Numbers 11:4-17

Provisions

Let’s read Numbers 11:4-9

4 The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. 6 But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!” 7 The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin. 8 The people went around gathering it and then ground it in a hand mill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into loaves. And it tasted like something made with olive oil. 9 When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down.

The word “rabble” is referring to the foreigners or mixed people who had joined the Israelites when they left Egypt.

We see this in Exodus 12: 37-38 The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.

I share this: These were, possibly half Egyptian and half Hebrew. They may have also been slaves in Egypt. They may have joined the Israelites because the God of Israel showed Himself more powerful than the gods of the Egyptians. They may have come along for the blessings of God but wanted no part of the hardships of the journey to the Promised Land. Whatever the reason, after a year of eating manna in the wilderness. They longed for the fresh vegetables, fish, and meat they had eaten in Egypt.

These rabbles are the ones who began to complain about the food and stirred up the Israelites. They were not satisfied with the manna that God had provide and dreamed of the food they enjoyed in Egypt.

To see how this manna was introduced we can read Exodus 16:14-15 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.

Verse seven describes the manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin.

I share this: For though it melted through the heat of the sun, and became a liquid, yet, when gathered in the morning, it was hard like grains of corn. They gathered it and then ground it in a hand mill or crushed it in a mortar or powder. It was baked like into a bread like product and taste like honey. Its taste was like the taste of pastry prepared with oil: In fact, manna was excellent provision. It was as tasty as a bread-like pastry that was cooked with oil (something like a modern donut or pancake). Yet, manna provided all the nutrition the people of Israel needed for a long journey through the wilderness.

Manna, the bread from heaven, was given to test the people’s faith and obedience in God as the sustainer of life.

Old testament scripture describes the physical make up of manna and what it taste like. But what about the spiritual meaning if manna?

We find that in John 6:50-51 "This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die." "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

I read this: Jesus' statement that "this is the bread that comes down from heaven" has two purposes. First, it emphasizes that Jesus is explaining the true meaning and the true purpose behind the symbol of bread. Secondly, Jesus is explicitly referring to Himself (John 6:51) as the fulfillment of this idea. In the wilderness, God sent a source of physical life from heaven in the form of bread. Now, God has sent the source of eternal life from heaven in the form of Jesus Christ.

Remember this, the complaining wasn’t because they were hungry it was because they wanted something different than what God was giving them.

Rather than be satisfied with God’s Provisions, they dreamed of returning to the slavery in Egypt just to satisfy their desires.

Let’s read Numbers 11:10-15

10 Moses heard the people of every family wailing at the entrance to their tents. The Lord became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled. 11 He asked the Lord, “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? 12 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 ancestors? 13 Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ 14 I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. 15 If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.”

Have you ever been in a situation where the people at work or your kids at home complain constantly? So much so that every time you passed an office or the bedroom that’s all you can hear? That’s exactly the way it was here.

Everywhere Moses went, all he heard was complaints from the nearly six hundred thousand families that God gave him to lead.

Their complained angry God, and troubled Moses. Their crying and complaining of the people shows a lack of faith in God’s choices in provisions and leadership.

Moses feels pressure on both sides. With the people complaining on one end and the burden God laid on him on the other end.

Moses was so distressed that he ask God…”What have I ever done to you”

Can any of you relate to what Moses is feeling? I know I can.

I remember one time, at the age of twenty-four, I was promoted to the Superintendent of a busy state park that was understaffed. After I moved onto the park the Chief of Operation came to visit and told me he received more complaints from the public on this park than all the other park combined. He points his finger in my face and says…”Young man, your job is to stop it!”

You talk about feeling a burden, I felt it!!.

All the Park Rangers did was complain all the time and fought among themselves. And all the park visitors did was complain about everything they could find. Some warranted, some not.

From the day I moved on site in mid-July to until Christmas I never took a day off. For six months I felt like Moses and wondered what I must have done to God to send me to this place and to lead these people.

I share this: Moses confessed to God that he was not able to provide meat for the people as they demanded. Their complaining was discouraging him so that because of this great burden, Moses desired death from the Hand of the LORD. Moses feels like a failure. He wishes for death, so someone else can take on this tremendous task of leading this ungrateful group of people

Also like Moses, I didn’t feel I could carry this burden any longer. I was so discouraged I started looking for another job as a way out of my situation. I wanted someone else to lead the ungrateful people.

Rather than kill Moses, God helped Moses to understand that leading God’s people was too big for him to do without God’s help.

I read this:  God wanted Moses to see his wretchedness – his inability to do what God called him to do in his own strength. As the Apostle Paul later learned in 2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

You see, both me and Moses assumed that we had to do it all of ourselves, under our own strength. Moses and I both cried out to God….”Don’t let us fail.”  

Let’s read Numbers 11:16-17

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, so 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.

God heard Moses cry and told him, Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people.

Notice that God didn’t chose the men for Moses, God had Moses do it himself. But God did tell him what kind of men to choose.

I read this: God told Moses to gather men to help in the work of leading Israel. These seventy men would first be gathered to God (Gather to Me) before they were gathered to Moses. Their loyalty was first to God, not to Moses. Moses was not to pick men whom he thought might become leaders; he was to pick men who were already known as leaders because of their wisdom, conduct, and ministry to others. Leaders are made by God but recognized by men.

Once Moses had done what God instructed him to do, then God would come down to speak to Moses and all the other chosen leaders.

It would be there that God would give them some of the same power of the Spirit He had given to Moses. They too would share in the burden of leadership. From that day own Moses would no longer be all alone.

Similarly, God lead me to people that could help relieve the burden I was carrying. He put people in my life that were faithful and obedient, not to me, but to serving the people.

I thank God for His “Provisions”