Numbers 11

Up to this point in the book of Numbers the story has been one of order and blessing. The book now turns to the disappointing history of the people of God during their wilderness wanderings. When we look at the history of Israel, when we read about the New Testament churches, when we consider the testimony of church history, and when we make an honest assessment of our lives, we are reminded of our need for a Savior.

Numbers 11 begins with the words, “and the people complained.” There is ample room in our relationship with the Lord for an honest lament before God. He knows our weakness, and He hears our cries for help. The problem was that instead of bringing their helplessness to the Lord in faith, the people complained “in the hearing of the Lord.” They were complaining about their lives and about God, and God heard it.

What was the result? The fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. What put out the fire? The people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord., and the fire died down.

The people were hungry in the wilderness, not only for food, but for their former way of life in Egypt. They wept and they complained to one another, remembering the former days, maybe forgetting that they had cried out to the Lord for help when they were slaves in Egypt. Now they remembered life in Egypt as a great and varied banquet. The miracle manna that God was sending to them for their sustenance provoked no thanksgiving from their lips.

People were weeping. God was blazing hotly in His anger. Moses was displeased too. He talked with God, and he wanted to die.

God's solution to this crisis was multifaceted. He brought aid to the covenant mediator, and He disciplined His covenant community with a plague of the very meat for which they longed.

God's aid to the covenant mediator was through the gift of Spirit-touched leaders in a wonderful anticipation of the New Testament age and even of the fullness of heavenly life. The gift of the Spirit was for service. These men would bear the burden with Moses. Consider Ephesians 4.

The discipline of the Lord sounded like a great provision; a month of meat. Moses did not believe such a thing was possible. He would learn that the Lord's arm was powerful, but the quail would not be a blessing.

Meanwhile, the glory cloud of God came upon the seventy elders that Moses gathered, and even on two who were not with the larger group. Joshua was alarmed that these two men were prophesying in the camp. Moses words in reply were prophetic, not only of the coming New Testament era, but of the day when resurrection life would be full in the kingdom of heaven. He says, “Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

For now the Lord would send more quail than the people of Israel could have ever dreamed of. But with it came God's wrath as He “struck down the people with a great plague.”

When we long for some old life that we imagine to be better than it ever really was, we insult the Christ who died on the cross for our sins. He took the plague of God's wrath that was rightly directed against us. He suffered that we might have abundant life. Can't we trust Him in this present hour? May He fill us even now with His Spirit, that we might speak the oracles of God and live the life of love.