Complaining Against God / 70 Elders Appointed (Numbers 11 - Part 1)

Complaining Against God and the Burden on Moses

All right, so go ahead and open in your Bibles to Numbers chapter 11. Numbers chapter 11, we'll pray, and then we will follow along. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this evening. Thank you for everyone who's come out.

As we listen to your word, Lord, I pray that you would calm our spirits, give us attention to hear what you have to say. Lord, we thank you so much for each member of this church and everything people do for the work of the ministry.

And Lord, we're just so thankful that we have your word and we can all have a copy of it ourselves to read anytime, any day. There's so many throughout the world that don't have that luxury and privilege.

And Father, we do remember those who are suffering, those families, the people who have been killed in the conflict in Ukraine. And Lord, we ask again, as we asked on Sunday, for wisdom for the leaders of all nations involved.

But Lord, we commit this time to you. We ask all this in Jesus' name, amen. Numbers chapter 11.

Now, when the people complained, it displeased the Lord, for the Lord heard it and his anger was aroused. So the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp. Then the people cried out to Moses.

And when Moses prayed to the Lord, the fire was quenched. So he called the name of the place Taborah, because the fire of the Lord had burned among them. Now, the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving.

So the children of Israel also wept again and said,.

Who will give us meat to eat?

We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our whole being is dried up. There is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes.

Now, the manna was like coriander seed and its colour like the colour of dillium. The people went about and gathered it, grounded on millstones or beat it in the mortar, cooked it in pans and made cakes of it.

And its taste was like the taste of pastry prepared with oil. And when the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it. Then Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, everyone at the door of his tent.

And the anger of the Lord was greatly aroused. Moses also was displeased. So Moses said to the Lord,.

Why have you afflicted your servant? And why have I not found favour in your sight? That you have laid the burden of all these people on me. Did I conceive all these people? Did I beget them? That you should say to me, carry them in your bosom as a guardian carries a nursing child to the land which you swore to their fathers.

Where am I to get meat to give all these people? For they weep all over me saying, give us meat that we may eat. I am not able to bear all these people alone because the burden is too heavy for me. If you treat me like this, please kill me here and now if I have found favour in your sight.

And do not let me see my wretchedness.

The 70 Elders and Shared Leadership

So the Lord said to Moses,.

Gather to me 70 men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them. Bring them to the tabernacle of meeting that they may stand there with you. Then I will come down and talk with you there.

I will take of the spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them. And they shall bear the burden of the people with you that you may not bear it yourself alone. Then you shall say to the people, consecrate yourselves for tomorrow and you shall eat meat.

For you have wept in the hearing of the Lord saying, who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt. Therefore the Lord will give you meat and you shall eat. You shall eat not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor 10 days, nor 20 days, but for a whole month until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you because you have despised the Lord who is among you and have wept before him saying, why did we ever come up out of Egypt?

All right, we're gonna stop there.

So this will be a two-parter we'll pick up next week. So in Numbers chapter 11, obedient Israel now becomes, once again, rebellious Israel. Maybe you've noticed statements in previous chapters like according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so they did.

I mean, that's what we're looking for, obviously. We talked about this last week how since the golden calf incident, the Israelites have been doing very well and have displayed a great trust and obedience towards God.

The book of Exodus ended with them. You remember donating above and beyond for the needs of the tabernacle. And so far in Numbers, we've seen statements like according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so they did.

That's repeated in chapters one, two, chapter nine, and then chapter nine ended with they kept the charge of the Lord. So again, everything's been going very well. They've been on their best behavior.

That's all about to change here in chapter 11, as you saw. So what's happening? They've been traveling, right? They're deprived of some things. They've been eating the same meal basically every single day or it's gonna get to that where they're just sick and tired of manna.

It's manna for breakfast, manna for lunch, manna for dinner, manna, manna, manna. Figure out different ways to cook it, but it's still manna. So what do they want? What are they asking for? Where's the beef?

Where's the beef or where's the quail? I bet you've never asked that. Where's the quail? On top of all of that, they have this group traveling along with them known as the mixed multitude. So the mixed multitude we see is a bad influence on the people.

So it leads them to grumble and complain against God to say, you know, why did we ever even leave Egypt? Look at Numbers 11 verses one through six again. It says, now when the people complained, it displeased the Lord.

For the Lord heard it and his anger was aroused. So the fire of the Lord burned among them. Some scholars think that these are lightning strikes. I don't know if that's the case or not. Whatever, it says some were consumed on the outskirts of the camp.

Verse two, then the people cried out to Moses. And when Moses prayed to the Lord, the fire was quenched. So you see that intercession. Once again, Moses acting as what? A type of Christ. Verse three, so he called the name of the place Tabera because the fire of the Lord had burned among them.

And Tabera means burning. Verse four, now the mixed multitude who are among them yielded to intense craving. So the children of Israel also wept again and said, who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish, which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions and the garlic.

But now our whole being is dried up. There is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes. Okay, so first of all, who is the mixed multitude? They seem to be the instigators here of this whole event.

So who is the mixed multitude?

Who knows? Egyptians that have come out with the Jews.

Right, during the Exodus, when they exited the land of Egypt, there were some, well, a mixed multitude that went along with them. So they would have been Egyptians and maybe some other nationalities, we're not really sure.

But clearly they seem to be the ones causing the discontentment. So they start grumbling and you know how it is. All it really takes is for a few people to start grumbling and complaining and then that kind of spreads.

It takes one person to be disgruntled and hey, this isn't right. This isn't fair and I'm upset. You're upset about this too, right? And it just kind of spreads from there. So this bad attitude, it's kind of like a virus and it just goes everywhere.

God hears it, God is angry. And I don't think this is just a little bit of complaining. Like, gee, I wish we had something else to eat once in a while. I don't think it was like that at all. This seems to be much worse than that.

And the lesson for us, I think, is that we need to be careful about this. Not only complaining, which we're all prone to do at times, I think we have our own mixed multitude to deal with in a sense. In Exodus and Numbers, the mixed multitude were non-Israelites that were among them.

But really, we're surrounded by people that are non-Christians pretty much every day of our life. And they can be, if we're not careful, they can be a bad influence on us. I suppose there are some Christians who are probably a bad influence, but.

They could be antagonists. Sure, sure. So let me just put the question out there. Is the world influencing churches or is the church or churches influencing the world? What I see is the world much more is influencing churches.

You as a believer, are you influencing your non-Christian friends, family, coworkers, or is it more that they're influencing you? So we need to be mindful of these things. So the mixed multitude had such an effect on the Israelites that now, as amazing as this is, it seems like they're ready to go back to Egypt.

Okay, yes, we were slaves. Yes, we were treated horribly. Yes, Pharaoh was killing the firstborn of the land, but at least we had garlic and onions, right? It's pretty remarkable. Tic-tacs too, I hope.

So this attitude of, hey, maybe we'd be better off in Egypt when the Lord hears this, this makes the Lord angry. So because of this, what are they doing? They're violating the commandment. God said, if you will be obedient, I will bless you, but if you're going to be disobedient, I'm gonna do what?

I'm gonna curse you and that's exactly what we see. Verse 11, it says, then Moses heard the people weeping, you know, after some were consumed, he heard the people weeping throughout their families, everyone at the door of his tent, and the anger of the Lord was greatly aroused.

And I like this, and Moses was also displeased. I bet he was, displeased, yes, that's one way to put it. So this is a burden upon Moses. Everything that's happening in the nation and all the problems of the people, it really kind of falls on his shoulders and it really affects him.

And we've talked about this many times, how Moses really cared about these people. At one time he's, Lord, I'm willing to give up my life for them, even though they did not deserve that, he was willing to give his life for them, which reminds us of Jesus who gave his life for us, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

So I don't know, look at verse 14. He says, you know, the burden is too heavy for me. Verse 15, if you treat me like this, please kill me. This is Moses asking God, please, this is the way it's gonna be, kill me right here and now.

I don't know, is Moses the first man of God to request this? No, I don't know if he's the first, but he's definitely not gonna be the last. Can we think of any other great men of God who have said something like this?

Okay, so Elijah, Elijah said this, he sat under a broom tree, the scripture says, and he asked the Lord to kill him. Who else? Jonah, yep.

The apostle Paul said he was willing to give up his life for the Jewish people.

That's true, yep. 1 Kings 19, verse four, speaking of Elijah, but he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree and he prayed that he might die. And he said, it is enough, now, Lord, take my life for I am no better than my father's.

Jonah chapter four, verse three, therefore now, oh Lord, please take my life from me for it is better for me to die than to live. Do these strike you as extreme statements? You know, maybe, maybe not.

We can't really imagine the pressure and the stress these men were going through. Of course, Elijah was running for his life from Jezebel. Jonah had been thrown overboard into the sea and swallowed by a whale or a great fish.

And there's no way we can really put ourselves in Moses' shoes and how much pressure was on Moses. So leadership in and of itself is a burden and a responsibility, it can cause stress. Just to be the leader of a nation and going through all of this, again, we really can't understand the pressure.

Have you ever seen those side-by-side photos of US presidents before they were sworn in? And then eight years later, after they leave office? So it's eight years and it looks like 28. So things, that's how bad it is.

Well, it's probably a lot worse than that. Things have reached, with Moses and the Israelites, things have reached really a crisis moment. And I would cut him some slack, certainly, but you can almost see it now as Moses is almost complaining a little bit.

Two quick things. I think everybody needs, we're talking about grumbling and complaining, I think everybody needs to feel free to be able to talk to someone that you know and trust and cares about you, that you can kind of unload some of the burdens that you're feeling.

I think some Christians view it as a virtuous thing to bottle it all up and to never complain. Some people, I think, do that. And in the end, that might make it a lot worse. It's probably gonna come out at some point.

So I think everybody needs somebody to be able to talk to and kind of share the things that are on their heart. But with the Israelites here in the mixed multitude, this is a whole other situation. This is excessive.

And their complaints are really accusatory against God. I think that's the real sin here. God, you're not coming through. God, you're not giving us what we need, that God is the problem, although they don't say it in those words.

But all of this, what is it doing? It's taking a toll. It's taking a toll on the leader who is Moses. All right, any comments or questions so far?

Dennis. Just like the expression that's maybe different from some of the others, but he just says, don't let me see my wretchedness. And I just, you know, I think he's on the brink. He's on the edge. And he just may be afraid of what he's going to do, the wrong thing, whatever.

He would just rather be dead than react all wrong or whatever. So, yeah, I like that. Yeah. I just wondered, reading this, could not the Israelites ask the Lord for some of these things? You know, the manna's good.

We love the manna. That's good. It's helping us. But could we have a little garlic to go with it?

Is it possible to add something instead of just, we being complaining?

Yeah, there's nothing that says they sent someone to talk to Moses to put in a request to God. Presumably, that didn't happen. If it did, it's a hypothetical. I don't know how that would have gone. But that would have been better than this, obviously.

Good point, Marcus. Well, on your point of are we influencing the world or is the world influencing us, what came to mind is this light. Jesus, of course, is the light of the world. But when he left, he says, you are the light of the world.

And from childhood, we've sung this little light of mine. I'm gonna let it shine. But see, darkness cannot extinguish light, but light can extinguish darkness. So I'd like to think that just the fact that there is someone in the group that winces when the Lord's name is made or something vulgar or whatever.

And we're gonna know. I'd like to think that we are having an effect on those around us. Right, I appreciate that.

Because actually, I think we are. And sometimes we don't realize it. Look how the world is and how bad things are in the world today. How much worse would it be if there were no Christians on the earth?

So we don't even really know how to gauge the effect that Christians have on culture in the world. If there were no believers, I can't even imagine how bad things are. So yeah, I do believe Christians in the church is having an effect.

Okay, so this is excessive complaining and grumbling from the Israelites and the mixed multitude. This is an example, once again, for us of what not to do. So that's the first thing I wanted to talk about.

The second thing, I just have to say this, I'm very thankful that I pastored this church. Because, well, thank you, thank you. But I've heard stories of how pastors have been so burdened and things that they've gone through and things that maybe the congregation put them through.

I say all that, that this is not a grumbling and complaining church. So I'm thankful for that, and I praise the Lord for you. Moses, however, isn't so fortunate. The Israelites are acting up again. So what's the Lord going to do?

Once again, we see a problem. Okay, here's the problem. God's gonna provide the solution, as he always does. So now we're gonna start the section, verse 16, starting in verse 16. It's titled what? Right, the 70 elders.

So Moses, here's what he is supposed to do. He's supposed to choose wise and experienced men that God would take and further empower through giving them the Spirit of God or the Holy Spirit. So 70 elders, if you remember, had also gone up.

We've read about 70 men before, right? What happened? In Exodus, 70 men had gone up into the Mount with Moses. That was Exodus 24, verse one, and Exodus 24, verse nine speak about that. How many of you are familiar with the Jewish council known as the Sanhedrin?

All right, so what's the Sanhedrin? I just pulled a quick definition offline. It said the Sanhedrin was the supreme council of the Jews. This is on the pages of the New Testament. The Sanhedrin was the supreme council of the Jews containing 70 members plus the high priest, who was the head of the assembly, and the Sanhedrin had religious, civil, and criminal jurisdiction.

So do you see the connection? Are you adding two plus two here? Right, so they're basing the Jewish council off of the 70 elders mentioned in Exodus and Numbers. Any reactions from that? Is that legitimate?

Okay, so I did a little study on this. There's no evidence reading in Exodus and Numbers that these 70 elders, whatever office they're holding, there's no evidence that this was supposed to be permanent, and I don't think there's any evidence that this body of 70 elders existed in the time period known as the Judges or the Kings.

So the Sanhedrin did not really form until after the Babylonian captivity, and it was, again, the ruling council in the days of Jesus. So in one sense, the Jewish council seems like it might be an invention, and they're doing some revisionist history, basing it off the 70 elders after the fact.

So in that sense, I thought, well, maybe it's not legitimate. But do you remember in Matthew 23 what Jesus said about the scribes and Pharisees? He said, therefore, he said, they sit in Moses' seat. Therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do.

But do not do according to their works, for they say and do not do. So Jesus calls them blind guides, but he seems to acknowledge they have a legitimate authority in the nation. So that's all based on, the Sanhedrin is based on this story of the 70 elders.

And of course, it was the Sanhedrin that ultimately condemned Jesus to death. Look at verse 16. So the Lord said to Moses, gather to me 70 men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tabernacle of meeting that they may stand there with you.

Then I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them. And they shall bear the burden of the people with you that you may not bear it yourself alone.

So this is a great benefit to Moses that now, and I think of the New Testament where it says bear one another's burdens. And that's what they're doing. They're bearing the burden along with Moses. You had a hand up, Jim?

What I was just looking at was that I believe that God realized that Moses was very, very discouraged. So much so that really, take me rather than people. Right. But in these verses, 16 and following, he actually is comforting him by giving him direction and taking a lot of the burden off of him.

And this is probably, I hope you're not gonna be saying this. I'll let you know. But it eases that burden that Moses was experiencing because he had 600 ,000 men to deal with. Right. And they, in turn, would share some of the responsibilities for the leadership.

Yeah.

Good, all right, let's turn to Exodus chapter 18 because this talks about the 70 elders in Exodus 18 as well. So yeah, it's a crisis moment. Moses is ready, Lord, just kill me now. I think maybe if he had asked before, it wouldn't have reached that point.

So if you have a need, don't bottle it up. Bring it to God. Maybe God will help you out. Maybe Moses could have done that earlier. Whatever the case, he's doing it now and it's a benefit to him. So in Exodus 18, we're gonna look at a, it's not a parallel passage, but it's similar.

These are almost certainly the same 70 men that we already looked at when we studied Exodus. There's a video online titled Jethro's Advice. We looked at this subject back in July of last year. So here's the difference.

You say, well, 70 back then, 70 now, what's the difference now? Now they receive the spirit. They didn't have the spirit before. Look at Exodus 18, starting in verse 17. It says, so Moses' father-in-law said to him, the thing that you do is not good.

Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out for this thing is too much for you and you are not able to perform it by yourself. Listen now to my voice and I will give you counsel and God will be with you.

Stand before God for the people so that you may bring the difficulties to God. You shall teach them the statutes and the laws and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. Moreover, you shall select from all the people able men such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties and rulers of tens and let them judge the people at all times.

Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So it will be easier for you for they will bear the burden with you. If you do this thing and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure and all this people will also go to their place in peace.

Here's what I like about this passage. Here you have Moses, one of the greatest men who ever lived, this great man of God taking advice from someone else. Why is that important? Because there's people that are, I don't know, what's the term?

People that are headstrong, stubborn and they just won't listen to anybody, right? You just cannot tell them anything. If Moses can be humble enough to receive advice from Jethro, I think we can be humble enough to receive advice.

Anyone who thinks that they're too wise to receive counsel from others is an absolute fool. So here are some wise advice from Jethro. Moses takes the advice and later God is going to use this to not only benefit Moses, it's gonna be a great benefit to the entire nation and God will give these men the Holy Spirit.

For what purpose though? Yeah, sometimes we think, okay, the Holy Spirit is given in order for a person to be saved. In the New Testament, when you receive the Holy Spirit, that's we think of the moment of salvation, but that's not what's going on here.

So what's going on here? They're receiving the Spirit. There is a New Testament connection. What's the Spirit being given for here? Discernment, okay. Wisdom. So basically, those are good answers. It's to empower them for the work of ministry.

And that's a foreshadowing, if you will, of how the Holy Spirit empowers New Testament believers through the spiritual gifts, for what? To empower them for the work of ministry. Marcus.

Acts 1 .8 comes to mind, but you will receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Right. And you will be witnesses.

Good, good. So I think we're gonna have to end here. We'll pick up around verse 18 next time. But what's God doing? He's providing, yes, Jim.

I'm gonna have to finish. No, go ahead. Okay, I think this process that they were gonna be going through, and especially Moses, his heart was being tenderized because he just learned that he was humble and he was willing to listen to somebody else instead of being headstrong.

And he had that tendency. Anyway, he did have an anger problem. And I think God was working on him the same as he works on us. When we continue to read the word and truly want to understand what God wants us to understand, that's a process that we go through and we get tenderized.

Because the focus should be on him.

And not on circumstances. Okay, good, thank you. Anybody else?

Yes. Why didn't the 70 men work the first time? And then, why didn't the 70 men work the second? I don't want to get past Numbers 11, but we know what happened. Jethro had great advice and what Moses did was great, but it wasn't soon after that, I believe, that they had the issue with the little calf.

It just seemed like, you know. You know, that's a really good question.

It didn't work. Well, you know, I think, why didn't it work? Well, I think because the people just were not, I don't know, it almost seems like the 70 men are chosen, the elders are chosen, and then they almost like disappear.

And are they doing the work? I don't know. It's almost like he has to remind them again, hey, let's get this group back together. That's how I read it, that they were doing it for a while.

And then maybe they traveled and it slipped off. I don't know. The first 70 may not have had a relationship with the people and that may be why it didn't bear fruit. But now, when the Spirit is given to these 70, they have had time to spend with these people and understand them more.

So the Spirit is going to use that to God's benefit and bring those people, even though they continue to be rebellious.

Right, they're still gonna end up having problems.

But it's like a pastor. And he comes into a new church, he knows no one. And then as time goes on, he becomes more committed with the people, he knows a lot about the people, he has to deal with the people every day in one way or another.

But that's a process that needs to happen because then you can be personal with those that you're leading.

Okay, anyone else want to comment on that?

Well, you mentioned that about bearing one another's burdens and of course that's from Galatians 6. And just before that, the situation is such where someone was overtaken in a fault and it says, you who are spiritual, restore such a one.

So maybe it didn't work because these 70 weren't really spiritual. Of course, we have a great advantage because we all have the Holy Spirit indwelling us. But back then it was whoever the Holy Spirit landed on or enabled.

So as you can watch spiritual, yeah. Well, and you don't want to be saying, oh, I'm spiritual, let me be on that journey.

If you're spiritual, you're not gonna come out and say that you're spiritual. That's right.

Yeah. I think we all need maintenance because it says in here that Moses went over all the laws with him and so forth. So yeah, the Holy Spirit in someone's, the Holy Spirit dwelling in someone can have a huge impact.

But just knowing the laws is, that you don't park in the back of the church on Thursdays. And then for someone to maintain, I think late, it talks about some of the kings who got the Bible out or got the, they read it and I think it was King Jer, Jeroboam or I can't pronounce it.

Anyhow, he was young but he's like, hey, we're not doing all this stuff. Right. And so we all are responsible. Someone once said, I can talk Christianese or I can say all the right stuff but I need to maintain myself.

So we can all neglect our duties if we don't maintain ourselves.

Sure. Yeah, that's why you need to stay on the word yourself personally and even in preaching. They say, well, I've heard this before. Yeah, well, we need reminders and then we need to be around people that are upholding this, that can be a reminder just in their practice.

So yeah, good point.

Yes. And not like when we sin, of course, we know full well, we have to go to the Lord but he also says, confess your faults one to another and pray for one another. So accountability is something that's also necessary and you really need to have a good Christian friend that you can tell most anything.

Right.

Yeah, and the thing about church is not just, well, I come here for an hour once a week or I come back on Wednesday for an hour and a half. It's about getting to know people and having Christian friends and fellowship and having those connections.

It's absolutely necessary. All good comments.

Any more before we close? Just one more. Yeah, one more. Well, when Jesus had his group of people, I mean, he only took 12 men. Right. And 70 men is a big group of men to maintain now. Right.

Good. A lot easier than 600 ,000. Yeah.

So through all of this, God is providing for the people. He's providing for their needs. He is giving them food. The cloud is leading them through the wilderness. The Lord is providing for Moses and his needs.

The problem, unfortunately, really was the mixed multitude that causes the Israelites to become discontent. And we'll cover this next time, but instead of manna, they want meat and they're really demanding, complaining that we don't have any meat.

And the lesson is be careful for what you ask for because God's gonna give them meat. He's going to give them so much meat that they can't handle it. So the Lord is going to tell Moses his plan in verses 19 and 20.

Moses responds with some skepticism in verses 21 and 22. And we'll close with the Lord's response in verse 23. The Lord said to Moses, has the Lord's arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether what I say will happen to you or not.