The rise of the saints, part 5

We held a Quail and Manna conference near San Francisco on March 11, 2011, beginning the day of the tsunami in Japan. The tsunami crossed the ocean and struck our West Coast with 5-foot waves a few minutes before our conference began.

The theme of the conference was based on the manner in which God gave quail and manna to the Israelites in Exodus 16:6, 7, 13, 14, 15,

⁶ So Moses and Aaron said to all the sons of Israel, “At evening you will know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt; ⁷ and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord… ¹³ So it came about at evening that the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. ¹⁴ When the layer of dew evaporated, behold, on the surface of the wilderness there was a fine flake-like thing, fine as the frost on the ground. ¹⁵ When the sons of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” [“manna”] For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.

God’s “days” begin in the evening (Genesis 1:5). So the first thing God gave them was quail in the evening. This signified “the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt.” Then the following morning God gave them bread (“manna”), which signified “the glory of the Lord.”

Spiritual Quail is Milk and Meat

Everyone wants to see the glory of the Lord, but God’s pattern shows us that we must first know that we have been brought out of the land of Egypt. Quail comes before manna, just as Passover comes before Pentecost and Tabernacles. We must first experience Passover and know first-hand that God has indeed delivered us from our “Egypt,” the bondage of sin. Then we can move on to see His glory, first through Pentecost and then, more fully, through the feast of Tabernacles.

Spiritual “quail” speaks of learning the word of God and learning to hear His voice. In the New Testament this is said to be divided into two types: milk and meat. Hebrews 5:11-14,

¹¹ Concerning Him [Christ] we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. ¹² For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. ¹³ For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

We recognized that most believers today, who have come out of Egypt, are not trained and grounded in the word of God. It seems that the church has been dumbed down along with the rest of the people on account of today’s educational system. Most are unaccustomed to the word of righteousness, because they are yet infants. For this reason, when they hear teachers who know the word, they are overwhelmed by all the things that they did not know. They are left confused when truth contradicts what they thought they knew.

Hebrews 5:11 explains that such people “have become dull of hearing.” In other words, those who lack the capacity to go beyond “the elemental principles of the oracles of God,” being unaccustomed to eating so much solid food, are “dull of hearing.” The obvious solution is for believers to “have their senses trained,” but at the same time the author recognizes his own need to slow down the teaching to allow the immature believers to catch up.

Immature believers should grow up, rather than throw up. If they complain that the word of God is “above my head,” they should grow up so that it is not above their heads. On the other hand, those who are mature should recognize the reality of the situation and teach things line upon line at a pace that stretches them and yet does not leave them behind.

All of this is part of the “quail” that God gave Israel in the time of Moses. It begins with teaching about how Christ came as the Passover Lamb so that they could be set free from the house of bondage, but by extension, it includes also the entire plan of God. Those who leave “Egypt” must also know the way to the Promised Land. The story of Israel’s journey as “the church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38 KJV) defines the things that the church today must learn as part of its diet of quail.

Quail prepares us for the manna. Learning the word prepares us first for the glory of Pentecost and then for the greater glory of Tabernacles.

In our Quail and Manna conference in 2011, we sought to combine these two elements. My part was to bring the quail; our other main speaker, Vincent Imperial was to bring the manna. How well we accomplished our goals, being imperfect, is for others to determine, of course, but we did what we could, and in the end, God opened up the meaning of quail and manna in Exodus 16.

Israel’s Complaint

In Numbers 11:4-6 we read,

⁴ 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?” ⁵ 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, ⁶ but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna.

It appears that the supply of quail in the evening had ended at some point. Scripture does not tell us when this ended. We know only that the manna continued for 40 years. I believe that the quail ended at Mount Sinai when the people were called to experience that first Pentecost. In other words, by the time they reached Mount Sinai, they should have grown spiritually to the place where they were no longer “dull of hearing.” They should have grown up sufficiently to hear His voice and draw near to God to receive the Holy Spirit.

The problem was that they were still dull of hearing. They lacked faith and were still too full of fear (Exodus 20:19-21). This set the pattern for the New Testament church as well, and this is why Hebrews 5 speaks of this problem. The Israelites under Moses suffered from the hearing problem throughout their wilderness journey, and this problem manifested itself in Numbers 11, where the people expressed their disdain for manna.

This event took place after Pentecost, shortly after God told Moses to construct two silver trumpets. The trumpets prophetically signified the feast of Trumpets, as I showed in my book, The Laws of the Second Coming, chapter 2. After constructing those silver trumpets, Moses led the people from Mount Horeb (Numbers 10:33), beginning their journey to Kadesh-barnea. It was only an 11-day journey (Deuteronomy 1:2), but it took longer for them to get there.

After three days, they camped at a place where they complained about the manna. They wanted flesh to eat, so God judged them by giving them quail for an entire month until it became “loathsome” to them (Numbers 11:18, 19, 20, 21).

We then read in Numbers 11:33, 34,

³³ While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very severe plague. ³⁴ So the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah [“graves of lust”], because there they buried the people who had been greedy [ava, “covetous”].

This tells us that the spiritual problem was not merely a desire for a better diet but “covetousness, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5 KJV). Idolatry is an unhealthy desire for something other than God Himself or something that God has given. Hence, the NASB renders it “greedy” in Numbers 11:34 and "greed" in Colossians 3:5. In effect, idolatry is where men prefer the desire of their flesh rather than the desires of their spirit. This manifests in many different ways.

Why, then, would God give quail to Israel in Exodus 16 and then judge them for wanting quail just a few months later in Numbers 11? The lesson, I believe, is that the quail in Exodus 16 was meant to be a temporary part of their diet. It was designed to bring them to a place of faith where they could receive the glory of God at Pentecost. Hebrews 6:1 thus says,

¹ Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.

To put it in Old Testament terms, the church was never meant to remain in “the elementary teaching about the Christ.” Such teachings are good and necessary at the start of one’s journey to the Promised Land, but having established the foundations of repentance and faith, we are admonished to move on into the glory of God. In other words, we should be receiving daily manna (revelation) throughout our wilderness journey until we reach the Promised Land.

I recall years ago of attending a church where the pastor often said, “I think that today we should just focus on the milk of the word.” I was too young to admonish him, but I would have loved to read Hebrews 6:1 to him. I had a great desire to learn the word and did not need another evangelistic sermon to get me saved all over again. Yet God gave me that experience in order to give me an aversion to such a practice.

Israel’s experience under Moses was symptomatic of their spiritual immaturity, their desire for fleshly things, and their continual need to lay again the foundation of teaching about Christ, the Passover Lamb. So also today, many churches “evangelize the choir” every week, continually presenting the cross of Christ without actually building the temple upon that foundation. Somehow they have lost the vision of the Promised Land and even condemn those who want to press on to “the high calling of God” (Philippians 3:14 KJV).

Our Quail and Manna conference in 2011 was designed to give the people this revelation. My part was to present the “quail”—not the milk of the word, but the deep things of God, not laying again the same foundations of faith in Christ, but pressing on to the glory of God. Brother Vinnie’s part was to present the “manna”—the glory of God, especially relating his personal experience when the glory of God appeared to him in the early 1990’s.

The 9 Richter earthquake off the coast of Japan, which caused the devastating tsunami there, occurred in conjunction with our Quail and Manna conference. This added to the revelation that God was giving us at the time to equip the saints of the Most High. In order for the saints to exercise authority properly in the earth, they must grow to spiritual maturity. Those who remain on the milk will not qualify for Kingdom authority, for God will not put infants into positions of divine government.