Numbers 11, Continued

While God's manna was in never-ending supply yet the rabble among the people began to whine and complain about the lack of meat, and melons, and leeks, and garlic.   And their murmurs became a complaint among the people.

Moses in  conversation with God.

Moses:  Why do You afflict me with this tiresome people?

JHWH:  Tell the people to consecrate themselves in preparation, for tomorrow they will eat meat.  Not for a day or for ten or twenty days, but for an entire month, even until it runs our their noses.

Moses: Whoa!  I have this mob of six hundred thousand men and all their dependents and You tell me You will give them meat for a month?   It would take all the fish in the seas.  *incredulity*

JHWH:  Doubter!  Is my arm too short?  Now you will see whether or not my word is true.

Then Moses obeyed the Lord and told  the people what was going to transpire.  And, as promised, the quail came.  And came.  And came and the people gathered to their hearts' content.  But, scripture tells us, even before they could chomp it down the Lord's anger was kindled against them and He sent a plague upon them.  People died and were buried in that place which they named Kibroth Hattaavah which means "The Graves of Lust" for the people who were provided by the Lord with all their needs lusted for more, for what they did not have.  Their desires exceeded their needs.

Sound familiar?

Moses is Building a Leader

Continuing the study of the eleventh chapter of Numbers, I propose a little side journey-- even as the author included in the account.

The elders had been gathered to the tabernacle where the Lord placed upon them some of the Spirit with which Moses was endowed. 

However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp.  A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”  (vv. 26,27, NIV)

At which point Joshua, a young man tagged by Moses to become a leader, spoke up and said, "My lord, Moses, stop them!"  Then without any rancor Moses said, "Are you jealous for my sake?  I wish all the Lord's people were prophets."

In complete kindness and grace, Moses chastised the young Joshua.  Jealousy of others engaged in the work of God is not to be tolerated, even if one is jealous for the sake of another!

As Moses disciplined Joshua, even so God disciplines his children.  He tells us that a father who does not discipline his children does not love them.  God loves His children.  (Hebrews 12)  The Lord is building His people.

[We may eventually get around to the. quail.]

Happy birthday, Delbert, my first-born son, who is five years younger than his sister whose birthday was last week.

The Price of Leadership

Numbers 11.  Herein we learn of the feeding of the Israelites with manna from the Lord; of the  complaining of some of the riff-raff desiring meat; of the plaints of Moses; of the solution to the meat problem, and other things.

Moses heard the whining and complaining of the people and Moses sensed the anger of the Lord.  Moses:  Why me, Lord?  Are these my children, did I conceive  them; did I give them birth?  What have I done to so displease You that you have laid this noisome burden upon me?  I can't carry these people alone, the burden is too heavy.  Just go ahead and kill me.

Then before resolving the issue of whining for meat, the Lord proposed a solution to Moses's leadership problem by asking him to call  together seventy respected elders to the tabernacle and I will come down, God said, and I will take some of the power of my Spirit which is upon you and place it upon them.  Then he directed Moses to tell the people they would have meat-- meat until  it ran out their nostrils, until they loathed the very sight of it.

TBC, in which is related the abundance of quail which we learned about in Sunday school, and the upshot of  that, which we didn't.  Learn about in Sunday school, I mean.

Be of Good Courage

 Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.  Deuteronomy 1:28 (KJV)

After forty years in the wilderness the people arrive at the edge of the Promised Land.  They send a committee over to assess the situation.  The report: It is a good and fruitful place, but the people are huge; we are as grasshoppers in their sight.  So they are moaning as we read in this verse.

Our brethren have discouraged our heart.

How much does this sound like Christians today, Christians who have been commissioned to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ?  Oh, Dear (hand wringing) the sky is falling!

The Lord commanded His People to take the land and promised to go with them.

Today, the Lord commands our service in the proclamation of the gospel, and He promised to go with us.

Yes, the obstacles are huge but they are as nothing in the sight of our God.

As Moses said to Joshua, and as Joshua said to The People, "Be of good courage."

 

He Cares for Me

Yesterday, a beautiful, nay almost perfect, Fall morning, I left the house on the bicycle quite late, yet in time to get to the post office before the noon locking of the door.

Exercising more caution than is my wont, when I came to the highway I stopped and planted both feet whilst waiting for the traffic to pass.  How unlike me.  I usually ride along the berm, hoping for an opening through which I might dart.  Six blocks along I came to a red light, and again I stopped. What is this strange behavior?  Right next to me was the rear end of a 53 foot semitrailer,  and as we both started through on the signal, I had a flashback to my teen years, a time in which I very likely would have grasped the back of the truck to allow it to tow me through town.  Sometimes, on Nevada Avenue, back in the day, about the time the driver shifted into sixth and the speed approached forty, I would let go, and let him go.

And thus it was that as I pedalled through the intersection and the truck pulled away from me that I thought "How many times did the Lord or His guardian emissary protect me when I was too stupid to watch out for myself?"

I know you will be incredulous, but as I thought about that I realized that the times were doubtless numerous; then I wondered how often He protected me in situations that I don't know about, some of which may not have been the result of my own stupidity. I'll never know, but I've no doubt the number of times is staggering.

And why, you might think, would vanilla believe that the Lord cares for him and protects him even in his folly?

This, for starters.  God sent Moses to lead His people out of bondage, and notwithstanding their repeated disobedience, and folly, and murmurings, God protected them and watched over them.  It is no stretch for me to believe that God who cares for and protects a couple million "stiffnecked" people in that day cares for this hardhead today.


He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.  He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;  Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.  Psalm 91: 1 - 6

Further reading: Deuteronomy 32

"Moses on Mt. Nebo" by Nehemiah Persoff