Numbers 11 commentary

NUMBERS 11 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Fire From the Lord
1 Now the people complained about their
hardships in the hearing of the Lord, and when he
heard them his anger was aroused. Then fire from
the Lord burned among them and consumed some
of the outskirts of the camp.
BARNES, "See the marginal rendering. They murmured against the
privations of the march.
The fire of the Lord - Probably lightning; compare Psa_78:21.
In the uttermost parts - Rather, in the end. The fire did not reach far into
the camp. It was quickly quenched at the intercession of Moses.
CLARKE, "And when the people complained - What the cause of this
complaining was, we know not. The conjecture of St. Jerome is probable;
they complained because of the length of the way. But surely no people had
ever less cause for murmuring; they had God among them, and miracles of
goodness were continually wrought in their behalf.
It displeased the Lord - For his extraordinary kindness was lost on such
an ungrateful and rebellious people. And his anger was kindled - Divine
justice was necessarily incensed against such inexcusable conduct.
And the fire of the Lord burnt among them - Either a supernatural fire
was sent for this occasion, or the lightning was commissioned against them,
or God smote them with one of those hot suffocating winds which are very
common in those countries.
And consumed - in the uttermost parts of the camp - It pervaded the whole
camp, from the center to the circumference, carrying death with it to all the
murmurers; for we are not to suppose that it was confined to the uttermost
parts of the camp, unless we could imagine that there were none culpable
any where else. If this were the same with the case mentioned Num_11:4,
then, as it is possible that the mixed multitude occupied the outermost parts
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of the camp, consequently the burning might have been confined to them.
GILL, "And when the people complained,.... Or "were as complainers" (p);
not merely like to such, but were truly and really complainers, the ‫,כ‬ "caph",
here being not a note of similitude, but of truth and reality, as in Hos_5:10.
This Hebraism is frequent in the New Testament, Mat_14:5. What they
complained of is not said, it being that for which there was no foundation; it
is generally supposed to be of their journey; but if they were come but eight
miles, as observed on Num_10:33; they could not be very weary; and
especially as they were marching towards the land of Canaan, it might be
thought they would be fond and eager of their journey. Some think it was for
want of flesh, being weary of manna, and that this was only the beginning of
their complaints on that head, which opened more afterwards; but if that is
the case, one would think that the fire, which consumed many of them,
would have put a stop to that. Jarchi says, the word signifies taking an
occasion, and that the sense is, that these men sought an occasion how to
separate from the Lord; they wanted to return to Egypt again, that was what
they were meditating and contriving; so the Targum of Jonathan,"and the
ungodly of the people were in distress, and intended and meditated evil
before the Lord:"
it displeased the Lord: a murmuring complaining spirit is always
displeasing to him, when a thankful heart for mercies received is an
acceptable sacrifice; murmurers and complainers God will judge at the
great day, Jud_1:14,
and the Lord heard it: though it was an inward secret complaint, or an evil
scheme formed in their minds; at most but a muttering, and what Moses
had not heard, or had any knowledge of; but God, that knows the secrets of
all hearts, and every word in the tongue before it is well formed or
pronounced, he heard what they complained of, and what they whispered
and muttered to one another about:
and his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burnt among them; from
the pillar of fire, or from heaven, such as destroyed Nadab and Abihu, Lev_
10:1; the two hundred fifty men that had censers in Korah's company, Num_
16:35; and the captains of fifties that came to take Elijah, 2Ki_1:14; and
might be lightning from heaven, or a burning wind sent by the Lord, such as
is frequent in the eastern countries. Thevenot (q) speaks of one in 1658,
which destroyed at once twenty thousand men:
and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp; who very
likely were the principal aggressors; or it began to arouse and terrify the
body of the people, and bring them to repentance, who might fear it would
proceed and go through the whole camp, the hinder part or rearward of
which was the camp of Dan; and so the Targum of Jonathan.
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HENRY 1-3, "Here is, I. The people's sin. They complained, Num_11:1.
They were, as it were, complainers. So it is in the margin. There were some
secret grudgings and discontents among them, which as yet did not break
out in an open mutiny. But how great a matter did this little fire kindle!
They had received from God excellent laws and ordinances, and yet no
sooner had they departed from the mount of the Lord than they began to
quarrel with God himself. See in this, 1. The sinfulness of sin, which takes
occasion from the commandment to be the more provoking. 2. The
weakness of the law through the flesh, Rom_8:3. The law discovered sin,
but could not destroy it; checked it, but could not conquer it. They
complained. Interpreters enquire what they complained of; and truly, when
they were furnished with so much matter for thanksgiving, one may justly
wonder where they found any matter for complaint; it is probable that those
who complained did not all agree in the cause. Some perhaps complained
that they were removed from Mount Sinai, where they had been at rest so
long, others that they did not remove sooner: some complained of the
weather, others of the ways: some perhaps thought three days' journey was
too long a march, others thought it not long enough, because it did not bring
them into Canaan. When we consider how their camp was guided, guarded,
graced, what good victuals they had and good company, and what care was
taken of them in their marches that their feet should not swell nor their
clothes wear (Deu_8:4), we may ask, “What could have been done more for
a people to make them easy?” And yet they complained. Note, Those that are
of a fretful discontented spirit will always find something or other to
quarrel with, though the circumstances of their outward condition be ever
so favourable.
II. God's just resentment of the affront given to him by this sin: The Lord
heard it, though it does not appear that Moses did. Note, God is acquainted
with the secret frettings and murmurings of the heart, though they are
industriously concealed from men. What he took notice of his was much
displeased with, and his anger was kindled. Note, Though God graciously
gives us leave to complain to him when there is cause (Psa_142:2), yet he is
justly provoked, and takes it very ill, if we complain of him when there is no
cause: such conduct in our inferiors provokes us.
III. The judgment wherewith God chastised them for this sin: The fire of
the Lord burnt among them, such flashes of fire from the cloud as had
consumed Nadab and Abihu. The fire of their wrath against God burned in
their minds (Psa_39:3), and justly does the fire of God's wrath fasten upon
their bodies. We read of their murmurings several times, when they came
first out of Egypt, Ex. 15, 16, and 17. But we do not read of any plagues
inflicted on them for their murmurings, as there were now; for now they
had had great experience of God's care of them, and therefore now to
distrust him was so much the more inexcusable. Now a fire was kindled
against Jacob (Psa_78:21), but, to show how unwilling God was to contend
with them, it fastened on those only that were in the uttermost parts of the
camp. Thus God's judgments came upon them gradually, that they might
take warning.
IV. Their cry to Moses, who was their tried intercessor, Num_11:2. When
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he slew them, then they sought him, and made their application to Moses to
stand their friend. Note, 1. When we complain without cause, it is just with
God to give us cause to complain. 2. Those that slight God's friends when
they are in prosperity would be glad to make them their friends when they
are in distress. Father Abraham, send Lazarus.
V. The prevalency of Moses's intercession for them: When Moses prayed
unto the Lord (he was always ready to stand in the gap to turn away the
wrath of God) God had respect to him and his offering, and the fire was
quenched. By this it appears that God delights not in punishing, for, when
he has begun his controversy, he is soon prevailed with to let it fall. Moses
was one of those worthies who by faith quenched the violence of fire.
VI. A new name given hereupon to the place, to perpetuate the shame of a
murmuring people and the honour of a righteous God; the place was called
Taberah, a burning (Num_11:3), that others might hear, and fear, and take
warning not to sin as they did, lest they should smart as they did, 1Co_10:10.
JAMISON, "Num_11:1-35. Manna loathed.
When the people complained it displeased the Lord, etc. — Unaccustomed
to the fatigues of travel and wandering into the depths of a desert, less
mountainous but far more gloomy and desolate than that of Sinai, without
any near prospect of the rich country that had been promised, they fell into
a state of vehement discontent, which was vented at these irksome and
fruitless journeyings. The displeasure of God was manifested against the
ungrateful complainers by fire sent in an extraordinary manner. It is
worthy of notice, however, that the discontent seems to have been confined
to the extremities of the camp, where, in all likelihood, “the mixed
multitude” [see on Exo_12:38] had their station. At the intercession of
Moses, the appalling judgment ceased [Num_11:2], and the name given to
the place, “Taberah” (a burning), remained ever after a monument of
national sin and punishment. (See on Num_11:34).
K&D, "After a three days' march the Israelites arrived at a resting-place;
but the people began at once to be discontented with their situation.
(Note: The arguments by which Knobel undertakes to prove, that in
chs. 11 and 12 of the original work different foreign accounts respecting
the first encampments after leaving Sinai have been woven together by
the “Jehovist,” are founded upon misinterpretations and arbitrary
assumptions and conclusions, such as the assertion that the tabernacle
stood outside the camp (chs. Num_11:25; Num_12:5); that Miriam
entered the tabernacle (Num_12:4-5); that the original work had already
reported the arrival of Israel in Paran in Num_10:12; and that no
reference is ever made to a camping-place called Tabeerah, and others of
the same kind. For the proof, see the explanation of the verses referred
to.)
The people were like those who complain in the ears of Jehovah of
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something bad; i.e., they behaved like persons who groan and murmur
because of some misfortune that has happened to them. No special occasion
is mentioned for the complaint. The words are expressive, no doubt, of the
general dissatisfaction and discontent of the people at the difficulties and
privations connected with the journey through the wilderness, to which
they gave utterance so loudly, that their complaining reached the ears of
Jehovah. At this His wrath burned, inasmuch as the complaint was directed
against Him and His guidance, “so that fire of Jehovah burned against
them, and ate at the end of the camp.” ְ‫בּ‬ ‫ר‬ַ‫ע‬ ָ‫בּ‬ signifies here, not to burn a
person (Job_1:16), but to burn against. “Fire of Jehovah:” a fire sent by
Jehovah, but not proceeding directly from Him, or bursting forth from the
cloud, as in Lev_10:2. Whether it was kindled through a flash of lightning,
or in some other such way, cannot be more exactly determined. There is not
sufficient ground for the supposition that the fire merely seized upon the
bushes about the camp and the tents of the people, but not upon human
beings (Ros., Knobel). All that is plainly taught in the words is, that the fire
did not extend over the whole camp, but merely broke out at one end of it,
and sank down again, i.e., was extinguished very quickly, at the intercession
of Moses; so that in this judgment the Lord merely manifested His power to
destroy the murmurers, that He might infuse into the whole nation a
wholesome dread of His holy majesty.
CALVIN, "1.And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord. (11) The
ambiguous signification of the participle (12) causes the translators to twist this
passage into a variety of meanings. Since the Hebrew root ‫,און‬aven, is sometimes
trouble and labor, sometimes fatigue, sometimes iniquity, sometimes falsehood,
some translate it, “The people were, as it were, complaining or murmuring. ”
Others (though this seems to be more beside the mark) insert the adverb
unjustly; as if Moses said, that their complaint was unjust, when they
expostulated with God. Others render it, “being sick, (nauseantes, ”) but this
savors too much of affectation; others, “lying, or dealing treacherously.”
Some derive it from the root ‫,תואנה‬ thonah, and thus explain it, “seeking
occasion,” which I reject as far fetched. To me the word fainting (fatiscendi)
seems to suit best; for they failed, as if broken down with weariness. It is
probable that no other crime is alleged against them than that, abandoning
the desire to proceed, they fell into supineness and inactivity, which was to
turn their back upon God, and repudiate the promised inheritance. This sense
will suit very well, and thus the proper meaning of the word will be retained.
Thus, Ezekiel calls by the name ‫,תאנים‬ theunim, those fatigues, whereby men
destroy and overwhelm themselves through undertaking too much work. Still, I do
not deny that, when they lay in a state of despondency, they uttered words of
reproach against God; especially since Moses says that this displeased the ears of
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God, and not His eyes; yet the origin of the evil was, as I have stated, that they
fainted with weariness, so as to refuse to follow God any further.
And the Lord heard it. He more plainly declares that the people broke forth into
open complaints; and it is probable that they even east reproaches upon God, as we
infer from the heaviness of this punishment. Although some understand the word
fire metaphorically for vengeance, it is more correct to take it simply according to
the natural meaning of the word, i.e., that a part of the camp burnt with a
conflagration sent from God. Still a question arises, what was that part or extremity
of the camp which the fire seized upon? for some think that the punishment began
with the leaders themselves, whose crime was the more atrocious. Others suppose
that the fire raged among the common people, from the midst of whom the
murmuring arose. But I rather conjecture, as in a matter of uncertainty, that God
kindled the fire in some extreme part, so as to awaken their terror, in order that
there might be room for pardon; since it is presently added, that tie was content
with the punishment of a few. It must, however, be remarked, that because the
people were conscious of their sin, the door was shut against their prayers. Hence it
is, that they cry to Moses rather than to God; and we may infer that, being devoid of
repentance and faith, they dreaded to look upon God. This is the reward of a bad
conscience, to seek for rest in our disquietude, and still to fly from God, who alone
can allay our trouble and alarm. From the fact that God is appeased at the
intercession of Moses, we gather that temporal punishment is often remitted to the
wicked, although they still remain exposed to the judgment of God. When he says
that the fire of the Lord was sunk down, (13) for this is the proper signification of
the word ‫,שקע‬ shakang, he designates the way in which it was put out, and in which
God’s mercy openly manifested itself; as also, on the other hand. it is called
the fire of God, as having been plainly kindled by Him, lest any should
suppose that it was an accidental conflagration. A name also was imposed on
the place, which might be a memorial to posterity both of the crime and its
punishment; for Tabera is a burning, or combustion.
COFFMAN, "This, and the next three chapters, deal with some of the
numerous disaffections, rebellions, and murmurings of the children of Israel,
not with any view of recording all that they did, but with the purpose of
setting forth for the benefit of all people afterward several of their deeds as
"examples" and for "the admonition" of those upon whom the ends of the
ages have come (1 Corinthians 10:11). The account here gives the incident
at Taberah (Numbers 11:1-3), the lusting for flesh (Numbers 11:4-9), Moses'
appeal to God in desperation (Numbers 11:10-15), the appointment of
seventy to aid Moses (Numbers 11:16-23), the endowment of the seventy
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(Numbers 11:24,25), the case of Eldad and Medad (Numbers 11:16-29), and
the sending of the quails, ending in the plague upon Israel at Kibroth-
hattaavah, where many of them were buried (Numbers 11:30-35).
"And the people were as murmurers, speaking evil in the ears of Jehovah:
and when Jehovah heard it, his anger was kindled; and the fire of Jehovah
burned among them, and devoured in the uttermost part of the camp. And
the people cried unto Moses; and Moses prayed unto Jehovah, and the fire
abated. And the name of the place was called Taberah, because the fire of
Jehovah burnt among them."
"The people were as murmurers ..." (Numbers 11:1). There is hardly any
other word that more effectively describes Israel during their wilderness
sojourn than this one. The people appeared to be totally unwilling to accept
any kind of inconvenience or hardship in order to achieve their liberty and
independence, overlooking completely the fundamental truth that freedom,
prosperity, and power simply cannot appear automatically as a bestowed
privilege, but must be won by suffering, diligent work and faithfulness. The
spirit that came out in this chapter finally resulted in God's rejection of that
whole generation and His condemnation of them to death in the wilderness.
"And the fire of Jehovah burned among them ..." (Numbers 11:2).
Speculations as to the possibility that this fire was the result of lightning or
some other natural cause are futile. The event was of sufficient dimensions to
warrant the naming of the place as Taberah in commemoration of it, and,
without any doubt, it was a visitation of God upon rebellious men, however
produced. This place was on the outskirts of the immense camp of Israel and
pertains only to the place of the burning. This is not the name of one of the
forty-two stations of Israel in the wilderness (Numbers 33).
Keil discerned the reason for this burning thus: "By thus demonstrating his
power that was more than sufficient to destroy the murmurers, He sought to
infuse into the whole nation a wholesome dread of His holy majesty."[1]
Since this burning was an extremely local incident, "It must not be regarded
as a different station from Kibroth-hattaavah."[2] Some, of course, have
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concocted all kinds of theories about "different sources," various "traditions,"
and "conflicting accounts" being "woven together" here; but again, as Keil
said, "All such efforts are founded upon misinterpretations and arbitrary
assumptions."[3] We might also add that such destructive allegations are
grounded in a prior bias against the Bible. That Taberah was not a separate
encampment is proved by its omission in Numbers 33, and by the fact there
is no mention of leaving Taberah, an event covered in the statement that
they left Kibroth-hattaavah, the true name of the whole area, of which
Taberah was a very minor outpost. This encampment was the scene of two
judgments against Israel, the minor one at Taberah, and the greater one in
the matter of the quails; and the station deserved to be named from the
greater event. As for where, exactly, this was, "The site is unknown."[4] "The
name Taberah is from the Hebrew word, meaning to burn."[5]
COKE, "Numbers 11:1. And when the people complained — The when inserted
here much flattens the sense, and leads the mind to wrong ideas respecting this
event. Read it thus, exactly conformable to the Hebrew, and the spirit of the passage
will appear. Now the people greatly murmured: it was evil in the ears of the Lord:
He heard it, and his anger was kindled, &c. Houbigant renders it, In the mean time
the people murmured wickedly in the ears of the Lord, &c. following the Greek,
which has it, ‫נןםחסב‬ ‫דןדדץזשם‬ . We are not told what was the cause of these
murmurs; but it is evident from Numbers 11:3 compared with Numbers 11:34
that it was something different from that mentioned in the 4th and following
verses. The fire of the Lord means lightning. See 2 Kings 1:12. Job 1:16. As
the mixed multitude were in the uttermost parts of the camp, it is probable
that this murmuring began with them, and that they were the persons now
punished.
ELLICOTT, "(1) And when the people complained . . . —Better, And the people
were as those who complained (or murmured), (which was) evil in the ears of the
Lord. The LXX. has, “And the people murmured sinfully before the Lord.” Comp. 1
Corinthians 10:10 : “Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured.”
And consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.-Better, and
devoured at the extremity of the camp. Most commentators have remarked, and
justly, upon the great severity of the Divine judgments which were inflicted after the
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giving of the Law, as compared with those which were inflicted before it. Reference
may be made in illustration of this point to Exodus 14:11-14; Exodus 15:24-25;
Exodus 16:2-8; Exodus 17:3-7. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews argues from
the just recompense of reward which every transgression and disobedience received
under the Law, the impossibility of the escape of those who neglect the great
salvation of the Gospel. See Hebrews 2:2-3. Comp. also Hebrews 10:28-29; Hebrews
12:25.
TRAPP, "Numbers 11:1 And [when] the people complained, it displeased the
LORD: and the LORD heard [it]; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of
the LORD burnt among them, and consumed [them that were] in the
uttermost parts of the camp.
Ver. 1. And when the people complained.] Or, Were as it were complainers:
they did inwardly and secretly repine and mutter at their three days ’ march,
without intermission; like those horses that digest their choler by biting their
bridle.
Consumed them that were in the uttermost parts.] There, it seems, the sin
began amongst those that were faint and weary with travel, as Deuteronomy
25:18.
POOLE, "The murmuring of the people, for which the fire breaketh in upon
them, Numbers 11:1. Moses prayeth to God; the fire is quenched, Numbers
11:2. The name of the place, and why called, Numbers 11:3. The people
murmur again, and lust after flesh, Numbers 11:4-6. Manna described,
Numbers 11:7-9. Moses’s complaint and prayer, Numbers 11:10-15. God
commandeth him to gather seventy of the elders of Israel to help him,
Numbers 11:16,17; promising them flesh to eat, Numbers 11:18-20. Moses’
unbelief, Numbers 11:21,22. God is angry with him, Numbers 11:23. Moses
having gathered seventy of the elders of Israel together, rehearseth the words
of the Lord to them, Numbers 11:24. God coming down in a cloud, taketh of
Moses’s spirit and giveth to the seventy; the effects thereof, Numbers 11:25.
Eldad and Medad prophesy in the camp, Numbers 11:26-29. God giveth them
quails to eat, Numbers 11:30-32; and smiteth the people with a very great
plague, Numbers 11:33,34.
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Complained, or, murmured; the occasion whereof seems to be their last three
days’ journey in a vast howling wilderness, without any benefit; and
thereupon the remembrance of their long abode in the wilderness, and the
prospect and fear of many other tedious, and fruitless, and dangerous
journeys, whereby they were like to be long delayed from coming to that
rest, that land of milk and honey, which God had promised them, and which
they thirsted after.
The fire of the Lord, i.e. a fire sent from God in an extraordinary manner,
possibly from the pillar of cloud and fire, or from heaven, as 2 Kings 1:12.
In the uttermost parts of the camp; either because the sin began there among
the mixt multitude, who probably had their place there; or amongst those
who were feeble and weary with their last journey, and therefore hindmost
in the march; or in mercy to the people, whom he would rather awaken to
repentance than utterly destroy, and therefore he sent it into the skirts, and
not the heart and midst of the camp.
WHEDON, " THE COMPLAINING AND THE BURNING, Numbers 11:1-3.
1. Complained — Hebrew, were as those who made themselves sad; R.V., “were as
murmurers speaking evil in the ears of the Lord.” The whole clause is thus rendered
by Keil: “The people were like those who complain in the ears of Jehovah of
something bad.” No cause is assigned, but we infer that it was because of the
privations and hardships of the journey, aggravated in this instance by its
continuance through three days. Such murmuring was a reflection upon their divine
Leader.
Fire of the Lord — Supernaturally kindled, either by lightning or in some other
way. It did not, as Knobel and Rosenmuller suppose, merely burn the bushes
around the camp and the tents, but persons also.
The uttermost parts of the camp — Probably one end, where most of the grumblers
were.
BENSON, " 35. Hazeroth — This is identified with modern Ain Huderah by
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Robinson, Stanley, and Palmer. It is a plain begirt by tall cliffs of sandstone. “Here
and there a hill or dyke of green stone, or a rock of rosy granite, contrasts or blends
harmoniously with the rest; and in the midst, beneath a lofty cliff, nestles the dark-
green palm-grove of Hazeroth — such a landscape as none but the Great Artist’s
hand could have designed.” — Palmer’s Desert of the Exodus. “The region through
which the Israelites had hitherto marched was a wide tangle of mountains, with
occasional broad plains and numerous narrow wadies, twisting hither and thither.
The approach to Hazeroth, however, had been over sandy plains broken by
outstanding sandstone cliffs, but the camp itself had been pitched on the sides and in
the basin of a hollow, surrounded by weird and fantastic sandstone walls of the most
varied colours — deep red and violet, and rich gold and scarlet, mingled with deep
purple.” — Geikie.
EBC, "THE STRAIN OF THE DESERT JOURNEY
Numbers 11:1-35
THE narrative has accompanied the march of Israel but a short way from the
mount of God to some spot marked for an encampment by the ark of the
covenant, and already complaining has to be told of, and the swift judgment
of those who complained. The Israelites have made a reservation in their
covenant with God, that though obedience and trust are solemnly promised,
yet leave shall be taken to murmur against His providence. They will have
God for their Protector, they will worship Him; but let Him make their life
smooth. Much has had to be borne which they did not anticipate; and they
grumble and speak evil.
Generally men do not realise that their murmuring is against God. They have
no intention to accuse His providence. It is of other men they complain, who
come in their way; of accidents, so called, for which no one-seems to be
responsible; of regulations, well enough meant, which at some point prove
vexatious; the obtuseness and carelessness of those who undertake but do not
perform. And there does seem to be a great difference between displeasure
with human agents whose follies and failures provoke us, and discontent with
our own lot and its trials. At the same time, this has to be kept in view, that
while we carefully refrain from criticising Providence, there may be,
underlying our complaints, a tacit opinion that the world is not well made
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nor well ordered. To a certain extent the persons who irritate us are
responsible for their mistakes; but just among those who are prone to err our
discipline has been appointed. To gird at them is as much a revolt against
the Creator as to complain of the heat of summer or the winter cold. With
our knowledge of what the world is, of what our fellow-creatures are, should
go the perception that God rules everywhere and stands against us when we
resent what, in His world, we have to do or to suffer. He is against those who
fail in duty also. Yet it is not for us to be angry. Our due will not be
withheld. Even when we suffer most it is still offered, still given. While we
endeavour to remedy the evils we feel, it must be without a thought that the
order appointed by the Great King fails us at any point.
The punishment of those who complained is spoken of as swift and terrible.
"The fire of the Lord burnt among them, and devoured in the uttermost part
of the camp." This judgment falls under a principle assumed throughout the
whole book, that disaster must overtake transgressors, and conversely that
death by pestilence, earthquake, or lightning is invariably a result of sin. For
the Israelites this was one of the convictions that maintained a sense of
moral duty and of the danger of offending God. Again and again in the
wilderness, where thunderstorms were common and plagues spread rapidly,
the impression was strongly confirmed that the Most High observed
everything that was done against His will. The journey to Canaan brought in
this way a new experience of God to those who had been accustomed to the
equable conditions of climate and the comparative health enjoyed in Egypt.
The moral education of the people advanced by the quickening of conscience
in regard to all that befell Israel.
From the disaster at Taberah the narrative passes to another phase of
complaint in which the whole camp was involved. The dissatisfaction began
amongst the "mixed multitude"-that somewhat lawless crowd of low-caste
Egyptians and people of the Delta and the wilderness who attached
themselves to the host. Among them first, because they had absolutely no
interest in Israel’s hope, a disposition to quarrel with their circumstances
would naturally arise. But the spirit of dissatisfaction grew apace, and the
burden of the new complaint was: "We have nought but this manna to look
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to." The part of the desert into which the travellers had now penetrated was
even more sterile than Midian. Hitherto the food had been varied somewhat
by occasional fruits and the abundant milk of kine and goats. But pasturage
for the cattle was scanty in the wilderness of Paran, and there were no trees
of any kind. Appetite found nothing that was refreshing. Their soul was dried
away.
It was a common belief in our Lord’s time that the manna, falling from
heaven, very food of the angels, had been so satisfying, so delicious, that no
people could have been more favoured than those who ate of it. When Christ
spoke of the meat which endureth unto eternal life, the thought of His
hearers immediately turned to the manna as the special gift of God to their
fathers, and they conceived an expectation that Jesus would give them that
bread of heaven, and so prove Himself worthy of their faith. But He replied,
"Moses gave you not that bread out of heaven, but My Father giveth you the
true bread out of heaven. I am the Bread of Life."
In the course of time the manna had been, so to speak, glorified. It appeared
to the later generations one of the most wonderful and impressive things
recorded in the whole history of their nation, this provision made for the
wandering host. There was the water from the rock, and there was the
manna. What a benignant Providence had watched over the tribes! How
bountiful God had been to the people in the old days! They longed for a sign
of the same kind. To enjoy it would restore their faith and put them again in
the high position which had been denied for ages.
But these notions are not borne out by the history as we have it in the
passage under notice. Nothing is said about angels’ food-that is a poetical
expression which a psalmist used in his fervour. Here we read, as to the
coming of the manna, that when the dew fell upon the camp at night the
manna fell upon it, or with it. And so far from the people being satisfied,
they complained that instead of the fish and onions, cucumbers and melons
of Egypt, they had nothing but manna to eat. The taste of it is described as
like that of fresh oil. In Exodus it is said to have resembled wafers mixed
with honey. It was not the privilege of the Israelites in the wilderness but
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their necessity to live on this somewhat cloying food. In no sense can it be
called ideal. Nevertheless, complaining about it, they were in serious fault,
betraying the foolish expectation that on the way to liberty they should have
no privations. And their discontent with the manna soon became alarming to
Moses. A sort of hysteria spread through the camp. Not the women only, but
the men at the doors of their tents bewailed their hard lot. There was a
tempest of tears and cries.
God, through His providence, determining for men, carrying out His own
designs for their good, does not allow them to keep in the region of the usual
and of mere comfort. Something is brought into their life which stirs the
soul. In new hope they begin an enterprise the course and end of which they
cannot foresee. The conventional, the pleasant, the peace and abundance of
Egypt, can be no longer enjoyed if the soul is to have its own. By Moses
Jehovah summoned the Israelites from the land of plenty to fulfil a high
mission and when they responded, it was so far a proof that there was in
them spirit enough for an uncommon destiny. But for the accomplishment of
it they had to be nerved and braced by trial. Their ordeal was that mortifying
of the flesh and of sensuous desire which must be undergone if the hopes
through which the mind becomes conscious of the will of God are to be
fulfilled.
In our personal history God, reaching us by His word, enlightening us with
regard to the true ends of our being, calls us to begin a journey which has no
earthly terminus and promises no earthly reward. We may be quite sure that
we have not yet responded to His call if there is nothing of the wilderness in
our life, no hardship, no adventure, no giving up of what is good in a
temporal sense for what is good in a spiritual sense. The very essence of the
design of God concerning a man is that he leave the lower and seek the
higher, that he deny himself that which according to the popular view is his
life, in order to seek a remote and lofty goal. There will be duty that calls for
faith, that needs hope and courage. In doing it he will have recurring trials of
his spirit, necessities of self-discipline, stern difficulties of choice and action.
Every one of these he must face.
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What is wrong with many lives is that they have no strain in them as of a
desert journey towards a heavenly Canaan, the realisation of spiritual life.
Adventure, when it is undertaken, is often for the sake of getting fish and
melons and cucumbers by-and-by in greater abundance and of better kinds.
Many live hardly just now, not because they are on the way to spiritual
freedom and the high destiny of life in God, but because they believe
themselves to be on the way to better social position, to wealth or honour.
But take the life that has begun its high enterprise at the urgency of a Divine
vocation, and that life will find hardness, deprivations, perils, of its own. It is
not given to us to be absolutely certain in decision and endeavour. Out in
the wilderness, even when manna is provided, and the pillar of cloud seems
to show the way, the people of God are in danger of doubting whether they
have done wisely, whether they have not taken too much upon themselves or
laid too much upon the Lord. The Israelites might have said, We have obeyed
God: why, then, should the sun smite us with burning heat, and the dust-
storms sweep down upon our march, and the night fall with so bitter a chill?
Interminable toil, in travelling, in attending to cattle and domestic duties, in
pitching tents and striking them, gathering fuel, searching far and wide
through the camp for food, helping the children, carrying the sick and aged,
toil that did not cease till far into the night and had to be resumed with early
morning-such, no doubt, were the things that made life in the wilderness
irksome. And although many now have a lighter burden, yet our social life,
adding new difficulties with every improvement, our domestic affairs, the
continual struggle necessary in labour and business, furnish not a few causes
of irritation and of bitterness. God does not remove annoyances out of the
way even of His devoted servants. We remember how Paul was vexed and
burdened while carrying the world’s thought on into a new day. We
remember what a weight the infirmities and treacheries of men laid upon the
heart of Christ.
Let us thank God if we feel sometimes across the wilderness a breeze from
the hills of the heavenly Canaan, and now and then catch glimpses of them
far away. But the manna may seem flat and tasteless, nevertheless; the road
may seem long; the sun may scorch. Tempted to despond, we need afresh to
assure ourselves that God is faithful who has given us His promise. And
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although we seem to be led not towards the heavenly frontier, but often
aside through close defiles into some region more barren and dismal than we
have yet crossed, doubt is not for us. He knoweth the way that we take;
when He has tried us, we shall come forth where He appoints.
From the people we turn to Moses and the strain he had to bear as leader.
Partly it was due to his sense of the wrath of God against Israel. To a certain
extent he was responsible for those he led, for nothing he had done was
apart from his own will. The enterprise was laid on him as a duty certainly;
yet he undertook it freely. Such as the Israelites were, with that mixed
multitude among them, a dangerous element enough, Moses had personally
accepted the leadership of them. And now the murmuring, the lusting, the
childish weeping, fall upon him. He feels that he must stand between the
people and Jehovah. The behaviour of the multitude vexes him to the soul;
yet he must take their part, and avert, if possible, their condemnation.
The position is one in which a leader of men often finds himself. Things are
done which affront him personally, yet he cannot turn against the wayward
and unbelieving, for, if he did, the cause would be lost. The Divine judgment
of the transgressors falls on him all the more because they themselves are
unaware of it. The burden such a one has to sustain points directly to the
sin-bearing of Christ. Wounded to the soul by the wrongdoing of men, He
had to interpose between them and the stroke of the law, the judgment of
God. And may not Moses be said to be a type of Christ? The parallel may
well be drawn; yet the imperfect mediation of Moses fell far short of the
perfect mediation of our Lord. The narrative here reflects that partial
knowledge of the Divine character which made the mediation of Moses
human and erring for all its greatness.
For one thing Moses exaggerated his own responsibility. He asked of God:
"Why hast Thou evil entreated Thy servant? Why dost Thou lay the burden of
all this people upon me? Am I their father? Am I to carry the whole
multitude as a father carries his young child in his bosom?" These are
ignorant words, foolish words. Moses is responsible, but not to that extent. It
is fit that he should be grieved when the Israelites do wrong, but not proper
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that he should charge God with laying on him the duty of keeping and
carrying them like children. He speaks unadvisedly with his lips.
Responsibility of those who endeavour to lead others has its limits; and the
range of duty is bounded in two ways-on the one hand by the responsibility
of men for themselves, on the other hand by God’s responsibility for them,
God’s care of them. Moses should see that no law or ordinance makes him
chargeable with the childish lamentations of those who know they should not
complain, who ought to be manly and endure with stout hearts. If persons
who can go on their own feet want to be carried, no one is responsible for
carrying them. It is their own fault when they are left behind. If those who
can think and discover duty for themselves, desire constantly to have it
pointed out to them, crave daily encouragement in doing their duty, and
complain because they are not sufficiently considered, the leader, like Moses,
is not responsible. Every man must bear his own burden-that is, must bear
the burden of duty, of thought, of effort, so far as his ability goes.
Then, on the other side, the power of God is beneath all, His care extends
over all. Moses ought not for a moment to doubt Jehovah ’s mindfulness of
His people. Men who hold office in society or the Church are never to think
that their effort is commensurate with God’s. Proud indeed he would be who
said: "The care of all these souls lies on me: if they are to be saved, I must
save them; if they perish, I shall be chargeable with their blood." Speaking
ignorantly and in haste, Moses went almost that length; but his error is not
to be repeated. The charge of the Church and of the world is God ’s; and He
never fails to do for all and for each what is right. The teacher of men, the
leader of affairs, with full sympathy and indefatigable love, is to do all he
can, yet never trench on the responsibility of men for their own life, or
assume to himself the part of Providence.
Moses made one mistake and went on to another. He was on the whole a
man of rare patience and meekness; yet on this occasion he spoke to Jehovah
in terms of daring resentment. His cry was to get rid of the whole enterprise:
"If Thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray Thee, out of hand, and let me not
see my wretchedness." He seemed to himself to have this work to do and no
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other, apparently imagining that if he was not competent for this, he could
be of no use in the world. But even if he had failed as a leader, highest in
office, he might have been fit enough for a secondary place, under Joshua or
some other whom God might inspire: this he failed to see. And although he
was bound up in Israel’s well-being, so that if the expedition did not prosper
he had no wish to live, and was so far sincerely patriotic, yet what good end
could his death serve? The desire to die shows wounded pride. Better live on
and turn shepherd again. No man is to despise his life, whatever it is,
however it may seem to come short of the high ambition he has cherished as
a servant of God and men. Discovering that in one line of endeavour he
cannot do all he would, let him make trial of others, not pray for death.
The narrative represents God as dealing graciously with his erring servant.
Help was provided for him by the appointment of seventy elders, who were
to share the task of guiding and controlling the tribes. These seventy were to
have a portion of the leader’s spirit-zeal and enthusiasm like his own. Their
influence in the camp would prevent the faithlessness and dejection which
threatened to wreck the Hebrew enterprise. Further, the murmuring of the
people was to be effectually silenced. Flesh was to be given them till they
loathed it. They should learn that the satisfaction of ignorant desire meant
punishment rather than pleasure.
The promise of flesh was speedily fulfilled by an extraordinary flight of
quails, brought up, according to the seventy-eighth Psalm, by a wind which
blew from the south and east-that is, from the Elanitic Gulf. These quails
cannot sustain themselves long on the wing, and after crossing the desert
some thirty or forty miles they would scarcely be able to fly. The enormous
numbers of them which fluttered around the camp are not beyond ordinary
possibility. Fowls of this kind migrate at certain seasons in such enormous
multitudes that in the small island of Capri, near Naples, one hundred and
sixty thousand have been netted in one season. When exhausted, they would
easily be taken as they flew at a height of about two cubits above the
ground. The whole camp was engaged in capturing quails from one morning
to the evening of the following day; and the quantity was so great that he
who gathered least had ten homers, probably a heap estimated to be of that
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measure. To keep them for further use the birds were prepared and spread
on the ground to dry in the sun.
When the epidemic of weeping broke out through the camp, the doubt
occurred to Moses whether there was any spiritual quality in the people, any
fitness for duty or destiny of a religious kind. They seemed to be all
unbelievers on whom the goodness of God and the sacred instruction had
been wasted. They were earthly and sensual. How could they ever trust God
enough to reach Canaan?-or if they reached it, how would their occupation
of it be justified? They would but form another heathen nation, all the worse
that they had once known the true God and had abandoned Him. But a
different view of things was presented to Moses when the chosen elders, men
of worth, were gathered at the tent of meeting, and on a sudden impulse of
the Spirit began to prophesy. As these men in loud and ecstatic language
proclaimed their faith, Moses found his confidence in Jehovah ’s power and in
the destiny of Israel re-established. His mind was relieved at once of the
burden of responsibility and the dread of an extinction of the heavenly light
he had been the means of kindling among the tribes. If there were seventy
men capable of receiving the Spirit of God, there might be hundreds, even
thousands. A spring of new enthusiasm is opened, and Israel ’s future is again
possible.
Now there were two men, Eldad and Medad, who were of the seventy, but
had not come to the tent of meeting, where the prophetic spirit fell upon the
rest. They had not heard the summons, we may suppose. Unaware of what
was taking place at the tabernacle, yet realising the honour conferred upon
them, they were perhaps engaged in ordinary duties, or, having found some
need for their interference, they may have been rebuking murmurers and
endeavouring to restore order among the unruly. And suddenly they also,
under the same influence as the other sixty-eight, began to prophesy. The
spirit of earnestness caught them. With the same ecstasy they declared their
faith and praised the God of Israel.
There was in one sense a limitation of the spirit of prophecy, whatever it
was. Of all the host only the seventy received it. Other good men and true in
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Israel that day might have seemed as capable of the heavenly endowment as
those who prophesied. It was, however, in harmony with a known principle
that the men designated to special office alone received the gift. The sense of
a choice felt to be that of God does unquestionably exalt the mind and spirit
of those chosen. They realise that they stand higher and must do more for
God and men than others, that they are inspired to say what otherwise they
could not dare to say. The limitation of the Spirit in this sense is not
invariable, is not strict. At no time in the world ’s history has the call to
office been indispensable to prophetic fervour and courage. Yet the sequence
is sufficiently common to be called a law.
But while in a sense there is restriction of the spiritual influence, in another
sense there is no restraint. The Divine afflatus is not confined to those who
have gathered at the tabernacle. It is not place or occasion that makes the
prophets; it is the Spirit, the power from on high entering into life; and out
in the camp the two have their portion of the new energy and zeal. Spiritual
influence, then, is not confined to any particular place. Neither was the
neighbourhood of the tabernacle so holy that there alone the elders could
receive their gift; nor is any place of meeting, any church, capable of such
consecration and singular identification with the service of God that there
alone the power of the Divine Spirit can be manifested or received. Let there
be a man chosen of God, ready, for the duties of a holy calling, and on that
man the Spirit will come, wherever he is, in whatever he is engaged. He may
be employed in common work, but in doing it he will be moved to earnest
service and testimony. He may be labouring, under great difficulties, to
restore the justice that has been impaired by social errors and political
chicanery-and his words will be prophetic; he will be a witness for God to
those who are without faith, without holy fear.
While Eldad and Medad prophesied in the camp, a young man who heard
them ran officiously to inform Moses. To this young man as to others-for no
doubt there were many who loved and revered the usual-the two elders were
presumptuous fools. The camp was, as we say, secular: was it not? People in
the camp looked after ordinary affairs, tended their cattle, chaffered and
bargained, quarrelled about trifles, murmured against Moses and against God.
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Was it right to prophesy there, carrying religious words and ideas into the
midst of common life? If Eldad and Medad could prophesy, let them go to the
tabernacle. And besides, what right had they to speak for Jehovah, in
Jehovah’s name? Was not Moses the prophet, the only prophet? Israel was
accustomed to think him so, would keep to that opinion. It would be
confusing if at any one’s tent door a prophet might begin to speak without
warning. So the young man thought it his duty to run and tell Moses what
was taking place. And Joshua, when he heard, was alarmed, and desired
Moses to put an end to the irregular ministry. "My lord Moses, forbid them,"
he said. He was jealous not for himself and the other elders, but for Moses ’
sake. So far the leader alone held communication with Jehovah and spoke in
His name; and there was perhaps some reason for the alarm of Joshua, more
than was apparent at the time. To have one central authority was better and
safer than to have many persons using the right to speak in any sense for
God. Who could be sure that these new voices would agree with Moses in
every respect? Even if they did, might there not be divisions in the camp,
new priesthoods as well as new oracles? Prophets might not be always wise,
always truly inspired. And there might be false prophets by-and-by, even if
Eldad and Medad were not false.
In like manner it might be argued now that there is danger when one here
and another there assume authority as revealers of the truth of things. Some,
full of their own wisdom, take high ground as critics and teachers of religion.
Others imagine that with the right to wear a certain dress there has come to
them the full equipment of the prophet. And others still, remembering how
Elijah and John the Baptist arrayed themselves in coarse cloth and leathern
girdle, assume that garb, or what corresponds to it, and claim to have the
prophetic gift because they express the voice of the people. So in our days
there is a question whether Eldad or Medad, prophesying in the camp, ought
to be trusted or even allowed to speak. But who is to decide? Who is to take
upon him to silence the voices? The old way was rough and ready. All who
were in office in a certain Church were commissioned to interpret Divine
mysteries; the rest were ordered to be silent on pain of imprisonment. Those
who did not teach as the Church taught, under her direction, were made
offenders against the public wellbeing. That way, however, has been found
21

wanting, and "liberty of prophesying" is fully allowed. With the freedom
there have come difficulties and dangers enough. Yet to "try the spirits
whether they are of God" is our discipline on the way to life.
The reply of Moses to Joshua’s request anticipates, in no small degree, the
doctrine of liberty. "Art thou jealous for my sake? Would God that all the
Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon
them." His answer is that of a broad and magnanimous toleration. Moses
cannot indeed have believed that great religious truths were in the reach of
every man, and that any earnest soul might receive and communicate those
truths. But his conception of a people of God is like that in the prophecy of
Joel, where he speaks of all flesh being endued with the Spirit, the old men
and young men, the sons and daughters, alike made able to testify of what
they have seen and heard. The truly great man entertains no jealousy of
others. He delights to see in other eyes the flash of heavenly intelligence, to
find other souls made channels of Divine revelation. He would have no
monopoly in knowledge and sacred prophecy. Moses had instituted an
exclusive priesthood; but here he sets the gate of the prophetical office wide
open. All whom God endows are declared free in Israel to use that office.
We can only wonder that still any order of men should try in the name of
the Church to shut the mouths of those who approve themselves reverent
students of the Divine Word. At the same time let it not be forgotten that the
power of prophesying is no chance gift, no easy faculty. He who is to speak
on God’s behalf must indeed know the mind of God. How can one claim the
right to instruct others who has never opened his mind to the Divine voice,
who has not reverently compared Scripture with Providence and all the
phases of revelation that are unfolded in conscience and human life? Men
who draw a narrow circle and keep their thoughts within it can never
become prophets.
The closing verses of the chapter tell of the plague that fell on the lustful,
and the burial of those who died of it, in a place thence called
Kibrothhattaavah. The people had their desire, and it brought judgment upon
them. Here in Israel’s history a needful warning is written; but how many
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read without understanding! And so, every day the same plague is claiming
its victims, and "graves of lust" are dug. The preacher still finds in this
portion of Scripture a subject that never ceases to claim treatment, let social
conditions be what they may.
PETT, " Chapter 11 The Grumbling Of The People and The Men Of The Spirit.
With the journeying beginning again after the stay at Sinai the previous
problems of Exodus 16:1-12; Exodus 17:1-3 recommenced. The way was
unquestionably difficult. The sun was scorching, the wilderness dry, the
desert ‘road’ rough and definitely not suitable for such a large group of
travellers. And in the way of people it was not long before the murmuring
and grumbling began. Their eyes were not on Yahweh but on themselves,
and as they struggled through the sweltering heat with no real end in sight,
they began to feel sorry for themselves, and to think that deliverance was not
all that it was cracked up to be.
In the midst of their troubles God brought home a powerful message which
contrasted their desire for fleshly gratification with His willingness to
provide the Spirit.
The whole of this chapter quite clearly demonstrates the chiastic principle
inherent in Moses’ writings so remarkably that it can surely not be denied. It
is constructed as follows:
a The people murmur against Yahweh (Numbers 11:1 a).
b The anger of Yahweh is kindled and He smites them with judgment
(Numbers 11:1-3)
c The rabble commence lusting and the people crave for the pleasures of
Egypt which causes them to sin (Numbers 11:4-6).
d The people had gathered the manna (Numbers 11:7-8).
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e The manna had fallen from heaven (Numbers 11:9).
f Moses was disturbed at the people and receives a reply (Numbers
11:10-15).
g The Spirit will come on the seventy elders (Numbers 11:16-17).
h The people will eat the flesh they craved (when they should have been
craving spirit) (Numbers 11:18 a).
i The people’s craving for flesh makes them declare, ‘It was well with us in
Egypt’ (Numbers 11:18).
i They will be satiated with flesh because they said, ‘Why came we forth out
of Egypt?’ (Numbers 11:19-20).
h Moses puzzled how Yahweh can provide the flesh they crave, but they will
eat it (Numbers 11:21-23 a).
g The Spirit comes on the seventy elders (Numbers 11:24-26).
f Joshua was disturbed at the two elders and receives a reply (Numbers
11:27-30).
e The quails fall from heaven (Numbers 11:31).
d The people gather the quails (Numbers 11:32 a).
c The people’s craving for the quails causes them to sin (Numbers 11:32 b).
b Yahweh’s anger is kindled and the plague comes from Yahweh so that the
people are smitten (Numbers 11:33).
a The malcontents and lusters are buried in the Graves of craving (Numbers
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11:34).
The chapter commences with a short, sharp warning, which is not heeded.
Chapter 12 The Jealousy of Aaron and Miriam.
In this chapter the position of Moses is firmly established. It can be
compared with Numbers 16-17 where the position of Aaron was firmly
established. In both cases they had been directly appointed by God, not by
man.
Possibly Aaron and Miriam had become jealous because of the Spirit coming
on the seventy elders as they stood with Moses. Aaron was ‘the Priest’ and
Miriam a prophetess (Exodus 15:20). Perhaps they felt, unreasonably, that
Moses was supplanting them and raising up others with spiritual insight.
Whatever the cause they began to mutter against Moses.
Because they dared not attack him openly they attacked his wife. She was a
Cushite woman and not a true-born Israelite. This then enabled them to get
at Moses himself. ‘Why should he think he was different from them?’ they
asked. Did Yahweh only speak with Moses? Did He not also speak with
Aaron and Miriam? How dangerous it is when we become proud of what God
has given us, or the position in which He has placed us. But Yahweh
immediately stepped in to make clear Moses ’ unique position and in the end
the two had to plead with Moses to intercede for them.
The construction of the passage is clear.
a They journey from Kibroth-hattaavah to Hazeroth (Numbers 11:35).
b Miriam, with Aaron, turns against Moses (Miriam named first) (Numbers
12:1-2).
c Moses is the meekest man on earth (Numbers 12:3).
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d Yahweh speaks to Moses, Aaron and Miriam and calls them into His
presence (Numbers 12:4).
e The cloud comes down to the door of the Dwellingplace (Numbers 12:5).
f Yahweh’s definition of a prophet (Numbers 12:6).
f Yahweh’s declaration about Moses (Numbers 12:7-8).
e The cloud departs from the Dwellingplace leaving Miriam leprous
(Numbers 12:9-10).
d Aaron pleads with Moses to go into Yahweh’s presence on their behalf
(Numbers 12:11-13).
c Miriam is as one whose father spits in their face (Numbers 12:14).
b Miriam is cast out of the camp for seven days (Numbers 12:15).
a They journey from Hazeroth to the wilderness of Paran (Numbers 12:16).
Verses 1-3
A Sharp Warning About Grumbling. The People Complain and Are Smitten.
Moses Intervenes (Numbers 11:1-3).
It is interesting that even in so short a passage another chiastic formation is
revealed.
a They displease Yahweh and the fire of Yahweh burns among them
(Numbers 11:1).
b The people cry to Moses for the quenching of the fire.
b Moses intercedes with Yahweh and the fire is quenched.
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a The place is called Taberah because the fire of Yahweh burnt among them.
Numbers 11:1
‘And the people were as murmurers, evil in the ears of Yahweh, (or ‘were as
murmurers in the ears of Yahweh about their misfortunes’) and when
Yahweh heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of Yahweh burnt among
them, and devoured in the uttermost part of the camp. ’
The incidents are not specifically fitted into the travel schedule so that we do
not know how long this was after leaving Sinai, but it was clearly not long
before the people began to murmur. It was probably in the desert of Et-Tih.
And what they were muttering among themselves was evil in Yahweh ’s ears,
as such muttering always is. Indeed the mood was so ugly that God was
angry with it. He clearly felt it totally unjustifiable. They would have much
worse to go through than this. They had to learn to cope with adversity.
The result was that on the extremities of the camp a fire burst out and
‘burned among them’, and they recognised it for what it was, a warning shot
from Yahweh. Whether it was caused by lightning, or a bush bursting into
flames in the intense heat which then spread, we do not know. And whether
anyone died or whether it just affected possessions we are not told. But it
was their first salutary warning.
God uses such trials and judgments in order to teach His people lessons.
Whom Yahweh loves, He chastens (Deuteronomy 8:5). Here He was trying to
pull the people up short so that their minds might be taken off themselves
and set on Him. He knew the condition that they were getting themselves
into. Had they taken heed it would have saved them a lot of trouble in the
future.
PARKER, " Complaining of Providence
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Numbers 11:1-3
The people complained—and the Lord set fire to them! That seems rough
judgment, for what is man"s speech as set against the divine fire? We must all agree
that this was harsh—utterly and unwarrantably severe, out of all proportion to the
temper and intention of the people. The people complained: they were in pain, in
distress, in weariness—and the Lord burned them! Who can defend the procedure?
Who can so subordinate his reason and his sense of right as to commend the justice
of this tremendous punishment? So they might say who begin their Bible reading at
the eleventh chapter of Numbers. There is only one place at which to begin the
reading of the Bible, and that is at the first chapter of Genesis and the first verse;
and there is only one place at which the reading of the Bible can be completed, and
that is the last verse of the last chapter of the last book. The difficulty of the
Christian argument is that people will begin to read the Bible wherever they please.
The Bible has but one beginning and one ending, and only they are qualified to
pronounce judgment upon it who read the book from end to end, omitting nothing,
setting everything in its right place, and causing the whole to assume its proper
perspective and colour. It is easily conceivable that many a Prayer of Manasseh ,
opening the Bible at this point and beginning his acquaintance with the sacred
record at this incident, might exclaim—How harsh the divine action I how devoid
not of reason only, but of justice! Who can worship a God who sets fire to people
who, living in a wilderness, venture to complain? Who says so?—the man who does
not understand the case. Who complains against God?—only he who does not know
the meaning of the divine movement, the scope of the divine outlook, the purpose of
the divine beneficence. Was this the first time the people had complained? Was the
voice of whining quite new in the camps of Israel? The Bible does not begin with the
Book of Numbers. Read the Book of Exodus , notably the fourteenth and following
chapters up to the time of the giving of the law, and you will find complaint
following complaint; and what was the divine answer in that succession of
reproaches? Was there fire? Did the Lord shake down the clouds upon the people
and utterly overwhelm them with tokens of indignation? No. When the Israelites
first complained of the pursuing Egyptians, and asked if there were not graves
enough in Egypt that they should have been dragged out into the wilderness to be
buried, what was the answer?—Stand still and see the salvation of God. When the
people complained at Marah, saying,—This water is bitter, and we cannot drink
it,—did the fire descend? No spark fell from the angry heavens, but the waters were
sweetened, every tang of bitterness being taken out of the pool. When the people
complained of their wilderness life and having nothing to eat, what was the answer?
Contempt? A storm such as fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah? No such reply was
given; but the Lord said,—I will rain down food upon the sandy places, and all you
shall have to do will be to go out and gather it. The people complain again—and the
Lord burns them! To some murmuring there is but one reply that can be
appreciated. The Lord is full of tenderness and compassion,—yea, infinite in
piteousness and love is he; but there is a point when his Spirit can no longer strive
with us, and when he must displace the persuasions of love by the anger and the
28

judgment of fire.
But this is not the whole case. The people were not complaining only. The word
complaint may be so construed as to have everything taken out of it except the
feeblest protest and the feeblest utterance of some personal desire. But this is not the
historical meaning of the word complaint as it is found here. What happened
between the instances we have quoted and the instance which is immediately before
us? Until that question is answered the whole case is not before the mind for opinion
or criticism. What then had taken place? The most momentous of all incidents. God
had said through Moses to the people of Israel,—Will you obey the law? And they
stood to their feet, as it were, and answered in one unanimous reply,—We will. The
spirit of obedience having been, as we have seen, thus created, the law was given in
detail. You remember the criticism passed upon this circumstance. The law was not
given, and then obedience demanded; obedience was promised, and then the law
was given. The Ten Words are an answer to a pledge; the pledge committed the
people to the Ten Words. What had they said in their pledge? They had uttered a
vow which is seldom realised in all the fulness and pathos of its meaning; they had
said,—We will have none other gods beside thee. So the people were wedded to their
Lord at that great mountain altar; words of fealty and kinship and Godhood had
been exchanged, and now these people that had oft complained and had then
promised obedience, and had then sworn that they would have none other gods
beside Jehovah, complained—went back to their evil ways; and the Lord, who takes
out his sword last and only calls upon his fire in extremity, smote them—burned
them. And this will he do to us if we trifle with our oaths, if we practise bad faith
towards the altar, if we are guilty of malfeasance in the very sanctuary of God. To
criticise Providence—who is fit for that high judgment? Providence is a large word;
it is like the horizon, encompassing all things with a line that cannot be touched,
including all things, yet without bond or token of humiliation. Who can criticise the
Providence of life—that marvellous power that lights up the world in the morning,
curtains it off with a veil of darkness night by night, blesses its soil with fertility, fills
its channels with streams and rivers, feeds the roots of its tiniest flowers, paints the
wings of its frailest insects, leads like a cloud by day and like a fire by night, that
numbers the hairs of the head of every child living in the Father"s house? Who has
mind enough, penetration enough, judgment enough, to call God to his bar and
pronounce sentence upon the Infinite? We are vexed by details; we are blinded by
the immediate dust of the road. We are not called to judgment, but to acquiescence,
to acceptance, to gratitude, to hope. To criticise God is to usurp the divine throne.
Let who will pass their insane judgments upon the infinite scale of life; let it be ours,
where we cannot understand, to believe; where we cannot direct, to accept, and in
all things to kiss the rod and bless the Hand that lifts it. This is not the surrender of
reason; it is the baptism and consecration of understanding.
Were the people content with complaining? They passed from complaining to
lusting, saying, "Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we did
eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions,
and the garlic: but now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this
29

manna, before our eyes.... And the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it
in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it"—and
grumbled the while because Egyptian appetite was excited within them. There is a
philosophy here. You cannot stop short with complaining. Wickedness never plays a
negative game. The man who first complains will next erect his appetite as a hostile
force against the will of God. A marvellous thing is this, to recollect our lives
through the medium of our appetites, to have old relishes return to the mouth, to
have the palate stimulated by remembered sensations. The devil has many ways into
the soul. The recollection of evil may prompt a desire for its repetition. Worldliness
has, no doubt, its pleasant memories. Let us be just to all men. The worldly life is
not without its sensations of pleasure and gratification. We do not expect men to
enter the sanctuary and forget all the old days as if they had had no pleasure in
them. Old tastes will revive; the tongue will be stirred to new desires; an odour in
the air will remind you of the feast you have abandoned; the sight of an old
companion may drive you to wish for just one more day in the old house of bondage,
in the old sensual relations. We live a very delicate life. We are not far from the
enemy at any one point in our history. The sight of a face may awaken within us
influences which we had supposed to be dead; the resonance of an old song may
bring back the memory of black nights consecrated to the service of the devil with a
will. We must not be harsh upon those who remember the pleasant side of Egyptian
life. We may now think of the old days with some pleasure:—how free the riotous
dance was; how eager our appetite at the feast; how we relished the ardent poison;
how we enjoyed the exchange of passionate looks and words! And if a longing
sometimes steals in upon the heart, putting back its prayer and threatening its
overthrow, this may not be sin, it may be a severe temptation, a call to a tremendous
struggle; and if in that struggle the poor soul may fall for a moment, yet, if its
uppermost desire be true, though it fall it shall not be utterly cast down. If any man
has escaped the snare of drunkenness, or the snare of evil indulgence of any kind,
and yet now and again feels as if, after all, the old days had charms and pleasures,
that transient feeling is not necessarily a sin on the part of the man who experiences
its pain; it is a temptation of the evil one, and is only to be put down by nobler
prayer, by a sharper, keener cry for omnipotent defence.
The public complaint affected the bravest spirit in the camp. Moses was utterly tired
out. I wonder that all leaders are not occasionally driven to extremity by sheer
disgust at public ingratitude. Moses said, "Kill me... out of hand." Moses was not a
man who naturally longed for extermination; he was a soldier; he was born to be a
leader and a commander of the people; but continual friction, daily exasperation,
eternal misunderstanding, and implied insult, wrought in him a state of mind which
expressed itself not only in a desire but in a prayer that he might die. Was the leader
paid? Was the leader pampered? Was a separate table provided for Moses in the
wilderness? Did he not throw himself into the common lot and live the life of the
common people of the desert? Yet, notwithstanding, he was the subject of daily
reproach and bitterest criticism. Who knows what it is to carry a thousand lives in
his heart? Who knows the difficulties of the shepherd"s life? Who understands the
daily pain of the pastor"s heart? What has he to do? To sympathise with all kinds of
30

experiences; to understand all the varied qualities of human life and human desires;
to transfuse himself into conditions and relations apparently far remote from his
own central gift and call of God; to make prayer for a thousand suppliants. It is no
easy task. We should be gentler with men who have given themselves to be our
pastors, and to carry us somehow in their great hearts. A bitter word is easily
spoken, but it is not easily dislodged from the memory of love. Neglect is easily
shown—coldness, contempt, disregard, want of appreciation; but all the time you
are bringing the pastor, the shepherd, the leader, the Moses, to desire to die. There
is another manslaughter than the vulgar shedding of blood; there is a heart-murder:
there are crucifixions without visible crosses. People do not always come to the
assault with the avowed purpose of killing or injuring; but for want of consideration
and the simplest instincts of justice, they tear men to pieces; they say, in ghostly
throngs around the good man"s bed,—You shall not sleep to-night; we will tear the
sleep from your eyelids and vex you with a thousand tormenting memories. Let us
cease from the number of those who criticise the ways of Providence and kill the
messengers of Heaven.
God found assistance for Moses,—the only answer Moses could understand at the
time. God"s answers are accommodated to the state of our intelligence and our
moral feeling. To have seventy men moved by a spirit kindred to your own is an
answer which can easily be understood. Divine and spiritual replies had been given
to Moses again and again; but God says,—The poor soul wants something more
visible and substantial this time; I never saw him so borne down,—a man"s heart so
stout of will, so faultless in its sacred obstinacy; but his bold face looked blanched
to-day, his commanding voice hesitated and struggled in utterance to-day; I must
give him a new reply. So seventy men were called out who were filled with a kindred
spirit, and the Lord said, in effect, to Moses,—I have multiplied thee by seventy:
now play the man. Wondrous are the answers of God! They who have studied them
most are the most assured in their Christian faith; such men do not need wordy
arguments to convince them as to the utility of prayer: they found the answer to the
argument on the prayer itself.
What did Moses do? He took heart again. When he heard of the fire at the outside
of the camp—burning, singeing, scorching—he said,—Lord, put the fire out! He
prayed for the very people that had very nearly killed him. Herein, he anticipated
Christ John said—"Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from
heaven, and consume them?" The Lord said: "Ye know not what manner of spirit
ye are of." Two irregular men in the camp began to prophesy; and the message was
taken to Moses that another kind of fire had broken out—a species of spiritual and
official insanity. Moses said,—Let them alone; good water comes from good
fountains, wise words flow from wise minds; do not feel envious on my account;
"would God that all the Lord"s people were prophets!" That is the philosophy of
progress—not dragging down the one prophet to the level of those who might
prophesy, but lifting up the common camp until it is moved by divine inspirations.
The great preacher has no fear of other preachers arising; the greatest preacher
would say,—Put all the churches in a row, and let him who knows most of God
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prove his knowledge. Have no fear of inspired men, no fear of the multiplication of
their number, and do not be jealous of their success; when they succeed, we succeed.
The Church is one, and every minister should claim brotherhood with every other
minister; to insult one of the brethren ought to be felt to be an insult to the entire
fraternity. Joshua thought that Moses would feel rather angry that other people
were beginning to usurp his function. Would to Heaven there were fewer Joshuas of
this kind and for this purpose! for such tale-bearers work no end of mischief in
every circle into which they enter, and none the less mischief that they say—Our
motive was pure, our intention was good; we heard these irregular persons
exercising an irregular ministry, and we were concerned for the traditional unity of
the Church. Have no such concern. The one man the Lord does not need is the tale-
bearer. If he must speak, let him go out into a wide and solitary place, in the deepest
darkness of the night, and speak his insanity to the unheeding winds. "Would God
that all the Lord"s people were prophets!" If they were all preachers, they would
sympathise more with preachers than they do; if they were all commanders of
armies, they would long for some army to command; if they had greater trials, they
would have tenderer patience.
How did the Lord treat Moses? He asked him one question, "And the Lord said
unto Moses, Is the Lord"s hand waxed short?" We always forget the divine element.
Moses says,— indeed?" It is not a question for you; the battle is not yours, but
God"s. "Is the Lord"s hand waxed short? Thou shalt see now whether my word
shall come to pass unto thee or not." The people got their way. The Lord said,—You
shall have flesh enough to eat; I will find it: I will send out the winds to bring it, I
will command the clouds to shed it; you shall have flesh enough. And whilst they ate
the flesh—ate it to satiety—the judgment of the Lord fell upon them,—"And the
Lord smote the people with a very great plague," and in that wilderness a great
cemetery was dug. The Lord could not be harsher to us sometimes than to answer
our prayers. Pray for fine weather, pray for the rain of manna, pray that flesh may
be given in the wilderness and fowls in places out of the way; but having so prayed,
say, "Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done," and to that prayer God always
sends an angel in reply.
Note
The Israelites murmuring over their heavenly food looked back with regret to the
melons and cucumbers, which they had eaten so freely even in Egypt, the land of
their captivity. So plentiful are these fruits and vegetables in this and other hot and
sandy countries, that they grow luxuriantly either with or without cultivation,
climbing up the trees and shrubs, shading the roofs of the native dwellings with
their broad green leaves, or covering the ground, which would otherwise be a desert,
making it as a garden in fertility and beauty. The weary traveller pauses on his way
when he sees from afar the vine-shaped leaves of the water-melon in the Indian
cornfields, and he turns aside to seek with eagerness for the delicious fruit, which he
is sure of finding cold and refreshing in the hottest season. The cucumber is also
most grateful to the taste; cooling to the over-heated frame, and an incentive to more
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substantial and supporting food than would otherwise be desired in these tropical
countries. The God of love seems so lovingly to have provided for the inhabitants of
these and all climates the food most suitable for nourishing and refreshment. Now
the Israelites had heavenly food, and they needed none other, but (it is the story of a
human heart) they must look back to the cucumbers and melons of Egypt.
—C. W.
PULPIT, "Numbers 11:1
And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord. There is no "when"
in the original. It is literally, "And the people were as complainers evil in the
ears of the Lord." This may be paraphrased as in the A.V.; or it may be
rendered as in the Septuagint, ‫ח‬‫ם‬ ‫ן‬‫כב‬ ‫ן‬‫דןדד‬ ‫ע‬ ‫ץ‬‫נןםחס‬ ‫זשם‬ ‫ב‬ ‫ו‬‫ץבםפי‬
‫ךץס‬ ‫י‬‫ןץ‬ (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:10), where ‫נןםחס‬ ‫ב‬ means the wicked things
they uttered in their discontent; or the "evil" may mean the hardships they
complained of. The Targums understand it in the same way as the
Septuagint, and this seems to agree best with the context. As to the time and
place of this complaining, the narrative seems to limit it within the three
days' march from the wilderness of Sinai; but it is not possible to fix it more
precisely. It is sufficient that the very first incident in the great journey
thought worthy of record was this sin and its punishment, and the natural
conclusion is that it came to pass very shortly after the departure. As to the
reason of the complaining, although it is not stated, and although there does
not seem to have been any special cause of distress, we can hardly be
mistaken about it. The fatigue and anxiety of the march, after a year's
comparative idleness, the frightful nature of the country into which they
were marching, and the unknown terrors of the way which lay before them,
these were quite enough to shake their nerves and upset their minds. Such
things could only be borne and faced in a spirit of faith and trustful
dependence upon God and their appointed leaders, and that spirit they knew
nothing of. Slavery, even when its outward pressure is past and gone like a
bad dream, leaves behind it above all things an incurable suspicion of, and a
rooted disbelief in, others, which shows itself outwardly by blank ingratitude
and persistent complaint of bad treatment. This is the well-known mental
attitude of liberated slaves even towards their benefactors and liberators; and
in the case of Israel this temper extended to the King of Israel himself, whom
33

they held responsible for all the privations and terrors of an apparently
needless journey through a hideous waste. The Targum of Palestine says
here, "There were wicked men of the people who, being discontent, devised
and imagined evil before the Lord." The complaining, however, seems to have
been general throughout the host, as the Psalmist more truly acknowledges
(Psalms 78:17-22). And the fire of the Lord burnt among them. The "fire of
the Lord" may mean one of three things.
1. Lightning, as apparently in Job 1:16; for lightning to the unscientific is the
fiery bolt, even as thunder is the angry voice, of God (cf. 1 Samuel 12:18, 1
Samuel 12:19).
2. A miraculous outburst of flame from the Presence in the tabernacle, such
as slew Nadab and Abihu (Le Job 10:2), and afterwards the 250 men who
offered incense (Job 16:1-22 :35).
3. A miraculous descent of fire from heaven, as apparently in 2 Kings 1:10-12
(cf. Revelation 13:13). Of these the second seems to be excluded by the fact
that the conflagration was in the outskirts of the camp furthest removed from
the tabernacle. If we suppose the fire to have been natural, we may further
suppose that it set alight to the dry bushes and shrubs which abound in parts
of the desert, and which blaze with great fury when the flame is driven by
the wind. It is, however, at least as likely that a wholly supernatural
visitation of God is here intended. What is most important to notice is this,
that the punishment in this case followed hard and sore upon the sin,
whereas before they came to Sinai the Lord had passed over similar
murmurings without any chastisement (Exodus 15:24; Exodus 16:2). The
reason of this difference was twofold. In the first place, they had now had
abundant opportunity to become acquainted with the power and goodness of
the Lord, and had solemnly entered into covenant with him, and he had
taken up his abode among them; wherefore their responsibilities grew with
their privileges, their dangers kept pace with their advantages. In the second
place, they had while at Sinai committed an act of national apostasy (Exodus
32:1-35), the punishment of which, although suspended (2 Kings 1:14), was
only suspended (verse 34), and was always capable of being revived; Israel
34

was plainly warned that he was under sentence, and that any disobedience
would awake the terrors of the Lord against him. And consumed … in the
uttermost parts of the camp. Probably setting fire to the outer line of tents,
or some pitched outside the line, and consuming the people that were in
them. The Targum of Palestine affirms that it "destroyed some of the wicked
in the outskirts of the house of Dan, with whom was a graven image;" but
this attempt to shift the responsibility, and to alter the character of the sin, is
clearly worthless, and only suggested by occurrences wholly unconnected
with the present (see 18:1-31).
BI 1-3, "The people complained.
Against murmuring
I. A dissatisfied spirit causes displeasure to the Lord.
1. This we might infer from our own feelings, when dependents, children,
servants, or receivers of alms are always grumbling. We grow weary of them,
and angry with them.
2. In the case of men towards God it is much worse for them to murmur, since
they deserve no good at His hands, but the reverse ( Lam_3:29; Psa_103:10).
3. In that case also it is a reflection upon the Lord’s goodness, wisdom, truth,
and power.
4. The evil lusting which attends the complaining proves its injurious character.
We are ready for anything when we quarrel with God ( 1Co_10:5-12).
5. God thinks so ill of it that His wrath burns, and chastisement is not long
withheld. To set an imaginary value upon that which we have not —
(1) Is foolish, childish, pettish.
(2) Is injurious to ourselves, for it prevents our enjoying what we already
have.
(3) Is slanderous towards God, and ungrateful to Him.
(4) Leads to rebellion, falsehood, envy, and all manner of sins.
II. A dissatisfied spirit finds no pleasure for itself even when its wish is fulfilled.
The Israelites had flesh in superabundance in answer to their foolish prayers, but —
1. It was attended with leanness of soul (Psa_106:15).
35

2. It brought satiety (Num_11:20).
3. It caused death (Psa_78:31).
4. It thus led to mourning on all sides.
III. A dissatisfied spirit snows that the mind needs regulating. Grace would put our
desires in order, and keep our thoughts and affections in their proper places, thus —
1. Content with such things as we have ( Heb_13:5).
2. Towards other things moderate in desire ( Pro_30:8).
3. Concerning earthly things which may be lacking, fully resigned ( Mat_26:39).
4. First, and most eagerly, desiring God ( Psa_42:2).
5. Next coveting earnestly the best gifts ( 1Co_12:31)
6. Following ever in love the more excellent way (1Co_12:31). (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
Murmurings
1. Those who are merely hangers-on to a Church are usually the beginners of
mischief among its members. So in the community, the men who have no stake
in its welfare are always the most dangerous element of the population. They
have nothing to lose in any event, and it is just possible that, in the confusion,
they may gain a little. Thus they are always ready for either riot or emeute. The
“mixed multitude” in our cities represents what others call the dangerous
classes; and in proportion as their existence is ignored by the respectable
portion of the people, and nothing is done for their education or elevation, the
danger is aggravated.
2. Murmuring is invariably one-sided. These discontented Egyptians and
Israelites did nothing but look back on Egypt; and even when they did that, they
saw only the lights, and not the shadows. Again, in their depreciation of their
present lot, they were equally one-sided. They could see in it nothing but the
one fact that they had no flesh to eat. They took no notice of the manna, save to
despise it; they said nothing of the water which God had provided for them;
they never spoke of the daily miracle that their clothes waxed not old; they
made no reference to the constance guidance and presence of Jehovah with
them. Now this was flagrantly unjust; and yet in condemning that it is to be
36

feared that we are passing judgment upon ourselves, for if we were fully to
reckon up both sides of the account would there ever be any murmuring among
us at all?
3. God is always considerate of His faithful servants. See how tender He was to
Moses here. He saw that he needed human sympathy and support, as well as
Divine, and therefore He hastened to provide him with a cordon of kindred
spirits, who might act as a breakwater, and keep the waves of trouble and
discontent that rose in the camp from dashing upon him. One cannot read of
this without being impressed by the tenderness of God; and it is a suggestive
fact that on almost every occasion on which we are told of His judgment falling
upon sinners, we have in the near vicinity some manifestation of gentleness to
His friends.
4. The truly great man is never envious of others. Here is a lesson for all, and
especially for ministers of the gospel. How hard it is to rejoice in the excellence
of another, especially if he be in the same line with ourselves l And yet the
disparagement of the gifts of another is really an indication of our consciousness
of the weakness of our own. The highest and the hardest cliff to climb on the
mountain of holiness is humility.
5. We can set no limits to the resources of God ( Num_11:23).
6. It is not good for us to get everything we desire ( Psa_105:15). Prayers horn
out of murmuring are always dangerous. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Sin and prayer
I. A sadly common sin. Murmuring. Discontent is the spirit of this wicked world.
II. A terribly solemn fact. God recognises and retributes sin.
III. A general social tendency. The wicked ever seek the good in their terror and
distress.
IV. A striking result of prayer. The breath of Moses ’ prayer extinguished the flame.
(Homilist.)
Complaining of providence punished
The people complained—and the Lord set fire to them! That seems rough judgment,
37

for what is man’s speech as set against the Divine fire? Who can defend the
procedure? Who can so subordinate his reason and his sense of right as to
commend the justice of this tremendous punishment? So they might say who begin
their Bible reading at the eleventh chapter of Numbers. Read the Book of Exodus,
notably the fourteenth and following chapters up to the time of the giving of the
law, and you will find complaint following complaint; and what was the Divine
answer in that succession of reproaches? Was there fire? Did the Lord shake down
the clouds upon the people and utterly overwhelm them with tokens of indignation?
No. The Lord is full of tenderness and compassion—yea, infinite in piteousness and
love is He; but there is a point when His Spirit can no longer strive with us, and
when He must displace the persuasions of love by the anger and the judgment of
fire. But this is not the whole case. The people were not complaining only. The
word complaint may he so construed as to have everything taken out of it except
the feeblest protest and the feeblest utterance of some personal desire. But this is
not the historical meaning of the word complaint as it is found here. What
happened between the instances we have quoted and the instance which is
immediately before us? Until that question is answered the whole case is not before
the mind for opinion or criticism. What, then, had taken place? The most
momentous of all incidents. God had said through Moses to the people of Israel —
Will you obey the law? And they stood to their feet, as it were, and answered in one
unanimous voice—We will. So the people were wedded to their Lord at that great
mountain altar: words of fealty and kinship and Godhood had been exchanged, and
now these people that had oft complained and had then promised obedience, and
had then sworn that they would have none other gods beside Jehovah,
complained—went back to their evil ways; and the Lord, who takes out His sword
last and only calls upon His fire in extremity, smote them —burned them. And this
will He do to us if we trifle with our oaths, if we practise bad faith towards the
altar, if we are guilty of malfeasance in the very sanctuary of God. Were the people
content with complaining? They passed from complaining to lusting, saying, “Who
shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt, ” &c.
There is a philosophy here. You cannot stop short with complaining. Wickedness
never plays a negative game. The man who first complains will next erect his
appetite as a hostile force against the will of God. A marvellous thing is this, to
recollect our lives through the medium of our appetites, to have old relishes return
to the mouth, to have the palate stimulated by remembered sensations. The devil
has many ways into the soul. The recollection of evil may prompt a desire for its
repetition. (J. Parker, D. D.)
38

Israel’s sin
1. Israel had many impediments in their march to the Land of Promise, not only
from without (Pharaoh pursuing, Amalek intercepting, &c.), but also from
within, among themselves by their manifold murmurings ( 1Pe_4:18).
2. God writes our sin upon our punishment. These murmurers here sinned
against the “fiery law” (Deu_33:2); therefore were they punished by fire out of
the pillar of fire from whence the fiery law was given and published. Their
perdition is our caution (1Co_10:5; 1Co_10:11).
3. Evil company is infectious and catching as the plague ( 1Co_15:33).
4. Wherever there is sinning again on man ’s part, there will be punishing again
on God’s part (Joh_5:14). Here Israel sinned again with a double sin —
(1) In desiring flesh which they wanted;
(2) In disdaining manna which they enjoyed. The vehemence of their
concupiscence was the more inflamed by remembering their former Egyptian
diet, yet forgetting withal their Egyptian drudgery.
5. The people’s profane deploring their penury (when they had little cause to do
so, while fed with the food of angels) doth not only make God angry with them
(Num_11:10), but also putteth meek Moses into a pang of passion and
impatience (Num_11:11-15).
6. The Divine remedy to all this human malady; both as to Moses ’ impatience,
and as to Israel’s intemperance.
(1) Moses must not bear the burden alone, but shall be assisted with the
Sanhedrin, or great council of the Jews, consisting of seventy seniors
(answerable to the seventy souls that descended with Jacob into Egypt)
whereof Moses sat president, all endowed with the gifts of the spirit of
Moses, who was as a candle that lighteth others, yet hath not less either heat
or light than it had before ( Num_11:16-17; Num_11:24-25; Num_11:30).
(2) As to the people’s intemperance, as God promised and performed plenty
of flesh to those fleshly-minded multitude, so He punished their impiety with
a horrible plague at the close thereof ( Num_11:18-20; Num_11:31-34). (C.
Ness.)
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The sin of complaining
Observe that it does not say that the people “murmured,” but “complained,” or, as it
is in the margin, “were as it were complainers ”; by which it is evidently meant that
there was a feeling in their minds of scarcely expressed dissatisfaction. There was
no sudden outbreak of murmuring, but the whispers and looks of discontent. There
is no special mention of any particular reason for it. It does not say that their
manna failed, or that any hostile army was arrayed against them. Doubtless the
journeying was always wearisome, and on its fatigues they suffered their minds to
dwell, forgetful of all the mercies vouchsafed them, and “complained.” Now, we
must all feel that right-down murmuring is very sinful, and in its worst forms most
Christians overcome it; but not so complaining, for this seems to many to be
scarcely wrong, and it often grows on them so gradually that they are seldom
conscious of it. The causes of complaint are manifold. Little difficulties in our
circumstances—little acts of selfishness in our neighbours; but complaining is most
of all a danger with persons who have weak health —for weakness of body often
produces depression of spirits —and this is the soil in which a complaining spirit
takes deepest root. Then, too, it often grows into a habit; a tinge of discontent
settles on the countenance, and the voice assumes a tone of complaint. And though
this, like most habits soon becomes unconscious, yet it is not the less mischievous
on that account. It is mischievous to our own souls, for it damps the work of the
Spirit of God in our hearts, and enfeebles the spiritual life. It is mischievous in its
effects upon others; for when Christians complain it gives the world altogether
wrong impressions of the strength and consolation which the love of Christ affords,
and it frequently generates the same spirit; one complains, and another, having the
same or other causes of complaint, sees no reason why he should not complain too.
And this was probably its history in Israel. It is scarcely likely that all began to
complain at the same moment. Doubtless there were some who set the sad example,
and then the hearts of all being predisposed, it spread like an epidemic. We should
settle it well in our hearts that complaining, no less than murmuring, is a fruit of
the flesh. David complained in Psa_77:3, “I complained, and my spirit was
overwhelmed”; but he soon felt that the root of the evil was in himself. “This,” he
adds (verse 10), “is my infirmity.” But no part of Scripture proves more strikingly
than the events at Taberah, how displeasing to God, and how dangerous in its
results, a complaining spirit is. The punishment which followed, and which gave the
name to the place, proves the first point. Patient and long-suffering as God ever was
with Israel, we are told (Num_11:1) that “His anger was kindled; and the fire of
40

the Lord burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of
the camp.” The severity of the punishment shows that this was no little sin,
encompassed as they were with mercy, and guided by Jehovah Himself through the
wilderness. It was no less dangerous in its result, for the subsequent history shows
how “complaining” ripened into “murmuring,” and murmuring was at last the cause
of Israel’s final fall. Let us endeavour, then, to watch against a “complaining spirit. ”
In heavy and stunning afflictions we glorify God, when, like Aaron, we are enabled
to “hold our peace.” Like David, we can say, “I was dumb, and opened not my
mouth, because Thou didst it ”; or, as in Psa_131:2. Still more if we can, through
grace, rise to the elevation of the afflicted Job, and say, “The Lord gave and the
Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord ”; or, if anything, to the still
higher elevation of the Apostle Paul (Php_4:11-13). In the lesser and more ordinary
trials of daily life, its difficulties and its duties, we glorify Him by Christian
Cheerfulness; and how can we maintain this spirit but by tracing the hand of a
Father in them all, carrying them all to God in prayer, and, most of all, by looking
above present things to the “everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure ”?
For the things which are seen, our difficulties and our trials, are temporal; but the
things which are not seen, our strength and our crown, are eternal. ( G. Wagner.)
Ungrateful discontent
We would think that beggar intolerably impudent, that coming to our doors to ask
an alms, and when we have bestowed on him some bracken bread and meat, yet
(like those impudent persons the Psalmist speaks of, that grudge and grumble if
they be not satisfied, if they have not their own will, and their own fill) he should
not hold himself contented, unless he might have one of our best dishes from the
table. But this is the case of very many amongst us. We come all as so many
beggars to God’s mercy-seat, and God gives us abundance of many good things, as
life, liberty, health of body, &c., yet we cannot be quiet, nor think ourselves well,
unless we be clothed in purple, and fare deliciously every day as such and such do,
not considering in the meantime many that are below us, and above us too, wanting
those things which we comfortably enjoy. ( J. Spencer.)
Criticising favours
There are many persons who receive favours and criticise them. They make it a
41

Numbers 11 commentary

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