Numbers 10:11 -11:35  The Israelites are finally ready to set out on their journey to the promised land.  It has been a year of preparation.  Now the cloud lifts and they travel for 3 days, everyone in their assigned order with the Levites surrounded and protected in the middle of them.

 But, as soon as they begin, the grumbling starts.  Three times the Lord's "anger is kindled."
11:1 - The Lord hears the complaints and sends a fire to the outskirts of the camp.  Verse 4 tells us that there were some "rabble" there, a group of people with "greedy desires".  According to Exodus 12:38 this was a "mixed multitude" that had attached themselves to the Israelites as they left Egypt.

But, there were also Israelites in this group that provoked God also.  These people began to protest against the manna that God was graciously providing.  They wanted meat!   These people stood in the doorways of their tents and cried!  Moses was so unhappy that he went to the Lord and complained too!  Once again the Lord's anger was kindled, in fact it says, " ... and the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly." 

The Lord instructs Moses to choose 70 men to help him lead the Israelites.  He takes the Spirit that had rested upon Moses alone, and placed Him on all 70 men.  He told Moses that He was going to provide meat.. free meat for every Israelite, for the next month.  Moses is a bit doubtful, but God assures him, " Is the Lord's power limited? Now you shall see whether My word will come true for you or not." ( verse 23)  And so He does... a wind blows in quail all around the camp.  Enough that they lay 2 cubits ( about 3 feet) deep.  It takes the people a day and a half to gather all the quail.
But the Lord's anger is again kindled and He sends a plague among them.  The plague kills those who were greedy. After those were buried the nation moved out to another area.

The root of the problem that stirred God to anger was greed. The Lord considered their greediness and complaining to be a rejection of Him. ( Numbers 11:20) It is interesting that He gave them what they wanted... and then removed them from the congregation.  He burned out the rubble and He struck down the greedy.  

Paul writes to the Ephesians about this attitude of greediness, " This I say therefore and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they having become callous have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way."
This is the old selfish nature that we need to lay aside, to crucify.

We must instead, put on the "new self".  The life that comes through Christ's power in us and by the Spirit of God upon us.  The new self begins with a renewed mind.  This is God's creation in
 " righteousness, holiness, and truth."  Ephesians 4:24.  The new self, this new life in Christ, is not consumed with selfishness and greed.  Instead it reflects the "likeness of God":
By speaking truth to each other;
By making things right instead of letting anger come between us;
By doing good- serving or sharing with each other instead of stealing from each other;
By speaking words of grace and edification instead of unwholesomeness. 
By being kind, tender-hearted, and forgiving to each other instead of letting bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and malice consume us. 
By being imitators of God, walking in His love, as Christ did when He gave Himself up for us. 

Father in heaven, please forgive us for being greedy and complaining, for allowing the things of this world to be more important than You and the life that You want for us to have in Christ.  Keep us from walking in the darkness, thinking futile, worthless thoughts, becoming hard hearted and impure.
Renew our minds and transform our lives to reflect Your Light. Let righteousness and holiness and truth permeate every part of our lives through Your Spirit  and in Name of Jesus our Lord. Amen.