Half-Life

While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck down the people with a very great plague. Numbers 11:33

In medicine, the half-life of a drug is the length of time required for the concentration of a that drug to decrease to half of its starting dose in the body. In my addiction, I came to know the half-life of my drugs quite well because I needed to know how long the effect of a drug would last. With any addictive drug, there’s an initial euphoria, followed by a wearing off, and then, in the case of opioids, there comes a painful withdrawal. I came to understand that the half-life of my pills was the amount of time I had between pleasure and pain. It was the length of time that I enjoyed a thing until it turned to ash in my mouth. The shorter the half-life, the sooner the misery. Every euphoric drug had a half-life and so, every drug felt good at first, but then eventually led to misery.

Today’s passage tells of a very short half-life. In the narrative, God led his people from Egyptian slavery to the promised land, feeding them manna – bread from heaven – along the way. It was a long journey though, and the manna became monotonous. So, some of the Israelites longed to return to slavery where at least they had meat. Their whining infuriated God who caused quail to fall around the camp. Enthralled, the people gathered and gorged themselves on the quail. The euphoria didn’t last long though. While they were still eating, While the meat was yet between their teeth, God’s caused the meat to sicken and kill those who complained against God. There they buried the people who had the craving (Numbers 11:34).

We all crave something that is unhealthy for us. We all have some immediate gratification in which we find unhealthy relief from life’s stressors. The problem with any immediate gratification though, is that the relief has a half-life. It always wears off, and then there’s always some price to pay later. Living this way, leads to living half a life and we weren’t made to live a half life. Rather, we were made to find relief and release in God, who has no half-life. Daily then, if we want to live a full life, we must go to God, finding our joy and peace in him. God never runs out and he never wears off. It is only in him that we can find all of our life’s greatest needs are met. Our way is a miserable half life. God’s way is a full life.