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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.

Jacob’s Prediction About Benjamin - Genesis 49:27

“Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; In the morning he devours the prey, And in the evening he divides the spoil.”

We now come to the blessing of Jacob’s last child, the second from his beloved Rachel, Joseph’s younger brother, Benjamin.  It is nowhere near the length of the blessing spoken over Joseph or Judah, but nonetheless the blessing, as well as the tribe it describes, packs a punch.   Later on in scripture we see that Benjamin’s was indeed one of the toughest fighting tribes of them all.  They were almost erased due to wickedness and all the other tribes joined forces against them to defeat them, although just.  But at the same time this is the tribe that gave Israel Ehud the second judge, and Saul, its first king, along with Esther and Mordecai who were very instrumental in destroying the enemies of the Jews.  And this was the tribe that gave us the great apostle, Paul.

Some, like Matthew Henry, argue that this blessing is more proof that “a spirit of prophecy” not just his personal feelings, was indeed guiding Jacob, as otherwise he would have spoken with greater tenderness and love towards Benjamin, a child which he dearly cared for as was evidenced by his reluctance to let him go to Egypt in order to get grain.

Instead he speaks of Benjamin as one who would lead a great warrior tribe that would take and use well the spoils of its conquered enemies who feared it greatly.

So, what are we to take from all this?  What is the message for you and I today?  I suggest that in the tribe of Benjamin we learn that we can never underestimate the ways of God.  God, in accomplishing His divine purpose for individuals, groups, or mankind as a whole, can, does, and will use all manner of men and women, with different dispositions and temperaments, some good, some not so good.   In fact, as Charles Stanley pointed out recently, Romans 8:28 does not say, “And we know that God causes all good things to work together for good,” but it says, “God causes all things to work together for good,” including things that happen to you and I that we don’t like, things that stem from our enemies or Satan himself, and things that we wouldn’t wish on anyone else.

Here is more evidence then, through the history of the tribe of Benjamin (without which we would not have the great teachings of Paul in the New Testament today), that God is fully in control of all circumstances, aware of what schemes of the Enemy He allows, and by so being, can and does ultimately bring about His purpose.   Being confident of that very fact should bring incredible solace to an otherwise anxious life.  I pray you have that peace today.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

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Jacob’s Prediction About Joseph - Genesis 49:22-26

“Joseph is a fruitful bough, A fruitful bough by a spring; Its branches run over a wall.  The archers bitterly attacked him, And shot at him and harassed him; But his bow remained firm, And his arms were agile, From the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel), From the God of your father who helps you, And by the Almighty who blesses you With blessings of heaven above, Blessings of the deep that lies beneath, Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.  The blessings of your father Have surpassed the blessings of my ancestors Up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills; May they be on the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of the one distinguished among his brothers.”

Jacob now comes to his first natural son of his beloved Rachel.  You will remember it was Joseph that had received the coat of many colors from his father and had become the envy of his brothers.  The first thing we note is that Jacob devotes more words in his prophecy of Joseph (136 words in the NASB) than he does to any other son, with Judah coming in a close second at 124 words in the NASB.  You may well ask, “Why would anyone bother to count the actual number of words involved?”  The answer is simple.  If God was indeed guiding Jacob’s prophecies about his sons, which I believe He was, then it is important for us to note where God placed His emphasis.  Clearly it is on Joseph and Judah.  We will find out why Joseph momentarily, but why Judah?  I believe it is because of two main reasons as given in the prophecy about him.  First, this was the son that did all he could to preserve the life of Joseph when the other brothers would have left him for dead.  Judah had a redeeming nature as we pointed out when earlier discussing the prophecy about him.  He was the original “lion” among the Israelites who ruled for a long time.  Secondly, this is the tribe through which Jesus Christ, the Savior, the ultimate “Lion of Judah” would enter the world.

Returning to Joseph, we find Jacob describing him as a “fruitful bough by a spring with branches running over a wall.”  His tribe was to be attacked (as Joseph was by his own brothers) but he was constantly to be protected by God Almighty.  He was to be blessed both from above and with the “blessings of the deep” (which we discuss below), and so on.  Jacob admitted that he had been more blessed than his ancestors (Isaac and Abraham) and now Joseph was to be blessed in a similar fashion.  But let’s look at this blessing a little closer.

Jacob, with God’s guidance, starts to describe Joseph as being one who brings forth good fruit, as God would want all of us to do.  Commentator Chuck Smith states it is fruit that is the test of a man’s life.  The Psalmist David follows up on this description in Psalm 1:3 where he says that a righteous man is one who “will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season.”  What a goal for each of us – to be firmly planted (in our doctrine), by streams of water (pointing to the life of Christ), and yielding fruit (helping reproduce new and mature believers) in its season (our here and now).

The fact that its branches run over a wall implies that others were indeed blessed by Joseph.  How true that was – just think of how many were saved because of his wisdom and the management skills he applied as God first put him in a place of responsibility in Egypt.  He fed the entire nearby world at the time rather than keep all the harvests for himself and his earthly master.

In verse 23, we read that archers shot at him.  This was likely a reference perhaps to his brothers, teaching us that oftentimes our enemies will be from within our own camp or family – places from which we would least expect it.  As I observe the Church of Jesus Christ, I notice there seems to be as many if not more ‘inside jobs’ at work destroying the Body than we find in the secular world of business and politics.  Judas Ischariots abound in the Family still and the real ‘GOD-Father’ must continue to be greatly grieved.

But people were not the only arrows shot at Joseph.  Smith points out there were also arrows of temptation, false accusations, and forgetfulness of others.  Still, through all this we read in verse 24 “his bow remained firm (in strength, or ‘held in check’).  Joseph had opportunity to strike back, to take revenge, but did not.  The strength we’re talking about is the strength needed sometimes ‘not to act’ rather than to act and shoot our own arrows back.  What an example for us.  What a difficult lesson for us to learn yet one greatly needed today.  And Jacob goes on to tell us why that was with Joseph – because the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob bolstered his own arms.  We may have our bow and arrows ready – in our arms – but are those arms themselves in the hands of Almighty God who will direct them accordingly?  When we go to do spiritual battle – be it personal or involving others – we can be as weak as our own arms or as strong as the Arms that hold ours.  Throughout his life, Joseph realized that God was with him.  He gave God credit for his ability to interpret the dreams he interpreted, when he rejected the seduction of Potiphar’s wife, and earlier when his brothers had tried to kill him saying, “you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”  Clearly his strength was coming from God because he trusted in Him.

Jacob was indeed blessed ending up with very large tribes under him representing the double-portion he had been granted.  All this because of his relationship and understanding of Who God was in his life.  David Guzik points out that Jacob lists five great titles for God in his words about Joseph, showing his own growth in his relationship with God later in his life.  You will remember that early in his life, God to Jacob was simply “the God of Abraham” or “the Fear of his father Isaac” (Genesis 31:53).  The titles he uses here are:

• The Mighty God of Jacob
• The Shepherd
• The Stone of Israel
• The God of your father
• The Almighty

Much can be written about each one, but suffice it for us to ask the question, “does our understanding and more importantly, our relationship with God take in all of these attributes?”

In summary, Robert Jamieson writes, “The patriarch describes him (Joseph) as attacked by envy, revenge, temptation, ingratitude….”  That describes many of us well, does it not?  Jamieson continues about Joseph, “…Yet still, by the grace of God, he triumphed over all opposition, so that he became the sustainer of Israel….” Jamieson says, Jacob then “proceeds to shower blessings of every kind upon the head of this favorite son. The history of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh shows how fully these blessings were realized.”  Truly Joseph was a blessed man.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

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Israel Gathers His Sons Before He Dies - Genesis 49:1-2

Then Jacob summoned his sons and said, “Assemble yourselves that I may tell you what shall befall you, in the days to come.  Gather together and hear, O sons of Jacob; And listen to Israel your father.”

Jacob has just finished telling Joseph about his ‘double-portion’ of Israel’s estate and then he calls the rest of his sons to his bedside so that he can tell them what lies ahead for them each.  He actually refers to them as “sons of Jacob” and tells them to listen “to Israel your father.”

I have three married children, two of which so far have children of their own.  It is difficult for me to imagine gathering them together to share with them what I ‘know’ lies ahead for each of them, as Jacob seemed to have done for his twelve sons.  First of all distance may make this problematic with my eldest living over 1,000 miles away.  Secondly, I have no idea whatsoever what does lie ahead for them with the certainty that Jacob knew.  I could hazard to guess on some probabilities given who they are and the choices they have made so far, but it would only be my feelings, and certainly not unquestionable knowledge.  Yet, as I studied this further, I realized that indeed even we today can undertake such an exercise with great purpose and value.

Jacob’s authority with respect to what he was about to share came, we can safely assume, directly from God.  This was Jacob prophesizing as to what would happen to the people of Israel, broken down by tribe or group, as headed up by each of his sons.

So here we have them gathered round his bed.  Commentator Matthew Henry suggests that perhaps they had to leave their perspective employment to come to their father’s bed, although we do not know what time of day it was for this to be true.  And they were all there.  What a comfort this must have been to Jacob who for many years of his life existed as a bereaved father thinking his son Joseph had been devoured by a wild beast.  Is it also possible they were lined up in order of their birth in anticipation of learning their future?  Perhaps.  We will also see as we go through these pronouncements that there were, in some cases, elements of a “blessing” being bestowed on some by Jacob.  But clearly the emphasis is on what God will, or will not, do with and for each of these tribes.

The commentator David Guzik points out that this set of prophesies was the first “knowing” prophesies pronounced by man.  God had made some earlier ones, starting with promise of the triumph of the seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15, but not man.  Man had only made some “veiled” ones that were neither communicated nor understood at the time to be prophesies.  One possible example is Noah in Genesis 9:25-27.  But here now we have Jacob prophesizing directly.

It is important to note from the outset, as he summoned his sons, the heir of Abraham and Isaac referred to himself as both Jacob and Israel.  Guzik says, he “realized he was both Jacob and Israel, and his sons are sons of each.”  Guzik calls this as being a place of spiritual maturity that this patriarch had reached, “realizing both what God made him (Israel) and what he had to battle against (Jacob).”  It is important for each of us to consider where we are in this spiritual maturity journey.  Have we reached that place?  Have we understood our full ultimate calling to be what God has intended for us while remembering that our life’s battle is still to be fought with both our own “old nature” as well as the “old nature of the world”?  Are we able to convey to our children the need for them to reach there as well?  That perhaps is what we are to gain from these two short introductory verses.

In undertaking to make these utterances upon each of his sons, Jacob wanted to share with them, as he neared his own death, how they indeed might live.  And while each utterance was declared to a particular child, he clearly chose to make them in the presence of all.  Again Henry suggests we stand to often profit “by the reproofs, counsels, and comforts, that are principally intended for others.”  I have always believed that.  I have seen it work with both young children and grandchildren of my own.  The smart ones catch on and learn from the pain and discomfort of their siblings.  In the verses that follow we will see that Jacob pulls no punches.

And is it possible that in calling them together like this, Jacob was indirectly sharing his desire that they all may be one?  Henry describes the desire of Jacob for them “to unite in love, (to keep together, not to mingle with the Egyptians, not to forsake the assembling of themselves together,) and a prediction that they should not be separated from each other, as Abraham’s sons and Isaac’s were, but should be incorporated, and all make one people.”  That, in Jacob’s mind, would have been important for God’s Covenant to be facilitated.  What a desire for a father to have for his children.  My wife and I rejoice greatly when our children and their spouses want to spend time together with each other.  It is then I can honestly confess, in some unexplainable way, that I enjoy “kid-sitting” the most.  It is then it gives me the greatest satisfaction.

It is important we point out here the possible significance of the phrase “in the days to come” in this segment of Scripture.  Jacob is not prophesizing what will befall his children immediately as individuals but rather what will happen to their specific future generations “in the days to come” maybe even after the time they return to the land of Canaan.  That is what God had shared with him in a general way.  Similarly, as Christian parents, we do not have the ability to tell each of our children what education they will achieve, what jobs they will attain, how wealthy they will get or how poor they will remain, whether they will contract some illness or not, etc.  But clearly, as students of our Bible, we can share with them what God has in store for them and the world in the days to come, and therefore, how they may want to live their lives accordingly.

And finally, there’s a lesson here perhaps for those of us who are still ‘children’ in the sense that one of our parents is still alive.  Jacob uses the words, “hear” and “listen”.  Some versions of Scripture say, “Hearken to Israel . . . ”.  Children are implored to pay attention to what a godly parent may have to say to them as they utter their last advice to them both out of love for them and for God.  Some of us were fortunate enough to have had that advice come from both our parents.  In the case of my father, it came during the last half-year or so of his life as he knew he was battling cancer.  Thankfully, my mother, who left us more suddenly, was able to impart to me verbally and in writing throughout her life.

Genesis 49:1,2 are just two short verses introducing a set of pronouncements, yet when examined closely, they yield incredible wisdom.  May we benefit from them.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.

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