Numbers 11:1-34

In Everyday Discipleship for Ordinary People, Stuart Briscoe relates an experience of one of his young ministerial colleagues who was officiating at the funeral of a war veteran.

The dead man’s military friends wanted to have a part in the service at the funeral home, so they requested the pastor to lead them down to the casket, stand with them for a solemn moment of remembrance, and then lead them out through a side door.

This he proceeded to do, but the effect was marred when he picked the wrong door, and they marched with military procession into a cleaner’s cupboard, in full view of the mourners, and had to beat a hasty and confused retreat.

What makes a leader?

What makes a leader? A good general definition of a leader is one who influences other people. But, as that true story illustrates, if you’re going to lead, you need to know where you’re going; and if you’re going to follow, make sure you pick someone who knows what they’re doing!

Real leaders are ordinary people with extraordinary determination. As Israel’s leader, Moses exercised a great deal of influence, and certainly demonstrated extraordinary determination against enormous odds, but he also faced many problems, and two significant problems arise in Numbers chapter 11.

In the early chapters of Exodus we find the people of Israel complaining (with justification) about their slavery. But in Numbers 11:1-6, and in many other places in the Pentateuch, they are complaining about their freedom!

Leaving the security and relative fertility of Sinai, they commence the journey that will eventually lead them to Kadesh Barnea and on to Canaan, and the first region they come to is the inhospitable stony desert of Et-Tih.

Instead of looking forward to Canaan with the perspective of faith, they yearn nostalgically for the perceived pleasures of Egypt.

They romanticise the past and minimise its discomforts, and they complain about the hardships they are forced to endure in the desert. As far as we know they did not complain directly to God, but they did complain among themselves, and the Lord heard their murmuring, and punished them with fire, consuming some of the outskirts of the camp.

Whether the people discerned that this was divine judgement is unclear, but they grew worse, encouraged in their faithlessness and rebellion by “the rabble” (verse 4a), a group of non-Israelites who had left Egypt with Israel but who had not experienced God’s mercy and redemption (cf Exodus 12:38).

Eventually Moses had the unenviable experience of hearing “the people of every family wailing, each at the entrance to his tent” (verse 10). What is their grievance? The manna God has provided to supplement their diet (cf Exodus 16:14-21, 31).

Earlier their complaint had been about the lack of food (cf Exodus 16:3); now it’s the lack of variety. The manna, which in Psalm 78:24-25 is described as “the grain of heaven . . . the bread of angels,” has lost its novelty value, and the Israelites pronounce it unsuitable and insufficient.

This latest problem made the Lord exceedingly angry, and it pushed Moses beyond the limits of his normal grace and composure. He’s had enough of their grumbling and murmuring, and he does some of his own. But, unlike the people, he addresses his complaint to the Lord (note the contrast between “I” and “you”):

“Why have you brought this trouble on your servant?” he asks. “What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their forefathers? Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now – if I have found favour in your eyes – and do not let me face my own ruin (verses 11-15).

Two challenges

Moses faced a two-fold problem. First, he could not fulfil his responsibilities (vv. 11, 14). He felt he was not a sufficiently good leader to get the job done.

Second, he could not satisfy the people’s demands (vv. 21-22). The people had said, “If only we had meat to eat!” (verse 4b). Moses had worked as a shepherd, so he possessed some animal husbandry skills, but where was he going to find meat for 600,000 men, plus their women and children?

The Lord reassured him, and instructed him to convey this message to the people:

Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten, or twenty days, 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?’ (verses 18b-20).

But Moses now regards his people with a degree of cynicism, and says, “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?” (verse 22).

He feels that he can’t fulfil his responsibilities, and that he can’t satisfy the people’s demands. But there’s a solution for Moses’ dilemma, and there’s a solution for you when you feel this way in life. Do what Moses did.

Four principles

First, tell God your concerns (vv. 10-15). Moses didn’t waste his breath complaining to his friends and neighbours; he took the matter straight to the Lord. In the New Testament, Peter encourages us to do the same thing: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

You can be honest and open with God. Moses certainly was. I believe God is encouraged to hear what you really think of yourself, and others, and the situations and circumstances you’re in. He’s the kind of God who understands us and wants to bless you. He cares for you like no one else can. It’s his job.

Second, delegate responsibilities to other capable people (vv. 16-17, 24-25; cf Exodus 18:13-26). This is a key to survival and effectiveness in the workplace, in the home, and in the church. Share the workload; share the chores; share the tasks and burdens of ministry.

We are not told why Moses could not share his spiritual or pastoral burden (verse 14) with the large number of elders who had already been appointed to share his judicial responsibilities (see Exodus 18:13-26).

But the Lord does instruct him to appoint another 70 elders “to help you carry the burden of the people so that you will not have to carry it alone” (verse 17b).

And Moses obeys (verses 24-25). The presence of the Lord has moved from the mountain to the Tent in the midst of the camp, and the 70 elders stand around the Tent, and the Lord comes down and speaks with Moses, and places the same Spirit that was upon Moses upon the 70 also.

Prophecy is a mark of God’s Spirit, and the response of the 70, probably in the form of unintelligible ecstatic utterances, was visible proof that God had endorsed and empowered these men to assist Moses.

We have no record that they ever prophesied again, or even what future ministry they fulfilled, but we do know that they shared the burden Moses had been carrying, and freed him to concentrate effectively on his priorities.

Perhaps you need to share your burden with others. Perhaps you need the Lord to come alongside you and relieve the weight of your responsibility. Perhaps you need a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit to refresh and empower you for the challenges that lie ahead.

“God has given each of you some special abilities; use them to help each other, passing on to others God’s many kinds of blessings” (1 Peter 4:10, LB).

Third, trust God to do the impossible (vv. 18-20, 31-32; cf Exodus 16:1-18). Moses is faced with an impossible task: to assure hundreds of thousands of people that they will be fed with an overabundance of meat. He just can’t see it happening.

But the people’s satisfaction does not depend on Moses’ ability to deliver, or on his capacity to visualise the solution, but on God’s willingness to do the impossible. And that’s something he specialises in!

Moses’ incredulity is answered by the Lord’s response, “Wait and see!” (verse 23), reminiscent of Moses’ reply to the unclean but willing worshippers in chapter 9. Moses simply has to accept that ” . . . all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27b).

The fulfilment of God’s promise comes in verses 31-32: “Now a wind went out from the Lord and drove quail in from the sea. It brought them down all around the camp to about three feet above the ground, as far as a day’s walk in any direction.”

It took the people two days and a night to gather what they needed! There was no shortage of quail, but the very satisfaction of their craving was a divine judgement for their introspection and lack of faith, because while they were stuffing their mouths with meat, the Lord struck them with a severe and deadly plague (verses 33-34).

And so Moses’ two problems are solved. He acknowledged his need, and God bestowed his Spirit on the 70 elders within the tabernacle court; the people “gave in to their craving” (Psalm 106:14) and gathered the miraculous provision of quails from outside the camp.

As Gordon Wenham observes in his commentary on Numbers, “The gift of the spirit drew men towards God; the quails led them away from God” (p. 96). There are lessons for each of us in this narrative.

Finally, don’t be limited by the past. Both the people’s misplaced nostalgia for Egypt (vv. 4-6), and the interlude where Joshua intervenes (vv. 26-29), serve as a caution to prevent us from uncritically accepting tradition and convention.

In both cases the comments seem reasonable, but they are seen as misplaced passions by Moses and by the Lord. Misty-eyed recollections of the good times in Egypt led the people to disparage the gift of the manna, and the Giver.

And Joshua’s desire to prevent Eldad and Medad from prophesying in the camp (probably because he saw it as improper and a challenge to Moses’ spiritual authority) led Moses to make the startling reply, “I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them!” (verse 29b).

What prompted such an unconventional reply in a community where God usually only spoke through Moses? Perhaps because Moses was given a fresh perspective through his experience of the shared Spirit in verse 25, reminding him once again that God is not limited by human traditions and conventions.

Traditions are useful when they are our servants, but they should never become our masters. “Where there is no vision the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18, KJV), and, just like Israel, we need a God-inspired combination of tradition and vision.

One of the validating tests of true leadership is one’s capacity to translate vision into reality. And from time to time we encounter windows of opportunity where we need to act quickly and initiate some new action.

Like a trapeze artist swinging from one bar to another at a circus, there comes a time when you must let go of one bar and grab another. Failure to make the right move at the right moment leaves you swinging back and forth, slowing gradually until you stop. Knowing when and where to jump is crucial.

But sometimes our problems get in the way, or weigh us down, and we find we lack the strength or the will to grab that next bar. If that’s your experience, take these four principles from Numbers chapter 11, and live them.

——————–

E127 Copyright (c) 2003 Rod Benson. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: New International Version (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1980). To talk with Rod about this message, email or write to P.O. Box 1790, MACQUARIE CENTRE 2113 AUSTRALIA. To subscribe, email with “subscribe-river” in the subject. To unsubscribe, type “unsubscribe-river” in the subject.