quail for Israel to eat in the wilderness twice. Once in Exodus 16, just before the manna began. Meat in the evening (Omega) and sweet bread in the morning (Alpha). [1] Evening and morning are a new creation. The quail meat was a celebration of the Red Sea victory. It was in itself a death and resurrection, but in the greater Egypt to Canaan cycle, it was only a death. It was a separation from the world, and there would be only bread from now on until the Hebrews were humbled.
Jordan observes (in various places) that it was the “mixed multitude” that caused trouble. In Numbers 11, it was they who began the whining. A number of those who left Egypt were Egyptians who had likely joined with the Hebrews after seeing Moses’ miracles. They believed and obeyed the Passover instructions, but they would not be humbled. (In the first century cycle, those who repeated this sin became the Judaisers.)
Travis observed that the chapter has “desired a desire” at the beginning and the end, and in both instances God’s wrath is poured out. But he asked what is the purpose of the inclusion of the passage in the middle, the Spirit being poured out and the elders prophesying. Good question. And the Bible does this sort of thing a lot, doesn’t it? Of course, being me, I want to try the matrix on it.
Ark/Light/Sabbath – The people complained, so the fire of the Lord burned up those at the edges of the camp (This introduction itself follows the heptamerous pattern, which seems to be a common practice.)
Veil/Firmament/Passover – The Egyptians crave the food they had in Egypt and the protest spreads. Israel “wept” instead of being a faithful witness to these Gentiles (Mourning is common at this step)
Altar&Table/Land&Grain&FruitPlants/Firstfruits – Their whole being is “dried up” and all they have before their eyes is this “manna.” Moses “ascends” to entreat the Lord about it. He wants to quit. (Again, as it common, the speech at Ascension also follows the matrix pattern. This is common in the New Testament, most noticeably in the Sermon on the Mount and in the speeches in Acts).
Lampstand/Governing Lights/Pentecost – The Lord will take some Spirit-fire from the ascended Moses (as Altar) and put it upon the 70 elders (as Lampstand). It is the replication of the singular “Adam-light” as “Eve-lights.” The head become a head-and-body. The Lord gives the “Law-Word” to Moses, ie. what He plans to do, and Moses shares it with these men as his council.
Incense/Swarms/Trumpets – Moses gives a “Deuteronomic” speech, telling the people what the Lord will do. As Day 5 of Creation (swarms), there is the mention of flocks and herds and schools of fish. The Spirit comes temporarily upon the elders, but two men remained and prophesied in the camp, Eldad and Medad. Joshua asks Moses to forbid them, but Moses makes that famous statement, “Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the LORD’s people were prophets [and] that the LORD would put His Spirit upon them!” At Step 5, we have the two witnesses, just as we do in the Revelation. [2] What is their purpose here? It seems they are summoned by God as a “new body” of legal witnesses against Israel. Their dual witness is required before the Lord can summon the birds (just as the Lord usually sends two dreams as a corroborated witness). Like the cherubim that flanked the Ark in Solomon’s Temple, they are “God’s bouncers.” When God is about to do something big, He calls men to prayer with an offer they can’t refuse. [3]
Laver/Mediators/Atonement – A wind from the sea (Laver) brings a “covering” of quails. Just as there are two goats at Atonement, and an open (divided) veil, the quails fall in two parts, one on either side of the camp, a Day’s journey each way.
In Ezekiel and Revelation, the unclean birds are the “cleaners.” Here, the ceremonially clean quails are unclean because it is Israel who is the scavenger. The Day 7 “rest” they desired, the kingdom food they obtained by tantrum, became a curse. As a “sea” of wings, they are symbols of a mediator people that has become demonic by demanding glory before time. Just as Adam was not ready to bear the burden of government, neither was Israel. Yet God did use this event to share Moses’ government with the seventy. Moses was a better Adam. And God uses such disastrous trials to refine His people—always. The glory of judgment here on Day 7 is, as it was in Genesis 3, only God’s. Instead of “Booths” they got, as the CEV renders it, “Graves for the Greedy.”
This is exactly what happened to the kingdom of the Herods. Their refusal to “eat” Gentiles whom God had declared clean actually defiled them. And their “clean” Passovers in the early 60s defiled them. Their table became a snare.
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[1] For more on sweet and bitter breads, see Is Jesus Leavened or Unleavened?
[2] See The Two Witnesses.
[3] See Revivals and Farming.
