As you can probably guess from the title, we are skipping the rest of Exodus, the entirety of Leviticus, and a good chunk of Numbers. There are a couple of reasons for this: first, as mentioned numerous times, this is a character study of Moses, not a commentary on the first five books of the Bible or a commentary on the emergence of the Israelite people. As such things like the sanctuary and its services and the sacrificial and civil laws of Israel are not going to be dealt with. This is not to say that these things are not of importance or do not have value; simply that in and of themselves they are not significant to the Moses narrative.
That said, there are a couple of stories that we are skipping, most notably being the erection of the Tabernacle and the Nadab and Abihu fiasco. Each story has great value and lessons to be drawn from, but again, they are not specifically related to the Moses narrative although he does make an appearance in each. Additionally, each story is so intractably tied with the ceremonial and Levitical laws that I found it impossible to know where one stopped and the other began. Thus for the story and its application to make sense I would have to dive in depth into either the sanctuary or the priestly laws and that was something that I felt would distract from the main tenor of this series. That and frankly I was lazy.
With that out of the way, we turn our attention to Numbers 11. You'll note in the title that there is an "a" mark by the chapter number. This means that this story will be dealt with in two parts, like several other stories. That is because there is a story within a story going on here. We have the Israelites whining and complaining (shocker) couched around the appointing of elders by Moses to give him some relief. We are first going to deal with the whining and then dive into the appointment of elders.
So what are the Israelites moaning about this time? It might surprise you, although probably won't, to find out that they are complaining about food. This time there issue is that the manna they've been living off for more than a year at this point is getting old.
To be fair, I can understand their point. If I was eating the same thing day after day after day for over a year, I'd probably get sick of it too, no matter how good it was. Still, the Bible describes manna as being pretty awesome and knowing Yahveh, I imagine it was pretty healthy too. But nonetheless, the Israelites started whining about it.
Now when we've dealt with the Israelite complaints before, we've always pointed out that as obnoxious as they come across, the truth is their complaints are pretty legit. First it was they had no water and then they had no food, both of which are necessary for life.
This, however, is completely different. They have food, and very good food, given by the hand of Yahveh himself. There is no necessity here; they have what they need to live and live well; this complaint is purely about desire.
Additionally their complaint is the same old routine of "back in Egypt," which is kind of like listening to old immigrants whine about "the old country." If the old country was so great, why are you here now? It's a classic case of selective amnesia where the bad of the old doesn't seem so bad when you're not in it. But I digress.
The people complain to Moses, who in turns complains to Yahveh. "Why have you dealt ill with your servant?" he says to Yahveh. "And why have I not found favor in your sight that you lay the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to them that you should say to me, 'Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,' to the land that you swore to give to their fathers? Where am I going to get meat to give to all this people. For they weep before me and say, 'Give us meat, that we may eat.' I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness."
Moses, who has been a stalwart up to this point, is finally cracking under the absurdity that is the children of Israel. Again, understandable. These people have been little but trouble and given their liberators no end of grief. They have good, healthy food and they're still not happy. Right now those sheep are looking pretty good.
Yahveh tells Moses to cool his jets. He'll take care of the Israelites, something Moses has a hard time comprehending, and Moses will get some help (we'll deal with that next. In the end, Yahveh simply asks Moses to trust him.
Yahveh's solution is brilliantly simple. "You want meat," he says, "Fine. You'll get more meat that you can handle."
So he drops quail on them by the truck load. The Bible says that he heaped them on to the camp up to two cubits in depth. A cubit is considered to be roughly 18 inches, so the Israelites are walking through quail literally up to their waists.
Not to pass up an opportunity, the Israelites go way overboard on their sudden meat binge. The Bible says that the least, the least, gathered was ten homers. A homer is about 6 bushels or 220 liters. Again, the least amount gathered was TEN of those. This might be the worst case of gluttony in human history.
Needless to say they paid for their gluttony and got really sick to the point that a lot of them died. The Bible says that this was a plague from Yahveh but it could also simply have been the result of eating way too much meat and getting massive food poisoning.
Either way, there are two points here. First, moderation people. It never ceases to amaze me how such a simple concept seems so impossible for our instant gratification society to grasp (me included). Life is meant to be lived in balance, yet so many of us live to the excess, indulging in something until we are sick of it or it kills us.
This doesn't just refer to food, although Americans are certainly guilty of that. It extends to time, energy, friends, activities; really anything. There are very few things in life that are inherently bad but many, if not all things, can become bad if used to excess and out of balance.
All of this leads to the second point, which is be careful what you wish for. The Israelites wanted meat so badly that they would sit in the front of their tents and whine about until Yahveh gave them what they wanted. In the end, it nearly killed them (actually did kill a lot of them).
Yahveh hadn't done that with the manna or water from the rock, so what made the quail different from those things? The answer is that this time, Yahveh had already given them food. They had what they needed. Yet ungratefully, the Israelites demanded something that Yahveh had not given them. This desire is called lust.
Now don't misunderstand; it's okay to want things. There is a difference between desire and lust. But be careful what you want. Is what you want something you need? Is it something you already have? Because if it is, then why do you want it?
It comes down to the principle of contentment. Be content with what you have been given. It is okay not to have things. Lust is ultimately desiring something that you don't have and shouldn't have to the point that it becomes an all-consuming desire that drives us insane. Again, the Israelites were so fixated on getting meat that they would sit outside their tents and complain until they got what they wanted.
That kind of unbridled desire ultimately destroys you. It was that thirst for knowledge that was not meant for her that got Eve (and by extension the rest of us) in trouble in the Garden. Often we think of lust in terms of sex, having an uncontrollable desire to sleep with someone to the point it becomes all we think about.
But lust can before anything: a car, a girl, a man, food, surfboard, even a pet. All of those have driven people crazy with lust for one reason or another. Lust is destructive and poisonous.
The cure of course is learning to let things go. Learn to be content with what you have and if you aren't meant to have something, then so be it. Let it go. If the Israelites had learned to do this and be content with what they had, a lot more of them would probably have lived and they all would've done without a serious tummy ache.
Rule your desires, don't be ruled by them as so many people in today's microwave society are. Learn to let it go and be content.
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