Returning to your vomit

The rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? “We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna.” Numbers 11:4-6

I realized something while reading Numbers 11. The people had been freed from slavery and fed bread from heaven. They were traveling to the promise land. The journey was hard but they were on the cusp of reaching the end. This is where Satan seeks to bring down the people of God using his wolves among the flock. The rabble, who also had a hand in enticing the people to worship the golden calf, are not appealing to the base desires of the people.  They are painting a false image of what life was like in Egypt. They make slavery sound like a 5-star resort! 

The interesting thing is not the lies they are telling about what Egypt was like, but rather they ignore the truth about what Egypt has become - a wasteland, no crops, no fish, no cattle, nothing.  Egypt is now a barren wasteland due to God's judgment!

So it is with sin. Satan seeks to tempt us back into the former lifestyle of lust and sin. Remember how exhilarating it was? Remember the good times you had? Don't think about the wasteland your life had become, forget that you were a slave on the path to destruction. 

The things that happened in the Old Testament are truly written for us to learn from:

For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”  2 Peter 2:18-22