If the first 10 chapters were a fair indication, we’d expect smooth sailing for the Israelites as they head out from their 1 year squat at Mt. Sinai while God was teaching them what it looks like to live in right relationship with Him and each other and how to fulfill their responsibility of being the folks who introduce the rest of the world to the true God. But to only use the first chapters of Numbers as that indicator would be short-sighted at best. If we think back to the last time YHWH lead His people on a journey, it should bring us back to the journey that took them to Mt. Sinai to begin with, the deliverance from Egypt. Were they grateful? No. Obedient? No. Did the physical presence of YHWH among them keep them from chasing other gods and other pleasures? That’s a golden-calf revelry type of a “no”. God’s response was to give them a glimpse of the consequences they deserve, and then offer them mercy and guidance (laws) on how to live in such a way that they will be forever recipients of His favor and blessing.
Get ready for round two.
As they leave Mt. Sinai, immediately they begin to complain about “their misfortunes”. This complaint is very shallow and short-sighted, and also very, very human. If you don’t see yourself in this behavior at all, then it’s a sure proof that it’s true in your life. We often view the quality of our lives or situations in a relative fashion. Maybe your neighbor has a nice car that doesn’t have the muffler tied up with electrical wire and you feel like you deserve better. Or your spouse isn’t as adventurous or your kids not as well behaved or your boss not as laid back (or generous) as whatever someone else has. So you pine for something better, you complain of your misfortunes. And often, you look very, very silly. Silly to the dude who can’t afford a car at all, silly to the guy married to a woman who hates his guts, silly to the couple who desperately wants children, and silly to folks who can’t work at all who really want to. And silly, of course, because you spent no time focusing on the good things you have and no time putting the behavior of others and your monetary situation into the context of how you yourself have behaved. (Is it possible that your wife isn’t adventurous because she doesn’t trust you? Or that your kids are reflecting your behavior back at you? Or that you wasted your money on PBR and hashbrowns otherwise you could have put a legit U bolt on your muffler?)
When God hears that His people are complaining, whom He personally delivered from slavery and personally provided water to and personally provided food to and personally provided a clear code of living that assures them blessing…He gets a little miffed and consumes some outer parts of the camp. In the Bible, fire almost always means the presence of God (burning bush talking to Moses, fire coming down to consume the sacrifice in the bull bbq at Mr. Carmel, the Holy Spirit coming as fire, etc.). Here, God makes His presence known to the people that there are consequences to them acting so foolishly, doubting His provision and intention for good for them. When they re-orient and ask Moses to pray on it, their focus is back where it belongs and the fire dies down. This is not the first time Moses has interceded on behalf of the people. To remind them of what has occurred, the location is renamed Taberah, meaning “burning”.
Still, self-centered, entitled behavior rarely dies peacefully or quickly, so the complaints rise again. The rabble (crowds, could be trying to indicate non-Jewish opportunists who left Egypt with the Israelite crowd) persisted, claiming they had all kinds of sweet fruits and vegetables and meats when they were back in Egypt. The lavishness of this claim is most certainly not true, and it also disregards the fact that they were slaves in Egypt. They were under forced labor and bondage. I’ve never heard of someone speak so highly about their prison food. They crave variety and are not at all satisfied with the honey-waferish manna that YHWH Himself is providing them daily…in the middle of the dessert. Again, very human behavior. We glorify past situations amidst struggles in current ones. It’s how people end up getting out of relationships that could be fixed to go back to relationships that were severed for a reason. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and the memory blurry, both of which are not indications of reality. This is a treacherous line of thought and Moses knows it.
So Moses hears all of these folks complaining, each at the door of his tent (must have been a pleasant camp to be in) and we’re told that YHWH’s anger blazed hotly. Moses lays up what is, for the most part, every pastor’s lament: “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?” l laughed out loud at this. Moses’ basic complaint is, why do you so hate me that you would put me in charge of leading and wrangling these ungrateful, complaining brutes? Further, he protests that he didn’t give birth to these folks so why should he have to take care of them on the way to the promised land? I sympathize with Moses, here, it’s a tall order. And, as we’ll get a hint on later in the chapter, it’s too much for Moses to bear and YHWH has a better way. Moses finishes by declaring that there is no way to provide meat to everyone and that it would be better for God to just kill him rather set him up for such failure in trying to lead these people.
YHWH responds. (Timely reminder, every time you see the phrase “the LORD” in your Bible it’s translating the Hebrew word for God’s personal name, which is pronounced “Yah-Way”. In Hebrew it’s written in four consonants, YHWH). First He’s going to deal with this leadership issue by directing Moses to gather 70 of the elders of Israel (folks who the people respect) and bring them to the Tent of Meeting (where God’s presence is). When they get there, God will put some of his Spirit (Hebrew “ruakh”, pronounced like “roo-ahch”) that was on Moses and put it on them as well. This is a very, very huge deal. God’s “ruakh” is His breath, it’s what He uses to bring humans to life in Genesis 2. There is great power in God’s ruakh. For a more detailed discussion on this, check this out: http://bit.ly/ruakh. So then, this unique provision of His spirit will extend beyond Moses to 70 others in the camp who will now have the ability and responsibility to lead others.
Now YHWH will deal with the request for provision of meat. He has them tell the people that He has heard their cries for meat and that things were better in Egypt (God hasn’t missed the context of their complaints, remember this distinction, it should have keyed them in that this wasn’t going to go well for them). So God makes a promise that He will give them meat, but not just for one day or even 20 days but a whole month’s worth of meat. He says, “You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but a whole month…”, this is the part they should have paid more attention to, “…until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you rejected the LORD who is among you and have wept before him, saying ‘Why did we come out of Egypt?’”. Does that sound like a gift to you? To accept the meat is to affirm the behavior that drove it. It’s like a parent saying to a child, “You are getting this lollipop because you manipulated me and lied about your situation to try and force my hand” and the kid going, “Yep, that’s how it went down, hand over that lollipop”. Everyone knows that’s a setup, you’re not supposed to take the lollipop. But not these boys, they’re in, they say bring on the quail.
Unfortunately, the once sympathetic Moses comes off as a fool here. As YHWH is pronouncing all of this, Moses makes the case to the Lord that it’s not possible to come up with enough meat for 600,000 folk. Again, Moses is addressing the God who leads them by a cloud and provides food that magically forms on the ground for them every morning. Moses has seen God part the Red Sea, rain frogs, and turn out the sun. And yet, here he is, protesting that this meat business can’t be solved. I lament, here, for how very frequently I do the same thing. My current life circumstances and perceived burdens cause me to forget all that God has done and is capable of. May it cease to be, fellas. Write things down, tell the stories, pick up rocks, build the altars, whatever it takes to not forget that God is good, and He works for good in our lives and that our fickle minds are prone to forget it. Either way, God’s reaction here also made me laugh out loud. He talks about himself in the 3rd person and asks, “Is YHWH’s hand shortened?”. Well, I thought it was funny anyway. Basically, God is asking, “Do you not know me? Has my power diminished?” Scripture often refers to God’s “mighty arm”, generally His power and ability to protect or conquer. Is it now somehow shortened and no longer mighty, no longer capable? Of course not.
The story shifts back to the elders, God’s presence shows up and His Spirit is given to the 70 elders who immediately begin prophesying. As in the rest of Scripture, when you see the word “prophesy”, think “message from God”. This message from God could be insight into current situations (which it is most of the time) or predictions of the future (far less), but resist the urge to see these fellas as kind of dancing around and talking about the future. That’s not the vibe. With God’s Spirit, they immediately start speaking God’s messages. It seems, though, that two of the 70 fellas. Eldad and Medad, didn’t get the message on the tent meeting and remained in the camp. Still, the Spirit came upon them too and they also started prophesying. Joshua, son of Nun (yes, that Joshua), runs to find Moses and tell him of this going on and get him to make it stop. Moses responds brilliantly, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all of the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” This is so important. It points to the fact that the perfect state of God’s involvement in humanity isn’t the laws, even as they are true and good. The perfect state is that the very breath of God, His spirit, is with them and upon them. We see this expressed in future prophets like Jeremiah who has YHWH saying, “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people.” And ultimately, we see this come to fruition through God’s Spirt (Holy Spirit) who is provided to His people after the ascension of Jesus.
The chapter ends with a resolution to this meat problem. There’s an intentional word play here that isn’t clear in English. There is a great wind that springs up and brings quail from the sea so that they would fall outside the camp. That word “wind” is the same word for breath, “ruakh”. It’s not that you can always see them as equivalent, sometimes a wind is just a wind. However, here it seems clear that we see God’s Spirit involved in expanding the leadership and also God’s Spirit involved in bringing judgment. The amount of quail is ridiculous, stacked 2 cubits high (around 3 feet). And a bunch of folks went out to collect it and the least productive person got 10 homers, or 500 gallons of quail. Holy cats, that’s a lot of quail.
Now listen, there were some things that gave this away as not being something these folks should have done. One, when God described it He said that he would provide the quail “…because you have rejected the LORD…” and so on. Warning sign number 1. Secondly, God said that it would come out of their nostrils and would be loathsome to them. When God tells you something will be loathsome, you stay away from it. Warning #2. Also, did you notice where the quail was put? Outside the camp. If you’ve spent any time in Leviticus, you know that outside the camp isn’t good. Unclean things are out there, other spirits are out there, and the presence of God’s particular focus doesn’t extend out there. Does it seem like a good idea, especially after the first two warnings, to go indulge yourself in bucketloads of quail that are a day’s journey outside of the camp? No, absolutely not. Do they do it? Of course some of them do. And it goes poorly. As soon as they started to eat it, YHWH brings justice upon them and they are killed by a plague. Too harsh? It’s the Garden of Eden all over again. They had a choice to trust God’s wisdom and provision or own it for themselves. They ignored every mercy He provided them, every protection he bestowed, every grace He extended them, and the very clear warnings that proceeded it. And yet their god was their bellies, and they did as they pleased. And, with the same consequence as came from the Garden, it cost them greatly and brought death.