Numbers Chapter 11
The Israelites had not left Mount Sinai but a couple days prior when they started complaining. Now I don’t know about you but sometimes travelling a long distance can seem very difficult, and that’s in a car. Travelling on foot, for the most part, would be very difficult. And they had been camped at Mount Sinai just long enough that I’m sure it started to feel like home. A year is enough time for anyone to get settled in. And now that they were moving, food would be difficult to come by once again except for the manna that God supplied daily. So, the complaints they had would seem legitimate, however the people needed to look up from their circumstances of the immediate and see the hand of God. They needed to remember how God had rescued them from many years of slavery and saved their lives. They needed to recall how God had taken care of them and how He promised to be with them always.
Their complaining was upsetting because they were not trusting God. The Bible says that God’s anger was kindled.
Let's Reflect
1. What was a result of God’s anger that frightened the people?
2. What was the subject of their complaints? For the most part it appears to be food. And once again they imagined that life was so much better when they were slaves in Egypt. What foods did they occasionally get to eat in Egypt that they are missing?
3. The manna is described in verse 7-9. The description of it also describes the various ways that they could prepare the manna. When did the manna fall from heaven to the ground?
4. Moses like many other leaders was tired of the complaining of the people. He was very tired of it. In fact, he was so tired of their complaining that he did what?
5. What do you think is the difference between the people of Israel complaining and what Moses did?
6. God supplied a solution for Moses’ dilemma. What did He tell Moses to do?
7. Today every believer in Jesus has the Holy Spirit living inside them. In the Old Testament only certain people that God put His Spirit on were able to commune directly with God as Moses did. Who else in this chapter did God put His Holy Spirit on?
8. We begin to get a picture of just how big the nation of Israel is when Moses names the number of men he hears complaining in his ear. How many men were there? This of course does not include the women, children and possibly the elderly. Some Bible scholars believe that the population was close to two million.
9. As the elders received the Spirit of God on them, they did something that came natural to them. What did they do? According to verse 25 this was a temporary thing.
10. What did God do in response to the people’s complaints for food? His answer was the same way a parent will sometimes answer a child who is throwing a tantrum. The Lord was angry with the people because they did not trust Him.
11. His response of anger is summed up in verse 20. What had the people done that had made God so angry?
