OT: The Book of Numbers, Chapter 11

Numbers 11:1-35

11:1 How often are we the complainers? The unbelievers? The children of Israel begin to complain about their situation. The irony is that they (and we) could not be more perfectly situated when we are under God's wing. In Him, we can know that every circumstance of our lives is planned, protected and projected toward new blessings. Yet they (and we) continue to take Him for granted. He has helped them through every tribulation and they continually forget.

God is displeased; He has provided for and fulfilled promises for the children of Israel and yet opposition against Him rises in the group. We know that God's mercy and love is so vast it is unable to be quantified but we cannot blame Him for this displeasure. Imagine providing for someone you love and constantly being rejected by them in return. 

God's refining fire engulfs the camp. Whether or not this is a literal fire is not the issue: the point is that through lesson and consequence we come to learn and grow. He melts away the ignorance, the impatience, all of the weak and corrupt parts of us in order to find and reform us.

11:2-3 Moses remains the spokesperson both for the children of Israel and for God in this book of Numbers (and will continue to be so in the next book, Deuteronomy). Moses brings the cries of the children of Israel to God; they plead relief from His displeasure and He relents. As He always does, God proves and exemplifies His endless mercy whether we deserve it or not.

11:4 Remember that the children of Israel were without food and complained. Moses prayed to God for provisions and God provided a substance called manna. The manna supply was plentiful and nutritious but here we see that the children of Israel have grown ungrateful for it. They intensely crave meat. Let's examine that intense craving:

• In life, we often have figurative intense cravings: things, people and opportunities we want desperately. In our ignorance, we believe that we need the object of our craving in order to be content, happy or accomplished. The problem is that we often misunderstand our need. When our soul is dissatisfied, we often try to satiate that need with material things or irrelevant materials. We lust for it so much that we neglect common sense, our own intuition and truth. Consider this: The Book of Job 8:9 For we were born yesterday, and knowing nothing, because our days on earth are but a shadow. Lust for things and people cause us to neglect truth all around us. The children of Israel are more than adequately provided for (and so are you if you've asked the Lord to lead) yet they forget that because of intense cravings! 

• Yet because we are humans, we do experience cravings. We wants things, people and opportunities. The best way to avoid becoming consumed by need and desire is to realize that when the soul is discontent, what is truly wants is more of God. More wisdom. More truth. Recognize desire as the soul's itch to grow and be refined by God. An itch to become more purposeful, more wise, more compassionate. Moreover, we must remember that nothing is able to satisfy us the way that He is. He knows our needs better than we do.

11:5-6 How cruel humans can be! God has repeatedly rescued and provided for this group and yet now they complain about what He has given them. It would be easy for us to condemn the children of Israel but how often are we guilty of the same behavior? How often to we neglect our blessings, the people, things and opportunities around us because we are intensely craving something else? God meticulously provides for us; sometimes we need to take the time to do inventory.

11:7-9 The manna is described here: like coriander seed and brown in color. The people make breads and cakes out of it with oil. It is provided every morning to the camp.

11:10 The intense cravings escalated until they became out of control (as they always do). Moses observed the discontent and he grew frustrated and, like God, displeased. The petulant ungrateful behavior severely bothered him. Moses brought his discontent to God.

11:11 The children of Israel are behaving so atrociously that Moses does not want them as a responsibility anymore. Moses has observed and cherished God's leadership and love over the group and he is fed up with their ingratitude. Moses begins to feel like the responsibility is more of a burden than a blessing. Yet the moments when the prophets are weak serve as beautiful moments for us as students.

11:12 Moses pours his frustration out to our gentle and empathetic God. Moses does not want to represent such a fickle and unappreciated group any longer. He tries to divest himself of them by reminding God that these are not his (Moses') children and therefore he does not have to be responsible for them.

11:13-14 Yet as he pours out his frustration, God supplies answer. Moses' rant shifts: instead of quitting and walking off the job (and he really, really seems to want to), he requests help. Even Moses himself is not perfect and that is a purposeful blessing: God's prophets are so easy to relate to. Moses forgets that God provides... all things. Moses does not need to ask where he can find meat because all things are found in Him Who provides.

11:15 Moses gives us a clear and severe indication as to how much stress he is actually under. He does not feel qualified for the position of leading the children of Israel and he asks God to be merciful and let him... die. Moses has been leading a group of tens of thousands and dealing with all of their complaints and he is overwhelmed. We probably recognize and are familiar with Moses' state of mind; he calls out to God: if you love me, please send me relief. 

How blessed are we? God provides rest as soon as we ask for it, John 14:16. God sends us an advocate fully equip to help us with our burdens and responsibilities. He gives us the person, the idea or the opportunities to rise above the waves of tumult.

11:16 God helps Moses; He has a plan. God's plan if for Moses to gather seventy men of the elders of the children of Israel and to appoint them into positions that will help Moses lead the group.

11:17 God explains to Moses that once he gathers the group, God will met them and will equip them with His spirit. To be equipped with the spirit of God is to have wisdom and discernment, strength and direction.  Immediately following Moses' request for help, God provides it: and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone. God takes our brokenness and heals. He takes our weakness and strengthens. He pulls us out out chaos and places us on an ordered path. He is empathetic to our suffering and rushes in as soon as we request His help.

11:18 God begins to answer the next problem: the people are desperate for meat. He's going to provide it... with a heaping helping of a LESSON. Be careful what you... intensely crave... because it never arrives as you think it will.

11:19-20 God promises that for an entire month they will have so much meat they will be disgusted with it. God's lesson to them (and us is this):

• When we are ungrateful for the blessings in our present because of lust for things we want to be in our future, we neglect all of the ways He has provided for us in the past. Our neglect of His generosity withers our faith. Our faith becomes weak and unhealthy... and remember that faith is the channel through which God's blessings flow into us.

The people are drunk with desire; they refuse to be happy for what they have and instead focus on what they want. Our behavior is at times baffling. God rescues us from figurative slavery (as He did literally for the children of Israel) and we plead to be enslaved again! Lust is a slave-holder. We do well to release ourselves from desire because our God provides without having to be asked. Jesus teaches us the following lesson in Matthew 6:25-34

25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 

31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

We do not need to intensely crave anything because God provides. If we do not have something, it is either because we do not need it or it would not be good for us. If we do not have something we should have, God is working on and building it in our lives. We may not intensely crave the same things as the children of Israel but we are the same. We each have something in our lives we a pleading for and God's answer is always: yes, wait until My perfect timing to deliver it or no, that thing would ruin you. Give Him complete authority over what and who comes into your life and when. He knows better than you do.

11:21-22 Moses is baffled. God has promised to provide enough meat for 600,000 men (and their families) and Moses cannot believe it. It is a cute moment; Moses seriously underestimates God's ability. How often do we do the same? The impossible is made possible with God. The improbable is made likely, and even definite with God.

11:23 God's somewhat affronted response here is perfect: Did something happen to Me? Moses, do you know of some new limitation that I do not know about? Because the impossible is ridiculously easy for God. Always has been and always will be. Consider that truth whenever you worry about not being able to accomplish something. It does not matter if we cannot see a way through because even if there isn't a way, God creates one.

God does not take unnecessary time to convince Moses. Instead He says: I said it will happen and you will observe when it has. God does not say "No, really, I promise!" He says it once... and then He says watch. Whether we believe Him, in Him or His abilities... they are powerfully present and productive.

Just imagine God (in whatever form you usually think of Him/It) with this deadpan countenance upon hearing us voice a ridiculous worry. It's like asking the sun to shine... the sun says: Uhh, sure. I'm already doing that. It's easy. It's not second nature, it's first nature.

As sure as sunbeams stream into our windows, God streams into our souls. Into our lives. Blessings abundant. Provisions assured. We are emotional beings... we are not at all times even-tempered. But in those moments remember that providing for you and comforting your is first nature to Him.

11:24-25 Just as God promises, the elders are equipped with His spirit, able to join Moses in leading the group. God enables them, in that one specific duty to prophesy. To have intricate knowledge directly from Him (as Moses has had). They realize what has been divinely-given to them and by Whom. Wisdom-rooted purpose is one of the most beautiful gifts we can receive from God.

11:26-28 Two of the elders who remained in the camp received the divine gift of prophesy from God and Joshua, Moses' assistant, panics!

11:29 This is Moses' answer to Joshua: "Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them". To receive purpose from God is a blessing. A blessed opportunity and responsibility. Moses knows that it would be a miracle, a blessing for each person to have a personal relationship with God.

Moses is not jealous, instead, he is glad! We can understand: Moses knows that God's love is abundant...there's more than enough for each and every living thing and person. He's happy for anyone to know God as he has known him. Indeed, we can imagine how much better of a place earth would be if all of humanity were tethered to God.

11:30 Moses returns to camp relieved of his burdens. We go to God with our burdens and we always walk away from them with His hand in ours.

11:31-32 God attends to the second manner of business, remember the children of Israel lusted for meat. God promised to deliver... but remember, be careful what you intensely crave. A sea wind directed by God's hand brings multitudes of quail to the children of Israel and they begin to feast.

11:33-34 Here is where the craving for meat becomes entirely figurative. The people who refused God and turned against Him suffered because they walked away from Him. Without God, they were alone in a desert. A desolate place. Without God's provisions, life on earth can feel the same way. Lust and greed were eliminated from the camp.

11:35 The children of Israel continue on their journey (both of foot and faith).