Bible Readings
Reading 72: Yahweh responds to the people’s complaints
Read Numbers 11:1–35.
A month after Passover, Yahweh instructed Israel to break camp. Perhaps travelling after a year of not moving was a drastic change because even though Yahweh was providing everything they needed, the people began to complain. The same thing had happened a year ago when God first led them to Sinai. It takes faith to accept God’s leading and Israel’s faith wasn’t very strong. As soon as they experienced discomfort, they complained.
God was displeased with their attitude and judged them with fire from heaven (possibly lightning) to burn those who grumbled bitterly. This swift judgment shows Yahweh setting expectations. He showed them what He expected of their behaviour. (We’ll see this pattern again and again.)
Then the “foreign rabble” complained about the food. These were non-Israelites who had followed Israel. Perhaps they followed in faith, or perhaps they wanted to escape from Egypt after all that happened. In any case, they were tired of the manna that Yahweh had provided for a year. They whined about the foods they missed in Egypt, for meat they claimed they ate in abundance. This was an exaggeration as they were slaves in Egypt and only had what the Egyptians permitted them. Sometimes, our memories of the past can seem better than they actually were. (The people actually had meat in the form of their livestock. But to eat their livestock would mean the loss of the means to make a living from the livestock.)
Their complaints even got Moses so upset, he wanted to die! Even faithful servants of God can be worn down by persistent negativity, criticism and complaints. Moses lost perspective in the difficult circumstances.
Thankfully, God helped with the two problems:
how to spiritually lead so many people and
how to provide meat for everyone.
For the first problem, God commanded Moses to select elders to assist him in leading the people spiritually. Earlier (Reading 50; Exodus 18:1–27), Moses had appointed leaders to help settle personal disputes among the people. Now God told Moses to select another 70 elders. During Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit did not permanently indwell believers. So here, God visibly demonstrated that He was providing these 70 elders with the Holy Spirit too, to enable them to share Moses’ load of caring for the people’s spiritual needs.
For the second problem about lack of meat, God supernaturally blew in countless numbers of quail. The birds flew so low to the ground that it was easy for the people to catch them. God overloaded the people with so much meat that they are overwhelmed. Not only that, God struck them with a plague!
There are lessons we can learn from this incident.
First, the people showed a lack of faith in God and were dissatisfied with His provision. In our own lives, do we think God is providing enough? Are His blessings too little? Is His Word too boring? Have we stopped talking to Him about our concerns and instead, resorted to complaining? God is more than powerful enough and caring enough. We need to remember that God cares, He listens, and His Word is the “daily bread” that is sufficient for our daily sustenance and growth.
Second, God provides help. We don’t have to handle challenges on our own. God provided Moses with 70 Holy Spirit-guided elders to help him mange the people. Moses wasn’t indispensable. God enabled others to help. Similarly, do we find ourselves overwhelmed? God can provide help in the form of godly friends or counsellors. We don’t need to be alone in our challenges.
Third, even faithful leaders can sometimes lose sight of God in the face of criticism. When we face discouragement, let us run quickly to God in prayer to His Word, so that our negative thoughts don’t take over. Rather, we let God’s truth remind us of who He is and who we are in Him—we are dearly beloved children.
Fourth, when God really wants to judge people, He lets them have their own way. Sometimes we observe the choices of others and wonder why God allowed these things to happen. This is because God honours the free will He gives us. And sometimes God’s judgment is to let the people have their way and suffer the consequences of their evil choices.
We need to cultivate the habit of going to God in prayer about everything. A consistent, humble attitude will help us be obedient and we can avoid the heartbreak that comes from following our own selfish desires.
Let’s pray and talk to God about these four lessons now.