Numbers 11:1-15--The People Complain

Numbers 11:1-15
English Standard Version

The People Complain
11 And the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. 2 Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down. 3 So the name of that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the Lord burned among them.

4 Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. 6 But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”

7 Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium. 8 The people went about and gathered it and ground it in handmills or beat it in mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. 9 When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it.

​10 Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the Lord blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased. 11 Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? 12 Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers? 13 Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ 14 I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. 15 If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.”

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You could probably say that this passage is representative of the main theme of the entire book of Numbers--the people complaining and grumbling about their circumstances they are in and the leadership that God has given them.  Not that different from people today--even the people that identify as the people of God today.  This grumbling and complaining and rebellious nature are not supposed to identify God's people and this is something that angers God greatly throughout the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy.  We see here that God's anger is so hot that the fire of the LORD is kindled and it consumes some of the outer portions of the camp.  It is at this point usually once the people are already under judgment that they change their tune and they cry out to Moses to pray for them so that they may receive grace and mercy instead of wrath and judgment.  Do you not see the gospel in this?  The people knew that they deserved the punishment they were getting, they knew the punishment was just.  They did not try to make any ordinary sacrifice because there was none prescribed for this--it was no ordinary sin, it was a high-handed sin whose punishment was death.  All the people who were rebellious deserved to die, but God only executed judgment on a few people and convicted the others of their sin so that they may repent, and they asked for a mediator to pray for God to overlook their transgressions and iniquities because they could not pay for them--not even with the blood of bulls and goats.

It seems from the last chapter that they may have only gone out three days journey from Mount Sinai before this rebellion happened and that is consistent with what we see other place like when they crossed the Red Sea and three days later the people were complaining about their water supply.  We don't have any indication of timeline here, but we are led to believer these events are close together--the departure from Mt. Sinai, the grumbling at Taberah, and the grumbling that followed about what food they had to eat--they were no longer happy with the supernatural provision of mana from heaven that the LORD had been providing for them each and every day.  They desired the things that they used to have in their "old life" when they were slaves in Egypt (read this as Christians who still have an appetite for the lusts of the flesh and are unhappy with the good desires that God has given them).

Once again, God is angered is kindled against the people, but Moses also starts to complain about the job that God has given him--he asks God why He has given Moses such a difficult job to lead such people who are so much trouble and wear on him.  Moses even argues that if he was the natural father of these people that he would have some responsibility to put up with them, and carry them to the place they need to go to, even if they are fighting him in doing so.  He looks at his role as a curse instead of a blessing saying that God has dealt ill with him and assumes that he has lost favor in the sight of God.  Are we not any different with the task becomes hard and we face burdens that are great--especially the rejection of the people that we are trying to minister to?

​Moses begins to look at himself and to natural means to answer the people's complaints and assumes that the answer to them is to give into them (probably for for fear that they will rise up against him if he does not meet their demands like the we see in some other places later).  It's probably fair to say that Moses has reached his breaking point here and might even be in the middle of what we could call an emotional breakdown.  He can't take it anymore and at the end he cries out with the truest need that he has.  God lets him come to the realization that the task is too large for him to bear alone....and Moses was never meant to bear it alone.  First and foremost, it was always God's responsibility to lead, guide and provide for His people, but, God was about to answer Moses' need for additional leadership.  God listens to this request and seemingly ignores the parts where Moses says things like, "If this is your plan, then just go ahead and kill me now."  I'm glad that God doesn't always give us everything that we ask for in our times of desperation and brokenness.  He is a good Father who knows how to give us everything we need, including the help and support of others in our mission as we need it.  God had already appointed 70 elders--men who would be filled with the Spirit--to assist Moses and Aaron with the task of leading these people.  That's what we'll plan to read about and study next time.