HEBREW WORD STUDY – KIBROTH-HATTAAVAH  קנרות התאוה Qop Nun Resh Vav Taw   Hei Taw Aleph Vav Hei

Num 11:34 And he called the name of that place Kibrothhattaavah: because there they buried the people that lusted.

“Just a little bit more” – John D. Rockefeller

John D. Rockefeller was at one point the richest man in the world. He was the world’s first billionaire before most people knew the word billion was in our numbering system. We complain about the bias press today, that is nothing new. Early in Rockefeller’s career, there were thousands of small family-owned oil companies.  Rockefeller began to sell his oil at a price where he would lose money on every barrel of oil he sold, but also so would his competitors. As his competitors went out of business, he would buy their business and when he owned all the oil companies to where he had no competition, he raised the price to make his fortune. When the government threatened to enact antitrust laws which would have limited his ability to continue making his fortune he secretly got together with Henry Ford and Dale Carnegie, two other wealthy men who agreed to literally bribe, pay the news media to become “fake news” say only good things about President McKinley during his first term as  President of the United States and to paint his opponent William Jennings Bryant as an absolute fool and religious fanatic.  Even today history paints Bryant as a religious fanatic and not as a sincere believer in Jesus.  President McKinley easily won a second term but was assassinated six months into that term bringing to the presidency  Vice President Theodore Roosevelt, a strong supporter of antitrust laws, Rockefeller’s worst nightmare, into office.  

Oddly, Rockefeller from his first paycheck always gave 10% of his earnings to the church.  He was a Baptist and considered himself a committed born again Christian who generously gave to faith-based organizations, yet, as described earlier, he was ruthless in acquiring his money. His biographer, Ron Chernow, wrote that “his good side was every bit as good as his bad side was bad.”  By the age of sixty his stomach was so wrecked with ulcers that even though he could afford the best and tastiest food the world had to offer, he could eat only spoonfuls of broth. At the encouragement of a friend he became one of the world’s greatest philanthropist and soon after regained his appetite, although he was continually criticized that his philanthropy was “tainted money.”  

At the height of his wealth, he was asked by a reporter: “How much money is enough money?”  He replied: “Just a little more.”  We have the story in Numbers 11 about the children of Israel and the foreign element that tagged along with them in their travel to the Promised Land.  God gave them manna which was filling and a perfect food but eventually, it was not enough, they wanted meat.  Although the Talmud teaches that when eaten the manna took on a satisfying taste, they still wanted the texture of meat. Forget the fact that starvation was common in most lands and they never had to worry about going hungry, they wanted just a little bit more. They could not be satisfied with what God gave them. So he gave them meat, bird meat, which spoils quickly in the desert sun and thus many likely died of food poisoning. 

The people who died there were buried in a place which they called Kibrothhattaavah which means graves of lust because these people died in their lust.  The word lust in Hebrew is ‘avah which means to greatly desire something, long for something.  It is closely related to the Akkadian word and Semitic root ‘aya’ which means an expression of lamentation over a sense of dissatisfaction. Just as Rockefeller was an ‘ava’ who was the wealthiest man in the world he was still dissatisfied with the wealth God gave him.  He still wanted even more.

It wasn’t the desire for a variety of food that was sinful, it was their lust or dissatisfaction over what God gave them.  It was their lust for more.  As A.J. Reb Materi the Canadian clergyman said which was so true of Rockefeller and the children of Israel:  “So many people spend their health gaining their wealth and then have to spend their wealth to regain their health.” 

There is a fine line between ambition and lust.  In ambition, you serve God out of love in lust you serve God for what you can profit from your service.  The latter puts you in Kibrothhattaavah – a grave of lust.