Day 059 (Numbers 11-13) - Year 7
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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Yesterday, the camp set out for the first time in a year, and today we saw a series of struggles with complaints, gossip, and unbelief. We open today with grumbling. We don't know what the grumbling in these first three verses is about, but it seems to be unwarranted because in his anger, God sends a fire around the edges of the camp.

Then they start grumbling again about food. Their complaints here aren't related to an unmet need. God has given them manna to eat. This is over a want. It's not desperation, it's entitlement. This is about doubting God's goodness in their lives. He provided for them and they didn't think it was sufficient. Once again, they look longingly back at Egypt,

And they don't realize that whatever God calls you to endure with Him is better than any kind of abundance without Him. And let's be honest, it wasn't like they had abundance in Egypt anyway. They're romanticizing the past. In 1120, God calls their complaining a rejection of Him. That really makes me want to guard my words.

Moses is stressed out by all their crying and he takes his frustration out on God. But God isn't his problem, the people are his problem. Maybe you can relate? Anyway, Moses intercedes for the people and God addresses the real problem. His solution involves not only a delegation of responsibility, which Moses can do, but also a distribution of God's Spirit, which only God can do. When God the Spirit is distributed among them, they begin to prophesy.

What does this mean? Prophecy is truth-telling. Moses says he wishes all God's people were prophets. And Paul reiterates this in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 14. Up to this point, Moses was the only one communicating the words of God to the people. But here there are lots of others doing it now too. This brief moment of prophecy helped establish trust.

This is a blessing to the whole group because now these leaders within the camp are showing evidence of being connected to God as well. Having the Spirit carries a real weight and responsibility for these new leaders, and Moses is thrilled to share authority with them, even though God maintains that he and Moses have a distinct relationship. God says he'll send the meat that the people want. In fact, he'll send so much of it that they'll regret asking.

Have you ever heard the stories of lottery winners whose entire lives are ruined by their winning and who regret ever playing to begin with? That's what this reminds me of. God sends a wind that blows a lot of quail into the area, piling their dead bodies three feet high. It's like a snowstorm, but with birds. Those who gathered the least amounts of quail gathered more than 1,000 two-liter bottles. But at the start of their quail feast,

God struck some people with a plague directly related to their grumbling and mistrust of his heart. I'm confident he was just in which people he struck down. After all, he knows hearts and he sees everything. They named that place Kibroth HaTavah, which translates to graves of craving. That's potent.

After Moses deals with the people's grumbling, a fire outside the camp, more grumbling, a plague inside the camp, then he gets hit with some family drama. He can't catch a break. Miriam and Aaron, his sister and brother, push back on his leadership and throw out prejudiced remarks against his wife, who was from Ethiopia. Moses doesn't fight back. Maybe he trusts God to act, or maybe he's just too emotionally exhausted at this point to try to fight such petty battles when there are real lives at stake.

or maybe both. God calls all three of them into a meeting and rebukes Miriam and Aaron. This reminds me of when God rebuked Job's three friends. Then God strikes Miriam with leprosy. She's probably the one who stirred up the sibling rivalry. And Moses asks God to heal her. God does, but then puts her in timeout for a week so she has to live outside the camp and get clean and probably think about what she's done.

But even these consequences doled out by God are still a means of restoration, not just punishment. One thing worth noting is that the entire camp was impacted by Miriam's sin of gossip and slander. They had to wait another week before they could set out again. No one sins in a vacuum. Our sins impact others.

When they finally do move on and head to the wilderness of Paran, God tells Moses to send 12 spies, a leader from among each tribe, to spy out the land he's promised them since their enemies are currently inhabiting it. You probably recognize the name of one of the spies, Joshua. He was the leader of the impromptu army they had to throw together when they got attacked by the Amalekites in Exodus 17. He was Moses' assistant, and he'll also be Moses' successor when Moses eventually dies.

We also see that Moses pulls a bit of a God move with him, renaming him from Hosea, which means he saves, to Joshua, which means Yahweh saves. I'm giving you all these details because we get to read a whole book about Joshua's adventures in about three weeks. Today was a good day to see what kind of character Joshua displayed.

After spying out the land of Canaan for 40 days and seeing how amazing and fertile it was, only two of the leaders believe God's promise that they can take the land. Those two are Caleb from the tribe of Judah, which is the largest tribe, and Joshua from the tribe of Ephraim, which is possibly the smallest of the 12 non-Levite tribes at this point, the greatest and the least.

The other 10 spies, leaders of their tribes, doubt that God will provide. This is a big deal. And in fact, it's a game changer. When leaders are afraid, when leaders don't trust God, followers certainly won't either. More on that in the days to come.

The last thing I want to point out is the reference to the Nephilim here. You may remember them from Genesis 6. Ancient Jews believed these to be a crossbreed between humans and fallen angels. How can they show up again here if God wiped them all out during the flood? Here are three theories. First, it's possible that more fallen angels were up to the same old tricks.

Second, it's possible that the legend of the Nephilim was carried down through the generations and that it just became a term they used to refer to any particularly large people, kind of like the way we might use the word Viking today. Third, since the ten spies who doubted were so afraid, they're likely just exaggerating to scare the people out of taking the land. This report of Nephilim in the land was never confirmed by God, Joshua, or Caleb, so it's probably just fear-talking.

What was your God shot today? I loved the moment where God the Spirit spread himself out across the elders. As a person in leadership, this made my heart breathe a sigh of relief. Moses finally has some teammates.

And as a lover of the Trinity, it's beautiful to think of the three distinct persons of our one unified God all represented in the camp in various ways. God the Father dwelling in the Holy of Holies, God the Spirit resting on Moses and the others he chose, and likely but not certain, God the Son appearing as the pillar of cloud and fire.

I would have loved to be in that camp to see the Trinity on display in such a unique way. But to be honest, it's a good thing I wasn't because I definitely would have been one of the people complaining about the lack of meat. I trust God has me right where He wants me, right here with Him, right now. And He's where the joy is. Tomorrow we'll be starting the book of Psalms. It's 150 chapters long. We'll link to a short video overview in the show notes, so check that out if you have nine minutes to spare.

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