Numbers 11 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Numbers 11:1-15

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. 2 When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the Lord and the fire died down. 3 So that place was called Taberah, because fire from the Lord had burned among them.

4 The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost – also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. 6 But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!’

7 The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin. 8 The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a hand-mill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into loaves. And it tasted like something made with olive oil. 9 When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down.

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

A. Find Out:

1. What happened with the people first of all? v.1-3
2. What did the people then complain about? v.4-6
3. What provision did they have at that time? v.7-9
4. What was the Lord’s response to this? v.10
5. What six questions did Moses ask of the Lord? v.11-13
6. What did Moses feel about it all? v.14,15 

B. Think:

1. Why were the people upset?
2. Does the Lord seem to feel they were justified?
3. Where did that leave Moses?

C. Comment:

       Perhaps we sometimes don’t notice some of the words we read in Scripture. For example, the people were travelling through the ‘desert’ or ‘wilderness’, which means it was a very inhospitable land, and they do not cope very well at all. In fact they grumbled about it, and more than that, they grumbled when they were near the Tabernacle, and were basically blaming God – and this from a people who had experienced the miracles of the Exodus, and had encountered the Lord at Sinai in ways that had made them tremble. They have short memories and the Lord is angry and so burns up some of the outskirts of the camp – perhaps as mere warning. The people realize what is happening and cry out and Moses speaks up for them and the Lord holds back.     

You would think that that would be the end of it, but sin makes people stupid and so some of the more stupid people start complaining now because they are bored with the daily provision of manna. They can’t realize that it is a miraculous short-term provision just while they are in the desert, until they get to their destination. Again the Lord is angry, but He seems to be holding back. Moses, however, doesn’t hold back with his questions. He pours them out to the Lord. He basically is saying, Lord, this is all beyond me – I can’t do anything about this. I’ve failed this people; you might as well kill me off right now. Watch this space!  

D. Application:

1. The Lord does allow us into desert places of trial. Think on that.
2. In such places He is teaching us to trust Him. Do I learn?

Passage: Numbers 11:16,17,24-30

16 The Lord said to Moses: ‘Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Make them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you. 17 I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.

24 So Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said. He brought together seventy of their elders and made them stand round the tent. 25 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied – but did not do so again.

26 However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp. 27 A young man ran and told Moses, ‘Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.’

28 Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ assistant since youth, spoke up and said, ‘Moses, my lord, stop them!’

29 But Moses replied, ‘Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!’ 30 Then Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.

A. Find Out:

1. Who did the Lord tell Moses to bring? v.16
2. What did He say He would do and why? v.17
3. What happened when they gathered? v.24,25
4. What happened back in the camp? v.26
5. What was Joshua’s response? v.27,28
6. What was Moses’ reply? v.29

B. Think:

1. What had Moses seen as his problem in the previous verses?
2. What, from these verses, does the Lord consider the problem to be?
3. How does He resolve that problem?

C. Comment:

      The apparent problem, observed in the first part of the chapter, was that there were grumbling people because of self-centered concerns. Because Moses knew this grumbling clearly upset the Lord, Moses reacted with a sense of failure and suggested death, but the Lord has other ideas. The Lord knows that single leadership produces feelings of isolation when things go wrong, and so the answer is not to remove Moses but to add to him. So God’s instruction is to chose seventy of the top men from the tribes, and bring them to meet with the Lord at the Tent of Meeting. Moses duly calls these men, but for some reason two of them are delayed and remain in the camp. As soon as the other sixty eight gather at the Tent, the Holy Spirit comes on them and they all start prophesying. – a mini day of Pentecost!

     Now the Lord is not bound by geography and so the two chosen leaders back in the camp also start prophesying at the same time. It is simply a sign that they ARE part of the leadership team. Joshua feels that spiritual things should only happen at the Tent, but Moses wishes that everyone was prophesying! The presence of the Holy Spirit in power is a sign of God’s equipping of these leaders. Before the Lord addresses the problem of food, He considers the problem of supporting Moses in the ministry to be a bigger need to be addressed. That is what this is all about.

D. Application:

1. Leaders are to be Spirit-anointed, Spirit-led men.
2. Leadership is about God’s calling, not personal desires.

Passage: Numbers 11:18-23, 31-35

18 ‘Tell the people: “Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!’ Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. 19 You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, 20 but for a whole month – until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it – because you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’”’

21 But Moses said, ‘Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, “I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!” 22 Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?’

23 The Lord answered Moses, ‘Is the Lord’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.’

31 Now a wind went out from the Lord and drove quail in from the sea. It scattered them up to two cubits deep all around the camp, as far as a day’s walk in any direction. 32 All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers. Then they spread them out all around the camp. 33 But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague. 34 Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food.

35 From Kibroth Hattaavah the people travelled to Hazeroth and stayed there.

A. Find Out:

1. What did the Lord tell Israel to do? v.18
2. How long would He provide this for them? v.19,20
3. What is Moses’ query? v.21,22
4. How did the Lord’s provision arrive? v.31,32
5. Yet what also came with it? v.33

B. Think:

1. Why do you think the Lord told the people of the provision first?
2. How does Moses’ query show the extent of the miracle?
3. How do you think the miracle and the plague are linked?

C. Comment:

      The Lord sometimes gives us what we ask for, even when it’s not the best for us. Sometimes He gives it as discipline – but our sinful stupidity cannot see it! The people have complained against God. They want the super-abundance of provision – as they remember it – that they had received in Egypt (forgetting the slavery). So the Lord gives them super-abundance which goes bad under their feet. Note what happened.

      First the Lord told them what was about to happen – they are going to have meat, in abundance. He tells them first, we suggest, because the manner of provision could appear natural, could appear a fluke, but it’s not, it’s God!  Moses can’t believe it.  How can the Lord provide enough for this great number of people?  Suddenly all these birds arrive on the wind, exhausted and are easily taken. Suddenly they have meat in abundance and so they gorge themselves. The only trouble is that there is so much dead meat that they can’t eat it all at once and so it goes off and disease spreads rapidly. Well perhaps that is how it happened, but it is the Lord’s purpose.

     If we dare question the Lord’s wisdom, then He, as He disciplines us, will allow us to have what we want – and the consequences that go with it! You want an over abundance of meat (because that is what they had desired!)? Fine you can have it and see how it goes wrong. Perhaps you will learn eventually that God’s provision is good – the best!

D. Application:

1. What ever is God’s provision for you – be thankful.
2. Understand that God knows best. Be careful what you ask for!