NO INTERCESSOR
Opening Prayer
Pray the Lord’s Prayer today.
Read Numbers 11:16–35
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, 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.
18 “Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. 19 You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, 20 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?”’”
21 But Moses said, “Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’ 22 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?”
23 The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”
24 So Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said. He brought together seventy of their elders and had them stand around the tent. 25 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied—but did not do so again.
26 However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp. 27 A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”
28 Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ aide since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”
29 But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” 30 Then Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.
31 Now a wind went out from the Lord and drove quail in from the sea. It scattered them up to two cubits deep all around the camp, as far as a day’s walk in any direction. 32 All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers. Then they spread them out all around the camp. 33 But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague. 34 Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food.
35 From Kibroth Hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth and stayed there.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Why does God sometimes give us what we want?We were left yesterday on a cliffhanger. The people have sinned, but this time Moses doesn’t intercede for them. Clearly, the burden of leadership is too much for Moses to carry alone. So God appoints 70 elders to help him. But there is still the issue of the people’s moaning about meat. Moses doubted God’s goodness (11), and now he doubts God’s power to provide for so many (21,22). But despite his lack of trust, God is kind to him and simply says, “Just wait and see!” (23).
And in blow the quail. And they blow in, in such enormous quantities that they pile up three-feet high on the ground. God gives the people what they ask for, but it turns out to be an awful judgment (33). The people turn their backs on God. They doubt God is good. They demand he meet their needs. They want to go back to Egypt. They don’t want to follow God’s good plans for them. And God shows them that what they want will destroy them.
No one deserves God’s mercy in this story. But God is kind to Moses and gives him help to lead. And God limits his judgment on the people so that they are not all destroyed.
Apply
When has God not given you your heart’s desire? How was that a blessing in disguise? Can you trust his answers today?
Closing prayer
Give thanks that in Jesus we have an intercessor who is able to carry every burden and forgive every sin.
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