The Deacon's Didache

Friday, February 26, 2010

So the Fire of the LORD Burned Among Them: Numbers 11:1-35

Numbers 11:1-35: "1 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. 2 Then the people cried out to Moses, and when Moses prayed to the LORD, the fire was quenched. 3 So he called the name of the place Taberah, because the fire of the LORD had burned among them. 4 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? 5 We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; 6 but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!' 7 Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color like the color of bdellium. 8 The people went about and gathered it, ground it 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. 9 And when the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it. 10 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. 11 So Moses said to the LORD, 'Why have You afflicted Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all these people on me? 12 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? 13 Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? For they weep all over me, saying, "Give us meat, that we may eat." 14 I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me. 15 If You treat me like this, please kill me here and now--if I have found favor in Your sight--and do not let me see my wretchedness!' 16 So the LORD said to Moses: 'Gather to Me seventy 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. 17 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. 18 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. 19 You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, 20 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?'"' 21 And Moses said, 'The people whom I am among are six hundred thousand men on foot; yet You have said, "I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month.' 22 Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to provide enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to provide enough for them?' 23 And 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.' 24 So Moses went out and told the people the words of the LORD, and he gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tabernacle. 25 Then the LORD came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and placed the same upon the seventy elders; and it happened, when the Spirit rested upon them, that they prophesied, although they never did so again. 26 But two men had remained in the camp: the name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them. Now they were among those listed, but who had not gone out to the tabernacle; yet they prophesied in the camp. 27 And a young man ran and told Moses, and said, 'Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.' 28 So Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, one of his choice men, answered and said, 'Moses my lord, forbid them!' 29 Then Moses said to him, 'Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put His Spirit upon them!' 30 And Moses returned to the camp, both he and the elders of Israel. 31 Now a wind went out from the LORD, and it brought quail from the sea and left them fluttering near the camp, about a day's journey on this side and about a day's journey on the other side, all around the camp, and about two cubits above the surface of the ground. 32 And the people stayed up all that day, all night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail (he who gathered least gathered ten homers); and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. 33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was aroused against the people, and the LORD struck the people with a very great plague. 34 So he called the name of that place Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had yielded to craving. 35 From Kibroth Hattaavah the people moved to Hazeroth, and camped at Hazeroth."

This reading has to do with the ninth commandment, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house." The Israelites, coveting the things that they miss from their time in Egypt, complain against the Lord in their hearts. For this our Lord God's anger burned against them so much so that it was manifested in fire, which burned some of the people on the outskirts of the camp to death. What saves the Israelites, is the intercession of Moses. Moses pleads on behalf of the people, so that God's anger would cease. In this we see a picture of our Lord Jesus who intercedes for us to our Heavenly Father. Who subsides the anger of our Father against our sinful rebellion, and complaining.

But the Israelites' complaints, their covetousness for the things back in Egypt, gives us an opportunity to review the ninth commandment. The ninth commandment deals with contentment in our earthly possessions. We learn from the Blessed Dr. Martin Luther that the ninth commandment can be explained in this manner: "We should fear and love God that we may not craftily seek to get our neighbor's inheritance or house, nor obtain it by a show of right, but help and be of service to him in keeping it."*

As we mentioned in an earlier post, each commandment as something that is required and something that is forbidden. What is forbidden in the ninth commandment? "God forbids us to be dissatisfied with what He has given us, and with what He expects of us. He also forbids us to covet that, which does not belong to us according to His will, and which we cannot get without acting against it."* The Israelites were doing just that, they were dissatisfied with what they had been given. One may think this is no big deal, afterall, people are dissatisfied all the time with what they have. Desiring to acquire more things, and their hearts desires. We are even told by our society that this is a good thing. "Afterall, we are a consumer society, and we need to buy things in order for our society to flourish."

The problem with the Israelites being dissatisfied with what has been given them, and the same is true for us, is that what was given them, was given to them by the Lord God. When they complained, they were complaining against God's grace and benevolence. He had given them the manna, He provided them with water, and now they were complaining about it. We can picture this for ourselves, when we consider some of the gifts we have given to loved ones, that were either not well received, or were eventually ignored. This did not sit well with us, for we gave those gifts out of love, expecting them to be well received.

Everything that we have has been given to us by our Lord God, and He gives us exactly what we need to sustain this body and life. He does not want us to complain about what we don't have, or covet them, that is, "desiring, longing and hoping for anything that God in His Word has forbiddend us to have."* He wants us to be content with what He has given us. This, of course, is why we fast during Lent, to learn to be content with little, so that in learning to be content in little, we might learn to be generous in abundance.

For those tempted to think that this commandment is a minor thing, that there are "worse sins one could commit," one only need point out the reaction of our Lord God against the complaints of the Jews. His anger burned so hot, that those on the outskirts were consumed with fire. If not a worse reaction than when the Israelites made the golden calf (breaking the first commandment), then this is at least the same sort of reaction from our Lord God. This means that our Lord considers breaking the ninth (and tenth) commandment to be as wrong as breaking the first commandment. Therefore, we should take these commandments seriously, for our Lord God does.

But we see in Moses, a picture of our Lord Jesus, who intercedes for us to our Heavenly Father. And after Moses' pleading on behalf of the people, we see the grace of our Lord, and we see His anger subsided. For He gives them what they want, and provides for them quail, just like the night before the manna first appeared. Again, we see in this a foreshadowing of the Heavenly meal which we enjoy every Lord's Day, and every festival, that is, our Lord's Supper. In this meal, our Lord God shows us His grace, providing us our desire for forgiveness, life and salvation. And our Lord Jesus, Whose Body and Blood which we eat and drink in bread and wine, intercedes for us to the Heavenly Father, showing Him His wounds which He received on the cross, in exchange for us, and our Heavenly Father, on account of His Son, bestows on us His grace. His anger having been appeased by the pleading of His Son.

May God be with you!

Deacon Dulas

* Taken from Martin Luther Small Catechism and An Explanation of Christian Doctrine, edited by Marrku Sarela, published by The Confessional Lutheran Church of Finland, 1999.

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