Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
In Numbers chapter 11 the people of Israel have escaped from Egypt but are still in the wilderness. They are concerned for their food supply. Although the Lord had been providing manna each day, they missed the abundant variety they had in Egypt. They also showed their distrust of Moses. What could be done? The anger of the people provoked Moses to become angry with God. It also provoked God’s anger. What would He do? Moses may well have been justified in his desire that the Lord would go ahead and kill him. Everyone was miserable.
God’s response was threefold. He provided the people with what they were desiring. “Do you want meat? I’ll give you birds. So many you will be eating them for am onth. You will be sick.” Sometimes in God’s mercy He lets us have what we want even if it is not good for us. Will it drive us back to trusting God’s desires? That’s certainly the intent. Manna sounds really good compared to eating birds so as to avoid being overrun by birds. A second act of God is to provide seventy elders. These people could govern along with Moses. If the people felt poorly represented they could speak with the elders. Neither Moses nor the people needed to feel alone. God’s third act here is to draw attention to himself by making the elders temporarily into prophets. This was a show of the power and wisdom of God. He was able to speak with authority. This let the poeple of Israel know that God was indeed listening to them and that he could communicate.
In all this passage, we see God’s wisdom and power to guard His people. He is certainly the God who is with them.
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