God punishes complaining with fire
11
📚And the people were like those who complain of hardship in the hearing of the LORD. And the LORD heard it, and his anger was aroused, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. 11:1 Notes at Ex 14:11-12 and Num 21:5. See also Ex 15:24; 16:2; Num 14:2; 16:11; 17:5. Grumbling or complaining is a terrible sin because it is the same as doubting God’s love, justice, guidance, goodness, and promises. If we complain against God we are saying that we are wiser and better than God. In this case this sin was swiftly punished. God’s anger is like fire which blazes against all evil, sin, and wrong. Note at Num 25:3. See also Isa 30:27; 33:14; Rom 1:18; Heb 12:29.⚜
2 📚And the people cried out to Moses; and when Moses prayed to the LORD the fire was quenched.
11:2 As Moses was the mediator and intercessor at that time, so now Christ is for His people (1 John 2:1; Heb 7:25; Rom 5:10). He it is who keeps the wrath of God from coming on them because of their sins. Note at Ex 32:11-13.⚜
3 📚And he called the name of the place Taberah 📖, because the fire of the LORD burned among them.
God sends quail and punishment with them
4 📚And the mixed crowd that was among them had greedy desires, and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? 5 📚We remember the fish which we ate for free in Egypt, and the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic. 6 📚But now we waste away. There is nothing at all before our eyes except this manna”.
7 📚And the manna was like coriander seed, and its colour like the colour of bdellium. 8 📚And the people went around and gathered it, and ground it between millstones, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes with it. And its taste was like the taste of some preparation made with oil. 9 📚And when the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna fell on it.
11:4-9 Though the fiery anger of the Lord burned against them their greedy desires were uncontrollable. They even dared to despise the food God had given them from heaven (Ex 16:14-16, 31; Deut 8:3, 16). We see from such behavior what man is in his fallen condition.⚜
10 📚Then Moses heard the people wailing, everyone in their families at the entrance of their tents. And the anger of the LORD was greatly aroused. It was also an evil thing in the eyes of Moses.
11:10 Num 10:1. Moses was displeased. The burden of the people became very grievous to him. He could stand it no longer and began to complain himself. He practically charged God with treating him too harshly – vs 11-14.⚜
11 📚And Moses said to the LORD, “Why have you treated me badly? And why have I not found favour in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? 12 📚Have I conceived all this people? Have I given them birth, so that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries an infant at the breast, to the land which you swore to give to their fathers?’ 13 📚Where can I get meat to give to all this people? For they are wailing to me, saying, ‘Give us meat to eat.’ 14 📚I am not able to carry all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. 15 📚And if you are going to treat me like this, please kill me at once, if I have found favour in your sight, and do not let me see my own misery”.
11:15 Desires and prayers for death are not uncommon even among the greatest leaders of God’s people (1 Kings 19:4; Job 3:11, 21, 22; Jer 20:14-18; Jonah 4:8; Phil 1:23). But when the burden of life and service gets to be almost unendurable, God understands and helps and comforts His people.⚜
16 📚And the LORD said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy of the elders of Israel whom you know to be the elders of the people and their officers, and bring them to the tabernacle of the congregation, so that they may stand there with you. 17 📚And I will come down and talk with you there; and I will take of the Spirit that is on you and will put the same on them; and they will carry the burden of the people with you, so that you do not carry it by yourself.
18 📚“And say to the people, Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you will eat meat; for you have wailed in the ears of the LORD, saying, ‘Who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt 📖.’ Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat. 19 You will eat it not one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, 20 📚but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils, and it becomes loathsome 📖 to you; because you have rejected the LORD who is among you, and have wailed in his presence, saying, ‘Why did we come out of Egypt?’ ”
21 📚And Moses said, “The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand men on foot, and you have said, ‘I will give them meat so that they may eat it for a whole month.’ 22 📚Will the flocks and the herds be slaughtered for them, so they can have enough? Or will all the fish in the sea be gathered for them so they can have enough?”
23 📚And the LORD said to Moses, “Has the LORD’s hand become short? You will see now whether my word comes true for you or not”.
11:23 The answer of God to Moses’ wavering faith was this: God is all-powerful and can and will always do what He says He will do (Gen 18:14; Jer 32:17, 27; Zech 8:6; Matt 19:26). If God can give meat to six hundred thousand men plus women and children in the barren desert He can also provide all anyone can ever need wherever they may be. And He will do so in response to faith. Compare Ps 23:1; 37:25-26; Matt 7:9-11; 2 Cor 9:8; Phil 4:19.⚜
24 📚And Moses went out, and told the people the words of the LORD, and gathered seventy elders of the people, and had them stand around the tabernacle. 25 📚And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was on him and gave the same to the seventy elders. And it happened that, when the Spirit 📖 rested on them, they prophesied 📖, but did not continue.
26 📚But two of the men remained in the camp. The name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad. They were enrolled with the others but did not go to the tabernacle. And the Spirit rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp. 27 And a young man ran and told Moses, and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp”.
28 📚And Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant from his youth, answered and said, “My lord Moses, forbid them”.
11:28 Joshua was jealous for Moses, wanting him alone to be the prophet of Israel. Compare Mark 9:38-40.⚜
29 📚And Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!”
11:29 Moses had a higher view of matters. He was a meek and humble man (Num 12:3). He did not desire a high position or honor from men. If others rose to a high place He was not envious of them. His one desire was that God be honored and that the work of God go forward. In all this he is a great example to all of us. Paul was of a similar mind (1 Cor 14:5). These are the kind of leaders God’s people always need, not the kind who are out for their own honor or power or financial benefit.⚜
30 And Moses returned to the camp, he and the elders of Israel.
31 📚And a wind from the LORD went out and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall near the camp for about the distance of a day’s journey on this side, and about a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, and about two cubits deep on the surface of the ground. 32 📚And the people were up all that day and all that night and all the next day gathering the quails. The one who gathered the least gathered ten homers 📖. And they spread them out for themselves all around the camp.
11:31-32 God kept His word given in v 18.⚜
33 📚And while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD burned against the people, and the LORD struck the people with a very severe plague.
11:33 Ps 78:26-31. Let us be careful what we ask for and how we ask.⚜
34 📚And he called the name of that place Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had been greedy.
11:34 Greed or covetousness is like idolatry (Col 3:5), and God’s wrath comes on it. Kibroth Hattavah means “graves of those who craved”.⚜
35 📚And the people set out from Kibroth Hattaavah for Hazeroth, and stayed at Hazeroth.