The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Lust” it comes from the Hebrew Word “avvah” which means “craving, strong desire.”
The journey has barely begun, and Israel is already complaining about the food. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Numbers 11.
The people complain, and “the fire of the LORD burnt among them” at the outskirts of the camp until Moses prays and it stops. Soon after, a “mixed multitude” among them begins craving meat, and the whole congregation weeps, remembering the fish, cucumbers, and garlic they ate freely in Egypt, complaining that they now have nothing but manna to look at. Moses, overwhelmed by the burden of leading such a discontented people, cries out to God in genuine anguish, asking why he alone must carry this weight, even asking God to kill him rather than let him continue seeing his own wretchedness.
God tells Moses to gather seventy elders to help share the burden of leadership, and takes of the spirit that is upon Moses and puts it upon them, so that they prophesy. Two men, Eldad and Medad, who remain in the camp rather than going to the tabernacle, also receive the spirit and prophesy there, and when Joshua urges Moses to stop them, Moses responds generously, “would God that all the LORD’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!”
God tells Moses that the people will have meat, so much that it comes out of their nostrils and becomes loathsome to them, since they have despised the Lord who is among them. A wind brings enormous quantities of quail, but “while the flesh was yet between their teeth,” God strikes the people with a severe plague, and many die there. The place is named Kibrothhattaavah, meaning “the graves of lust,” a sobering memorial to what happened when their craving outran their gratitude.
God’s willingness to share Moses’ leadership burden with seventy elders shows real compassion for an overwhelmed leader crying out honestly in exhaustion. But the people’s craving for meat, granted in such excess that it became their undoing, is a sobering reminder that getting exactly what we demand isn’t always the blessing we assume it will be.
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