Remain in the Order God Has Established (1)

Introduction

The book of Numbers tells of Israel's journey from leaving Egypt to the promised land. God tore this people out of slavery to lead them toward rest. Your life of faith looks like this journey. Christ set you free at the cross from everything that held you captive: sin, cravings, your old way of living. He brought you out of a land of slavery into a people on the move. But between deliverance and the final arrival (the Kingdom), there is the wilderness. There is the road.

How should you walk this road? How do you live in the wilderness in a way that pleases God? Numbers chapters 11 and 12 answer in one sentence: God has established an order, and he calls you to remain in that order. This first study stops at chapter 11. It shows three things: what a people who wander from God's order look like, what a servant who brings his distress to God looks like, and how God cares for both.

The text: Numbers 11:1-35

"Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the LORD, and when he heard them his anger was kindled, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. The people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down." (Numbers 11:1-3, ESV)

Article outline

1. The people complain: Taberah (Numbers 11:1-3)

The people have been walking for three days, and they complain. The text does not specify about what. Maybe the fatigue, maybe the food, maybe the length of the journey. It is not the content of the complaint that triggers God's anger. When the people lack water or bread and cry out to God, God answers with grace. Here, he is kindled with anger, and fire consumes the outer edge of the camp.

Why the difference? Because this complaint was not about a real need: it touched on God's holiness, his faithfulness, the way he leads. God does not stay silent when his own character is called into question. This was true for Aaron's sons in the past (Leviticus 10:1-3), and it is true for Israel in the wilderness.

The people cry out to Moses. Moses prays. The fire dies down. Moses's intercession stopped the judgment. The New Testament reminds you that you have, in Christ, an intercessor greater than Moses: "Christ is at the right hand of God, interceding for us" (Romans 8:34). Jesus prayed for Peter so that his faith would not fail (Luke 22:31-32). This intercession does not cancel out your prayer, it calls you to it. Christ himself says, "I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf, for the Father himself loves you" (John 16:26-27). Pray, ask, seek: you have an intercessor, but that does not mean you should stay silent.

2. The craving and the contempt for manna (Numbers 11:4-9)

The rabble among Israel give in to a strong craving. The people join them and weep: "Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish we ate in Egypt for free, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at."

The manna, that bread God sends down every morning, is called "the bread of angels" (Psalm 78:24-25). Food from heaven, an extraordinary gift. And the people hold it in contempt. "Nothing but manna." Notice what is happening: craving always begins by ceasing to be thankful. The gaze fixes on what is lacking, forgets what has been given, and turns back toward a past dressed up to look better than it was.

That past does not exist. They forget the bricks, the beatings, the cries that had risen up to God and moved him to act. But craving has a way of staging things. The enemy is a master at repainting what was ugly to make it look beautiful. He isolates one pleasant image from your life before Christ (a pleasure, a companion, a comfort), and enlarges it until it covers everything else. He can almost make you regret the house of slavery.

When craving takes hold, everything God has done for you fades away. His grace no longer carries any weight. What you do not have becomes heavier than everything you have received.

3. Moses's complaint (Numbers 11:10-15)

Moses hears the people weeping, family by family, at the entrance of their tents. His anger flares. He is carrying the weight alone. He breaks. He says to God: "Why have you afflicted your servant? Have I conceived this people? Have I given birth to them, that you should say to me, 'Carry them in your arms, as a nurse carries a nursing child'? I cannot carry all this people by myself; they are too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death at once." (Numbers 11:10-15)

This complaint is not pretty. It is emotional, exhausted, a little excessive. Moses joins Elijah, who will later also ask for death after Mount Carmel (1 Kings 19:4). Neither of them is in a state to reason in faith. They are worn out.

Yet there is a radical difference between Moses's complaint and the people's grumbling. The people, frustrated, turn against Moses and against God. Moses, frustrated, turns toward God. The people are seeking to satisfy a desire: they want meat. Moses is seeking to hold on to a calling: he wants to be able to serve the people God entrusted to him. One moves away from God; the other moves toward God, even messily, even in disorder.

You can draw a simple rule from this for your own moments of exhaustion. When you cannot take any more, do not go talk to people first: your frustration risks turning into criticism and spreading to others. Go talk to God. If your complaint is driven by an unmet desire, examine it: God does not owe you the lifestyle you would like, or the comforts you envy. If your complaint is driven by the struggle to obey ("I cannot do this anymore, help me"), bring it without fear. That kind of prayer draws you closer to God, it does not push you away.

4. God answers Moses: the seventy elders (Numbers 11:16-25)

God does not reject Moses. He gives him reinforcement. "Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel [...] I will come down and talk with you there. I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, so that they may carry the burden of the people with you, and you will not have to carry it alone." (Numbers 11:16-17)

These seventy are taken from among those who already held some responsibility, a principle already established when Jethro advised Moses to appoint leaders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens (Exodus 18:19-22). God builds on what is already in place.

The Spirit that rested on Moses is shared with them. This does not mean Moses has "less" of it: the Spirit is not limited. God extends to the group of elders what he had placed on one man alone. The consequence is clear: the Word alone is not enough to lead, and the Spirit alone is not enough to lead. Those who carry the people must know the rule God has given and receive the strength of the Spirit to live it out. When the Word guides and the Spirit empowers, direction and power come together. That is the order God wants to see in his people.

When the Spirit rests on the seventy, they prophesy, most likely praising God and proclaiming his works, as on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:11). The text notes: "they did not continue doing so." This limit says something. The Spirit of God is not a spirit of disorder: "God is not a God of disorder but of peace" (1 Corinthians 14:32-33). Genuine spiritual experience never destroys the order God has established.

5. Eldad and Medad: when God overflows the human framework (Numbers 11:26-30)

Two men, Eldad and Medad, did not go to the tent of meeting. They stayed in the camp. The Spirit rests on them too, and they prophesy. A young man runs to tell Moses. Joshua, a young and faithful servant, reacts quickly: "Moses, my lord, stop them!" He thinks he is defending order: Moses had summoned seventy, not seventy-two.

Moses answers, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD's people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!" (Numbers 11:29)

Joshua is sincere, but he forgets two things. First, it is God who gave his Spirit, not Moses. It is not for a man to stop what God is doing. Second, a true servant does not defend his own spiritual territory: he wants others to grow. A pastor who fears that a brother who has become useful will "overshadow" his ministry has not yet understood God's order. The shepherd God appoints wants everyone to grow. If someone else is called to speak, to teach, to lead, all the better: the Kingdom moves forward.

6. The quail and the grave of craving (Numbers 11:31-34)

God answers the people's request anyway. A wind from the sea brings in quail that cover the camp for a day's journey in every direction, about two cubits above the ground. A staggering abundance. The people get up and gather all that day, all that night, and all the next day. "Anyone who gathered the least gathered ten homers," enough to fill whole barrels for a single family.

Why this frenzy? God had promised a whole month of meat (Numbers 11:19-20). There was nothing to hoard. But craving, once set in motion, knows no end. It wants more, always more. We think satisfaction lies just ahead; it never does.

The text stops short: "While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck down the people with a very great plague. Therefore the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had the craving." (Numbers 11:33-34)

Kibroth-hattaavah means "the graves of craving." It is the end point of a life of desires not surrendered to God: death, spiritual or physical. Psalm 78 revisits these events and gives us the key: "Their craving was not yet satisfied, the food was still in their mouths, when the anger of God rose against them, and he struck down the best fed among them" (Psalm 78:30-31). What should have been a blessing received with gratitude became a judgment, because the people's heart had turned away from the one who gives.

7. Remaining in the order: the true posture of the wilderness

Gather together the three portraits in this chapter. The people stray from God's order by refusing to be thankful: they grumble against the bread from heaven, they idealize Egypt, they weep for meat. Moses breaks down under the pressure because he looks too much at man and not enough at God: he forgets what God has already done through him, the plagues, the sea opened up, the water from the rock. Joshua, out of excessive zeal, wants to restrict what God is expanding. In all three cases, the same root cause: their eyes leave God.

Remaining in God's order means keeping your eyes on him. Concretely, this means four things.

1. Give thanks for what has been given. Food, health, relationships, work: God has provided. If you do not give thanks for what you have, you are already on the road toward craving.
2. Do not idealize life before Christ. What you left behind was not beautiful. Remember it truthfully.
3. Bring your distress to God, not to people. When you are at the end of your rope, pray. Do not pour out criticism, do not look for comfort in pleasures that will pull you off the path.
4. Serve together, under the Spirit. The road is too heavy for one person alone. The Word and the Spirit must guide a people who encourage one another, where each one receives what the other needs.

The destination still lies ahead of you. It is not Kibroth-hattaavah, the grave of craving. It is the rest God has prepared for his people (Hebrews 4:9-11). Walk, today, in the order God has established.

Key takeaways

• Numbers 11 tells of three ways of leaving God's order: the people grumble and crave, Moses becomes exhausted and emotional, Joshua wants to protect a framework God has just expanded beyond.
• God does not get angry when you cry out over a real need; he gets angry when your heart stops being thankful and holds his gifts in contempt.
• Craving is a trap with no end. It always wants more, and it leads to the grave.
• Christ is your intercessor, greater than Moses. That does not excuse you from praying, it calls you to it.
• The Word alone or the Spirit alone is not enough. Together, they carry the order God wants to see in his people.
• A true shepherd wants others to grow and take on responsibility. He has nothing to defend for himself.

Personal application

• What is God giving you today (food, shelter, health, relationships) that you no longer truly thank him for? Name three things tonight and give thanks.
• Is there an aspect of your life before Christ that your heart still looks back on with longing, the way the people longed for Egypt? What should you be looking at instead?
• Where are you at with spiritual exhaustion? Who do you turn to when you are at the end of your rope: God, or people?
• When your complaint rises up, does it sound like the people's ("I want more"), or like Moses's ("help me obey")?
• Are you ready to rejoice when a brother or sister receives a ministry, a gift, a recognition that you have not yet received?

Verses cited

• Numbers 11
• Numbers 11:1-3
• Numbers 11:10-15
• Numbers 11:16-17
• Numbers 11:29
• Numbers 11:33-34
• Exodus 18:19-22
• Leviticus 10:1-3
• Psalm 78:17-31
• 1 Kings 19:4
• Luke 22:31-32
• John 16:26-27
• Romans 8:34
• Acts 2:11
• 1 Corinthians 14:32-33
• Hebrews 4:9-11

FAQ

Why does God get angry over a simple complaint?

The text suggests the complaint was not about a real lack but about the way God leads. When Israel lacks water and cries out to God, he answers by giving water from the rock. Here, the people call God's own faithfulness into question, as Psalm 78:19-22 confirms: "Can God spread a table in the wilderness? [...] They did not believe in God; they did not trust in his saving power." It is the refusal to trust that lights the fire, not the exhaustion.

How do I tell a legitimate complaint from grumbling?

Look at two things. Who are you bringing it to? A complaint brought to God, like Moses's, seeks help. A complaint aimed at people seeks to recruit others against God. What is it about? A complaint that says "help me serve you" draws you closer to God. A complaint that says "give me what I crave or I am leaving" pushes you away.

What difference does it make for me that Christ already intercedes?

It reassures you: someone is pleading before the Father so that your faith will not fail. It does not excuse you from praying: Jesus insisted that his disciples ask, seek, knock, watch, and pray (Luke 11:9-13). Prayer is not a task Christ does in your place; it is a communion he opens up to you.