Are you Greedy? Don't worry God Provides . . .

Numbers 11:16-35 God Provides for Moses; Gives the People Quail; and then Sends A Plague – What Gives?

Day 53 of social distancing. Although my wife noticed today that Toronto is (according to ads on the back of buses – yes, we did go out today – met a member of our small group in a parking lot) – using the phrase “physical distancing”. I guess that’s more the case, but it doesn’t change a thing. Also, today is Mother’s Day. Can you imagine how many mothers and grandmothers didn’t have the opportunity to hug their children and grandchildren because some politicians are pushing their authority to the limit. We also need to watch the efforts of some who would rather never have us re-open our churches again. So, they’re predicting they’ll keep churches closed until 2021. That’s right, and they’re being sued for it. But by the time the case runs the gamut of courts, it will be 2021. Will heads roll?  I doubt it.  On the other hand, there is nothing you and I can do about it.  Our guidance and direction and hope and peace and love come from above. So, hang in there.  We’ll keep studying the Word and finding more priceless gems. Moses had just finished complaining to God (see our last study) and it’s time for God to respond. Read on. 

The Passage

¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses: “Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you. ¹⁷ I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.

¹⁸ “Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. ¹⁹ You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, ²⁰ but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’”

²¹ But Moses said, “Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’ ²² Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?”

²³ The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”

²⁴ So Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said. He brought together seventy of their elders and had them stand around the tent. ²⁵ Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied—but did not do so again.

²⁶ 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. ²⁷ A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”

²⁸ Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ aide since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”

²⁹ But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” ³⁰ Then Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.

³¹ Now a wind went out from the Lord and drove quail in from the sea. It scattered them up to two cubits^[a] deep all around the camp, as far as a day’s walk in any direction. ³² All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers.^[b] Then they spread them out all around the camp. ³³ But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague.³⁴ Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah,^[c] because there they buried the people who had craved other food.

³⁵ From Kibroth Hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth and stayed there.

Footnotes

1. Numbers 11:31 That is, about 3 feet or about 90 centimeters
2. Numbers 11:32 That is, possibly about 1 3/4 tons or about 1.6 metric tons
3. Numbers 11:34 Kibroth Hattaavah means graves of craving.

Thoughts on the Passage

God had heard Moses’ complaining. He asked Moses to get Him seventy (70) elders known for their leadership to meet in the tent of meeting. There God was going to transfer some of the power of the Spirit from Moses to them. This raises a question in my mind: Is the power of the Spirit a limited power, or did God mean something else when He uttered those words? Robert Jamieson suggests that the transfer of this power was not in quantity but rather in quality. Moses did not end up with any less of the Spirit, but the 70 leaders got have the Spirit in some of the same ways that Moses had Him.

These 70 were to stand with Moses in the tent of meeting and God would ‘come down’ and speak not with them, but with Moses. Once the transfer of the power of the Spirit was complete, the idea was that these 70 would share the burden of the people with Moses, so that he would not have to carry it alone.

Verse 18 tells us that God told Moses to tell the ‘people’ (not just the 70) to consecrate themselves for on the morrow they would have ‘meat’ (which they craved) to eat. And that they’d eat if for a whole month until they were sick of it because they “rejected the Lord” and rued the day they left Egypt and the slavery they were bond by.

In verse 21, Moses responds and says, basically, “Come on, God; there’s no way you can provide that much meat.” And God challenges him to wait and see. (At this point, if I were God, I would be not only mad at the people still, but now also furious at Moses.) Moses, how big is your God? Reader, how big is your God? When God tells us He will do something, let’s not question His method.

Moses goes and tells the people. He brings 70 elders to the tent. God does what He said He would do (He always does). And lo and behold, when the Spirit “rested on them, they prophesized” but only then and not again.  At least two questions arise: what did they prophesy? Chuck Smith says that prophesy is not always predictive – sometimes it is simply speaking out the Word of the Lord. And why never again? (Now that one I cannot answer. Feel free to answer it in the comments section.)

From here, the story takes a twist. Two men, Eldad and Medad, who were among the elders (not sure if they were part of the 70 or additional elders) stayed in the camp. I would assume the former as the text says the Spirit also rested on them, and they started prophesying.  Clearly the Lord’s Spirit is not limited by geography. Anyway, someone ran and told Moses and they wanted Moses to stop them. Notice that we are told (in verse 28) that it was Joshua the son Nun [yes, the very Joshua who went on to become leader after Moses] that wanted these two stopped. He was likely one of the 70 himself. But Matthew Henry believes they did this from a positive, though human, perspective – trying to assure the unity of the leaders and how they were to behave. We need to be careful that we do not put all leaders that God has called into the same mold. He may have different means of engaging them and for different purposes. One only has to look at how Jesus selected His disciples.

Moses would have none of it as he felt the more that would assist him in his work, the better, and in fact, wished that this would have happened to more than the 70. Matthew Henry suggests that they didn’t come to the tent, not because they were rebels (or else the Spirit of the Lord would not have fallen on them) but rather either because they did not get the message for some or reason or out of humility. Interesting thoughts.

And then things change once more as a “wind went out from the Lord” that brought quail to the camp from the sea. So much quail that it covered the ground at a depth of 3 feet or 90 centimeters and spread out as far as a day’s walk from all directions from the center of the camp. “Hey, Moses, did you really think that God’s arm was too short?”  And the people collected quail for two days straight – each one (or family) getting not less than 1 ¾ tons or 1.6 metric tons. [Moses, reader – how big is your God?]

Henry wants to observe the three aspects of what happened:
1. The people were gratified with flesh in abundance.
2. The people were so greedy of this flesh that God had sent them.
3. The people that were greedy paid dearly for their feast when it came time of reckoning.

David Guzik says, “When we allow ungodly cravings to rule our lives, God may send what we crave – and leannessinto our soul as well. Better to have a ‘fat’ soul and be deprived those cravings!”

And I guess that made God even angrier still, so much so that He sent them a severe plague. Let me share with you an example from my own life that I believe may be helpful here. I love shrimp and clams. It is very rare for me to eat them in Toronto. But when we visit our oldest daughter’s family in South Carolina – I know I will have shrimp and clams any time I want them. And in fact, regrettably, and sinfully, I ‘pig out’ on them. But boy do I pay the price at night because my stomach is just not used to that kind of diet. No multiply that many times and you get the plague (even to death) of the greedy Israelites who pigged out on quail.  [And by the way, quail is one of the tastiest fowls I have eaten. If you haven’t tried it, you should when you get a chance.]

However, we can’t miss the main point here in our passage. Many who had craved meat died and were buried right there and the place was called Kibroth Hattaavah which means “graves of craving”. Smith calls this a “grave of lust” and says many people get buried in their grave of lust. I am reminded of the old poster I had framed when I was away in graduate school. This is what it said:

Reader, what is the chance that you and I might end up dying in our grave of craving or grave of lust? 

Once things settled down, God moved them from there to Hazeroth. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of the Israelites in the Desert. And hopefully, we’ve learned something from the grumblings of both the Israelites and Moses.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.